Category Archives: Global Action Inaction

PLEA Network

27 April 2015, RTCC: Leaked EU confident plans for UN climate deal progressing. China, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Australia set to deliver pledges by June; countries open to international review. European Union officials are confident most of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters are on track to deliver carbon cutting plans ahead of a UN summit in Paris this December. A leaked document seen by RTCC offers feedback from meetings with 62 countries after an intensive diplomatic push by Brussels and EU member states. According to EU “bilateral contacts”, the world’s largest carbon emitter China aims to submit its contribution by June. Japan says its decision is “closely linked to the future decision on its energy mix” as the government continues plans to restart its nuclear plants, in the face of significant public protest. Read More here

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20 April 2015, RTCC, Australia’s climate plans probed by UN partners World’s biggest emitters call out inadequate pollution-cutting targets in questions submitted through the UN: Australia has come under scrutiny for unambitious plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions. China, the US, Brazil and the EU have probed the country’s resolve to cut CO2 by 5% from 2000 levels by 2020 through its UN forum. That is just half the pace of US proposals, as almost 200 nations prepare to roll out pledges in the coming months towards a new global climate deal. And Climate Action Tracker estimates the country is on track for a rise of 12-18%, not even meeting its goal. Since prime minister Tony Abbott scrapped its main environment policy, a carbon tax, analysts say Australia will struggle to curb emissions. Read More here

 

 

PLEA Network

April 2015   A Climate Institute Briefing Note: Updates global climate action where the US lays its cards on the table but what of Australia? The Climate Institute states “Countries that formalised their initial post-2020 emission reduction offers over the last month included the United States, the world’s biggest economy. Others ramped up their domestic climate action, with China’s clamp down on coal use among the key headlines…..”  Read More: CI Research Briefing Note

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28 March 2015, The Spectator, Sweden’s feminist foreign minister has dared to tell the truth about Saudi Arabia. What happens now concerns us all. Margot Wallström’s principled stand deserves wide support. Betrayal seems more likely. If the cries of ‘Je suis Charlie’ were sincere, the western world would be convulsed with worry and anger about the Wallström affair. It has all the ingredients for a clash-of-civilisations confrontation. A few weeks ago Margot Wallström, the Swedish foreign minister, denounced the subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia. As the theocratic kingdom prevents women from travelling, conducting official business or marrying without the permission of male guardians, and as girls can be forced into child marriages where they are effectively raped by old men, she was telling no more than the truth. Wallström went on to condemn the Saudi courts for ordering that Raif Badawi receive ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for setting up a website that championed secularism and free speech. These were ‘mediaeval methods’, she said, and a ‘cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression’. And once again, who can argue with that? The backlash followed the pattern set by Rushdie, the Danish cartoons and Hebdo. Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador and stopped issuing visas to Swedish businessmen. The United Arab Emirates joined it. The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, which represents 56 Muslim-majority states, accused Sweden of failing to respect the world’s ‘rich and varied ethical standards’ — standards so rich and varied, apparently, they include the flogging of bloggers and encouragement of paedophiles. Meanwhile, the Gulf Co-operation Council condemned her ‘unaccept-able interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’, and I wouldn’t bet against anti-Swedish riots following soon. Yet there is no ‘Wallström affair’. Outside Sweden, the western media has barely covered the story, and Sweden’s EU allies have shown no inclination whatsoever to support her. A small Scandinavian nation faces sanctions, accusations of Islamophobia and maybe worse to come, and everyone stays silent. As so often, the scandal is that there isn’t a scandal. Read More here