Tag Archives: UNFCCC

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26 October 2015, Renew Economy, Paris climate talks: Now it’s up to Turnbull to save the planet. The last official round of negotiations before the Paris climate change talks have broken up in Bonn, with some progress made but a global climate deal still needing fresh impetus from political leaders to put the world on a course to rapidly decarbonise the global economy. In Bonn, after a week of talks, a 20-page text was expanded to 63 pages, and will need to be cut back. But at least there appears to be agreement on what needs to be resolved. The principal blockages remain around the scale of ambition, and on issues such as finance and the concept of “loss and damage”. The UN has what it says is a “manageable” text and a good “starting point” for negotiations. The text, say observers, has been expanded as each country or bloc inserts their own “bargaining” chip. They say it is now time for the leaders to step in. Which is why the success or failure of the Paris talks will depend on the likes of Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, the newly elected Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, and of course the major players in the world economy – US president Barack Obama, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Rajendrah Modi, and the European Union. Over the next few weeks a series of meetings will be held to try to resolve some of those issues. A pre-Paris ministerial meeting will take place in the French capital from November 8-10, which will be attended by environment minister Greg Hunt. Read More here

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26 October 2015, Climate Institute, Over the weekend the last round of negotiations on the Paris climate change agreements concluded. The current draft agreement and supporting decisions is available here. Beyond the drama and theatrics of the Bonn meeting, countries left with draft agreements that can form the basis of a credible outcome in Paris. Embedded in the draft are the core elements of an outcome in Paris that reinforce the signal to business that the era of unabated fossil fuel use is at an end. However, progress on the substance of the agreements was mixed and clear political direction from ministers to officials is needed to pick up the pace in the final sprint to Paris. Brinkmanship and negotiation tactics will not deliver in Paris, but political leadership can. This highlights the importance of upcoming political meetings between leaders at the G20, APEC and CHOGM, and the pre-COP ministerial meeting in early November. On the specifics of the current draft, against The Climate Institute’s benchmarks for success in Paris: Read More here

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25 October 2015, Carbon Pulse, Swollen UN climate text ups workload for Paris summit. UN-led negotiations took a step backwards during this week’s UN climate talks in Bonn as draft text for a global pact grew longer during the penultimate formal session before the crunch December Paris summit. The UNFCCC secretariat on Friday published the new text, with the main agreement portion swelling to a heavily-bracketed 34 pages, primarily to reflect complaints from developing nations that the previous nine-page version had ignored many of their proposals. Calls to reduce aviation and shipping emissions have been included, and there are more provisions to underpin carbon markets and international trade, the absence of which had concerned some market proponents. Read More here

 

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22 October 2015, BBC News, Bonn climate talks: Questions over cash dominate. Negotiators meeting in Germany say that questions over cash are the biggest barrier to a new global climate deal. The Bonn talks are the last chance for delegates to clarify their positions before the Paris conference that aims to seal a new binding treaty. Developing country delegates said clear guarantees on finance must be a core part of that compact. Officials said that finance was likely to be the very last issue to be resolved before a deal is struck. Money has always been at the root of difficulties in solving the climate issue. Developing countries point out that while they had done least to create the problems associated with more carbon in the atmosphere, they were the ones already feeling the greater impacts of a warming world. Howls of protest They have long sought significant flows of finance to help them curb their emissions and to cope with the storms and droughts expected to be more common in a changing climate. In Copenhagen in 2009, as countries tried to put together a comprehensive agreement, the richer nations promised to provide $100bn a year in climate finance from 2020. That deal ultimately failed, but countries are hoping to conclude a more ambitious agreement in Paris in December. Read More here