19 October 2015, The Guardian, France launches global drive for climate deal. Diplomats mobilised for unprecedented PR push, with Paris summit seen as last chance to reach agreement. France has launched an unprecedented diplomatic drive to shepherd nations big and small towards a major climate change deal, ahead of a Paris summit next month that is the next major make-or-break moment for the movement against global warming. Every one of France’s ambassadors, in embassies and consulates around the globe, has been educated on the demands of climate change, and instructed in how to communicate the messages to the governments they deal with, ahead of the summit, which starts on 30 November. Ambassadors have been holding public events, private meetings, talks with their diplomatic counterparts, businesses, NGOs and even schoolchildren. At home, the outer walls of the foreign ministry, a stately 19th-century edifice on the banks of the Seine, are covered in a series of banners declaring, in several languages, the messages of Paris Climat 2015. Even the Eiffel Tower, further down the riverbank, has been pressed into service, lit up at night with climate slogans. François Hollande, the president of France, has been visiting world leaders for the past year, urging them to come to Paris. Laurent Fabius, foreign minister, who will be in charge of the talks, has made it his mission, with a punishing schedule of events and public speaking. Ségolène Royal, environment minister and co-host, has also been touring capitals and conferences. Climate diplomacy has never seen such a concerted push. Read More here
Tag Archives: UNFCCC
12 October 2015, Climate Institute, Draft Paris agreement shows many countries still pushing for <1.5°C. Earlier last week the co-chairs of the process to the Paris climate summit released the draft agreement and draft decisions for the outcomes of the meeting. Below is a diagram that outlines, in simple terms, what these would mean for countries’ pollution reduction commitments. Note that this does not include other critical elements of the Paris outcome such as how to build resilience to growing climate change impacts and how to support the world’s poorest nations participate in climate change solutions (‘climate finance’). While critical details remain to be resolved, the draft texts highlight that the contours of the Paris agreement are becoming increasingly clear. The inevitable trend to stronger action is embedded in the draft agreement with countries needing to progressively strengthen action through time. Before getting into the details of this figure, and what it means for Australia’s target, a few overall elements of the draft agreement are worth highlighting: Read More here
7 September 2015, The Carbon Brief, Bonn climate talks ask for draft Paris text. A draft international climate agreement package will be published within weeks, setting the scene for crunch UN talks in Paris in December. During negotiations in Bonn last week, countries made progress on some key sticking points and started to lay out the skeleton of the planned agreement. Yet with just five more days of formal negotiations before Paris, disagreement over many details remains profound. The co-chairs of the process will now attempt to cement progress and bridge those divides. They have been given a mandate to prepare a draft agreement by the first week of October. Parties will then start line-by-line negotiations on the draft text when they return to Bonn on 19 October. Carbon Brief summarises events in Bonn last week and rounds up reactions to the latest talks. Read More here
7 September 2015, Climate News Network, Climate talks are stuck in the slow lane to Paris. Lack of progress at the close of “unbearably tardy” negotiations in Bonn undermines hopes of a meaningful deal being agreed at this year’s crucial UN climate summit. The latest round of climate talks in the German city of Bonnhave ended with a failure to deliver common grounds for the negotiations at the UN climate summit in Paris at the end of this year. The Paris talks, involving all UN member states, are meant to deliver a draft that could lead to a new world climate treaty to replace the expired Kyoto Protocol. But experts now fear that there will not be enough time left to see a major breakthrough. Jan Kowalzig, climate change policy adviser at Oxfam, described last week’s negotiations in Bonn as “unbearably tardy”. He said: “If the negotiators keep up that slow pace, the ministers at the UN summit will get an unfinished paper that they will have to resolve with no time for reflection. The outcome will then most likely be an extremely weak new treaty that will not save the world from climate change.” Read More here