The post The UN can set a new course on “critical” transition minerals appeared first on Climate Home News.
]]>The global push toward renewable energy, intended to reduce climate-aggravating emissions, has revealed how the environmental and social costs of extracting the minerals it requires fall disproportionately on local communities and ecosystems.
Many argue that electromobility and renewable energy technologies will help mitigate climate change – but adopting them on a large scale would require a massive increase in the mining of minerals such as lithium, which are key to their development.
According to the World Bank, the extraction of 3 billion tons of minerals over the next 30 years is crucial to powering the global energy transition. The International Energy Agency further predicts a four-fold increase in mineral extraction by 2040 to meet climate targets.
However, the rush for these so-called “critical” minerals risks amplifying the very crises it seeks to help solve, exacerbating ecological degradation and perpetuating socio-economic injustice in the Global South.
Q&A: What you need to know about clean energy and critical minerals supply chains
The very naming of these transition minerals as “critical” creates a false sense of urgency, reinforcing the current damaging system of extraction, and failing to consider the protection of communities, ecosystems, and species in areas of exploitation.
While mainstream strategies emphasize technological fixes, a deeper examination reveals that, without addressing the broader implications of mineral extraction, the quest for a greener future may only deepen existing environmental and human rights violations.
The UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals was formed in April this year to identify common and voluntary principles that will help developing countries benefit from equitable, fair and sustainable management of these minerals.
The Panel brings together strange bedfellows – not least China and the US – and will need to work hard to create consensus to identify principles and recommendations for governments, companies, investors and the international community on human rights, environmental protection, justice and equity in value chains, benefit-sharing, responsible investments, transparency and international collaboration. It must raise the level of ambition and listen directly to civil society organizations and rights-holders, including local communities.
Our reflection on what the Panel cannot ignore points to three elements: a status quo approach to “development”; a high level of technological optimism concerning mining; and a lack of urgency regarding ecosystem limits and communities’ rights.
Indonesia turns traditional Indigenous land into nickel industrial zone
First, we acknowledge that the Panel is under pressure from powerful actors, but it will need to resist the assertion that mining is always beneficial to the economic growth and prosperity of nations. This status-quo perspective reinforces the notion of unlimited natural resources for human consumption, mirroring the economic development promises of the early 20th century, which contributed to the current climate crisis.
The Panel must not fail to consider the possibility of degrowth or the imposition of limits on mining activities that could lead to reduced material and energy consumption. Nor should it neglect other forms of traditional and local knowledge that may offer possibilities for alternative development.
Then, on the impacts, pollution and other ecosystem disruptions caused by mining, it is consistently stated that assessments and evaluations are necessary – and that these can preserve ecosystem integrity.
The Panel must acknowledge the irreversibility of certain mining impacts on ecosystems, which are already evident. This belies the optimistic view that all mining problems can be resolved through technology, a notion that is both false and unrealistic. What’s more, it undermines the precautionary principle, which calls for protective action from suspected harms, even before scientific proof exists.
Finally, in the dominant narrative, transition minerals are found in “empty” places, deemed void of life, where only the resources to be extracted are counted. This ignores both the biodiversity and traditional communities that inhabit these areas.
More than half of the minerals needed for the energy transition are found in or near indigenous territories, which are already facing the consequences of the climate and ecological crisis, such as extreme aridity, permanent water shortages and scarce water availability.
These impacts may be increased by mining project pressures and mineral extractive activities, which are already facing the impacts of the climate and ecological crisis, such as extreme aridity, permanent water shortages or scarce water availability.
It is essential to ensure respect for the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination; to obtain their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) before projects are begun; to carry out human rights and environmental due diligence; and to ensure not only remediation of impacts but also the ability of local people to maintain their own cultural, social, economic and political ways.
Lithium tug of war: the US-China rivalry for Argentina’s white gold
In addition, current plans for the extraction of transition minerals are limited to the scale of the mining concession in question, without considering the cumulative impacts derived from others operating in the same area and ignoring the socioeconomic activities already taking place in these ecosystems.
Instead, it is essential to ensure the bio-capacity of ecosystems to maintain their life-supporting functions and the diversity of uses by communities in territories, not just industrial ones. Decisions on mineral extraction should not be based solely on market demand, but also on the biophysical limits of ecosystems and, more sensibly, on the balance of water systems.
The UN Panel has been established at a time when we can apply the lessons learned from the historical impacts of mining worldwide. This calls for the Panel to raise the level of ambition of its work by generating and advancing binding guidelines and mechanisms.
Gathered this week in Nairobi, the Panel is working to set the rules of the game, defining principles and recommendations which will be officially presented in September during the UN General Assembly. It has a unique opportunity to oversee substantive changes to the global energy system – one that we cannot afford to miss.
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]]>The post UN chief appeals for global action to tackle deadly extreme heat appeared first on Climate Home News.
]]>Calling for global action to limit the devastating consequences, the head of the United Nations said “billions of people are facing an extreme heat epidemic – wilting under increasingly deadly heatwaves”.
Extreme-heat events have been getting more frequent, intense and longer-lasting in recent decades as a result of human-made climate change.
Guterres’ appeal comes as the record for the world’s hottest day was broken twice on consecutive days this week, according to Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Monday beat Sunday, with the global average surface air temperature reaching 17.16 Celsius, as parts of the world sweltered through fierce heatwaves from the Mediterranean to Russia and Canada.
Guterres said the UN had just received preliminary data indicating that Tuesday “was in the same range”, which would make a third hottest straight day on record, if confirmed.
In a speech, he noted that heat – driven by “fossil fuel-charged, human-induced climate change” – is estimated to kill almost half a million people a year, about 30 times more than tropical cyclones.
This year alone, extreme heat struck highly vulnerable communities across the Sahel region, killed at least 1,300 pilgrims in Mecca during Hajj and shut down schools across Asia and Africa affecting more than 80 million children.
“And we know it’s going to get worse. Extreme heat is the new abnormal,” Guterres added in his speech to journalists at UN headquarters in New York.
The Secretary-General’s “call for action” brings together ten specialised UN agencies for the first time in an urgent and concerted push to strengthen international cooperation in addressing extreme heat.
Guterres listed four areas where greater efforts could be made to keep people, societies and economies safer from the negative consequences of rising global temperatures.
He emphasised the importance of “caring for the most vulnerable” – with those at greatest risk including poor people in urban areas, pregnant women, people with disabilities, the elderly, children, those who are sick and people who are displaced from their homes.
Households living in poverty often live in substandard homes without access to cooling, he added, appealing for a boost in access to low-carbon cooling and expanded use of natural measures – which include planting trees for shade – and better urban design, alongside a ramp-up of heat warning systems.
Workers also need more protection, he said, as a new report from the International Labour Organization warned that over 70 percent of the global workforce – 2.4 billion people – are now at high risk of extreme heat, especially in Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Arab States.
The UN is calling on governments to urgently review laws and regulations on occupational safety and health to integrate provisions for extreme heat, including the right to refuse working in extreme hot weather.
A third area targeted by the UN for action is making economies and societies better able to withstand heat, through stronger infrastructure, more resilient crops, and efforts to ease the pressure on health systems and water supplies.
“Countries, cities, and sectors need comprehensive, tailored Heat Action Plans, based on the best science and data,” Guterres said.
Lastly, the UN chief urged stepped-up action to “fight the disease”, by phasing out fossil fuels “fast and fairly” including no new coal projects, with the aim of limiting global warming to 1.5C – a goal nearly 200 governments signed up to in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
“I must call out the flood of fossil fuel expansion we are seeing in some of the world’s wealthiest countries,” he emphasised. “In signing such a surge of new oil and gas licenses, they are signing away our future.”
The United States, Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK have issued two-thirds of the global number of oil and gas licences since 2020, according to research published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development this week.
Commenting on the UN’s call to action, Alan Dangour, director of climate and health at Wellcome, a UK-based science foundation, noted that people working outside in physical jobs and those who cannot afford to adapt to rising heat are particularly exposed – but the effects are far broader.
“The levels of heat we now routinely see around the world put every part of society under extreme pressure, directly harming our health while also affecting food and water security and much of our vital infrastructures,” he said in a statement.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday, scientists convened by Wellcome said there are positive measures that can be taken to combat the problem of extreme heat, which can also bring wider social benefits.
UAE’s ALTÉRRA invests in fund backing fossil gas despite “climate solutions” pledge
For example, they explained that using community facilities as cooling centres can offer older people a place to chat or play cards, tackling social isolation and heat stress at the same time. Or adding shades with solar panels to market stalls can help women traders keep working on hot days while also providing free electricity for their businesses.
“There is still time for concerted action to save lives from the impacts of climate change, but we can no longer afford to delay,” Dangour said.
The UN’s call for action points out that existing tools to reduce the devastating consequences of extreme heat could be deployed with large and far-reaching effects. Guterres said the good news is that “there are solutions… that we can save lives and limit its impact”.
For example, a global scale-up of heat health warning systems could save more than 98,000 lives every year, according to the World Health Organization. And the rollout of occupational safety and health measures could avoid $361 billion a year in medical and other costs, the ILO has estimated.
The UN chief urged a “huge acceleration of all the dimensions of climate action” as global warming is currently outpacing efforts to fight it. That could start to change, he added, as heatwaves, impacts on public health and disasters such as Canada’s wildfires are now hitting the richest countries as well as poorer ones.
“The heat is being felt by those that have decision-making capacity – and that is my hope,” he said.
(Reporting and editing by Matteo Civillini and Megan Rowling)
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]]>The post The world needs a new global deal on climate and development finance appeared first on Climate Home News.
]]>At COP29 in Baku in November, the world will come together to agree a new target for climate finance. The stakes are huge given record temperatures and heatwaves, floods and droughts wreaking havoc globally.
Tackling climate change and its consequences – and supporting wider human development – needs urgent investment. But the international financial system is struggling to respond. Is it time now to agree a new framework for international climate and development finance? Can the G20 under Brazil’s leadership, and international leaders meeting at the United Nations in New York in September, prepare the ground for COP29?
Almost 54 years ago, in 1970, the world came together at the UN to set a target for rich countries to support poorer countries. They promised 0.7% of national income as “official development assistance” (ODA) to improve economic outcomes and reduce poverty. At the Copenhagen climate negotiations in 2009, world leaders again came together and promised to mobilise an annual $100bn to finance climate action by 2020. They said this would be “new and additional” to development finance.
Hurricane Beryl shows why the new UK government must ramp up climate finance
Since then, with the exception of a few Europeans, rich nations have failed to meet the 0.7% target. In 2022, ODA peaked at $211bn, or 0.37% of combined OECD national income. Almost 15% of this was used to finance refugee-related costs in OECD countries themselves. The climate commitment was met in 2022, two years late. Without ODA levels rising, the 33% of ODA classified as climate-related cannot reasonably be claimed as “additional”.
In practice, maintaining this distinction between climate and development finance has proved difficult. For example, is planting trees in an urban landscape a climate investment because it absorbs emissions, a health investment because it reduces street-level temperatures, or a biodiversity investment as it creates habitats for wildlife?
The challenge of navigating these distinctions means it is difficult to track commitments or secure meaningful accountability against promises made. And it leaves many countries juggling a false trade-off between investments for the planet and for their people.
It is absolutely clear, however, that financing for poorer countries needs to increase dramatically. Despite progress over recent decades, development needs remain significant, with major setbacks through the pandemic. The Independent High Level Expert Group on Climate Finance estimates, presented to the G20, indicate that by 2030 $5.4 trillion a year will be needed for development, climate and nature. Of this, $1 trillion a year will be required in external financing for developing countries for climate and nature alone, of which roughly half will need to come from international public finance.
International public finance – including new and additional aid finance from rich countries – is needed to provide concessional resources for the poorest and most indebted countries. It is needed to anchor capital increases for international financial institutions that can leverage this at least ten-fold, in part by borrowing from private capital markets. These institutions, together with other development finance institutions and strong policy environments, are key to bringing in private lenders and investors, whether by reducing risk or helping develop investment pipelines.
The Loss and Damage Fund must not leave fragile states behind
As well as additional finance, poorer countries need money that better responds to their needs. In recent years, the relentless cycle of summits has spawned dozens of initiatives. The landscape is fragmented, with over 80 funds or instruments in the climate space alone. It has become increasingly difficult for poor countries to navigate this. There is an urgent need for a moratorium on new funds and to agree principles and coordination mechanisms for all external finance – building on the aid effectiveness principles agreed in the 2000s.
Taking these elements together, is it time now to drop the voluntary framework of ODA crafted in the last century to meet the problems of the last century? Can countries come together now to agree a new framework for official climate and development assistance, with a binding commitment for rich countries to finally meet the 0.7% national income promise by, say, 2030?
Such a target, negotiated under a UN framework, would double the flow of aid finance. That funding would anchor multilateral, public and private investments that are needed to close the financing gap. A negotiated process could also bring in emerging countries like China that already provide significant finance. It could clarify definitions and shift arrangements for monitoring climate and other development spend from the OECD to the UN to improve accountability. And it could begin to consolidate the range of instruments and make them more responsive to the needs of poor countries.
With public finances under strain around the world, many will say this is simply unaffordable. But international polling indicates that people are willing to contribute 1% of their income to fight climate change. Will politicians have the courage to engage their electorates? And at the G20, in the UN, in the lead up to Baku and beyond, will they have the vision to collaborate internationally to agree a new deal that delivers both development and climate justice?
The post The world needs a new global deal on climate and development finance appeared first on Climate Home News.
]]>The post ‘More than a number’: Global plastic talks need community experts appeared first on Climate Home News.
]]>Living in a community on the edge of an acres-wide petrochemical plant in Texas or Louisiana means that you can see, smell, and taste plastic pollution every day. All too often leaders who are charged with making decisions about plastic pollution are too far removed from the impact and easily miss the risks to human health and the environment.
This past week, a thousand miles away, delegates from over 170 countries met in Ottawa, Ontario, to discuss just that: pollution from plastic. This meeting marks the fourth session of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4), where leaders are working to develop a legally binding, global plastics treaty ahead of final negotiations set for November.
As decisions move forward, Beyond Petrochemicals is supporting our community partners to help bring their lived experience to the negotiation process. These frontline leaders are working hard to push for a fair and effective treaty that puts public health, human rights, and the environment first.
But the petrochemical industry is at work too, placing pro-plastic ads near negotiating rooms and touting false solutions like “chemical recycling.” Industry executives continue to downplay the role of plastics in the issue of pollution, even as a new report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that plastic production emits as much carbon pollution as 600 coal-fired power plants annually. By 2050, carbon pollution from plastics production could triple, taking up as much as 20 percent of our remaining carbon budget and undercutting global efforts on climate change.
Canadian minister vows to fight attempts to weaken plastic pollution treaty
It can be hard to relate to the fluctuations of international treaty negotiations or new scientific reports when you spend each day worried about breathing in the pollutants being negotiated. It’s easy to feel like just a number—some statistic about economic hardship or disease. That’s a problem.
Communities know firsthand the impact of plastic pollution at every step of the process. Plastic pollution begins when companies drill and extract oil and gas and use it to process and manufacture petrochemicals for plastics. More than a third of the carbon pollution generated by plastic production happens during the extraction and refining of fossil fuels. And it’s not just carbon pollution, this industry is suffocating communities in places like Texas, Louisiana, and the Ohio River Valley with millions of tons of toxic, cancer-causing pollution.
The global plastics treaty can be a landmark international agreement to address the escalating crisis of plastic pollution at every step – but the only way to get an effective treaty is with the perspectives and input of the communities on the frontlines of petrochemical pollution. Because when communities are trusted to lead, real change is possible.
I have seen the power of communities declaring they are more than a number. Two women separated by a thousand miles and seemingly just as many differences dared to fight the expansion of the petrochemical industry in their community – and they won.
Jill Hunkler, a seventh-generation Ohio Valley resident, is a fierce advocate for her community. Faced with plans to displace her friends and neighbors to build the largest ethylene plant of its kind in the United States, she became a leader of a grassroots movement. Phone calls, emails, and meetings helped put the pressure needed on state and federal leaders and stalled what was once seen as inevitable.
Together, they were more than a number and in fact helped avert 1.7 million tons of carbon emissions per year.
Sharon Lavigne, a retired teacher from St. James Parish, Louisiana, is tired of the moniker given to her community, “Cancer Alley.” Decades of unabated industrial development have overwhelmed this primarily Black parish leaving a wake of disease and hardship. Sharon knows her parish is more than this, that it is more than a number.
Founding the group RISE St. James, Sharon is leading a multi-generational movement to block a petrochemical and plastics facility poised to produce as much pollution as three new coal plants. Their fight against the Formosa Sunshine plant has gained global attention thanks to her leadership, spurring legal actions and rallying work to ensure this plant is never built.
Sharon and Jill are not alone. Last year, a total of five newly planned petrochemical facilities were blocked by similar community efforts. And last week, after nearly two years of community-led organizing and opposition, Encina Development Group withdrew its plans to build a toxic chemical recycling facility along the Susquehanna River in Point Township, Pennsylvania.
People coming together makes a difference. As the plastics industry works to expand – to build more petrochemical plants and create more plastic than we could ever possibly need – the perspectives of frontline leaders are essential if we are going to arrive at a global plastics treaty that supports a stable climate, a livable planet, and a just future. Alongside powerful community organizers, my colleagues and I are proud to continue this effort to stop the expansion of the petrochemical industry.
Heather McTeer Toney is also the author of Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America’s Urgent Call for Climate Solutions. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as a regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the Southeast region. In 2004, she became the first woman and African American to be elected mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, a position she held until 2011.
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]]>The post High Seas Treaty exempts deep-sea mining from stricter environmental rules appeared first on Climate Home News.
]]>The High Seas Treaty is the first international agreement to protect oceans that lie outside of national boundaries. It creates a legal mechanism for the future designation of marine protected areas and sets outs new funding provisions for marine conservation.
The deal, struck on 4 March after almost two decades of negotiations, was hailed as an “historic day for conservation” and one of the most significant ocean governance developments in the past 40 years.
However, it does not apply directly to activities already regulated by existing bodies.
Andreas Hansen, senior policy advisor at US non-profit The Nature Conservancy, told Climate Home News it was “less than ideal” that deep-sea mining in international waters, which is governed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), is exempt from the treaty’s environmental assessment framework.
Campaigners fear this could undermine attempts to protect the seabed from human activities, for which current EIA rules are not very extensive.
‘We are not ready’: Divisions deepen over rush to finalise deep sea mining rules
ISA, a UN-affiliated body set up in 1994 under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), is currently negotiating the approval of a mining code, laying out the rules under which companies will be allowed to extract minerals from the seabed. Campaigners say draft EIA provisions in this code are also weaker than those set out in the High Seas Treaty.
Several operators have already been exploring an area of the Pacific Ocean floor known as the Clarion Clipperton Zone. This contains a concentration of polymetallic nodules, rich in nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese, which are critical for manufacturing electric vehicles.
The ISA accelerated the pace of its mining code negotiations after the island state of Nauru triggered an obscure provision forcing approval by July 2023. The risk is that, if the agency misses the deadline, companies could submit a request to begin full-scale mining, even without any rules in place.
The ISA told Climate Home News that it is “fully committed to protecting the marine environment and regulating economic, exploratory, and scientific activity in the deep sea”.
The full environmental impacts of deep-sea activities are still being researched. But scientists have warned about the risks of mining generating sediment plumes of debris that could travel for miles and pollute the ocean.
Several countries, including Chile, Costa Rica, Germany, Spain and New Zealand, have called for a moratorium or a ‘precautionary pause’ on the practice until further research has been done.
The ISA appears to have been concerned about the impact the new High Seas Treaty could have on its authority over seabed mining, according to Duncan Currie, a lawyer and advisor to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.
Climate Home News has seen a copy of an information note by the ISA, circulated among the delegates at the final round of treaty talks in New York, which detailed the relevance of the body’s role in the context of the new agreement.
The document sets out how the ISA purportedly fulfills its mandate of protecting biodiversity and warned against undermining existing provisions “in the haste to seek to manage particular components of the marine environment”.
The ISA also said in the note it had developed a “comprehensive” EIA regime for activities taking place in its jurisdiction. The authority’s EIAs have been previously criticised by campaigners for prioritising the development of deep-sea mining over environmental protection.
The ISA told Climate Home News that discussions on how to further update the EIA framework are continuing and “any future changes to the EIA framework will reflect the will of ISA member states”.
In a public statement, the authority welcomed the conclusion of the new agreement and said it “stands ready to work with all relevant stakeholders to implement the ambitious goals”. It added that “coordination, cooperation and complementarity are pivotal for the sustainable use of the ocean resources”.
Currie said the ISA secretariat “tried very hard to ringfence the 1994 UNCLOS agreement”.
And even though most of its lobbying efforts ultimately “failed”, he described the exemption from the treaty’s framework as a “get out of jail free card” for the ISA.
The ISA said suggestions it tried to influence decision-making are “not correct”. But Currie said parties negotiating the mining code should pay close regard to the new treaty’s EIA provisions and push for them to be adopted as the code’s gold standard.
Hansen too hoped that the agreement would apply “indirect pressure” for stronger protection.
Campaigners are optimistic that the new treaty will stitch together the fragmented patchwork of ocean governance organisations – of which the ISA is just one – bringing more coordination and oversight.
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“The new authority needs to be the umbrella organisation for existing bodies,” said Minna Epps, ocean director at IUCN, an environmental network for governments and civil society. “You cannot have the International Seabed Authority just presiding over the seabed floor and those activities that will inevitably affect the water column and all the other components of the high seas.”
The approval of the High Seas Treaty’s final wording was seen by delegates and campaigners as a “crucial milestone”, but there is still a long road ahead. The agreement first needs to be formally adopted and then ratified by enough individual countries to be legally enforceable. Only then will a conference of the parties be convened to turn the legal framework into an actionable plan.
In the meantime, many questions remain unanswered. “It is too early to say what happens to deep-sea mining in a marine protected area,” said Currie. “The agreement is significant because it recognises the importance of marine biodiversity in relation not only to the high seas, but to the area [governed by the ISA]. Its application in concrete will need to be developed in the future.”
The article has been updated 09/03/2023 to include comments from the ISA. A reference to an ISA note being circulated to “some” delegates was changed to reflect the ISA statement.
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]]>The post Vanuatu backs fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty at UN general assembly appeared first on Climate Home News.
]]>The island is the first country to call for such a treaty. The Vatican, the UN Secretary General and World Health Organization have all backed ending fossil fuel production worldwide.
“Every day we are experiencing more debilitating consequences of the climate crisis. Fundamental human rights are being violated, and we are measuring climate change not in degrees of Celsius or tonnes of carbon, but in human lives. This emergency is of our own making,” Vanuatu’s president Nikenike Vurobaravu told world leaders in New York on Friday.
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Vurobaravu called for the development of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to phase down coal, oil and gas production in line with 1.5C. The treaty would also “enable a global just transition for every worker, community and nation with fossil fuel dependence,” he added.
Michael Poland, campaign director for the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty initiative, an independent organization calling for such a treaty, said Vanuatu’s proposal was important to start discussions around the issue.
“Vanuatu’s call for a treaty will not only build on this momentum ahead of COP27, but begin a new chapter of diplomatic engagement around the proposal,” Poland told Climate Home News.
Comprising more than 80 islands stretched across 1,300km, Vanuatu is highly vulnerable to rising sea levels and intense cyclones, which frequently cripple its economy.
During his speech, Vurobaravu also urged world leaders to support Vanuatu’s campaign to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on countries’ legal obligations to protect people from climate harm.
“The ICJ is the only principal UN organ that has not yet been given an opportunity to weigh in on the climate crisis,” Vurobaravu said. “We will ask the ICJ for an advisory opinion on existing obligations under international law to protect the rights of present and future generations against the adverse impacts of climate change.”
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If a majority of countries at the UN general assembly give the ICJ a mandate to act, the court will be tasked with interpreting what international human rights and environmental laws mean for countries’ responsibility to act on the causes and impacts of climate change.
The UN general assembly is one of few bodies authorised to request advisory opinions from the ICJ, which settles legal disputes between countries.
It is not expected to lead to reparations for countries that have suffered climate disasters, but could inform climate lawsuits around the world and strengthen vulnerable countries’ calls for more support at international negotiations.
“This is not a silver bullet for increasing climate action, but only one tool to get us closer to the end goal of achieving a safe planet for humanity,” Vurobaravu told the UN assembly.
Palau and the Marshall Islands previously tried to request a similar advisory opinion from the ICJ in 2012, but failed to secure a majority.
A resolution is expected to be introduced to the general assembly in October and a vote will take place in late 2022 or early 2023.
New Zealand, Samoa, Costa Rica, Bangladesh, Tuvalu, Liechtenstein, Fiji and Singapore have all said they will support Vanuatu’s campaign.
“Vanuatu has now built a growing coalition of more than 80 nations who are backing their call for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice,” said Poland. “This initiative, and their call for a fossil fuel treaty, is part of their efforts in pushing for governments to pursue all legal avenues possible towards climate justice.”
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]]>The post China host of major nature talks fails to step up at UN biodiversity summit appeared first on Climate Home News.
]]>Those expecting a repeat of President Xi Jinping’s surprise announcement last week that China was aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 were left disappointed.
Xi outlined no grand plan for reversing nature loss and environmental destruction when he addressed the high-level biodiversity event on Wednesday.
“The goal is to seek a kind of modernisation that promotes harmonious coexistence of man and nature,” he told political leaders in a pre-recorded message, insisting that economic development could take place while preserving the environment.
“It falls to all of us to act together and turn the earth into a beautiful homeland,” he added, calling on countries to strike an agreement during major biodiversity talks in Kunming, provisionally scheduled for May 2021, when governments are due to agree on a new framework to halt the decline of biodiversity beyond 2020.
The UN summit on biodiversity convened by UN secretary general António Guterres on the sidelines of the general assembly aimed to build political momentum and bolster financial commitments ahead of the talks in Kunming.
The UN hoped the event would be a platform for countries to announce concrete action to stem the decline of the planet’s biodiversity. But beyond speeches, few leaders came with a plan.
“If the summit is nothing but rhetoric, then we are repeating the mistakes made in Aichi,” Li Shuo, Beijing-based senior energy and climate officer at Greenpeace, told Climate Home.
“The lack of substance can’t hide the fact that political will on global nature protection is low,” Li tweeted during the summit.
On Monday, 64 political leaders and the European Union launched a “leader’s pledge for nature” with a 10-point plan to halt global biodiversity destruction.
The pledge has now been signed by more than 70 countries, but China is not one of them. Australia, Brazil, Russia and the US, whose governments all control vast swathes of land and oceans, have not signed up either.
Campaigners say that without concrete commitments, next year’s talks will fall flat.
A UN report earlier this month concluded that the world has missed all 20 biodiversity targets for 2020 agreed in Aichi, Japan, in 2010. Funding shortfalls were highlighted as a significant barrier to meeting the targets and campaigners fear the failure could repeat itself if countries do not raise more funds ahead of the talks in Kunming.
UN agencies have warned that countries needed to commit an additional $700 billion per year to reverse the destruction of nature. But at a funding conference on Monday, only Germany made a firm commitment to increase its funding for protecting biodiversity in developing countries.
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“China should provide stronger leadership in the current Kunming process. It is crystal clear that the negotiations are heading to an Aichi 2.0. If one looks at the Aichi round, it is essentially a rhetorical boom in 2010 followed by an implementation bust over the subsequent decade,” Li told CHN.
Other major emitters have also been criticised for their lack of commitment.
The US did not even send a representative to the UN event. And Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro told the UN in a statement last week the country was already subject to “the best environmental legislation on the planet”.
On Tuesday, Bolsonaro revoked regulations that protect tropical mangroves and other coastal ecosystems.
“Their deliberate plans to actively destroy nature makes both the Trump and Bolsonaro administrations climate villains,” said Arlo Hemphill, oceans campaigner at Greenpeace US.
Australia was also noticeably absent from the UN biodiversity summit. A government spokesperson said Australia would not agree to environmental targets “unless we can tell the Australian people what they will cost to achieve and how we will achieve it”.
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]]>The post ‘UN reformer’ Guterres must do more on climate change appeared first on Climate Home News.
]]>In Paris, nations reached agreement to mitigate against and adapt to climate change. It was an agreement between countries to take national action, but we live in a globalised world and climate change has global consequences. The Paris Agreement was never going to be enough.
The UN needs now to task global and multinational organisations with addressing climate impacts of global significance. In particular, it needs to prepare for potential conflict as a result of increased resource scarcity in fragile states, the fall-out of mass ice-melt on global sea level and the potential for states to resort to unsanctioned geo-engineering.
The UN system as a whole can and must do more to effectively manage climate-related risks to global peace and security. This becomes increasingly important as we begin to understand the true reality of climate impacts. The United Nations must change – and fast – as the risk of extreme impacts is growing by the day.
Here are four clear policy objectives the UN could establish.
First, climate change should be anchored at the heart of the secretary general’s UN reform agenda. António Guterres is pursuing a raft of reforms to improve the UN’s operations to deliver sustainable development and peace. Climate-related risks interplay with a range of the other challenges facing the organisation, from inequality and political instability to resourcing and programming.
Sidelining climate change is a mistake, and reforms that do not take into account a climate-changed future will be doomed to failure. With hurricanes, floods and droughts aplenty, the reality of climate change is already knocking loudly at the UN’s door.
Second, an ‘institutional home’ needs to be established to systematically address climate-related risks across all UN agencies and operations should be created under the auspices of the secretary-general. The cell could serve as an analytical task-force, translating the vast array of climate science and on-the-ground experience into digestible information for decision-makers. Agencies as well as political bodies, including the UN security council, would be advised on current and impending climate realities to improve their effectiveness and realign priorities.
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Third, this newly created unit should be mandated to conduct a climate risk assessment of all UN agencies and operations. There is little understanding of the strain the UN will experience from climate impacts. A climate risk assessment would identify the risks to UN effectiveness in maintaining peace and security. Furthermore, it would highlight priority areas for reform and guide resourcing.
Fourth, a special representative for climate security should be appointed to support political dialogue on climate-related security risks. The profound changes wrought by low carbon transition and climate impacts will involve tough political choices. An envoy would help elevate pressing concerns and convene actors to identify political solutions. For example, an envoy could gather nations and agencies with shared climate-related risks to reach agreement on resource sharing in the face of scarcity.
Time is running out and the world’s citizens are understandably growing anxious. As the fall-out from globalisation settles, people are identifying climate change as the world’s gravest threat. To maintain the UN’s relevance and make good on its mission, self-styled ‘UN reformer’ Guterres must live up to his name and place climate change centre stage.
Camilla Born is a Senior Policy Adviser in Climate Diplomacy and Risk at E3G. She is currently working in collaboration with SIPRI to support Sweden’s membership of the UN Security Council.
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