It is the first such decision the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has taken since its creation in 2010.

The GCF said on Thursday it had terminated its agreement with project developers after their failure to comply with its rules on environmental and social safeguards resulted in “legal breaches”.

In 2020, the fund committed $64 million to the programme run by the Nicaraguan government and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), which aimed to reduce deforestation in the UNESCO-designated Bosawás and Rio San Juan biosphere reserves.

The GCF said it had not paid out any funds before terminating its support for the project and no activities had yet taken place.

Community groups warned that the project was going to be carried out in reserves being deforested by a massive invasion of settlers that use violence against Indigenous people with impunity due to weak law enforcement action. They worried that the programme – which was to be overseen by state authorities – would worsen those conflicts and fail to protect the rights of Indigenous communities.

Amaru Ruiz, director of the Nicaraguan organisation Fundación del Río, which supported the affected communities, welcomed the decision by the GCF.

“This sets a precedent globally for the functioning of the fund,” he said. “It is also a recognition of the struggle and resistance of the Indigenous people and Afro-descendant communities of Nicaragua, and it shows that there is a window of opportunity to insist on the fact that climate projects must not violate human rights.”

Fuelling conflicts

The decision concludes a grievance process that has lasted nearly three years since a coalition of local and international NGOs filed a complaint with the GCF. They accused the project of fuelling a violent conflict between Indigenous communities and settlers who were grabbing land to farm cattle and exploit resources, as well as failing to consult local people.

The Bosawas Reserve in Nicaragua has been hit by illegal mining and logging despite protected status. Photo: Rebecca Ore

Independent legal observers have documented repeated attacks against Indigenous people in the area with dozens murdered, kidnapped or raped over the last few years.

An investigation by the GCF’s independent complaint mechanism deemed their concerns justified. It found a series of failures with the project that could “cause or exacerbate” violent conflict. The probe also highlighted a lack of due diligence on conflict risks and human rights violations and the absence of free and informed consultations with Indigenous communities before the project’s approval.

The GCF said it was unaware that the project was not in compliance with its policies at the time of its approval and that new evidence had subsequently been brought to light.

Late-stage consultation

Following the internal investigation, the GCF board agreed last July to suspend the project until it addressed local concerns and fully respected the fund’s policies and procedures. It effectively gave the project developers one last chance to fix the problems.

In an attempt to remedy the issues, CABEI carried out a consultation and engagement process with local communities between August and September. The project developer said a total of 5,550 people participated in 69 events across the region.

Fossil fuel firms seek UN carbon market cash for old gas plants

But NGOs criticised it as a “sham”, saying participants were only provided with a brochure in Spanish – a foreign language for many Indigenous people – and were given limited freedom to debate the proposal.

“There’s been an increase in militarisation in the territory,” said Ruiz. “At least eight Indigenous community forest guards were detained after they had denounced the situation of encroachment on their territory”.

China steps away from 2025 energy efficiency goal

Since 2007, Nicaragua has been ruled by an authoritarian regime led by President Daniel Ortega. His administration has been responsible for “widespread and systematic human rights violations that amount to crimes against humanity”, according to the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua.

CABEI detailed in a report sent to the GCF in October the steps that had been taken to make the project compliant with its rules. But the fund’s secretariat, its administrative arm, found the issues were not addressed to its satisfaction and decided to terminate its participation in the programme.

It communicated the decision to its board members at a meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, this week.

Lesson for the future

The GCF secretariat says it is now committed to working collaboratively with CABEI and the Nicaraguan government to “develop a clear strategy to conclude the project in an orderly and responsible manner”. That will include informing people on the ground and “managing the expectations” of the potential beneficiaries.

CABEI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Florencia Ortúzar, a lawyer at the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), said she hoped the GCF would learn a lesson from this case.

“It is a reminder of the importance of including local communities from the very beginning of project design,” she told Climate Home. “The GCF policies and safeguards exist to prevent those regrettable situations and must be implemented rigorously and consistently.”

The post UN climate fund axes Nicaragua forest project over human rights concerns appeared first on Climate Home News.

The final text for the first time mentions all fossil fuels, “calling on” parties to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner”.

Most delegates were satisfied with the result, with no country opposing the text in the final plenary. Vulnerable nations and some observers had mixed feelings.

No ‘phase-out’, but Dubai deal puts oil and gas sector on notice

EU: Beginning of the end of fossil fuels

EU chief negotiator Wopke Hoekstra told a press huddle outside the plenary that the global stocktake text, the main outcome from Cop28, was “truly consequential” and the “beginning of the end of fossil fuels”.

The EU’s Wopke Hoekstra describes this text as “truly consequential” and “the beginning of the end of fossil fuels” #Cop28 pic.twitter.com/aZxYYubcsO

— Joe Lo is @joeloclimate@bsky.social (@joeloyo) December 13, 2023

Aosis: Litany of loopholes

Anne Rasmussen, representing the alliance of small island states (Aosis), told the plenary:

“In terms of safeguarding 1.5C in a meaningful way, the language is certainly a step forward, it speaks to transitioning away from fossil fuels in a way the process has not done before. But we must note the text does not speak specifically to fossil fuel phase-out and mitigation in a way that is in fact the step change that is needed. It is incremental and not transformational.

“We see a litany of loopholes in this text that are a major concern to us.”

Tears flowed and a lengthy rousing ovation during final plenary just now for AOSIS Chair #AnneRasmussen, as she delivered an emotional response filled with unsparing observations about the final outcomes from #COP28UAE pic.twitter.com/YEt4sgIvB0

— AOSIS (@AOSISChair) December 13, 2023

US: Strong messages

US climate envoy John Kerry told the plenary:

“While nobody here will see their views completely reflected in a consensus document of so many nations, the fact is that this document sends very strong messages to the world.

“First, the document highlights that we have to adhere to keep 1.5C within reach. That is the North star. We therefore must do those things necessary to keep 1.5C. Everything we can to achieve this goal.

“In particular it states that our next [national climate plans] will be aligned with limiting warming to 1.5C. I think everyone has to agree this is much stronger and clearer as a call on 1.5C than we have ever heard before.”

Saudi Arabia: Silence

The Saudi delegation does not join in the applause as #Cop28 president says “We have language on fossil fuel for the first time ever” pic.twitter.com/wv2qa7zqje

— Joe Lo is @joeloclimate@bsky.social (@joeloyo) December 13, 2023

UAE: Different sort of Cop

Cop28 president Sultan Al Jaber told the final plenary in Dubai:

“It is an enhanced, balanced, but make no mistake historic package to accelerate climate action. It is the ‘UAE Consensus’. Many said this could not be done.

“But when I spoke to you at the very start of Cop, I promised a different sort of Cop. A Cop that brought everyone together, private and public sectors, civil society and faith leaders, youth and indigenous peoples. Everyone came together from day one. Everyone united, acted and delivered.”

France: Still work ahead

French minister for energy transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher told reporters outside the plenary:

“We need to be very cautious and to report and make sure that every country improves their [national climate plans] and that, at the same time, we are going to put the money on the field so that developing countries can do their own transitions and adaptations. That is what is at stake today — how will the finance come to the most vulnerable countries?”

India: Outcomes backed by finance

Indian minister for environment, forest and climate change Bhupender Yadav said in a statement:

“India urges that the determination shown at Cop is also substantiated with means to bring it to fruition. This must be based on the principles of equity and climate justice, which is respectful of national circumstances, and where the developed countries take the lead based on their historical contributions.”

Today, the world came together at #COP28 in Dubai, UAE to display positive collaboration and camaraderie for an action-oriented approach towards a greener and healthier planet.

Through its G20 Presidency steered by PM Shri @narendramodi ji, India displayed the resolve to make… pic.twitter.com/eC07BAr4Fy

— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) December 13, 2023

Least developed countries: We expected more

Madeleine Diouf Sarr, head of climate change at the ministry of environment of Senegal and chair of the least developed countries group, said in a statement:

“This outcome is not perfect, we expected more. It reflects the very lowest possible ambition that we could accept rather than what we know, according to the best available science, is necessary to urgently address the climate crisis.”

“Next year will be critical in deciding the new climate finance goal, which must be informed by this global stocktake, and must close the vast gaps that have been identified. To respond to the global stocktake, the new goal must reflect the full needs of our countries to address climate change, including the costs to mitigate, to adapt, and to address loss and damage.”

Colombia: Gas colonising decarbonisation

Colombian environment minister Susana Muhamad told the plenary:

“Loopholes (in the final text) have risks and the risks can undermine the political will. The transition fuels could end up colonising the space of decarbonisation. Right now, in the financial segment of the text, we don’t have still the economic structure required for this deep transition — which is not only an energy transition but is fundamentally a whole-of-society economic transition.”

La transición para dejar los combustibles fósiles, debe complementarse con un Tratado que entregue reglas claras de financiamiento para los países, pero además respetando los bosques y las comunidades. ¡Nuestra lucha por la justicia climática y equidad, sigue! #COP28 pic.twitter.com/37rn1AzHFa

— Susana Muhamad (@susanamuhamad) December 13, 2023

Germany: Multilateralism delivers

German state secretary and special envoy for international climate action Jennifer Morgan said in a statement:

“Today the world adopted a historic decision that is strongly guided by the 1.5C limit. There is an unmistakable signal that the future is renewables and not fossil fuels. For the first time, countries made the decision to transition away from fossil fuels, accelerating action in this critical decade.

“Today we showed that multilateralism delivers. Tomorrow we drive these decisions forward. We must be fast. We must be deliberate, with ambition and solidarity for climate justice.”

Bolivia: Rich nations must step up

Bolivian chief negotiator Diego Pacheco told the plenary:

“We cannot support outcomes that mean that the world will enter a new era of implementation of the Paris Agreement without equity, without common but differentiated responsibilities, without a differentiation between developed and developing countries and without means of implementation and concrete financing for developing countries.

Developed countries have not decided to take the initiative of leading the fight against the climate crisis and this is jeopardising the lives of people in our part of the world. We say a great deal about 1.5C and science, but developed countries that have plans to expand their fossil fuels going up to 2050 are running counter to science itself, the very science they talk about.”

UN chief: Progress gathering pace

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres told the Cop28 plenary:

“For the first time, the outcome recognizes the need to transition away from fossil fuels – after many years in which the discussion of this issue was blocked. ”

“To those who opposed a clear reference to a phase out of fossil fuels in the COP28 text, I want to say that a fossil fuel phase out is inevitable whether they like it or not. Let’s hope it doesn’t come too late.

Of course, timelines, pathways and targets will differ for countries at different levels of development. But all efforts must be consistent with achieving global net zero by 2050 and preserving the 1.5 degree goal. And developing countries must be supported every step of the way.”

John Kerry says that the US and China “both intend – based on many initiatives set out in Global Stocktake – we will again update our long term strategies and we invite other parties to join us in doing so” #Cop28

— Joe Lo is @joeloclimate@bsky.social (@joeloyo) December 13, 2023

WRI: More finance needed

Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO, World Resources Institute said in a statement:

“Fossil fuels finally faced a reckoning at the UN climate negotiations after three decades of dodging the spotlight. This historic outcome marks the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era. Despite immense pressure from oil and gas interests, high ambition countries courageously stood their ground and sealed the fate of fossil fuels.

“Now a critical test is whether far more finance is mobilized for developing countries to help make the energy transition possible.”

The #COP28 #GlobalStocktake text was gaveled through without any comments allowed from Parties. The text is severely lacking in assurances for climate finance, and equity – indications that developed countries must take the lead – is almost entirely missing.

— Brandon Wu (@brandoncwu) December 13, 2023

Climate Action Network: Marred by loopholes

Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International said in a statement:

“After decades of evasion, Cop28 finally cast a glaring spotlight on the real culprits of the climate crisis: fossil fuels. A long-overdue direction to move away from coal, oil, and gas has been set. Yet, the resolution is marred by loopholes that offer the fossil fuel industry numerous escape routes, relying on unproven, unsafe technologies.

The hypocrisy of wealthy nations, particularly the USA, as they continue to expand fossil fuel operations massively while merely paying lip service to the green transition, stands exposed.”

OPEC: oil and gas have critical role

Mohamed Hamel, Secretary General for the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), and Haitham Al Ghais, Secretary General for OPEC said in a statement:

“The oil and gas industry will play a constructive and critical role in sustainable development and poverty eradication, while contributing to a just, orderly and inclusive energy transitions, in particular through enhancing efficiencies and developing and deploying advanced technologies, such as carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS). They stressed that continued investment in oil and natural gas is essential to meet future demand and ensure global market stability.”

Power Shift Africa: Genie is out of the bottle

Mohamed Adow, Director of Power Shift Africa, said in a statement:

“For the first time in three decades of climate negotiations, the words ‘fossil fuels’ have made it into a Cop outcome. We are finally naming the elephant in the room. The genie is never going back into the bottle. Future Cops will only turn the screw even more on dirty energy.”

“Finance is where the whole energy transition plan will stand or fall. We also need much more financial support to help vulnerable people in some of the poorest countries to adapt to the impacts of climate breakdown.”

CEEW: Disappointed on all fronts

Dr Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water, said in a statement:

“This Cop has largely disappointed on all fronts. It hasn’t sufficiently raised climate ambition, held historical polluters accountable, or established effective mechanisms to finance climate resilience and a just low-carbon transition for the global south.

“While the operationalisation of the loss and damage fund on the first day marked a noteworthy success, subsequent developments revealed a discordant trajectory. The global stocktake’s final text lacked the candid acknowledgment of problems and the teeth required to fight them.”

350: Partial win for people power

May Boeve, executive director of activist network 350.org, said in a statement:

“People power has propelled us to the doorstep of history but leaders have stopped short of entering the future we need.

“It is frustrating that thirty years of campaigning managed to get ‘transition away from fossil fuels’ in the Cop text, but it is surrounded by so many loopholes that it has been rendered weak and ineffectual.”

Climate Analytics: Weak energy package

Bill Hare, climate scientist and CEO of Climate Analytics, said in a statement:

“The energy section is weak and simply doesn’t have enough hard commitments to bring the 1.5C warming limit within reach this decade, and there’s no commitment to peak emissions by 2025. The goal of tripling renewables and doubling of efficiency is very welcome, but will need hard work to implement.

“The agreement opens the doors to false solutions like carbon capture and storage at scale, and the reference to transition fuels is code for gas, which is absolutely not a transitional fuel. This has been promoted by LNG and fossil gas exporters.”

The post Dubai deal: Ministers and observers react to the UAE consensus appeared first on Climate Home News.

The big-ticket item in Dubai is the framework for the global goal on adaptation (GGA), a two-year-long exercise to turn the vague provisions of the Paris Agreement into something more concrete. Many hope clear definitions and targets will unlock money for adaptation that has been chronically underfunded.

But the 134-strong group of developing nations known as the G77 is divided.

The hardliners are the Arab group led by Saudi Arabia and the like-minded developing countries (LMDC) spearheaded by China. They have refused to work on any text that does not explicitly mention “common but differentiated responsibilities”, four sources in the room told Climate Home. Putting that in would trigger an automatic rejection from developed countries.

The least developed countries and small island states are increasingly frustrated.

“We’ve invested so much time and energy in this process,” a negotiator from a vulnerable country told Climate Home. “We’re now facing a very scary scenario: either no decision at all or a take-it-or-leave-it text creating a very symbolic framework.”

Meanwhile the mitigation work programme has made negligible progress on long-term emissions cutting measures. Again, LMDC and Arab states engaged in what two negotiators described to Climate Home as “clear obstruction tactics”, moving one islander to tears.

Some negotiators and observers told Climate Home they fear adaptation is being held hostage to talks over a possible fossil fuel phase-out.

An LMDC spokesperson rejected that interpretation. “We’ve been negotiating in good faith,” they said. “These are substantive matters with groups wanting to reopen texts that have already been agreed.”

Technical negotiations are due to finish today, with text expected on the adaptation goal and bilateral carbon trading rules.

The latest headlines

• Oil-reliant Azerbaijan chosen to host Cop29 climate talks
• Dutch initiative must turn the tables on fossil fuel subsidy reform – Ivetta Gerasimchuk, IISD
• To land fossil phase-out deal, rich nations must add fairness – Andreas Sieber, 350

Netherlands leads subsidy crackdown

Two months ago, thousands of climate activists braved water cannons to block a highway in Dutch capital The Hague in protest at fossil fuel subsidies.

Today, Dutch climate minister Rob Jetten announced twelve countries had signed up to his club to get rid of fossil fuel subsidies.

Those nations include nine Europeans – including France and Spain – Canada, Costa Rica and Antigua and Barbuda. Jetten said others are “sure” to join.

There have been many promises in the past on this, dating back to the G20 in Pittsburgh in 2009. So, IISD’s Ivetta Gerasimchuk writes, the follow-through is vital.

The countries have signed up to developing an agreed methodology and drawing up inventories of subsidies by Cop29. And an annual Cop dialogue on the issue.

Jetten tempered expectations, claiming that “half of all subsidies are tied up in international agreements” and therefore need cooperation to scrap.

And removing subsidies which make everyday things like driving, cooking and heating cheap can be unpopular. After a rise in the cost of driving sparked the “gilets jaunes” protests in 2018, French climate minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher is well aware of this.

She told the press conference today that this must work “for the planet of course” but also “for the people, for the economy, for the social equity and just transition”.

The only developing country minister present was Antigua and Barbuda’s Gaston Browne. He told Climate Home “we burn gasoline and diesel but even if even if it is more expensive that might very well serve as an incentive to go quickly to renewable energy”.

A network of at least 1900 bots on X (formerly Twitter) are promoting Cop28 in English and Arabic, according to analysis by Marc Owen Jones, professor at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar. The bots praise the UAE and Cop president Sultan Al Jaber as climate heroes.

All mouth, no trousers – Analysis by Climate Action Tracker shows that from the flurry of pledges signed in the first week of Cop28, few have the “ambition, clarity, coverage or accountability” needed to keep align with 1.5C. Around a quarter of the emissions reductions promised are additional and achievable, it estimates.

Two conventions, one statement — For the first time, the UN climate and biodiversity conventions joined forces on a common agenda. China, as the presidency behind the Kunming-Montreal nature deal, cosigned a vague pledge with the UAE and 16 other countries to mobilise finance and align planning between nature and climate.

China backs phase-out? – China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua told Reuters that success at Cop28 will depend on whether countries can agree on phasing out fossil fuels. In a pre-Cop statement with the US, China fell short of calling for a phase out.

The post Cop28 bulletin: Adaptation stalemate jeopardises Cop28 outcome appeared first on Climate Home News.

Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman publicly said “absolutely no” to a fossil fuel phase-out in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. This position has been echoed in negotiating rooms, observers said. 

“The countries that made their positions extremely clear on this are in particular Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Turkey,” said Romain Ioualalen, campaigner at Oil Change International, during a press huddle.

The main text being discussed at Cop28, the global stocktake of climate policies, includes an “energy package” of goals to phase out fossil fuels, triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency.

China and India don’t specifically oppose phase-out language, but they’re against targets grouped by sector, Ioualalen said. At Cop26 in Glasgow, the decision text singled out coal, their main source of energy, for censure. Both countries signed a G20 declaration earlier this year that agreed to triple renewable energy capacity but stalled on fossil fuel language.

After the first week of climate talks, negotiators will hand ministers the task of reaching agreements on most issues, as the draft still includes almost 90 options to pick from.

UN climate change secretary Simon Stiell told a press conference on Wednesday the text is “a grab bag of wish lists and heavy on posturing”. “The key now is to sort the wheat from the chaff,” he added.

The final deal from Cop28 will influence climate policy for the rest of the decade, as the upcoming round of national climate plans due in 2025 will be guided by this text. 

“Pretty damned good week” 

US climate envoy John Kerry said Cop28 started with “a pretty damned good week”, citing the approval of the loss and damage fund — which he insisted on calling “climate impacts response fund”— and eight informal pledges, including on renewables and health.

Kerry added negotiators would be “working hard” to reach agreements on the second week. “If you’re going to reduce emissions and you’re actually going to hit the target of net zero by 2050, you have to do some phasing out. There’s no other way to get to that target,” he said.

When asked about the potential obstacles to reach a deal on fossil fuels, Kerry said: “It’s time for adults to behave like adults and get the job done.”

Earlier in the week, more than 100 European, African and island states signed a joint statement calling for a phase-out of unabated fossil fuels and peak in their consumption this decade. It is the single biggest issue civil society is rallying behind at Cop28.

The 24-page draft of the global stocktake published on Tuesday includes two forms of language on fossil fuel phase-out and an option to scrap it completely. The middle ground includes qualifiers “accelerating efforts” to phase out “unabated” fossil fuels and their “use” — without mentioning production.

Adaptation falling behind 

So far, fossil fuels have taken the centre stage at Cop28. But in the closing plenary of the first week, developing countries complained that this was leaving adaptation talks behind.

Countries will also need to resolve talks on a global goal for adaptation — which were close to collapse in the lead up to Cop28 — and increasing finance for adaptation. 

The groups of African nations, small islands, Latin American states and least developed countries all raised concerns on the slow pace of negotiations around adaptation finance. Crucially, one observer said, this is also a priority for the Arab group.

“The progress made this Cop is unsatisfying. We were expecting to reach ambitious outcomes in all adaptation agenda items. We need to work together next week to ensure an ambitious and inclusive outcome for the (global goal on adaptation),” said the Saudi negotiator.

“Efforts have been made to advance mitigation faster than adaptation, finance, just transition response measures,” said Bolivia’s chief negotiator, Diego Pacheco.

This story was corrected to clarify that Iraq is one of the opposing countries and not Iran.

The post As fossil fuel phase-out gathers steam, resistance builds appeared first on Climate Home News.

Striking a firm, and at times exasperated, tone, the oil executive-turned-Cop28 president slammed press reports as “misrepresentations”, the result of “statements taken out of context”.

Al Jaber insisted he had said “over and over that the phase-down and phase out of fossil fuels is inevitable”. But, “how come does this never get picked up [by the media]?” he asked, appearing to have taken the criticism personally.

To reinforce his pro-science credentials, Al Jaber came to the press conference with Jim Skea, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

To nods from the Cop28 president, Skea said that in 1.5C-compatible scenarios “by 2050, fossil fuel use is greatly reduced and unabated coal use is completely phased out.” He added that oil use by 2050 is reduced by 60% and gas by 45%. Al Jaber, Skea said, was “attentive to the science” and “fully understood it”.

The latest headlines

• Don’t be fooled: CCS is no solution to oil and gas emissions – Laurence Tubiana and Emmanuel Guerin, European Climate Foundation
• Vietnam charts uncertain coal path as finance falls short
• US tees up Congress battle with $3bn Green Climate Fund pledge

Event: Reading the politics

At 18:00 Dubai time today, Tuesday 5 December, Climate Home News will review the first week of Cop28 with special guests Vanessa Nakate, Bernice Lee and Harjeet Singh.

Register to watch live on Zoom and submit written questions to the panel.

‘The mother of all cover decisions’

As Cop28 enters the deep negotiations phase, anxiety is kicking in. Work on the crucial global stocktake text proceeds at snail’s pace. This is expected to be the main outcome of the summit, or as lead EU negotiator Jacob Werksman put it, “the mother of all cover decisions”.

It took three days to complete the first read-through of a document that is littered with multiple options and placeholders on every contentious issue.

“We are behind in the negotiating process,” said Madeleine Diouf Sarr, chair of the least developed countries.

Negotiators spent a big chunk of Monday huddled in informal talks trying to chart a path forward. The goal is to hand ministers, landing in Dubai in a couple of days, something easier to work with than a long list of open questions. At time of writing, a new text was expected by Tuesday morning.

Informal negotiations continued on Monday. Photo: IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis

The atmosphere is “positive”, three observers told Climate Home, but divisions remain on fundamental issues: the energy package, climate finance and the guidelines for the next round of national climate plans (NDCs).

To some extent, negotiators have got themselves to blame for the long nights ahead. Last June, an extended fight over the agenda in Bonn hindered progress, leaving all the painstaking work to Dubai.

“The fundamental challenge is that we came into Cop28 without a formal negotiating text,” Kaveh Guilanpour, a former lead negotiator for the EU and UK, told Climate Home. “After Bonn, all we had was unagreed headings, and no substantive discussions.”

Banga dismisses fear of the World Bank

One of the biggest concessions developing countries made to get a loss and damage fund up and running was agreeing to let the World Bank initially host it.

Developing countries expressed strong concerns about US dominance of the Bank’s culture and limits that placed on the new fund’s autonomy.

When Climate Home News nabbed president Ajay Banga for a quick interview after a side event, he dismissed such fears as a “misunderstanding”.

“That position is based on the idea that somehow the World Bank will control how that money is put out to work. That’s not the method, which is why they approved it. We’re only a trustee,” Banga said.

“I don’t know where the misunderstanding came from that we somehow will be deciding how the money is used,” he added.

While the World Bank will not dictate funding decisions, the fund’s staff will be Bank employees, which could influence work culture, said Liane Schalatek, Associate Director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. World Bank staff could also be seconded to the loss and damage fund.

Michai Robertson, a climate finance negotiator for small island states, remained wary. The “biggest obstacle” for the not-yet-elected board will be negotiating against the World Bank’s policies, he said in a press conference.

“This institution will need to, as its president has highlighted that it’s ready to reform, will need to change,” Robertson said.

In brief

More important things – While dozens of world leaders spoke at Cop28, others stayed away. China’s Xi Jinping was inspecting the coast guard, Canada’s Justin Trudeau was eating Chinese food and campaigning in Ontario, Australia’s Anthony Albanese was calling in to talk radio show in Melbourne and we don’t know what the US’s Joe Biden was doing.

$57bn ‘mobilised’ – The Cop28 presidency claims to have mobilised over $57 billion so far “in new pledges and commitments”. This includes its own $30 billion Alterra Fund and the US’s $3 billion pledge to the Green Climate Fund. We’re working on a full breakdown.

Hero to fossil – Last year, Brazil’s president Lula got a rock star reception from civil society at Cop27. Today, his Brazilian government was awarded the Fossil of the Day award by campaigners after it moved closer to the OPEC+ group of oil producers.

Emissions up – Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are expected to grow 1.1% in 2023, new research from the Cicero finds. Emissions have grown on average 0.5% a year over the last ten years. Separate research finds 2023 is likely to be the peak.

The post Cop28 bulletin: IPCC chief defends Al Jaber over science firestorm appeared first on Climate Home News.

In a live event with former UN special envoy Mary Robinson in November, Al Jaber momentarily forgot his PR-approved lines and reverted to industry talking points.

“There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C,” he said.

He dismissed Robinson’s call for a phase-out as “alarmist” and said it would “take the world back into caves”.

Leading scientists Jean-Pascal van Ypersele and Michael Mann wrote Al Jaber an open letter in response.

Speaking for the climate system, “the most difficult party… which has only red lines and no flexibility,” they said, “humanity needs to phase out fossil fuels by 2050”.

Carbon capture and storage can only mitigate “a very small fraction” of fossil fuel emissions, the letter said.

That last point is critical, as the oil and gas sector cites scenarios that show some residual fossil fuel use with CCS to justify production on a much larger scale.

Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, unpacks the CCS myth together with Emmanuel Guerin in an article for Climate Home News.

“People in the oil and gas industry know there is zero probability of [a] high-CCS scenario coming true,” they write. “The reality is they are just fooling us one more time, to buy time we can’t afford to waste in dealing with the climate crisis.”

Al Jaber’s slip of the tongue shows why precision matters in negotiations. Phase down can mean something very different to phase out, and “unabated” fossil fuels need further defining.

The latest headlines

• Don’t be fooled: CCS is no solution to oil and gas emissions – Laurence Tubiana and Emmanuel Guerin, European Climate Foundation
• Vietnam charts uncertain coal path as finance falls short
• US tees up Congress battle with $3bn Green Climate Fund pledge

Health at the table

In a Cop first, health ministers took over plenary discussions on Sunday. Over 120 countries have signed a health declaration coordinated by the Cop28 presidency.

The declaration, and most ministerial statements, focused on strengthening healthcare systems as a means of climate adaptation.

It does not mention fossil fuels, or how burning coal, oil and gas releases harmful air pollutants besides greenhouse gases.

Sweden was one country to join the dots. “A decision here at Cop28 to phase out fossil fuels will contribute to [health] outcomes. The health of people and the planet cannot be separated,” said Mattias Frumerie, Swedish head of delegation.

Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, head of climate and health at the World Health Organization, took the same view in a press conference.

“Talking about action on climate change without talking about fossil fuels is like talking about lung cancer without mentioning tobacco,” he said.

The ministerial plenary is an “important and delayed step”, but health discussions need to start mentioning fossil fuels, said Dr Arvind Kumar, founder of the Lung Care Foundation. Otherwise “the problem will not get solved”.

“Little cosmetic changes here and there are not going to make much of a difference,” he said.

In brief

Bad excuse? – Brazilian president Lula da Silva said in a meeting with NGOs that he is joining OPEC to “convince oil producing countries that they need to prepare for the end of fossil fuels”. Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro argued oil producers already know they have to move past oil.

Big polluters – Electricity generation in China and India, and oil and gas production in the US caused the biggest emissions rises since 2015, analysis published by Climate Trace shows. The figures are based on a database of 352 million emissions sources. Since the signing of the Paris Agreement emissions grew 8.6%.

Slow entrance – Crowds have eased at Cop28 since world leaders left town, yet long queues at the entrance still held up negotiations, Earth News Bulletin reports. More than 100,000 delegates are registered for Cop28, according to UN Climate Change.

The post Cop28 bulletin: Al Jaber goes off script, denies science appeared first on Climate Home News.

In one of the last speeches of the day, US vice-president Kamala Harris promised $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, claiming the country is “a leader in the effort to expand international climate finance”.

Now she has to get it past Republicans in Congress, something that kept the US from delivering all of Barack Obama’s 2014 $3 billion pledge.

Italy, Switzerland, Portugal and Estonia have also announced GCF contributions at Cop28.

Several world leaders condemned Israel’s resuming attacks on Gaza, among them Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and South Africa. Harris skipped an event on energy transition to attend talks on the developing situation.

‘Greenwashing’ oil and gas initiative

Sultan Al Jaber’s much-touted Oil and Gas Charter “to speed up climate action in the industry” has seen the light of day.

Fifty oil and gas majors, representing 40% of global production, have committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 from their operations. That ignores the emissions caused by burning the stuff – 80-95% of the sector’s carbon footprint.

Other targets are ending routine flaring by 2030, and near-zero upstream methane emissions. Many oil majors, Al Jaber’s Adnoc included, have failed to implement bans on routine flaring.

Barbados’s prime minister Mia Mottley used her speech to target methane. Two years after a global methane pledge was launched in Glasgow, she said, “the global methane agreement that the world needs to see has not yet come.”

Mottley called for regulation and compliance – not voluntary commitments – to make oil and gas companies fix pipelines and stop flaring.

A group of 320 civil society organisations has written a letter to the Cop28 presidency saying the initiative should be dropped as it “serves primarily to greenwash the fossil fuel industry”.

In brief

Going nuclear – Twenty-two countries have pledged to collectively triple their nuclear energy capacity by 2050 from 2023 levels. They include the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, UAE, UK and France.

Holy phase out – Pope Francis pleaded with Cop28 delegates to drop fossil fuels and engage in “lifestyles that are less dependent” on them. He was scheduled to deliver a speech in Dubai but pulled out due to health issues. Cardinal Pietro Parolin read his remarks instead.

Oil stays at home – Norway joined a group of countries pledging to stop financing fossil fuels internationally. The Clean Energy Transition Partnership, formed in 2021, has 40 members including the US, Canada and several EU countries.

Best forests forever – Brazil launched its proposal for a global fund to protect tropical forests in up to 80 countries. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility would mobilize at least $250 billion in existing resources and pay for conserved tropical forests in member countries.

Better late than never – The US has signed on to Powering Past Coal Alliance. Japan is now the only G7 country that has not committed to phasing out unabated coal power, although its prime minister Fumio Kishida said it would stop building unabated coal power plants.

Keep it in the ground – Colombia joined a group of nine countries calling for an international treaty to leave fossil fuels on the ground. It is the only fossil fuel producer among member countries, which consist mostly of small island states.

Bridgetown to IDB – Mottley’s climate adviser Avinash Persaud has announced he will leave government to become climate adviser to the Inter-American Development Bank’s president, starting 16 January.

The post Cop28 bulletin: US GCF pledge and ‘greenwash’ oil and gas charter appeared first on Climate Home News.

Other options are to “phase down” all fossil fuels, to focus purely on coal or to say nothing at all. The coin is in the air.

The text is in response to the global stocktake of progress to meet the Paris Agreement goals.

The draft recognises that current policies have made some progress to avoid the worst climate change scenarios, but “notes with significant concern” that we’re still not in line with the Paris Agreement goals of limiting warming to 2°C and aiming for 1.5°C.  

Russia wants a “phase out” to be removed from the text, saying it would “discriminate” against their economy. The Cop28 presidency has used language suggesting preference for a “phase down” of fossil fuels. 

The global stocktake text also proposes to end fossil fuel subsidies with “fairness”, as well as tripling renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency — two goals that have attracted broad support.  

Some bits did not make it into the draft, observers said. While the text does have a target for cutting emissions by 2030, it does not include a medium-term target for 2035. The IPCC says the world must cut emissions by 60% by then to keep us in with a chance of meeting the 1.5°C target.

Latest headlines

• As it happened: World leaders speaking at Cop28
• Countries pledge $400m to set up loss and damage fund

Circus comes to town 

More than 150 world leaders arrived in Dubai for day 2 of Cop28, where they announced modest funding pledges and bids for future Cops – but no new emissions targets. 

Their presence was felt by delegates on the ground. Parts of the venue were blocked for leaders to move, forcing people to take longer routes and cutting off access to a section of the conference. Journalists were told they needed special tickets and escorts to enter the main press conference room. 

The day started with a Climate Ambition Summit. UN chief Antonio Guterres took the stage to urge leaders to agree on a fossil fuel phase out. “Not reduce. Not abate. Phase out – with a clear timeframe aligned with 1.5 degrees,” he said. 

Then came the usual parade of national leaders. They had been urged to keep their speeches to three minutes, but some had a lot to say. France’s Emmanuel Macron and Kenya’s William Ruto went on more than four times the limit. 

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi pitched to host Cop33 in 2028. He announced a “green credits initiative” meant to go “beyond the commercial mindset of carbon credits”, without giving much detail about how. 

Brazilian president Lula da Silva boasted about his wins reducing deforestation by a third in his first year. He did not mention the country’s oil and gas expansion plans for 2030 or setting the stage to join OPEC in 2024. 

Some governments announced contributions to the new loss and damage fund, among them Italy ($108 million) and Canada ($8 million). World Bank CEO Ajay Banga, who will act as interim host of the fund, said the total pledged “isn’t going to get us very far” but money would start reaching people on the ground next year.

While tripling renewable energy was a common message in the leaders’ speeches, wording was less clear about phasing out fossil fuels, said E3G analyst Tom Evans. 

The post Cop28 bulletin: Fossil fuel phaseout is on the table appeared first on Climate Home News.

world leaders cop28 world leaders cop28 world leaders cop28. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore</font size>

The post As it happened: World leaders speak at Cop28 in Dubai appeared first on Climate Home News.

Over 100 governments expressed an interest in speaking at the summit in New York but only 34 made the cut, with slots restricted to what the UN called “first movers and first doers”.

Of the G20 nations, only the leaders of Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and South Africa will speak. The US, China, the UK and India were among those omitted from the speaker list.

A source with knowledge of discussions told Climate Home that governments like the US and UK had urged Guterres to let them speak, but did not meet his criteria.

Countries shaded green are those speaking at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, 20 September 2023

Re-heated announcements

UK leader Rishi Sunak was under pressure at home to explain his climate stance after the BBC revealed he was planning to water down key policies like phasing out gas boilers and petrol cars.

Carmakers reacted angrily to the mixed messages. Experts pointed out the UK has legally binding carbon budgets and there is strong public support for the net zero target.

Yesterday, US president Joe Biden announced nothing new on climate in his speech to the UN yesterday.

While Biden warned of the “accelerating climate crisis”, he just re-announced a climate finance pledge from 2021, a climate investment bill from August 2022 and existing initiatives the US is involved with.

He claimed that “the world is on track” to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance to developing countries. Rich countries promised in 2009 to deliver this amount by 2020 but fell at least $17 billion short.

While developed countries say they are “confident” of belatedly meeting the pledge in 2023, this won’t be confirmed until 2025. Analysts hold the US largely responsible for the shortfall.

In their speeches yesterday, the presidents of Brazil and South Africa criticised wealthy countries for not meeting this pledge by 2020.

Rich countries ‘confident’ $100bn climate finance delivered in 2023

The world’s biggest polluter China was not on the speaker list. It has yet to publish its strategy to tackle methane emissions, which has been being drafted since at least last December.

Yesterday, China’s vice-president Han Zheng met with US climate envoy John Kerry. The US government said Kerry had called on China to “reduce emissions of super pollutants like methane”.

Axios revealed the two megapowers will convene a summit for states, provinces and cities at Cop28 climate talks in the UAE this December.

Europe and islands dominate

Of those invited to speak at the UN, over half are European countries or small islands.

Emerging economies speaking include Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Brazil’s leader Lula is expected to announce that he is scrapping his predecessor’s weakened climate targets and working on new and improved ones.

Lula scraps Bolsonaro’s cuts to Brazilian climate target ambition

The leaders of South Africa and Vietnam are expected to provide updates on their coal-to-clean energy funding deals with wealthy countries.

African nations speaking include Kenya, the Ivory Coast, Malawi and Cop27 host Egypt while Latin America will be represented by Chile and Colombia.

As well as governments, seven other institutions will speak including insurer Allianz, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, the US state of California and the British city of London.

The post ‘First movers’ only: US, China, UK left off UN climate guestlist appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Global Stocktake report, the latest warning from the U.N. about environmental perils, will form the basis of the COP28 talks in Dubai at the end of the year and follows months of terrifying wildfires and soaring temperatures.

The UN report, culminating a two-year evaluation of the 2015 Paris climate agreement goals, distils thousands of submissions from experts, governments and campaigners.

“The Paris Agreement has driven near-universal climate action by setting goals and sending signals to the world regarding the urgency of responding to the climate crisis,” it said. “While action is proceeding, much more is needed now on all fronts.”

The UN report also calls on governments to scale up renewable energy and phase out all “unabated” fossil fuels, adding both are “indispensible” for a clean energy transition.

Nearly 200 countries agreed in 2015 Paris to limit warming to no more than 2 Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to strive to keep the increase to 1.5 C.

While each country is responsible for deciding its own climate actions, they also agreed to submit to a progress report by 2023 to see what more should be done. More than 130 countries sent their submissions.

The U.N. said existing national pledges to cut emissions were insufficient to keep temperatures within the 1.5 C threshold. More than 20 gigatonnes of further CO2 reductions were needed this decade – and global net zero by 2050 – in order to meet the goals, the U.N. assessment said.

Bold to-do list

The report urged countries to cut the use of “unabated” coal power by 67-92% by 2030, compared to 2019, and to virtually eliminate it as a source of electricity by 2050.

Low and zero-carbon electricity should account for as much as 99% of the global total by mid-century, and technological challenges holding back carbon capture must be resolved.

The report also called for funding to be unlocked to support low-carbon development, noting that billions of dollars were still being invested in fossil fuels.

“It serves up a bold to-do list for governments to limit warming to 1.5C and protect people everywhere from climate devastation,” said Tom Evans, policy advisor on climate diplomacy at British climate think tank E3G.

Commitment was needed to phase out fossil fuels, set 2030 targets for renewable energy expansion, ensure the financial system funds climate action, and raise funds for adaptation and damage, he said.

“Anything less will fall short on the necessary steps laid out in this report.”

Real commitments

Sultan Al Jaber, who will preside over the Nov. 30-Dec. 12 summit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), told Reuters the stocktake gave good direction, and urged states and private sector leader to come to COP28 with real commitments.

“To keep 1.5 within reach we must act with ‘ambition and urgency’ to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030,” Al Jaber said in a statement.

UN Climate Change chief, Simon Stiell, urged governments to “carefully study the findings of the report and ultimately understand what it means for them and the ambitious action they must take next.”

On Friday, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres told G20 bloc leaders that they have the power to reset a climate crisis that is “spinning out of control”.

The post UN says more needed ‘on all fronts’ to meet climate goals appeared first on Climate Home News.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has staked his international reputation on improving Brazil’s environmental standing, had been pushing for the region to unite behind a common policy of ending deforestation by 2030 – one he has already adopted.

Instead, the joint declaration issued on Tuesday in the Brazilian city of Belem created an alliance for combating forest destruction, with countries left to pursue their own individual deforestation goals.

The document also leaves out any mentions to halting fossil fuel contracts in the Amazon rainforest, a proposal that was championed by the Colombian President Gustavo Petro but ultimately failed to make it into the final text.

The Brazilian coalition of climate NGOs, Climate Observatory, said the declaration fell short of expectations, adding the agreement “fails the rainforest and the planet”.

Pressure grows on governments and banks to stop supporting Amazon oil and gas

Slow action

The failure of the eight Amazon countries to agree on a pact to protect their own forests points to the larger, global difficulties at forging an agreement to combat climate change. Many scientists say policymakers are acting too slowly to head off catastrophic global warming.

Lula and other national leaders left Tuesday’s meeting without commenting on the declaration. Presidents from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Peru attended the summit, while Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela sent other top officials.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said in a press briefing that the issue of deforestation “in no way whatsoever will divide the region” and cited “an understanding about deforestation” in the declaration, without elaborating.

As Guyana shows, carbon offsets will not save the Amazon rainforest

This week’s summit brought together the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) for the first time in 14 years, with plans to reach a broad agreement on issues from fighting deforestation to financing sustainable development.

Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Brazilian NGO coalition Climate Observatory, said the summit’s declaration is a “first step” but added it still lacks “concrete responses to the situation we’re dealing with”.

“The planet is melting, we are breaking temperature records every day. It is not possible that, in a scenario like this, eight Amazonian countries cannot put in a statement, in bold letters, that deforestation needs to be zero and that exploring for oil in the middle of the forest is not a good idea,” said Astrini.

Oil in the Amazon?

Tensions emerged in the lead up to the summit around diverging positions on deforestation and oil development.

Fellow Amazon countries also rebuffed Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro’s ongoing campaign to end new oil development in the Amazon. In his speech on Tuesday, Petro likened the left’s desire to keep drilling for oil to the right-wing denial of climate science.

He said the idea of making a gradual “energy transition” away from fossil fuels was a way to delay the work needed to stop climate change.

G20 climate talks fail to deliver emission cuts despite leadership pleas

Civil society organisations accused the Brazilian government of opposing a mention to fossil fuels in the final text, adding the country wanted to “bury” any mentions of a fossil fuel phase out in the region.

Brazil is weighing whether to develop a potentially huge offshore oil find near the mouth of the Amazon River and the country’s northern coast, which is dominated by rainforest.

“What we are discussing in Brazil today is of an extensive and large area – in my vision perhaps the last frontier of oil and gas before … the energy transition,” Brazil’s Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira told reporters after Petro’s speech.

Silveira said they should conduct research into what oil is there in order to make a decision on the issue.

Illegal mining

Beyond deforestation, the summit also did not fix a deadline on ending illegal gold mining, although leaders agreed to cooperate on the issue and to better combat cross-border environmental crime.

The final joint statement, called the Belem Declaration, strongly asserted indigenous rights and protections, while also agreeing to cooperate on water management, health, common negotiating positions at climate summits, and sustainable development.

As Reuters previously reported, the declaration additionally established a science body to meet annually and produce authoritative reports on science related to the Amazon rainforest, akin to the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change.

The post Amazon nations fail to agree on deforestation goal at summit appeared first on Climate Home News.

The stalemate is dragging on as attempts to formally discuss a precautionary suspension of mining activities have been thwarted by nations in favour of exploiting the ocean’s mineral resources.

Over a dozen countries spearheaded by Chile, Costa Rica and France want to officially debate for the first time in history the possibility to halt deep-sea mining until its full impact on the ocean’s biodiversity is understood.

Hervè Berville, the French Minister for Marine Affairs, told the Assembly on Wednesday that the world “must not and cannot embark on a new industrial activity without measuring the consequences and taking the risk of irreversible damage”.

For the past decade, the mining industry has proposed to extract minerals from the deep seabed that can later be used to make batteries for electric vehicles.

However, the potential impacts of mining the ocean floor are largely unknown, putting biodiversity at risk. More than 750 marine scientists signed an open letter calling for a ban on the practice until robust scientific evidence can back it up.

High Seas Treaty exempts deep-sea mining from stricter environmental rules

Mining industry pushback

China and the island-state of Nauru have so far blocked the motion for a moratorium discussion, preventing agreement over the agenda. Both countries sponsor companies pushing for the exploitation of seabed minerals. Mexico also initially opposed but then retracted.

Gina Guillén, head of the Costa Rican delegation and one of the leaders of the coalition calling for a pause on mining, said one sole country was fiercely blocking the agenda item, even after offering a lighter discussion than expected.

“Just one country is opposing (the agenda item on the discussion). We hope it does happen. One country can’t hijack the most important body of the (ISA) just for being a big economy. That goes against all principles of multilateralism,” Guillén said.

‘We are not ready’: Divisions deepen over rush to finalise deep sea mining rules

Calls for a so-called moratorium have been gathering pace during the annual meeting of the ISA, the little-known UN body tasked with regulating the vast ocean floor in international waters.

This year’s week-long summit, set to end on Friday, comes at a pivotal time. Any member state could theoretically apply for a full-blown mining contract on behalf of a company, after a deadline triggered by Nauru lapsed earlier in July.

So far the ISA has only handed out ‘exploration’ permits which do not allow commercial exploitation of the minerals.

Mining code delayed

But several operators have already been exploring an area of the Pacific Ocean floor known as the Clarion Clipperton Zone. The region is rich in polymetallic nodules containing nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese, which are critical for manufacturing electric vehicles.

Among the most active is Canada-based start-up The Metals Company, whose license is sponsored by Nauru. After the island nation triggered an obscure provision two years ago, the ISA accelerated the pace of its negotiations to establish mining rules before a July 9th, 2023.

The Metals Company, and its partner Nauru, hoped to begin industrial-scale mining as early as 2024, following the expected approval of a mining code.

But their ambitions were cut back last week after the ISA delayed timeline for the regulations. The 36 members of the body’s council gave until 2025 to adopt the mining code.

It is now a question of when — rather than if — commercial scale nodule collection will begin. https://t.co/oWI8AOZPBR

— gerard barron (@gtbgtb) July 24, 2023

Blow to industry

Nauru’s president Russ Joseph Kun expressed disappointment on Wednesday that the ISA did not complete the process within the two-year deadline.

Member states in fact could still apply for a mining licence despite the rules not being in place. This would push the body into uncharted territory without clear guidelines on how such a request would be examined.

The Metals Company said it reserves the right to submit an application in the absence of a mining code. “It is now a question of when — rather than if — commercial-scale nodule collection will begin”, its CEO Gerard Barron said in a statement.

But the listed company’s stock tumbled by over 20% this week, hinting at investors’ diminishing confidence in its mining prospects.

Guillén from Costa Rica said approving the new 2025 deadline was “critical”. “They wanted a 2024 deadline, but we said no way,” she said.

Moratorium discussion

Campaigners opposed to deep-sea mining viewed the new 2025 deadline for the mining code with optimism but repeated their pleas for a moratorium, which would block any attempt to start commercial operations.

“This unprecedented agenda fight comes as a coalition of nations from Latin America, the Pacific and Europe try and wrangle the debate away from serving narrow corporate interests towards the public good”, said Louisa Casson from Greenpeace, who is attending the talks in Jamaica.

If the agenda is approved, it would mark the first time countries hold a formal discussion on suspending deep sea mining, although this discussion would not necessarily lead to a moratorium.

Still, Gillén said this is an important precedent, and said “we cannot destroy the seabed by taking a rushed decision”.

Last year, countries agreed to a treaty for the high seas, which creates international marine protected areas. However, this milestone could be undermined if deep sea talks end up with a bad deal, the Costa Rican negotiator added.

“Even after having agreed to the (high seas) treaty, if we don’t have strong safeguards for the seabed in those same areas, then we won’t have achieved anything,” Guillén said.

The post UN deep-sea mining talks deadlocked over agenda clash appeared first on Climate Home News.

Medco had initially planted a vast timber plantation to produce wood chips for exports. Then, in 2017, Indonesia injected Medco with $4.5 million to build a biomass plant in the area and committed the state-owned electricity company to buy the energy it generated. In 2021, the government gave the plant an extra $9 million. 

The company said it needs to almost double the size of its plantation to meet the demands of the power plant, and that it would continue to use wood harvested from the forest as it is cleared. 

Ultimately, the most affected were local villagers depending on the forest. The project has made it harder for Marind people, hunter-gatherers indigenous people to the lowlands of Papua, to find food to eat. 

This story is the result of a new Climate Home News investigation in collaboration with The Gecko Project and Project Multatuli, both publications based in Indonesia. 

This week’s news:

• “Green” finance bankrolls forest destruction in Indonesia
• FSC’s rehab scheme for forest destroyers under fire after fresh allegations
• Amazon gateway city Belém will host Cop30 climate talks
• Comment: Climate movement must switch on to UAE threat

Our reporter Joe Lo is in Paris covering key UN plastics treaty negotiations. Check out our coverage:

• Row over veto powers holds up Paris plastic treaty talks
• Comment: How a local victory against petrochemicals can spur global action on plastics

Forest protection has been on our radar recently, as allegations surged that forest logging companies were using a sustainability certification scheme called the FSC to brand themselves as sustainable while continuing to clear forests. 

At its assembly last year, the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) agreed to give their stamp of approval to companies that have cut down trees between 1994 and 2020 if they restore part of the forests and compensate communities.  

These companies include two Indonesian pulp and paper giants, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (April) and Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which had cleared vast areas of the tropical rainforest for decades. 

But environmental groups accused both companies of sourcing wood from suppliers which continue to cut down intact forests. One of the suppliers, they found, cut down an area equivalent to 20,000 football pitches. 

FSC told Climate Home News it “will not engage with any organisation that continues to be part of destructive activities”. “The FSC should prepare itself not to be fooled,” one campaigner responded. 

The post “Green” funds destroy Indonesia’s forests – Climate Weekly appeared first on Climate Home News.

In a joint statement, the countries said they “intend to engage collaboratively in support of eliminating global illegal logging and deforestation through effectively enforcing their respective laws on banning illegal imports and exports”.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a visit to China, in a bid to strengthen ties. China is Brazil’s largest trading partner and a major importer of commodities such as soy and crude petroleum.

Both countries added they will cooperate with satellite information, “which will enable enhanced monitoring”. China and Brazil share the CBERS satellite program, which made its first launch back in 2001.

Brazil bids to bring Cop30 climate talks to Amazon’s Belem

Cyntia Feitosa, international relations advisor at the Brazilian think tank Instituto Clima e Sociedade, said the joint statement was “a very good signal”, but warned there’s still questions about how it would be put into practice.

“It would be very good to see some joint traceability strategy, for example, to avoid the export of any product that has deforestation in its supply chain,” Feitosa said.

A 2019 report by the Brazilian NGO Amazon Watch showed that companies charged with environmental crimes in the Amazon were still able to export their products to the international market, in particular to Brazil’s three main trading partners — China, the EU and the US.

Climate leadership

With the arrival of Lula da Silva to Brazil’s presidency, the country resumed its efforts to influence global climate action. Da Silva also retook a closer relation with China, which at times was tense under the last government of Jair Bolsonaro.

Both countries now agreed to establish a Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change and support Brazil’s bid for Cop30. Back in January, Da Silva expressed his desire to host the UN climate talks in Belem, the second-biggest city in the Amazon region.

Lula revives $1 billion Amazon Fund and environmental protections

“China welcomes the Brazilian candidacy to host COP30, as the 2025 summit will be key to the very future of the global response to climate change,” the statement said.

Feitosa welcomed the countries’ collaboration with climate action at the center. “I hope this is reflected in a collaborative posture in the negotiations and the search for effective solutions at a crucial moment for the next steps in the implementation of the Paris Agreement,” she said.

Li Shuo, policy advisor for Greenpeace East Asia, said Brazil and China hold a big sway among develpoping countries, putting them in a unique position to lead initiatives coming from the Global South.

“A Brazil that is back to international scene and a China that seeks to enhance developing country solidarity should not just imply a fortress position, but rather a stance that champions global south concerns while at the same time advances their own action,” Shuo said.

“What we need is a more forward looking position from them that says developed countries need to act and so do we. Let’s hope the joint statement is a starting point to get us there,” he added.

This story was updated to include comments from Li Shuo.

The post China and Brazil to cooperate in stopping illegal trade fueling deforestation appeared first on Climate Home News.

In June 2021, a coalition of local groups and international NGOs complained to the fund about a $117 million project to reduce deforestation in the Unesco-designated Bosawás and Rio San Juan biosphere reserves in the Caribbean Region of Nicaragua.  

The project, which was approved in 2020, aims to reduce extensive grazing and introduce agroforestry systems such as cocoa. 

The region is home to 80% of Nicaragua’s forests and most of its indigenous populations. But it is gripped by increasingly violent conflict between indigenous communities and settlers, who are grabbing land to exploit the forest’s resources and farm cattle. 

Over the past week, the Center for Legal Assistance to Indigenous Peoples reported two attacks against communities in the project area that led to the death of at least five people.

The complainants claimed the project would exacerbate the violence. They argue it was approved without proper due diligence or their free, prior and informed consent. 

Mafalda Duarte named as next chief of UN climate fund

This is the first time a complaint case reaches the board of the UN’s flagship climate fund. Civil society observers argue the board’s handling of the case will set a precedent for future complaints.

Behind closed doors

The findings of the investigation have not been made public because of the sensitive nature of the case and complainants have remained anonymous because of the risk of retaliation.

However, excerpts from a draft report, seen by Climate Home News, shows that the redress body found the project clearly violated several GCF safeguards and procedures, including the lack of consultation with indigenous groups. It agreed that the project may exacerbate conflict.

Board members discussed the report behind closed doors this week during a meeting in Songdo, South Korea. The meeting closed on Thursday without a public update on the case.

Liane Schalatek, a civil society observer at the GCF, told Climate Home the closed door discussion was meant to protect the complainants and the integrity of the process. “It is now used to divert the latter and harm the former…and that is a tragedy,” she said.

Escalating violence

Florencia Ortúzar, a Chilean lawyer at the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (Aida), a regional NGO, supported the complainants to bring their case to the GCF. 

Ortúzar said it was “unfortunate and infuriating” that the issue had not be given priority during the four-day long meeting. A delayed outcome means affected communities may have to wait until the next meeting in July for a decision – nearly a year after the investigation’s findings were finalised.

“And in the meantime violence escalates,” Ortúzar told Climate Home.

In a letter to the GCF board, and writing on behalf of 15 indigenous communities, the Center for Justice and International Law said the recent attacks were carried out by a group of 60 armed settlers who burnt down 50 homes. It urged the GCF to publish the final report on the case.

Argentina secures funding boost to kickstart gas exports from ‘carbon bomb’

In its draft recommendations, the redress body urged the board to implement robust due diligence on human rights and independent monitoring as a condition for the project to go ahead.

While the body hasn’t got the power to advise the cancellation of the project, board members could decide to scrap it – the complainants’ preferred outcome.

Credibility test

Amaru Ruiz, director of Nicaraguan organisation Fundación del Río, who supports the affected communities, said the GCF’s credibility was on the line. 

He said the fund should “completely reassess the approval of the project” or risks “legitimising environmental destruction and the process of forest invasion”.

“What is at stake is not the credibility of the [Nicaragua] regime, but the credibility of the fund,” he said.

“This not just the first major grievance case, it is a test case – for the solidity and fairness of the fund’s complaints procedures, but also for the board’s compliance with guidelines it adopted for its own conduct in such cases,” said Schalatek.

“Unfortunately, it appears that the board is falling short in this first test,” she said, adding that indigenous groups still haven’t been able to see the final findings.

IMF approves first batch of climate resilience loans

Human rights abuses

Ortúzar, of Aida, said indigenous people have no confidence in the ability of the Nicaragua government and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei), which is providing co-funding, to deliver the project under strict monitoring conditions.

She said the government had expelled UN staff and dissolved close to 200 NGOs to escape scrutiny and it was unlikely to accept monitoring from any third party.

Earlier this month, the UN Human Rights Council found that widespread human rights violations that amount to crimes against humanity are being committed against civilians by the Nicaragua government for political reasons. 

Human rights experts said this was a product of the deliberate dismantling of democratic institutions and the destruction of civic space.  

A report by the Heinrich Böll Foundation found that Cabei’s operations lacked transparency and that it was funding president Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian regime. 

A Green Climate Fund spokesman told Climate Home: “The GCF has robust procedures to address any complaints made in relation to projects, including safeguards to protect complainants. We cannot comment on this case since the matter remains confidential.”

The post Green Climate Fund credibility hangs over response to violence in Nicaragua project appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Mexican government said it will develop a strategy to ban future experimentation with solar geoengineering, which will also include an information campaign and scientific reports. However, the government did not announce more specific actions.

“Mexico reiterates its unavoidable commitment to the protection and well-being of the population from practices that generate risks to human and environmental security,” said the government in a statement.

Geoengineering refers to the act of deliberately changing the Earth’s systems to control its climate.

One theoretical proposal has been to spray sulphur particles to cool the planet —which has been documented to briefly happen after volcanic eruptions.

A recent United Nations report found that this practice, known as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), “has the potential to reduce global mean temperatures”.

But, it found, it “cannot fully offset the widespread effects of global warming and produces unintended consequences, including effects on ozone”.

The UN convention on Biological Diversity established a moratorium on geoengineering in 2010, in the absence of enough scientific data and regulations.

Rogue experiment

In 2022, the US startup Making Sunsets launched an unauthorised experiment from two sites in the northern Mexican state of Baja California. The company claims it launched balloons injected with sulphur dioxide particles into the atmosphere, which were not monitored nor recovered.

The company’s co-founder Luke Iseman said he conducted the experiment in Baja California because he lives there.

The Mexican government said the experiment was carried out “without prior notice and without the consent of the Government of Mexico and the surrounding communities”.

Making Sunsets is already selling “cooling credits” for future balloon flights with larger amounts of sulphur dioxide for $10 each.

“Your funds will be used to release at least 1 gram of our ‘clouds’ into the stratosphere on your behalf, offsetting the warming effect of 1 ton of carbon dioxide for 1 year,” the company claims on its website.

Lily Fuhr, deputy program director at the Center for International Environmental Law (Ciel), said in a statement that by offering a “cheap and easy quick fix” to the climate crisis, the company “plays into the hands of the fossil fuel industry”.

“Solar geoengineering is too risky and ungovernable to pursue. We support the Mexican government in their plan for a ban and call on them to immediately stop the new flights that ‘Make Sunsets’ has announced for January 2023,” Fuhr said.

Side effects

James Haywood is a professor of atmospheric science at Exeter University and co-wrote the recent UN report on SAI.

He told Climate Home that Make Sunsets experiment was not dangerous as the amount of sulphur was so small.

“It is more of a [public relations] stunt,” he said, adding “it’s not going to make a blind bit of difference”.

But putting larger amounts of sulphur in the atmosphere can be dangerous, he said.

While many of the side-effects of SAI can be avoided if it is done properly, he said, some are very difficult to avoid.

For example, he said, putting large amounts of sulphur into the atmosphere is likely to increase winter rainfall over northern Europe and reduce it over southern Europe, particularly in Spain and Portugal.

Speaking before the Mexican statement, Haywood said that at the moment there “is no government, no governance” of geoengineering and that he wasn’t aware of any governments proposing regulations.

Ciel called on more governments to announce bans on the practice.

The post Mexico plans to ban solar geoengineering after rogue experiment appeared first on Climate Home News.

As part of the package, Brazil’s new leader reinstated the Amazon Fund, a $1.2 billion fund to protect of the world’s largest rainforest, after a three-year period of inactivity.  

Donors Germany and Norway suspended transfers to the fund in 2019, under the previous government of Jair Bolsonaro, after the former president unilaterally suspended the board of directors and the technical committee of the fund.

On Monday, Lula reinstated the fund’s governing body, which Norwegian environment minister Espen Barth Eide said “allows for an immediate reactivation of the fund”.  The UK’s environment minister Therese Coffey said the UK was “seriously looking at” joining the fund.

Destruction of Brazil’s Cerrado savanna soars for third year in a row

The fund, which was established during Lula’s second term in 2008, supports 102 conservation projects in the Amazon, among them forests managed by indigenous people and small-scale farms. 

Among the first executive mandates, Brazil’s new president also moved the Rural Environmental Registry —which tracks all rural land-ownership— from the agriculture to the environment ministry, extinguished the possibility of conciliating environmental fines and reactivated a plan to prevent and control deforestation in the Amazon. 

“There is still a long way to go, but what we’ve seen at the beginning of this mandate is a right start and demonstrates the importance that the issue has gained on Lula’s agenda,” said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Brazilian NGO Climate Observatory. 

Green promises 

Lula was sworn into office for a third term on Sunday, after defeating rightwing incumbent Bolsonaro by a thin margin in October’s general election. Bolsonaro’s policies led to a 60% increase in deforestation in the Amazon.

Brazil’s new president promised to achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon and 100% renewable electricity during his inaugural speech, adding “Brazil does not need to cut down forests to keep and expand its strategic agricultural frontier”.

“The world expects Brazil to once again become a leader in tackling the climate crisis and an example of a socially and environmentally responsible country, capable of promoting economic growth with income distribution,” he said.

Lula will update Brazil’s ‘insufficient’ climate plans if elected: advisor

Lula appointed former environment minister and activist Marina Silva to once again lead the country’s green efforts. He also created the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, to be led by the influential Amazonian leader Sônia Guajajara.

The new government’s environment team is promising, said Astrini, but he also warned that Lula will have to negotiate without a majority in Congress, which is dominated by legislators linked to Bolsonaro’s party and to the “ruralist” movement defending agribusiness in the Amazon.

A package of three Bolsonaro-era bills being discussed in Congress could trump Lula’s efforts to control deforestation in the Amazon. These projects would respectively allow for the relaxed use of pesticides, land-grabbing in public forests and weaker regulations for environmental permits.

“Our current Congress is extremely hostile to indigenous and environmental affairs. We have grown used to that. We need a government that defends the environment and that can face that Congress,” said Astrini.

This article was updated on 4 January to add that the UK is considering joining the fund

The post Lula revives $1 billion Amazon Fund and environmental protections appeared first on Climate Home News.

The fund will help implement the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s land and water ecosystems by 2030, also featured as the central target of the biodiversity agreement. 

In the final text, countries agreed to mobilize $200 billion from different sources (including direct grants, philanthropy and private funds), while ending at least $500 billion worth of harmful subsidies. 

To channel some of that money, countries adopted an initiative by Brazil and African countries to establish a new trust fund. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) will establish the fund by 2023 and it will later have its own governing body. 

EU president Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement it was “very positive” that countries adopted measurable targets to protect nature, “as well as a mechanism to finance their implementation with the Global Biodiversity Fund.” 

The Plenary: Adoption of Decisions has officially started!

Watch live in order to learn what is happening at #COP15

: https://t.co/ZjGOFDkUTM pic.twitter.com/2oU1BIwrbs

— UN Biodiversity (@UNBiodiversity) December 19, 2022

In Montreal, delegates from every country in the world except for the US negotiated a deal to reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2030. Governments agreed to protect 30% of the world’s land and water ecosystems by that date.

To achieve this goal, backing it with proper finance was a key lesson from last decade’s Aichi biodiversity agreement, which failed to deliver on every target set. The funding gap for biodiversity has been estimated at $700 billion per year.

Lina Barrera, vice-president for international policy at Conservation International, said the creation of the new biodiversity fund is a “necessary step”, but added “there is still farther to go” to close the funding gap. 

Quick cash 

One Latin American negotiator told Climate Home the initiative for a new fund emerged from the need of some developing countries to access cooperation funds quickly, which was often not possible through the GEF.

“It takes too long from the moment you apply (to GEF funds) until the money gets to the field. The risk is implementing (the Kunming-Montreal deal) quickly, given we have only eight years left until 2030,” the delegate said.

Cop15 global nature deal passes despite DR Congo’s objection

Early in the negotiations, a group of 20 countries harbouring 70% of the world’s biodiversity called for a “supplementary global biodiversity fund” to be set up in order to “overcome the concerns regarding accessibility of funds”.

The final text reflects some of these concerns, as it calls on the GEF to set up a fund “with a simple and effective application and approval process, providing easy and efficient access to resources.” 

Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO of the GEF, welcomed the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Fund and said the facility would work to operationalise the fund “in a timely manner”. “Today’s agreement is wonderful news, and it creates real momentum as we push toward 2030 and the critical goals ahead of us,” he added in a statement. 

Who pays? 

Donors to the fund will include developed countries and developing “countries that voluntarily assume obligations of developed country parties.”  

However, most of the fund’s money will come from other sources such as private sector or philanthropy, as developed nations only committed to directly provide $20 billion a year by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030.

Megaforested nations such as Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo both criticised this financial pledge, with the DRC threatening to veto the whole agreement over this. In the final plenary, the country’s vice-minister Ève Bazaiba welcomed the Kunming-Montreal deal while “expressing reservations” on the financial target.

Cop15: Governments split on ditching nature-harming subsidies in Montreal

Observers welcomed the creation of the Global Biodiversity Fund as well as the targets from the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity deal, while stressing the need for broader reforms.

“[The biodiversity fund] will not be sufficient to solve the biodiversity finance challenge: we need deep reforms in financial institutions, in particular the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,” said the human rights NGO Avaaz in a statement. 

Just a month ago, at the UN climate change talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, the world’s governments also agreed to set up a new fund to aid victims of extreme weather events. 

This was regarded as a big breakthrough, but there are still questions on how to get it running, which countries will contribute to it and which countries will be eligible for support. 

The post ‘Kunming-Montreal’ deal sets up new fund for biodiversity by 2023 appeared first on Climate Home News.

At around 1am on Wednesday, more than 60 developing countries including India, Indonesia and all African countries walked out of the negotiations on finance. They claimed there was a lack of commitment from developed countries to fund efforts to protect nature. 

“We feel that resource mobilization has been left behind,” one delegate who walked out told CTV News. “It’s everyone’s problem, but we are not equally responsible for the drivers that have led to the destruction of biodiversity.”

Rising tensions have put talks “on the edge of a full breakdown,” WWF campaigner Innocent Maloba said. So ministers will have to rescue a last-minute agreement before the talks end on Monday.  

Cop15: Governments split on ditching nature-harming subsidies in Montreal

During the high-level plenary, which marks the last part of the negotiations, hosts Canada said they were “ready to engage on discussions on the scale of funding” needed to achieve a successful agreement. 

“Many of you have made it clear that ambition must be supported by an increase in funding, as well as improvements in the predictability, transparency, comprehensiveness and accessibility of funding,” said the country’s environment minister, Steven Guilbeault.

The #COP15HighLevelSegment has kicked off!
Xi Jinping, President of delivered a video message to #COP15 @Csaba_Korosi_ president of @UNGA, @AminaJMohammed DSG @UN, @s_guilbeault Minister of @environmentca, Mr. Wang Xiangxiang, @francoislegault, & @mremae delivered remarks pic.twitter.com/EyOrGlC9MF

— UN Biodiversity (@UNBiodiversity) December 15, 2022

China is co-hosting the talks, which were originally supposed to be in the city of Kunming. Its government was less specific about the actions needed.

During the plenary, the country’s president Xi Jinping sent a video message urging countries to “push forward the global process of biodiversity protection, turn ambitions into action” and “support developing countries in capacity building”.

Where is the money? 

Countries are negotiating a plan to reverse nature destruction this decade. A 2017 study shows that immediate action is needed to halt mass extinctions, which threaten essential ecosystem services for humanity.

To achieve this, finance “is critical”, but negotiations around it have stalled and they currently have more issues up for debate than other sections of the text, observers said.  

“As in prior Cops for both climate and biodiversity, the hardest parts get left to the very end,” said Mark Opel, finance lead for the observer NGO Campaign for Nature. 

The world needs to mobilize around $700 billion per year to reverse the destruction of nature, a 2019 report by The Nature Conservancy, the Paulson Institute and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability estimated.

The latest draft of Montreal’s “nature pact” proposes $200 billion in direct funding and $500 billion by eliminating and redirecting subsidies that harm nature, for example by promoting overfishing, monocultures or fossil fuel expansion.

Brazil and African countries have pushed to create a new fund for biodiversity separate from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the leading UN financial mechanism for nature. 

UN nature pact nears its ‘Copenhagen or Paris’ moment

One Latin American negotiator told Climate Home many developing countries have faced difficulties accessing GEF funds.

Developed countries want to strengthen the GEF and mobilise non-government sources of funding instead of creating a new fund. “We need to unlock private and philanthropic support, development bank modernisation and subsidies realignment,” said Guilbeault. 

Realigning subsidies plays an important role in getting new funds for biodiversity but negotiations around this topic have also proved difficult. The world spends an estimated $1.1 trillion per year subsidising nature-harming activities. 

Maloba said funds from developed countries would be crucial for a successful outcome in Montreal. “It is particularly concerning that donor countries don’t look to be ready to step up on international biodiversity finance, despite some welcome commitments in the lead in,” Maloba said. 

The post After developing country walkout, ministers arrive to rescue nature talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

Climate Home News reported on major events – including world-changing elections, clashes between major economies and climate negotiations – while digging deeper into mysteries and underreported issues.

Here are five of our must-read stories from 2022, on the international dimensions of the climate crisis and the complications of addressing it. Keep up to date with our news, investigations and analysis by subscribing to our weekly newsletter. 

1. Crypto bubble: The hype behind a $70,000 carbon credit

Early in the year, the sale of a single carbon credit for an eyewatering $70,000 at auction caught Chloé Farand’s eye. At the time, millions of credits from the same project were selling on the market for less than $20 each.

Who would pay such a premium? The answer lay in a cryptocurrency venture called Save Planet Earth and a community of investors convinced it was the next big thing.

Unfortunately, their faith was unfounded. SPE claimed it had contracts to plant 1.1 billion trees in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, but was not able to back this up – and experts on the ground said it was not credible.

2. Race for lithium pollutes water in Argentinian villages 

The transition towards cleaner energies comes at a price for communities in Argentina, where a key mineral used in batteries is extracted. There, lithium mining companies have sparked fears of water shortages among locals. 

Natalie Alcoba, traveled to Fiambalá, a small Argentine mountain village which is rich in metals that will fuel the renewable energy revolution. 

But the methods for extracting lithium from the ground consume a lot of water and can pollute freshwater deposits.

3. Extreme heatwaves dried up water sources across the world 

Extreme weather kept breaking all records in 2022. Last summer saw extreme heatwaves all over the northern hemisphere and their impacts to water sources were visible from space.  

An analysis of satellite imagery by Sebastián Rodríguez, in partnership with the monitoring platform Planet, shows how freshwater ecosystems degraded across the world.

Rivers and lakes were at the frontline of this summer’s extreme weather. If we use these ecosystems as measure of our readiness to climate change, experts said we’re not prepared. 

4. Fossil fuel fights at Cop27: how the industry escaped censure

Fossil fuels were one of the strongest forces at play in this year’s UN climate negotiations, as industry lobbyists outnumbered almost every national delegation. In late-night closed meetings, the industry’s efforts paid off, as fossil fuels escaped censure at Cop27. 

Joe Lo and Chloé Farand reconstructed the industry’s role in this years climate negotiations, and told the behind the scenes story of how oil and gas producers managed to delay decisive climate action at the UN summit. 

One diplomat called the process “negotiation by exhaustion” as they were overwhelmed with new texts in the early hours of the morning. 

5. The ‘junk’ carbon offsets revived by the Glasgow Pact 

A militarized hydroelectric dam in Myanmar is one example of the hundreds of projects that could be used to greenwash national and corporate emissions reports thanks to a decision taken at last year’s Cop26. 

Through an exclusive data analysis, Chloé Farand and freelance data reporters Maribel Ángel-Moreno, Léopold Salzenstein and Jelena Malkowski indentified over 800 problematic projects whose past emissions reductions can now be bought. 

Some projects showed a patchy human rights record, while others evidenced an outright failure to deliver promised climate benefits. 

The post Climate Home’s five must-read climate change stories from 2022 appeared first on Climate Home News.

A report commissioned by Business for Nature estimates $1.8 trillion is spent each year on subsidising destructive activities for nature such as the growth of fossil fuels, monocultures and overfishing.

The European Union has backed a proposal at the Cop15 biodiversity summit to redirect harmful subsidies towards activities that protect nature, as well as eliminating harmful subsidies by 2025.  

“As a priority, existing resources need to be used more effectively, including by aligning all financial flows with nature-positive objectives and by addressing harmful subsidies,” said the European bloc in a statement. 

UN nature pact nears its ‘Copenhagen or Paris’ moment

Countries like India and Japan have opposed entirely eradicating subsidies. India’s lead negotiator, Vinod Matur, told Carbon Copy the country’s farmers “who are poor and disadvantaged need both social and economic support”. Japan pushed to remove references to agricultural and fishing subsidies in the lead up to the negotiations.

Argentina, one of the world’s largest meat producers, supported the elimination of harmful subsidies but questioned the world’s capacity to actually redirect them, considering it a form of “creative accounting” to justify current subsidies. 

One Latin American negotiator, who wished to remain anonymous criticised the EU’s position. “We think the situation is concerning. We think the lack of flexibility of some developed countries is particularly worrying,” they said.

Sweating the small stuff

It is a key battleground this week when the issue is formally discussed in plenary negotiations, said Costa Rica’s lead negotiator Eugenia Arguedas. Costa Rica is chairing a coalition to protect 30% of the planet’s land and water ecosystems by 2030.

Li Lin, senior director of policy and advocacy at WWF, added that countries focused on “minutiae” during the first week of talks, leaving the “big-ticket items” to the second week. “They have left themselves a lot to do in the next few days,” he said.

Almost 200 countries have gathered in Montreal to negotiate the world’s strategy to reverse biodiversity loss and protect the globe’s frail remaining ecosystems, which are key to stopping climate change.

A recent UN scientific report warned that at least a million species are threatened with extinction, an “unprecedented” decline in all of human history.  

Opening the talks, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said that divesting harmful subsidies is one of the key outcomes expected.

“[We need a deal] that addresses the root causes of this destruction — harmful subsidies, misdirected investment, unsustainable food systems, and wider patterns of consumption and production,” Guterres said.

Observers agreed that this will be one of the main clashing points, as it has been during the previous negotiations leading up to the Montreal summit. But the head of IUCN’s forests and land team Carole Saint-Laurent said these redirected subsidies could be a fresh source of resources.

“We see tremendous potential in redirecting harmful subsidies to investments in restoration of ecosystems,” said Saint-Laurent, who added this could become a “win-win” for all countries.

Overfishing breakthrough

Countries made some progress in June, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) reached an agreement to ban certain kinds of unsustainable fishing subsidies, an issue that had stalled since 2011.

For the first time, countries agreed to ban subsidies for unregulated fisheries, fisheries targeting overfished stocks and fisheries in the “unregulated” high seas. Now, two thirds of WTO member states need to formally accept the agreement and start implementing it.

World leaders not invited to attend critical UN biodiversity summit

But after almost two years of online and in-person negotiations and with only a week left to reach a successful outcome, observers have also warned of the risk of not reaching an agreement in Montreal.

Campaigners have also called out delegates on the slow progress in other topics, such as a mechanism to monitor each country’s actions to meet the targets.

“Negotiators look to be taking a hatchet to the ratchet here in Montreal. We are sleepwalking into repeating the mistakes we made in Aichi [where the last deal was struck in 2010]. We are at risk of having vague commitments with no substance,” said Guido Broekhoven, Head of Policy Research and Development at WWF.

The post Governments split on ditching nature-harming subsidies in Montreal appeared first on Climate Home News.

After a two-year delay and a change of location, the UN biodiversity summit aims to halt nature loss by 2030 and restore ecosystems. It could either be a success like the signing of the Paris Agreement or a dramatic failure like the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen.

“Anything can happen. It would be terrible if we had a ‘Copenhagen’ because we would lose a golden opportunity to protect nature,” said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO of the Global Environmental Facility, the largest funder of biodiversity protection. 

Countries are set to define targets to stop biodiversity loss for the next ten years, with a coalition of more than a hundred nations calling to protect 30% of all land and ocean ecosystems by 2030. Big forested countries such as China, Brazil and Indonesia are yet to join the coalition.

A draft prepared in the lead up to the event remains disputed. Initially the text was “technically quite good” said Brian O’Donnell, director of the advocacy organization Campaign for Nature. But “we’ve had two years of online negotiations. What started as a very good framework has ended up almost all in square brackets” – indicating a lack of consensus.

Leadership vacuum

The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 in Kunming, China, but was repeatedly delayed over Covid concerns. Eventually Montreal offered to take over as host city. China keeps the presidency of the talks.

China has not officially invited world leaders. It fell to UN biodiversity chief Elizabeth Maruma Mrema to urge them to attend the event instead of the football World Cup, which is taking place in Qatar at the same time.

Scientists warn that a million species are threatened with extinction, due to the climate crisis and other threats like pollution and deforestation.

Analysis: What was decided at Cop27 climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh?

Addressing the issue, however, is also a form of climate action, said Kiliparti Ramakrishna, senior advisor on ocean and climate policy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “Nature-based solutions are directly connected with biodiversity and yet we treat [climate and biodiversity] separately. That is not good,” he said.

There were some signs of that changing when Cop27 talks concluded in Egypt on Sunday. In a first for the UN climate process, the Sharm el-Sheikh Implentation Plan encouraged countries to consider “nature-based solutions or ecosystem-based approaches” to climate action.

In the past decade, countries agreed to a ten-year plan called the Aichi targets, aimed at halting biodiversity loss. A UN summary report shows countries failed to meet a single one of those targets.

“(Countries) set these strategies only once a decade. The past strategy failed and so this is the time to get it right. Biodiversity is declining too rapidly,” said O’Donnell. 

Funding gap

Rodríguez explained the lack of sufficient funds was one of the main reasons for the failure of the Aichi targets. That will be key this time around, both in setting up the agreement but also in its implementation.

Even if an agreement is reached, “it’s still just paper”, said Rodriguez. “Implementing (the targets) requires public policies and strong institutions. But many countries require investments to build those capacities in the first place,” he added.

The latest draft includes the target of mobilizing $200 billion per year, “including new, additional and effective financial resources”. To Ramakrishna, the Montreal summit “could be a Paris moment if we get the resolution on finance”. 

Crucially, a deal on finance must phase out subsidies for nature-destructive practices, Rodriguez said. This was also one of the Aichi targets, but “relatively few countries have taken steps even to identify incentives that harm biodiversity,” the UN summary report says. 

“Harmful subsidies far outweigh positive incentives in areas such as fisheries and the control of deforestation,” adds the report. The draft deal includes the goal of reducing these subsidies by $500 billion per year.

Other critical issues remain contested, among them the use of genetic resources. African countries have called on developed nations to pay for genetic information on their biodiversity, which is used in industries such as pharmaceutical companies.  

However, in the preliminary round of negotiations in Nairobi this year, countries did not agree on this issue.

The post UN nature pact nears its ‘Copenhagen or Paris’ moment appeared first on Climate Home News.

Vulnerable countries are closer than ever to achieving what many thought would never happen – a dedicated facility for loss and damage finance.

The EU opened the door to it, putting the onus on holdout the US to broker a deal with China. The two countries’ climate envoys spent hours in a room together on Thursday night and unfortunately, one of them caught Covid.

At the methane ministerial on Thursday, John Kerry said he had a cold but had tested negative for Covid. Whitney Smith, his spokeswoman at the US State Department, said he tested positive on Friday morning. Smith said his symptoms were “mild” and he had worked all day from his hotel.

That’s a blow. Cop deals are still done in person, often on the floor of the plenary hall.

At last year’s closing plenary, Kerry strode from group to group making promises, reassurances and threats to close the deal.

US negotiators will still do this. But having to dial in the bed-ridden boss risks slowing things down.

Latest stories

• Greenwash alert as Cop27 draft allows double claiming of carbon credits
• China’s surprise visit to US-EU event hints at cooperation on methane
• Cop27 tees up speed dating for climate investment deals

The trillion-dollar question: who pays?

The key to unlocking the talks is finding a way forward for who pays for climate damages in vulnerable countries.

“If you can get agreement on the loss and damage funding piece, I think everything else falls into place,” said Alden Meyer of E3G.

That’s easier said than done. The EU has opened the door to establishing a loss and damage fund this year, with conditions: China and other nations who have the capacity to do so should pay and only the most vulnerable countries can receive money. But there is no list for who falls into each camp.

The EU says that should go hand in hand with steeper emissions cuts to prevent worsening impacts. “This is our final offer,” EU’s climate chief Frans Timmermans said.

Where the US stands on this will be critical. A proposal came out yesterday to agree “funding arrangements” that would include a dedicated fund, with the hope of bringing Washington on side.

Money would come from public and private sources. Insurance, debt relief and global taxes on oil and gas could be part of the mix. The details would have to be worked out with a view to operationalise it 2024. That would be a huge move from the US but will it fly?

Despite a lack of enthusiasm from the Egyptian presidency, some are still trying to get fossil fuels in the cover text. Colombia is taking on the baton from India and has drafted text with the UK calling for a phase out of all fossil fuels.

“If we don’t have mitigation commitments, there can be a fund for loss and damage but no fund will cover the catastrophic consequences of climate change,” said Colombia’s environment minister Susana Muhamad.

We’ll find out soon if they succeeded, with another draft expected on Saturday morning.

In brief…

China shouldn’t pay – All the talk of expanding the donor base for climate finance is aimed at China. But an ODI analysis found China still too poor and low-emitting per person to pay. Qatar, Singapore and Israel are more logical targets, it found.

Chaos in Brussels – Luxembourg became the latest to announce it would quit the Energy Charter Treaty on Friday. The European Council failed to agree a joint position on whether to ratify reforms at Tuesday’s conference. Reform would allow countries to stop protecting fossil fuel investments.

Elsewhere in Egypt – While leaders were speaking at Cop27 last Tuesday, Alaa Abd el-Fattah attempted to kill himself in his prison cell, his family said. On Friday, the same day US president Joe Biden and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi traded jokes, he collapsed and was fed intravenously.

Brazilian propaganda – The outgoing Brazilian government is exhibiting a slick virtual reality film at its pavilion at Cop27. The video claims the government is making efforts to bring renewable energy to the Amazon and to promote development while protecting nature. It does not mention deforestation.

Adaptation shortfall – The Adaptation Fund has received $230m in new pledges and contributions in 2022. Germany was the biggest donor with near $60m, followed by the US with $50m. Other European nations and Japan contributed. The fund says it still has a pipeline of unfunded projects worth $380m.

The post Cop27 bulletin: John Kerry has Covid appeared first on Climate Home News.

This is not a text that has been discussed by countries but elements reflecting what Egypt has gathered from consultations with countries. Formal negotiations on the text are yet to start.

A proposal by India, which has been gathering steam among vulnerable countries and the EU, to phase down all fossil fuels didn’t make it in.

Instead, the document repeats what was agreed last year in Glasgow and reaffirmed by G20 leaders in Bali on Wednesday on coal power.

Under the heading “urgency of action to keep 1.5C within reach”, the document repeats the language of the Paris Agreement to “pursue efforts” to limit temperature rise to 1.5C.

Elsewhere, the text “notes” that climate impacts will be much lower at 1.5C, “requests” all countries to revisit and strengthen their 2030 climate plans in line with 1.5C, and “emphasizes the need for immediate, deep, rapid” emission cuts.

Borrowing from a recent statement of the Basic emerging economies, it proposes to “express deep regret that developed countries who have the most capabilities financially and technologically to lead in reducing their emissions continue to fall short in doing so”.

It adds: “Developed countries should attain net-negative carbon emissions by 2030.”

Indian power minister Raj Kumar Singh has previously called on rich countries to go beyond net zero emissions to net negative by sucking more carbon out of the atmosphere than they emit.

If Egypt wants to secure a successful outcome, it urgently needs to bring the discussion into negotiating rooms.

Latest stories

• EU opens the door to a loss and damage facility – if China pays
• Lula charms UN climate summit, bringing hope for rainforests
• Rich nations, banks pledge $20bn for Indonesia’s coal-to-clean switch

Rich countries test G77 unity

With very limited appetite to allocate new funds for loss and damage, rich countries see the best prospects of support for climate victims outside the UN climate process.

Reform of multilateral development banks and the International Monetary Fund could free up significant cash for the vulnerable. But that won’t happen in Sharm el-Sheikh, where the developing world wants to see more commitment.

So the developed country tactic here is divide and conquer: drive a wedge between the poorest and smallest nations, and big emerging economies.

Island leader Gaston Browne last week expressed support for broadening the donor pool: “We all know that India and China… are major polluters and the polluters must pay.” Then G77 solidarity reasserted itself and he clarified that historic emissions had to be factored into the assessment.

The EU has sent its strongest signal yet that it would consider setting up a new fund, as the G77 asks, with strings attached.

“We are open for this facility, but under certain conditions,” EU’s climate chief Frans Timmermans told reporters squashed in a huddle outside the EU pavilion on Wednesday afternoon.

“China is one of the biggest economies on the planet with a lot of financial strength. Why should they not be made co-responsible for funding loss and damage?” said Timmermans.

And he wants to keep other options on the table, with a decision to be made next year.

China already contributes some voluntary climate finance to developing countries. It doesn’t want its generosity to turn into an obligation.

There are still big gaps to bridge.

Brazil’s president-elect Lula da Silva got a hero’s welcome at Cop27, bringing hope for the Amazon rainforest with him. Crowds chanted his name and Facetimed relatives during his first speech. (Photo: Kiara Worth/UNFCCC)

Kenya joins keep-it-in-the-ground camp

For all the talk about phasing out oil and gas, only a handful of countries are committing to ban or wind down production. They’re generally not ones that were drilling much (or at all) to start with.

On Wednesday, Portugal and Washington state joined the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (Boga). That brings the core membership to six national and four subnational governments (double counting Greenland as part of Denmark).

But founding member Costa Rica has distanced itself from the initiative and Sweden’s backing is uncertain after a lurch to the right.

Still, a Boga event on Wednesday was well attended, with campaigners cheering it on.

Perhaps the most significant political signal came from Kenya becoming a “friend” of Boga – the first African nation to do so. “We have proven [oil] deposits,” said presidential climate advisor Ali Mohammed, “but the Kenyan government has taken a deliberate choice [not to exploit them].”

Kenya’s enthusiasm for renewables sets it apart from the likes of Senegal, Nigeria and Mozambique, which see gas as critical to their economic development.

With money provided by the Sequoia foundation, Boga has launched a €10m seed fund to help developing countries initiate their just transition beyond oil and gas production.

After journalists asked where Costa Rica was and why no big oil and gas producers are joining, the Danish moderator said “this is not a press conference” and turned to civil society.

A Stop Eacop activist didn’t softball it, though, putting France on the spot over Total’s controversial Uganda-Tanzania oil pipeline. Ambassador Stephane Crouzat promised France would not provide export subsidies to the project.

In brief…

Climate the culprit – Climate change made this year’s flooding in Nigeria and neighbouring countries 80 times more likely, according to the World Weather Attribution group. The floods killed more than 600 people and displaced 1.3 million between June and October.

Data drought – The same group of scientists were unable to estimate the influence of climate change on last year’s drought in central Sahel, which caused a food crisis this year, because of a lack of reliable data.

Trump is running – Donald Trump has announced that he will run to be US president again. To win the Republican nomination, he’s likely to compete with Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Forest sign-ups – Vietnam and Fiji have joined the global forest and climate leadership partnership, a spokesperson for the UK government told Climate Home. They join around 30 countries representing a third of the world’s forests in the US and Ghana-led partnership.

Gender equality stalls – Just a third of negotiators are female at Cop27, BBC analysis finds. Carbon Brief got a similar figure. Their analysis finds the percentage has trended upward for decades but has plateaued in the last few years.

Fox in hen house – The head of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, Mohamed Hamel, has addressed the main conference hall at Cop27. He said Africa’s “sovereign right to develop these natural gas resources shall be preserved” and that “gas is the energy for sustainable development”.

Methane ministerial – The US and EU have invited the 100+ countries who signed last year’s global methane pledge to a ministerial meeting tomorrow in the Amon room at Cop27. Ministers will unveil national methane action plans, “showcase progress” on energy and launch programmes to cut methane from farming and waste.

The post Cop27 bulletin: ‘Elements’ leave much to negotiate appeared first on Climate Home News.

Behind security barriers, hundreds packed the Blue Zone pavilion where he was giving his first speech at the summit. One indigenous woman Facetimed a relative in Brazil: “Can you see him? Can you believe he’s right there?” she shouted over the phone.

At the Cop27 climate summit, expectations are high for Brazil’s newly elected leader. Lula won last month’s election promising a dramatic shift in rainforest protection. The outgoing government of Jair Bolsonaro leaves the country’s deforestation rate on a 12-year high.

“Brazil is leaving the cocoon where it was for the past four years,” he said in his first public appearance in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Wednesday. He started the previous evening, meeting with climate envoys from China and the US. 

Lula even announced a bid to bring Cop30 to the Amazon, in the state of Amazonas or Pará. It is the turn of a Latin American country to host in 2026. “People who defend the climate should know closely what is that region,” he said. 

Lula will update Brazil’s ‘insufficient’ climate plans if elected: advisor

How much he can live up to the task is yet to be seen. He has no majority in Congress and inflation is driving the country to the brink of recession. He admitted high expectations “scare” him in an interview with The New Yorker.

Still, the fate of the Amazon rainforest depends in great part on Lula. The world’s biggest rainforest basin is at a tipping point.

Recent studies found that, over the last decade, the Amazon started to emit more carbon than it absorbs through photosynthesis. This is mainly as a result of rainforest clearance for cattle ranches and soy plantations.

Politically motivated charges

In a previous term as president 2003-10, Lula cracked down on deforestation. Since then, the leftist politician has spent time in prison before dramatically resurrecting his reputation.

Four years ago, Lula was jailed in federal police headquarters in the state of Curitiba, charged with corruption and money laundering. The Supreme Court revoked his sentence, judging it biased by political opponents. Now, he’s back at UN climate talks having won a tight election against Bolsonaro.

“We have certainty that [Lula] will protect the indigenous territories, and that he will have a ministry for indigenous people. That is a relief for us,” said Thiago Yawanawá, an indigenous activist from the Amazonian state of Acre, while waiting for Lula’s speech. 

Latin America closes ranks at Cop27 around climate finance

Other biomes could also benefit from a Lula presidency, said Shirley Krenak, an indigenous leader from the state of Minas Gerais. “We are very hopeful with the new president. It was with Lula that we had more opportunities for dialogue,” she added. 

Lula’s approach goes further. Marina Silva, a lawmaker tipped for the environment ministry, said the government does not want “an isolated protection only in Brazil. We want protection in all mega-forested countries.” 

Two days earlier, at a G20 leaders summit, Brazil signed a pact with Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to tackle deforestation.

DRC vice-minister Eve Bazaiba hinted on Twitter this should inspire rich countries to deliver finance “proportional to the ecosystem services given to mankind”.

Contributors to the Amazon Fund froze payments during Bolsonaro’s term – but were quick to congratulate Lula on his win.

Challenge ahead 

Bolsonaro’s policies left a destructive trail in the Amazon. His administration defunded environmental protection agencies and rolled back indigenous rights and environmental protections.

A legislative package that would allow farmers to claim rainforest land is ready to vote in the Senate and could pass before Bolsonaro’s term ends.

Brazil can only protect the Amazon with consistent policies over time, the head of the Global Environmental Facility Carlos Manuel Rodríguez told Climate Home.

Silva, on her part, said she’s aware of the challenge ahead. On one hand, inflation is driving the country towards a difficult economic situation. On the other, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Resources saw a recent 24% slash in its budget. 

In the past, under Lula, Brazil was able to drastically reduce forest loss with its own resources, said Tasso Azevedo, former chief of the Brazilian Forest Service. The new government now has the experience to do it again, he said.

“A lot of things can be done with the right political decisions. Once they start to have results, it’s kind of easy to push for funds.”

The post Lula charms UN climate summit, bringing hope for rainforests appeared first on Climate Home News.

In June, the country signed a deal with the European Union and Israel to boost LNG sales to Europe, as part of the continent’s dash for gas to replace Russian energy imports.

The Egyptian government announced it would ration gas use and replace it with other fuels at home. At a press conference in August, prime minister Moustafa Madbouly said Egypt expected to export 15% of its gas production.  

The main alternative fuel is mazut, a blend of heavy hydrocarbons that contains toxins like sulfides and heavy metals. It can be broken down to produce diesel.

A whistleblower from the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy told Climate Home News mazut was previously being phased out due to its harmful health impacts.

‘Oil and gas trade show’ promotes carbon capture at Cop27

Official data issued by the Egyptian Electricity and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency shows the trend. In October 2022, the percentage of mazut consumption in power plants reached 20.95%, while the same month in 2021 it was 3.67%.

“The use of mazut currently in stations instead of natural gas is in complete contradiction with the climate conference,” said the whistleblower, speaking on condition of anonymity. “How do we talk about the climate and reducing pollution, and the percentage of diesel use increases every day?”

Plant closures

On Friday at Cop27 climate talks, Germany and the US announced support for Egypt to close 12 “inefficient” gas plants with an installed capacity of 5GW. That will not automatically end the use of mazut, as Egypt has 28MW of installed capacity designed to run on mazut or gas.

Asked about the fuel switch, Cop27 envoy Wael Aboulmagd told Climate Home: “In our [national climate plan] we have made commitments that we intend to move forward on in all aspects, adaptation but also on reduction of emissions…

“As a developing country, we have the prerogative to continue to grow and for our emissions to continue to increase, but cognizant of the emergency.”

Egypt seized the opportunity to increase gas exports to Europe. The country promoted gas as a “perfect solution” ahead of hosting the UN climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh and discussed gas deals on the sidelines of Cop27.

Europe’s dash for gas could lead to an oversupply of around five times the size of Russian gas imports by 2030, Climate Action Tracker estimates. This would be a “serious threat” to the Paris Agreement’s global warming limit of 1.5C, the report warns.

Going into reverse 

Over the last five years, Egypt reduced the use of mazut, aiming to drop it completely by 2021. In September of 2021, the country got less than 1% of its electricity from burning mazut.

“Three years ago, we held a meeting to improve the performance of electrical networks and stations, and the most negative point raised was that we still use [mazut],” said the government source.

UN cancels African energy finance initiative over fraudster’s role

The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company switched at least 20 power plants from mazut to gas. Gas is still a fossil fuel with a significant climate impact, but is less harmful to health when burned. After Russia invaded Ukraine, this progress went into reverse.

“We were surprised that less than a year ago, the use of mazut increased by a large percentage, and it turned out that this is the country’s strategy to export gas to Europe,” the source said.

The power plants are not entirely converted to mazut, explained the source, but only partially. For example, in a 500 MW plant, “you may find that gas is used to generate 300 MW and mazut to generate 200 MW”.

The other element of Egypt’s gas export plan is rationing consumption. Local advocacy group EgyptWatch said that has involved reduced street lighting and a 25C minimum temperature on air conditioning in public venues.

“Harmful in all respects” 

The switch back to mazut brings increased pollution. A 2013 study conducted by Assiut University found the power plants belch out smoke and radioactive ash that settles on the ground.

Another study by the Ain Sharms University found that air pollution from mazut has “an adverse effect on the respiratory system and the liver”.

Mazut is “harmful in all respects,” the whistleblower said. “It is polluting, uneconomical and damages machines and [power] stations.”

Campaigners said Egypt’s gas strategy was “shortsighted”, wasting an opportunity to lead on a faster deployment of renewables in Africa.

“It’s disappointing that Egypt has decided to prioritize Europeans’ demands over the legitimate needs of its citizens that are still struggling to access clean and reliable energy,” said Landry Ninteretse, Africa Team Lead at 350.org.

The story was edited on November 16 to include a 2013 peer-reviewed study by Assiut University instead of a 2019 paper that was not peer-reviewed.

This story is part of an investigative series looking into the impacts of Europe’s dash for gas in developing countries, reported in collaboration with Floodlight News.

The post ‘Complete contradiction’: Egypt burns dirtier fuel to sell more gas to Europe appeared first on Climate Home News.

There was no joint statement. But both governments’ summaries said the two largest emitters will “work together”. The US said on climate change, China said on Cop27.

That doesn’t automatically mean the US-China working group is back on but it does mean climate envoys John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua can talk formally here in Sharm el-Sheikh – with agendas, notes and decisions. US secretary of state Anthony Blinken will visit China to pick up where Biden and Xi left off.

Indonesia’s coal-to-clean package

Today in Bali, Indonesia is expected announce a “just energy transition partnership”, which the US and Japan led on. A source with knowledge of the negotiations told Climate Home that the deal was likely to be between $18 billion and $20 billion. Another said that includes private sector finance.

This follows the South African model of a package to create green jobs and economic regeneration for coal-dependent areas on the journey to clean energy. Indonesia has been keen to consult on its plans and negotiate favourable terms before agreeing on the size of the package.

The Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) think tank, which is advising the government on the deal, estimates there are 5GW of coal plant capacity which are highly polluting and could be closed at a cost of $4.5 billion. That’s the low-hanging fruit.

In total, IESR estimates that replacing all of Indonesia’s coal capacity with renewables will cost about 60 times what’s on offer here – $1.2 trillion.

A key question is how much will be delivered in grants vs loans. And will coal plant owners be compensated for early closures? While the emissions wins could be considerable, that feels icky.

Political clashes deferred

Ministers have arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh this week to take the baton from negotiators, but the Egyptian presidency is not ready for that.

Foreign minister Sameh Shoukry told a plenary on Monday technical discussions will continue until this evening and ministerial consultations on key outstanding issues will only start Wednesday. Traditionally, representatives from developed and developing countries are paired up to find landing zones on the thorniest issues.

That compresses the timeline to thrash out political differences. Meanwhile ministers are stuck politely reiterating their positions in roundtable events.

There is no consensus on how to ramp up national emissions targets. The battle lines on loss and damage finance have not budged: the options are to establish a new facility, or work with a “mosaic” of funding arrangements. Check out Carbon Brief’s tracker for where each issue is at.

Egypt is banking on progress in technical discussions to move the needle by tonight.

“It’s going to be a brutally hard second week for climate negotiators at Cop27,” dean of the Fletcher School Rachel Kyte tweeted.

In private, both developed and developing country negotiators told Climate Home that ministers could be brought in earlier to start working towards a political resolution. One Cop veteran defended the timetable as not particularly unusual.

Whither, cover text?

These summits usually produce a “cover text”, which puts a unifying narrative on the various technical outcomes. A draft is taking longer to emerge than normal.

Wael Aboulmagd, Egypt’s Cop27 special representative, set out the challenge: “There are two extremes and everything in between. The idea is to get everyone’s views in there.”

Some countries, including Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, want to keep the text to a minimum. Others, including Europeans, see it as an opportunity to set a political direction. The UK wants references to reform of multilateral development banks and just energy transition partnerships – elements of progress outside the formal negotiating agenda.

The dynamics suggest Egypt could settle for a shorter document than the 8-page Glasgow Pact.

Cop decision texts don’t have to turn into major political declarations every year. On the other hand, this is the place where Egypt can address expectations that Cop27 will deliver for vulnerable countries.

One big question is whether the text will include language on keeping the 1.5C goal within reach. That’s backed by least developed countries, small island states, the EU and the US.

Emerging countries including China want to stick to the language of the Paris Agreement to hold the temperature increase “well below 2C” and “pursue efforts” to limit it to 1.5C.

It’s a row set to dominate the G20 leaders’ summit in Bali, which starts today. Ministers were unable to agree on a joint communique in September after pushback by China and India on emphasising 1.5C as the world’s climate goal.

As with US-China cooperation, the parameters of a Sharm deal may be set from hundreds of miles away.

Fact check

At Cop27 on Friday, Joe Biden announced “alongside the European Union and Germany, a $500 million package to finance and facilitate Egypt’s transition to clean energy”.

What the US is contributing to this is not clear. Germany is giving €250m. That’s €100m in loans on better than normal terms, €100m in debt forgiveness and €50m in grants.

Asked what the US is bringing, a spokesperson for the German development ministry (BMZ) said to ask the Americans. The US state department has not responded to repeated requests.

Other European countries are delivering $300m through the European Bank on Reconstruction and Development.

Together, all this European cash adds up to around 550m dollars or euros. More than the $500m Biden announced.

So what exactly is the US bringing? The joint US-German-Egyptian statement says the US and Germany will provide “expected support of €85m equivalent in grants”.

If you take off Germany’s €50m in grants, does that mean the US’s sole contribution is an “expected” grant of €35m and some help mobilising private finance?

It would explain why they’re not replying to our messages.

In brief…

Moral support? – Germany’s insurance-based “Global Shield” initiative for climate victims officially launched on Monday. Germany is contributing €170m, France €20m, Ireland €10m and Canada €7m. President Joe Biden claimed the US was “supporting” the initiative, but it was not on the list of initial funders. “Further contributions by donors are expected to materialise soon,” said the German development ministry.

Big brother – Germany has complained to Egyptian authorities of unwanted monitoring and filming of its events at Cop27 by security officials. The UN confirmed Egyptian national security officers are at the venue and is investigating the complaints, Deutsche Welle reports. Germany has been vocal on human rights and held an event with imprisoned activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s sister.

‘Ludicrous’ – Cop27 special representative Wael Aboulmagd told a press conference that the media reports of the complaints were “vague” and “mostly inaccurate”. “On the face of it, it seems ludicrous. It was an open event. Everyone could walk in. Why would anyone put surveillance?”

LNG export club – Mozambique’s first cargoes of LNG shipped out of the country on Monday. The Gas Exporting Countries Forum hailed the news. Its secretary general Mohamed Hamel congratulated Mozambique commissioner Jerónimo Chivavi in the plenary room at Cop27.

NDC watch – Bahamas, Vietnam, Andorra, Timor-Leste have submitted updated national climate plans since the start of Cop27. The biggest economy among them, Vietnam, strengthened its 2030 emission targets to 15.8% from BAU unconditionally and 43.5% with international support.

Alaa lives – The Egyptian authorities have provided proof that British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah is alive, his sister Sanaa Seif reports. A note in el-Fattah’s handwriting, dated 12 November, says he is drinking water again.

The post Cop27 bulletin: Xi, Biden thaw climate relations appeared first on Climate Home News.

A loss and damage finance facility would be a huge Egyptian gift to the developing world. But, as John Kerry said on Saturday, “that’s just not happening” because the US and others still fear being sued for their historic pollution.

Instead, the rich world is offering a hodge-podge of initiatives like insurance and early warning systems. Some vulnerable countries are working with them on this.

But the sums of money involved pale in comparison to the toll of disasters like Pakistan’s floods. And all these worthy initiatives don’t need a Cop to go ahead.

To the extent that Egypt has outlined a goal, it is to promote “implementation”.

So it’s the coalitions and the side deals in the trade fair bit of Cop that matter to the presidency.

Well, the trade fair is heavy on oil and gas greenwashing. A flagship initiative to finance African renewables folded due to a bad choice of partner.

In the negotiating rooms, there’s no consensus on how to strengthen national emissions cuts and trade carbon. A draft political statement for the summit – the “cover text” – has yet to appear.

If there’s any vision behind this Cop, the Sharm Pact is the place to show it. Otherwise, it will be remembered for jailed activists, gas deals and rivers of sewage.

Biden meets Xi as Dems keep US Senate

The other place to look for political direction is the Indonesian island of Bali.

If presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping manage to find some good vibes ahead of a G20 summit, it could unlock a US-China climate statement.

It helps Biden’s authority somewhat that Democrats are set to keep control of the Senate, regardless of the Georgia runoff result. The House of Representatives is still too close to call, with 20 seats left to declare.

A thawing of relations could mean resumed technical cooperation on things like curbing methane emissions. Based on climate envoys’ statements last week, don’t expect it to magic up finance for loss and damage.

UN enforces sexual harassment rules

The UN has suspended two people registered in Colombia’s delegation at Cop27 over sexual harassment complaints, the country’s government said in a statement on Sunday.

The Colombian minister of the interior, Alfonso Prada, emphasised the accused were not government officials. One of the named people had never traveled to Sharm el-Sheikh, he said, suggesting their credentials had been used illegally.

The Colombian delegation at Cop27 told Climate Home News that there is an open investigation and declined to comment further.

The country’s delegation at the climate talks is composed of 201 people, among them government officials, private sector and civil society representatives.

“Our government strongly rejects any conduct that disrespects or harms women and violates their rights and freedoms anywhere in the world,” the minister said.

In brief…

Dirty deal takes hit – The German government agreed to leave the Energy Charter Treaty, which has been the most important tool for fossil fuel companies to sue governments for loss of profits after climate policy changes. Germany is now the biggest economy to leave the deal. Spain, France and the Netherlands have all also left the treaty for its protection of fossil fuels.

Russian oligarchs at Cop – Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska and former fertilizer boss at EuroChem Andrey Melichenko are among dozens of Russian lobbyists under international sanctions registered at COP27, The Guardian reports. Oil and gas giants Gazprom and Lukeoil, also under international sanctions, sent entire delegations to the UN climate talks.

Drones overhead – A pair of powered paragliders flew over the Cop27 venue on Saturday morning with advertising banners for ADES, an oil and gas drilling services company. Perhaps they were trying to catch the eye of one of the 636 registered fossil fuel lobbyists.

Dash for gas – Turkish Petroleum and Algeria’s Sonatrach agreed to establish a joint oil and gas exploration company that will operate in the region and “especially in Algeria”, said Turkish energy minister Fatih Donmez. In recent months, Algeria sealed deals with Italy and Spain to increase gas supplies to Europe.

Stranding risk – Building gas infrastructure to meet short term needs is a bad bet, warns Carbon Tracker. By 2030 it projects it will be cheaper, across Africa, to generate electricity with new solar than run existing gas plants. That spells financial instability for gas producers like Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt.

The post Cop27 bulletin: Visionless summit flails into week two appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Cop27 visit is a stopover to bigger business next week when Biden meets China’s Xi Jinping in Bali ahead of the G20 summit.

Beijing suspended climate talks with Washington after house speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August. Relations between the two superpowers could make or break the outcome of Cop27.

In Egypt, Biden came to show off his $370bn climate package – for the US – and promise deeper methane cuts in the oil and gas sector.

But there was little for the rest of world. On what matters for the “implementation Cop” – cash – Biden had his hands tied.

Without congressional agreement, Biden cannot put more money on the table. But he gave some details on how his administration will parcel out its existing budget – including to boost Egypt’s clean energy plans.

Senior US officials briefed in advance that Biden would press el-Sisi on human rights issues. Critically, the release of Alaa Abdel Fattah, the Egyptian-British activist on hunger strike, who stopped drinking water six days ago.

Egyptian authorities told his mother el-Fattah had undergone “medical intervention”. That could mean he is being force-fed but the family has no proof he is still alive.

The #FreeAlaa campaign has dominated the summit. El-Fattah’s fate could overshadow any climate legacy.

His family urged Biden not to leave the country without evidence el-Fattah lives. As the wheels of Airforce One left the tarmac, there was no word.

Young activists holding a banner briefly interrupt @POTUS speech at #COP27. Unlike in past climate meetings, protests have been severely curtailed, with no large marches around #Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh pic.twitter.com/UluJ5csNFv

— Laura Millan (@LauraMillanL) November 11, 2022

Latest stories

• German, US cash aims to cut Egypt’s gas use and boost exports
• Latin America closes ranks at Cop27 around climate finance
• UN cancels African energy finance initiative over fraudster’s role

Crumbs of support

Biden had to come to Cop27 with something to say about how the US will support developing countries to cope with worsening climate impacts. But political headwinds limit his options.

He has requested Congress approve $11bn in climate funding for the 2023 budget. That would make good on his annual $11.4bn climate finance pledge. But the results of the midterm elections could decide otherwise.

If Republicans win control of the House of Representatives, which is looking likely, they could gut the pledge. If the conservatives come out on top, Democrats have until the end of 2022 to pass the budget or see the commitments quashed.

Instead, Biden set out how he will spend leftover funding already appropriated by Congress. It includes a doubling of the US contribution to the Adaptation Fund from $50m to $100m and details for how it will spend $150m to help Africa prepare for climate impacts.

The dribs and drabs of funding announced today are a far cry from what developing countries have been calling for. Biden remained silent on loss and damage finance.

“President Biden is pulling nearly every lever available to him to deliver bold climate action at home. The inconvenient truth is that the United States is grossly underperforming on its international climate finance commitments,” said Ani Dasgupta, CEO of the World Resources Institute.

“Biden is throwing crumbs into lots of different pots. That might sound impressive but it’s not the help that is needed,” said Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa.

Fact check of the day

Asked by the Guardian today if she felt personally responsible for climate disasters like flooding in Pakistan, the CEO of US oil company Occidental Vicki Hollub accepted that climate disasters are “a problem” but said she was no more responsible than people who fly in planes, have iPhones or wear nice clothes.

She added: “We are being much more aggressive around emissions. We have to be… We are doing this direct air capture quicker than anyone else because we know we need to address it quickly.”

It’s true that Occidental is doing direct air capture – sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere – quicker than anyone else. Funded by United Airlines, they are building the world’s biggest direct air capture facility.

When it opens in 2024, it will remove 0.5 million tonnes of CO2 a year. It aims to scale up the operation and capture 25Mt a year by 2032.

That should cover Occidental’s emissions from its operations, which were 25Mt in 2020.

But it’s nowhere near enough to cover the emissions from customers burning its oil, of around 200Mt a year – equivalent to Bangladesh and its 166 million inhabitants.

To offset those emissions, Occidental would need to build hundreds of direct air capture plants. Removing a tonne of CO2 this way costs around $250 to $600. While casts are expected to come down, wouldn’t it be cheaper to leave that oil in the ground?

In brief…

‘Hands full with gas’ – BP Egypt has its “hands full with gas” and “won’t be a vehicle” for the green energy transition in the region, British ambassador to Egypt Gareth Bayley wrote in internal emails to colleagues, obtained from the UK Foreign Office under the Freedom of Information Act by Culture Unstained.

Green hydrogen hub – Africa could capture as much as 10% of green hydrogen market, helping to create 3.7m jobs and adding $120bn to the continent’s GDP, according to a report by Masdar, the UAE’s biggest clean energy firm.

Carbon wonk beef – Leading climate modeller Joeri Rogelj has accused the Global Carbon Project of inflating the remaining carbon budget for 1.5C in its latest analysis. This presents “a more lenient and forgiving picture”, he tweeted.

Every little counts – The EU can nudge its climate goal of cutting emissions by at least 55% to 57% by 2030 after reaching an agreement on forestry and land use regulations. The deal sets a target to increase the carbon sink from land use and forestry by 15%.

Trade and slavery – The US has blocked more than 1,000 shipments of solar energy components from China over concerns about the use of forced labour, Reuters reports. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson denied claims of abuse in Xinjiang province and said the blockade would hinder the global response to climate change.

Shell backs Bitcoin – Shell will launch a bitcoin mining initiative at the bitcoin conference In Miami in May, according to Bitcoin magazine, the event organiser. At the event, Shell will claim that it is using immersion cooling fluid to make Bitcoin greener and cut mining’s carbon footprint by up to 48%.

Come together – The UK delegation’s meeting rooms are named after Beatles’ songs. So far Hey Jude, Yellow Submarine and Blackbird have been spotted.

Smart farming? – The UAE-US-led Aim for Climate initiative has announced a doubling of investment for climate smart agriculture and innovating food systems to more than $8bn. An investigation by De Smog previously revealed the initiative has close ties with climate-denying meat industry groups.

Taiwan’s cover – It hurts China’s feelings when Taiwan asserts its sovereignty, so the democracy has to get creative to take part in multilateral forums. At the Cop27 venue, try the St Kitts and Nevis pavilion for information on Taiwan’s climate plans.

Green, Saudi-style – If you want to learn how to save the planet, the Saudi Green Initiative has you covered. Bloomberg journalist Akshat Rathi took its quiz, which includes questions on how you brush your teeth and deal with excess food. Why nothing on air travel or meat eating? Too radical, apparently.

The post Cop27 bulletin: Biden brings crumbs of support appeared first on Climate Home News.

Historically, in climate talks, Latin America has been divided into two negotiating groups: the right-leaning Ailac countries and the left-wing Alba bloc. Brazil, the region’s biggest country, negotiates on its own. In other international talks, the region sticks together. 

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) — which excludes Brazil — issued a joint statement at Cop27 calling for, among other things, the need for “a greater mobilization of financial resources from developed countries”, sovereign bonds and debt swaps.

The joint move at Cop27 is a sign of greater coordination among Latin American states, analysts told Climate Home News.

Latin America was the world’s most indebted region in 2021, according to a UN report.

The International Monetary Fund warned that, after the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the region is poised to suffer a “third shock” from a global hike in interest rates.

The joint declaration calls for “innovative financial instruments” such as sovereign bonds, guarantee funds and debt-for-climate swaps. The last mechanism, in particular, is an idea that Colombia, Argentina and Ecuador have all publicly supported.  

A united front? 

Colombia, which shifted leftwards in recent elections, is a key voice for unity. A member of the Ailac bloc, its government made approaches to neighboring Venezuela, which is in Alba.

“I want to see a united Latin America negotiating climate decisions in a common bloc like the African continent has done,” Colombia’s vice-president, Francia Marquéz, told Climate Home during an event at Cop27.

Colombia’s new president calls for debt swap to protect the Amazon

Chile’s chief climate negotiator, Julio Cordano, said the declaration is a “very important starting point” and added that “for the region, access to resources is essential and that clearly unites us”. 

Cordano noted that the region has found common ground in the past in specific issues, which has allowed it to play a more decisive role.  

While negotiating the Paris Agreement, for example, “we put out a number of declarations that represented the whole region” on adaptation and indigenous people, said Cordano.

With its right-wing history and a leftist president, Colombia has a “moral authority” to play a mediating role between Ailac and Alba, said Sandra Guzmán, general coordinator of the Climate Finance Group for Latin America and the Caribbean (GFLAC).

“They have an opportunity to build bridges and create alliances,” Guzmán added.

It helps that a handful of other Latin American countries swung to the left in their latest presidential elections: Mexico, Argentina, Peru and most recently Brazil.

Adrián Martínez, director of NGO La Ruta del Clima, said unity in the region could help advance negotiations on loss and damage, as developed countries have often exploited divisions within the global south.

Financial needs 

Debt in Latin America has been increasing since 2010. The Covid-19 pandemic and inflation triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerated the trend. Now, high interest rates and extreme weather are set to add even more pressure. 

The region closed 2020 with its highest weight of foreign debt in a decade, at around 56% of GDP, the UN regional report shows.  

Climate disasters add sporadic financial shocks. This year, for example, hurricane Fiona left more than $375 million in losses in the Dominican Republic and around $100 of agricultural losses in Puerto Rico.

Debt-for nature swaps can be a way to ease the burden, Muhamad said.

“It’s time for us to work together in political decisions but also in common work programmes,” Muhamad said during a public event hosted by the New York Times.

But the two negotiating blocs are unlikely to merge in the short term, said Chilean negotiator Cordano. “It’s complex to arrive at political agreements from one day to the other in such a complex agenda. I prefer to advance in key specific topics.”

The post Latin America closes ranks at Cop27 around climate finance appeared first on Climate Home News.

In the Senate, Democrats won a contested Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Seats in Arizona and Nevada are too close to call. If the Democrats win them both, they keep control of the Senate. If they win neither, then Republicans win control.

As it did  two years ago, the outcome could come down to a runoff in Georgia, where the victor needs an outright majority, on 6 December.

In the House, there’s a lot more still up for grabs.

Whoever ends up on top, Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act is going to be hard to undo.

But Biden has so far failed to get US climate finance up to scratch. Control of Congress would give him some chance of delivering.

Despite the nail-biting back home, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi was in Sharm el-Sheikh today and said that Biden had asked for the release of more climate funds. “We have a responsibility, we made a commitment.”

But, she said, “it is a challenge, and we haven’t succeeded yet, to get the global funding that we need to be good neighbours on this planet”.

Pelosi said it was hard to speak in the midterms on this subject because of “disagreements” between Democrats and Republicans. Some conservative still call climate change “a hoax”.

She brought two planes of US lawmakers with her and not one Republican came. “We have to get over that. I place my confidence in their children to teach them,” she said.

Speaking alongside Pelosi, Kathy Castor warned that the house select committee on the climate crisis – which she chairs – would be scrapped if Republicans win the house.

Latest stories

• Vulnerable nations publish climate spending wish-lists
• John Kerry’s offsets plan sets early test for UN net zero standards
• Vulnerable nations: Tax fossil fuels to rebuild after climate destruction

Investors on the rebound from Russian gas are jeopardising climate targets with a planned 235% increase in LNG capacity by 2030, Climate Action Tracker calculates. If all the proposed terminals are built, the oversupply of gas could emit 1.9Gt CO2e above the International Energy Agency’s net zero scenario. It undermines a handful of improvements in ambition since Glasgow. CAT’s global warming projection remains at 2.7C based on policies and action.

UN drops partnership with fraudster

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) has canceled Team Energy Africa, after Climate Home revealed that one of its coalition partners was led by a convicted fraudster and alleged money launderer.

The initiative aimed to mobilise $500 billion of private sector investment into 250GW of “clean” energy across Africa by 2030. But the involvement of NJ Ayuk, the oil and gas lobbyist in charge of African Energy Chamber, threatened its credibility.

Uneca will review the best way to partner with the private sector to roll out renewables across Africa, it said in a brief statement.

Separately, executive secretary Antonio Pedro clarified Uneca’s position on development. For some developing countries with existing resource and infrastructure, gas “will play a major role in their transition to a net zero future,” he said.

“For all others, developing new fossil fuel infrastructure would result in billions of stranded assets and debt for future generations.”

Climate impacts cost a pandemic a year

Losses and damages caused by climate change are costing Colombia the equivalent to one Covid-19 pandemic each year, shows a government report presented during COP27.

The country is the first in Latin America to quantify the impacts of extreme weather on climate victims and has estimated the costs at around $800 billion each year (4 trillion Colombian pesos), a figure similar to the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

Most of the impacts are associated with wildfires, the report highlights, particularly due to loss of crops and ecosystem services.

Colombia’s environment minister, Susana Muhamad, said future governments from now on will have to face crises year after year and compared the situation to “a dog biting its own tail”, where money is being spent on restoring ecosystems that are being impacted by climate change.

“We need an immediate capacity to react. We cannot wait for the long conversations, committees and definitions (at climate talks), or keep getting indebted,” Muhamad said during the report launch.

 The country is backing a proposal by the group of vulnerable countries to obtain a percentage of debt relief to attend the costs of climate change.

Putting numbers to these impacts is the first step to enter that conversation, which makes Colombia’s report “emblematic” for the region, said Esperanza González, climate change specialist at the Interamerican Development Bank.

As more finance is directed to climate adaptation, the specialist said analyses such as Colombia’s are important to make the case for more loss and damage funds. González said the IDB is supporting similar cost analysis in Peru and Panama.

In brief…

Fossil fuel delegation – 636 oil and gas lobbyists have been registered to attend Cop27, analysis of the provisional list of attendees by NGOs shows. That’s 100 more than attended at Cop26 last year. If they were to form of delegation, it would be larger than any African one. Cop28 host UAE brought 70 delegates with fossil fuel interests – more than any other country.

No peak yet – Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are set to increase 1% in 2022, rebounding slightly after a pandemic-driven drop, the Global Carbon Project predicts. This driven by India (up 6%), the US (1.5%) and international aviation.

Funds for the Amazon – Colombia’s vice-president, Francia Márquez, said she will discuss the creation of a new binational fund to protect the Amazon rainforest in a meeting with Brazil’s likely new environment minister, Marina Silva, at Cop27. “Lula’s win allows the two countries to lead” on a climate and racial justice agenda, Márquez said.

Get your vegan burger – Food outlets at the Lamborghini conference center have cut the price food in half and made water and soft drinks free. Delegates had grumbled at paying $11 for a sandwich.

Congo threat – The pace of deforestation in the Congo basin increased by 5% in 2021, according to Climate Focus. The Congo rainforest is the second-biggest in the world after the Amazon. On Monday, Germany committed to double its cash for forest conservation to €2bn ($2bn) in the period to 2025. Some of the funding is earmarked for the Congo Basin.

Bang for buck – To reduce emissions cost-effectively, philanthropists should focus on areas like clean electricity, electrifying light vehicles, saving peatland, shifting away from meat and cutting methane emissions, Ikea Foundation research says. Public transport, carbon capture and micro-grids offer less bang for buck.

Oil delayed – Equinor has shelved a planned Arctic oil field citing rising costs and supply industry constraints. The Norwegian state oil company is postponing the final investment decision for four years.

The post Cop27 bulletin: Everybody needs good neighbours appeared first on Climate Home News.

China’s Xie Zhenhua told a press briefing Kerry had not asked him directly during their informal meetings. (Relations are still frosty since US house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan “hurt China’s peoples’ feelings”.)

Warning against reopening the Paris Agreement, Xie said China made voluntary contributions through south-south cooperation and was under no obligation to do more.

“We hope…. that we can set up this new mechanism and then we can discuss how to resolve it in a more in depth way,” said Xie.

Meanwhile a few millions of dollars trickling in from the likes of New Zealand and Scotland won’t go far.

This stalemate has vulnerable nations looking for so-called “innovative finance”. That could mean anything from air passenger taxes to debt cancellation.

Barbados’ prime minister Mia Mottley is pushing a levy on fossil fuels – including during a phone call to John Kerry.

“It’s time for the private sector to stand up and we need to hold them accountable”, said Michai Robertson, the small island (Aosis) negotiator on loss and damage, on Wednesday.

Developed nations seem more open to this idea than to another demand on their public finances. Asked about it in a Cop27 press conference, after pausing for a plane to pass overhead, the EU’s Jacob Werksman said “we’re all looking for innovative finance”.

But it’s not going to be easy. Robertson said it was only in the “exploratory phase”. Getting buy-in from petrostates is an obvious obstacle.

Kerry’s offset plan is ‘raw cookie dough’

UN special climate envoy John Kerry came to Cop27 determined to have something to say about how to fund the transition from coal to clean energy.

Perhaps he recognises that the US’ $1 billion in loans for South Africa’s just energy transition deal didn’t cut the mustard. As he prepared for Cop27 the midterms were not looking promising for a climate-friendly majority to pass more support through Congress.

On Wednesday, Kerry sketched out a plan to use carbon credits to finance coal retirement and deploy solar, wind and geothermal energy in developing countries.

Philanthropic groups Rockefeller Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund are interested in the idea and have partnered with the US State Department to put flesh on the bones. It’s being called the Energy Transition Accelerator.

Kerry’s team “worked on this like crazy for a while,” he said. We first reported the idea at the start of November.

Yet the result “is not so much half-baked as it is raw cookie dough,” said Leo Roberts, of E3G’s coal transition team. There are virtually no details.

That makes it difficult to judge against the recommendations of UN chief António Guterres’ greenwashing taskforce, which set high standards for using offsets to meet net zero pledges.

Kerry promised “strong safeguards” and no repeating past mistakes, which allowed dodgy carbon credits to flourish.

A campaigner against the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline confronts an adviser to Japan’s MUFG bank at Cop27. According to 350.org, campaigners asked the bank to say they would not support the pipeline and the bankers replied they could not comment on individual cases. (Photo: 350.org)

In brief…

Distancing – Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) has pulled out of Team Energy Africa, a UN-backed initiative to mobilise private sector energy investments across Africa. The move comes after we reported on the involvement of NJ Ayuk, an oil and gas lobbyist and convicted fraudster.

Should China pay? – After reports that small islands (Aosis) want China to pay into loss and damage, Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister and Aosis lead Gaston Browne told Climate Home: “All polluters, especially large ones, must contribute to the fund.” He added the “differentiated assessment” should include “historical emissions and the current level of development”.

Scramble for green hydrogen – Egypt and Norway have signed a deal to establish a 100 MW green hydrogen plant 100 MW in Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea. Egypt and Belgium also announced a green hydrogen project, Egypt Today reports.

Methane action – China has drawn up a draft national strategy on methane, its climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said at Cop27. The strategy will target the three main source of emissions – energy, agriculture and waste. They will set preliminary targets which are only preliminary because China has “rather weak statistical capability in this area”. He said public leveraged finance would be key.

Congress in balance – The Democrats are doing better than expected in the mid-term elections, winning Senate seats in Pennsylvania. At the time of writing, who will control the two chambers of Congress – the House and Senate – was unclear. Democratic control would improve prospects for climate finance.

Nature gets money – The Climate Investment Fund announced it will deploy over $350m for nature-based solutions, globally, starting in Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Kenya. COP27 host Egypt is set to invest in adaptation of the Nile Delta area, which stands to lose 30% of its food production by 2030 as a result of climate change.

Latin America united – The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC in Spanish) issued a joint call for new climate finance through sovereign funds and debt-for-nature swaps. Colombia’s Environment minister, Susana Muhamad, said debt swaps could help unify the region at climate talks, which is usually divided in two groups: left-leaning Alba nations and right-leaning Ailac.

Petroleum financing – The African Development Bank (AfDB) signed an agreement with OPEC Fund to “to expand their partnership to support sustainable economic and social development”. OPEC has contributed more than $1 billion to projects co-financed by the AfDB.

UK ups adaptation – The UK will provide £200 million ($228m) to the African Development Bank Group’s climate action window, a new mechanism set up for adaptation finance.

Weather watching wonga – Spain has announced it will fund the Systematic Observations Financing Facility, which aims to bring early warning systems to more countries. Norway has increased its donation. The beneficiaries of the facility are mainly African nations or small islands.

The post Cop27 bulletin: Could polluter taxes fund loss and damage? appeared first on Climate Home News.

Njock Ayuk Eyong, better known as NJ Ayuk, is fronting a UN-backed alliance called Team Energy Africa to unlock private investment in “clean” energy, bring electricity to 600 million Africans and spur economic development.

The UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) are behind the initiative.

NJ Ayuk (Pic: Wikimedia Commons)

The Cameroonian-born lawyer describes himself on his website as “an internationally-acclaimed thought leader, lawyer, thinker, speaker and entrepreneur, who advises major companies on corporate strategies with a focus on investing in Africa’s future”.

But behind Ayuk’s slick appearance and gushing marketing prospectus is a murkier past.

In 2007, Ayuk pleaded guilty to illegally using a US congressman’s stationery and signature stamp to obtain visas to the US for 11 people from Cameroon. He was sentenced to 18 months’ probation and expelled from the country.

In connection with law firm Centurion Law Group, which brokers oil and gas deals across the continent, he was investigated for money laundering by Ghana’s central bank.

At Cop27, Ayuk is on a mission for gas deals.

“Drill baby drill: that should be Africa’s message to the world. If you want to solve energy poverty, gas baby gas,” Ayuk told Africa Energy Week in South Africa last month. “We need to go to Cop27, backing up our energy producers. We should not be apologizing for our energy sector.”

Ayuk did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.

Jean Paul Adam, climate director at Uneca, said the commission “is working with a range of private-sector partners to support this initiative. The major focus of these investments will be in renewable energy.”

Tracey Crowe, senior director at SEforAll, said: “We do not support any view that does not champion a sustainable energy transition.”

Today at #COP27 Alaa Abd El Fattah’s sister Sana was speaking at a press briefing addressing the unjust incarceration of her brother and demanding his immediate release
She was confronted directly by an Egyptian government rep who had to be escorted out by UN security #FreeAlaa pic.twitter.com/Xm28c9IHKy

— Dharini (@dharinipart) November 8, 2022

An Egyptian lawmaker was escorted away by UN security after confronting Sanaa Seif, sister of imprisoned activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, at a press conference. Amr Darwish, a real estate businessman and youth coordinator for the government, harangued her in Arabic and denied that el-Fattah was a political prisoner.

Greenwash-busters, assemble!

The wild west of corporate net zero targets now has set of laws – well guidelines. And Big Oil’s marketing departments aren’t going to like them.

In a packed-out meeting room in Sharm el-Sheikh, self-described “recovering politician” Catherine McKenna laid out the findings of her 16-person, globe-spanning panel on what net zero means for corporations, cities and regions.

“You cannot be a net zero leader while continuing to build or invest in fossil fuel supply”, she said, to applause from the audience. That rules out every oil major and a lot of banks and pension funds.

The report had been commissioned by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres and he came along to bless the findings.

After shaking hands with the panel members in the front row, he said: “Using bogus ‘net-zero’ pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion is reprehensible. It is rank deception. This toxic cover-up could push our world over the climate cliff. The sham must end.”

No wonder McKenna introduced him as “the best plain talker on climate that I know”.

The taskforce set other stringent rules: reduce emissions before you buy offsets, set interim targets and don’t lobby (either directly or through a trade association) against climate action.

So if a company like Shell wants to get the UN’s seal of approval for its net zero alignment then it must stop investing in new fossil fuels and leave groups like the American Petroleum Institute.

One sharply-suited man in the audience was overheard to say: “It’s going to be hard for my people. We will be out of compliance.” Perhaps that’s the best endorsement the taskforce could get.

Global finance reforms gain momentum

No nation has suffered more from climate disaster this year than Pakistan, where floods have killed and displaced thousands. But, as Pakistan’s pavilion warns in bold letters: “What happens in Pakistan won’t stay in Pakistan.”

The country’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday: “Imagine on one hand we have to cater for our food security for the common man by spending billions of dollars and on the other we have to spend billions of dollars to protect flood affected people from further miseries and difficulties. How on earth can one expect from us that we will undertake this gigantic task on our own?”

Barbados’ Mia Mottley said countries should not have to choose between education, health and reconstruction. She called the inclusion of loss and damage on the official agenda a “significant achievement. One that we have been fighting for for many years”.

South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa threw his weight behind Mottley’s Bridgetown Agenda. “Multilateral development banks (MDBs) and institutions need to transform,” he said. “At present multilateral support is out of reach for the majority of the world’s population due to funding that is risk averse as well as conditionalities.”

That’s a reference to the Indonesian G20-led review of MDBs’ “capital adequacy framework”. That controls how much they invest and how much they keep in the bank just in case. The review said the ratio should shifted to the former. If that was spent on the climate, it would be a game-changer.

On Sunday, the MDBs joint statement asked for “more lending capacity”, which was interpreted as an endorsement of the review.

Fact check of the day

Climate envoy from the world’s biggest historical emitter John Kerry, on the missing climate money from rich countries:

“Everyone is upset that the $100bn has not been fulfilled.”

“Its at $90-something…when I got 90-something on a test at school I felt pretty good.”#COP27 pic.twitter.com/efZ42qrvK7

— Josh Gabbatiss (@Josh_Gabbatiss) November 8, 2022

US climate envoy John Kerry said yesterday: “Everyone is upset that the $100bn has not been fulfilled. “Its at $90-something… when I got 90-something on a test at school I felt pretty good.”

He was talking about the $100 billion climate finance target, set in 2009, was not a maximum level to be aimed at like a test score.

It was the rich world’s promise to developing countries to help them deal with a crisis they barely caused. Lots of climate action by developing countries depends on it. So does goodwill.

Unlike a test score, it is in developed countries’ power to meet the target. They can just sign the cheques. Although the US’s separation of powers means the president needs congressional support for some spending.

Climate finance is also not at “$90-something”. According to the OECD’s statistics, it was at $83.3 billion in 2020. The US is responsible for the vast majority of that shortfall.

If you exclude money from the private sector which governments take credit for, known as “mobilised private finance”, it was $68.3 billion.

Oxfam calculates the real figure at more like $21-24.5 billion. Rich countries count concessional loans at face value. Oxfam argues they should only take credit for the added value compared to a commercial loan.

To extend the dodgy analogy, a score in the twenties would have got Kerry kicked out of Yale.

In brief…

Adaptation agenda – The Cop27 presidency has released a set of 2030 goals which form the “adaptation agenda”. They include adaptation finance, access to clean cooking, early warning systems and investing $4 billion to secure the future of 15 million hectares of mangroves.

Loss and damage pledge – Austria has pledged €50m ($50m) for “loss and damage” over the next four years, the climate minister Leonore Gewessler tweeted.

Free Alaa – UK prime minister Rishi Sunak raised the case of political prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who stopped drinking water on Sunday, with Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during a bilateral meeting, the UK said. Egypt’s readout does not mention the issue. His sister Sanaa Seif pleaded for his release at Cop27 during an overcrowded event Tuesday.

Midterms misinformation – Amazon has made campaign contributions worth $138,000 to 25 climate deniers standing in the US midterm elections, journalist Michael Thomas reports. The e-commerce giant positions itself as a climate leader. The outcome of Tuesday’s poll will affect how far Congress supports climate action.

Africa’s renewable leader – Germany wants to help Kenya get from 90% renewables to 100%, its BMZ development ministry says. The two countries have announced a partnership at Cop27, with the details to be fleshed out in December. After Kenya’s power needs are met, it can use the electricity to make green hydrogen, BMZ said.

The post Cop27 bulletin: Meet Africa’s biggest gas fan appeared first on Climate Home News.

Denmark and Costa Rica jointly launched the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (Boga) at last year’s Cop26 climate summit along with six other core members. This “group of first movers” committed to phase out or rule out fossil fuel development in their countries. Historically, this topic has been taboo at the UN climate negotiations.

After a change in government in early 2022, the alliance is not a priority for Cop27, said Franz Tattenbach, the Central American country’s newly appointed environment minister. 

“Costa Rica will not be very active in Boga… I don’t think this is a great example. Costa Rica will not lead by saying ‘we are in Boga’. Costa Rica has much more to teach (the world) than by saying ‘we are banning this’,” said Tattenbach during a press briefing on Tuesday.

“It’s more interesting to stop deforestation in the Amazon, in tropical Africa and in Latin America in general. That can do more to stop climate change and it serves us better. That doesn’t mean we will exit Boga, but we won’t have a leading voice.”

China, India set to snub Cop27 leaders’ climate summit

Denmark, on the other hand, arrives at Cop27 after a general election on 1 November renewed support for Mette Frederiksen’s centre-left bloc. Frederiksen’s government banned new fossil fuel exploration in the North Sea and committed to phase out production by 2050.  

Mattias Soderberg, chief advisor at the humanitarian Danish NGO DanChurchAid, said the election results would not affect Denmark’s stance on climate. “Boga is a priority for all parties apart from two small right wing parties,” he told Climate Home News.

The founders recruited three national governments — France, Sweden, Ireland —  and three subnational governments – Quebec, Greenland and Wales as core members. Six others tentatively joined as “associate members” or “friends of Boga”.

Energy crisis

While the Glasgow Pact made an unprecedented call for a coal power “phasedown”, oil and gas have never been explicitly named in official UN climate negotiation outcomes. Boga sought to start that conversation, former Costa Rican environment minister Andrea Meza said during the alliance’s launch. 

Since Boga’s inception, Russia’s war in Ukraine sparked an energy crisis in Europe, prompting nations to look for alternatives to Russian imports. Along with 16 gas-exporting countries, Cop27 host Egypt vowed to push fossil gas as a “perfect solution” to the energy crisis.

In response to the “upended” oil and gas markets, Boga issued a statement calling for governments to keep their climate commitments at Cop27 and for “greater financial and technical capacity” from developed countries to support developing nations in their energy transition.

“We accept that limited increases in production from existing oil and gas capacity may be necessary in the current context. But issuing new oil and gas licenses for fields that will take years to come online will do nothing to solve the current crisis,” reads the statement.

Cop27 movers and shakers: Nine people shaping the climate agenda

A recent report by the International Energy Agency projected that fossil fuel demand is likely to peak this decade thanks to rising gas prices and accelerated renewable energy rollouts.

Adrián Martínez, director of Costa Rican NGO La Ruta del Clima, argued the change in government priorities was a missed opportunity.

“Costa Rica depends on other countries with large hydrocarbon reserves and on their decision to stop using them and leave them on the ground. Not fomenting this action puts us in danger, given we’re in one of the most climate vulnerable regions in the world,” Martinez said. 

Costa Rica banned fossil fuel exploration and extraction in 2002 by executive order and subsequent governments extended the ban until 2050. Tattenbach said his administration currently has no plans to change this, but has previously suggested it could be an option.

The post Costa Rica backs away from leading oil and gas phaseout coalition appeared first on Climate Home News.

Shortly after coming to power, Joe Biden ordered his national security adviser Jake Sullivan to put together a report on “options for protection and resettlement” for those displaced by climate change.

But eight months later, the report was released. Its most concrete recommendation was to form an interagency working group on climate and migration. This group has yet to meet.

In September 2022, the leaders of 14 US NGOs called on Biden to give a priority status, known as P2, to hurricane and drought victims from Honduras and Guatemala. But his administration has so far ignored these calls.

Two weeks ago, the urgency of providing climate migration routes was reinforced when tropical storm Julia hit Central America.

It killed at least 54 people and affected nearly a million. With their homes destroyed, many of these people are looking for a new life. While most move within their country, some have headed north towards the US.

Helder López is a lawyer from the Honduran village of El Cubulero in a poor, usually dry part of the country. He told Climate Home that about a quarter of the village had flooded.

A flooded home in El Cubulero (Photo: Helder López )

When the storm hit, he and his family sheltered on the top floor of their house along with neighbours who didn’t have a second floor.

Downstairs, everything flooded. The night felt long and darker than usual, he says, as a result of the electricity blackouts, which are still ongoing in several places.

Not everyone was as lucky as him, he says. Hundreds fled to shelters as their homes flooded. At least 200 of the village’s cows were killed. Entire fields of corn, which would have been turned into tortillas, were destroyed. 

Fields of corn were destroyed by the storm. (Photo: Helder Lopez)

“These losses are huge”, López said, “getting back up again will have to happen slowly, the impact on the local economy is high. Frankly, it’s worrying. Now that [the villagers] capital was reduced, they’ll have to adapt and find how they can get back up again”.

Many times, getting back up means leaving, he says. In El Cubulero, job opportunities are scarce and, with their crops ruined, many residents leave for the US and send back money to help their families.

In Central America, this is common. In Honduras, about 26% of the GDP is from Hondurans sending money from abroad. The figures are similar for El Salvador and Guatemala.

But both getting to and staying in the US is difficult and dangerous. Without high levels of wealth or education or family in the US, the main legal route is through temporary work visas.

Small island states to propose ‘response fund’ for climate victims at Cop27

This year, the US opened 65,000 new temporary work visas for “unskilled workers” -with 20,000 reserved for Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

But Lopez said it’s difficult for people in his village to access these visas. “How are they asking for a person in a rural village, where there’s high illiteracy, to speak English? It’s incongruent”, he said.

Without (and sometimes with) visas, many Central American migrants, particularly women, face a dangerous journey to the US. Human rights organizations estimate that between 60 to 80% of women face sexual violence as they migrate.

If caught at the US border, they face detention by US authorities. Ricardo Pineda, director of the climate NGO Sustena Honduras, told Climate Home that “even now” these detention facilities are “similar to concentration camps”.

South Africa approves $8.5bn energy transition investment plan

Pineda said that Biden’s promise to resettle migrants affected by extreme weather was “very valuable”, but added “it’s getting late” to attend the needs of Central American climate refugees.

The Biden administration “is falling behind with this urgent matter,” Pineda said. “Attending to climate migration will require larger compromises and larger investments to increase resilience among countries. That will require more cooperation,” he added. 

Kayly Ober, from the US-based NGO Refugees International, told Climate Home: “Our team was just in Guatemala this past week and people that had family abroad to send remittances after [hurricanes] Eta and Iota faired better than those that didn’t.”

She added: “We’re hoping that the Biden administration will make good on their promise to explore pathways in the context of climate change, although we have yet to see much movement on that front. ”

The Biden administration is about to make a decision on whether to extend “temporary protected status” to Hondurans in the US.

If they don’t, around 60,000 Hondurans who have lived in the US for more than 20 years will have to leave the US or be deported, Ober said.

The post Joe Biden’s abandoned climate migrant reforms leave hurricane victims stranded appeared first on Climate Home News.

Her life and 70-year reign spanned the decline of the British Empire and drastic changes in the climate.

At her birth in 1926, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide were 306 parts per million. At her death, the figure was 418ppm.

Global average temperatures rose by nearly 1C. In the second half of her reign, scientific consensus solidified around the causes of climate change and threat it posed to humanity.

As a constitutional monarch, the Queen served a ceremonial role and rarely made her opinions public. Yet as one of the longest serving heads of state of all time, she had a front row seat for the major events of the twentieth and early twenty-first century.

There are few countries she did not visit and few world leaders, whether popular heroes or oppressive dictators, she did not meet.

At last year’s Cop26 summit in Glasgow, UK, she called for climate action not words. In unusually personal comments, she spoke of how important the issue was to her deceased husband, her son – now the king – and grandson.

The post Timeline: The climate crisis through Queen Elizabeth II’s life and reign appeared first on Climate Home News.

In a referendum, the South American nation rejected the proposed constitution by 62% to 38% in favour. Voting was mandatory.

As home to the world’s largest reserves of lithium, a key component of batteries for electric vehicles, Chile is of strategic importance in the global clean energy transition. This comes with social and environmental tradeoffs.

National analysts said the rejection was a “gigantic missed opportunity” to regulate the mining sector in a greener and fairer way. The result leaves Chile with fewer tools to face climate shocks, they said, such as an ongoing 13-year-long megadrought in the central part of the country.

“It’s a gigantic missed opportunity to advance in environmental ethics and a more ecological society,” said former senator Guido Girardi, of the center-left Party for Democracy. Girardi added that this decision must not obstruct climate action going forward.

President Gabriel Boric, who supported the new constitution, said in a statement that the result was an “overwhelming message” of dissatisfaction with the proposal. He plans to push for an improved text, he said.

Chileans look to new constitution to return water to communities

More than 15 million people were registered to cast a compulsory vote, after a two-year redrafting process. The existing constitution was written in 1980 by Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.

The proposed update significantly expanded environmental rights in the country. It placed limits on the mining industry, such as a prohibition on mining near glaciers, protected areas and drought-prone regions.

It declared Chile an “ecological” state, recognized nature as a subject of rights, ordered the state to take actions against the climate crisis and abandoned the term “natural resources” to use “natural common goods” instead.

“There is a very potent influence of the latest climate and environmental science in this text,” said Chilean lawyer, Felipe Pino, from the environmental law NGO FIMA. In contrast, the Pinochet-era text allows for extractive practices such as the privatisation of water sources and mining in sensitive areas. 

After years of discontent, the country erupted in massive protests in 2019. In 2020, the nation voted to convene a constitutional convention, with unprecedented participation of indigenous people, scientists and women.

Disinformation played a major role leading up to the vote. Viral images circulated on WhatsApp falsely claiming the proposal would erase private healthcare and education and criminalise the consumption of meat. “Debate has not centered around the actual content of the document,” Pino said.

Colombia’s new president calls for debt swap to protect the Amazon

The rejection of the constitutional draft creates a lot of uncertainty, said Pamela Poo, a political scientist from Chilean network No Sin Mujeres.  

Tensions have risen in recent weeks and there could be protests supporting a new constitutional convention, both Pino and Poo said.

In the lead-up to the vote, supporters of the “reject” movement clashed with backers of the new constitution in Santiago, the country’s capital. In Congress, a right-wing legislator punched the vice president of the Chamber of Deputies just days before the plebiscite.

President Boric invited legislators to meet and discuss the “continuation of the constitutional process”. But the exact way this could happen is unclear.

Brazil election: Lula challenges Bolsonaro’s deforestation record, backs oil development

US-based bank Wells Fargo published a report predicting “a weaker Chilean peso through the end of 2022 and over the entire course of next year”, due to the high political uncertainty. 

Given its control over key minerals, Chile can still lead on climate action under the current constitution, said former senator Girardi. “Chile’s resources, its nature belongs to the world. The country can help to face the biggest crisis in humanity’s future.”

Chile exports most of its lithium to South Korea, China and Japan. It is also the world’s top copper producer, an important metal for electrification. 

The constitutional proposal would have limited some of these issues by granting more participation rights to local communities and setting limits to mining in sensitive regions, Poo said. “Now there are no elements to place limits and have a more balanced development between nature and economic growth.”

Poo added that the Pinochet-era constitution leaves the country “totally vulnerable” to climate impacts like drought. “With the 80’s constitution, there is no possibility of fundamentally changing the situation,” she said.

The post ‘Gigantic missed opportunity’: Chile rejects green constitution appeared first on Climate Home News.

The shrinking water levels can even be seen from space. An analysis of satellite imagery by Climate Home News, with the support from the monitoring platform Planet, shows significant impacts to freshwater ecosystems around the world.

“What we have experienced this summer is what climate scientists tell us is going to happen in the future. This summer matches the predictions that we have for a hotter, drier future,” said Christine Colvin, advocacy director of the nonprofit The Rivers Trust.

Climate change is now becoming one of the “key drivers” of degrading freshwater ecosystems worldwide, according to the latest report by the UN’s panel of climate scientists. These ecosystems are fundamental for water access.

In China’s case, a month-long heatwave preceded the country’s worst drought in history. In a matter of weeks, some of the Asian country’s largest water bodies began to shrink, leading to economic and even cultural impacts.

“We are clearly witnessing the impacts of climate change,” said Wenjian Zhang, WMO assistant secretary-general.The situation in China is “complex”, he said, and has tested the country’s disaster prevention and relief work.

Although many of these water bodies —such as Lake Poyang— drop seasonally, this year’s drought was the worst in recorded history, Chinese officials said.

Attribution to climate change can be different depending on the region and can only be determined by conducting local studies, said Andrew Hoell, co-lead of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Drought Task Force.

However, Hoell added that “almost all regions of the globe have observed a trend to increasing temperatures that have led to more intense and longer duration heat events.”

In Europe, for example, the UK’s heatwave would have been almost impossible without current climate change, which has already warmed the planet by 1,2°C. After this event, drought was declared in large parts of the country.

Along the same lines, Europe’s Global Drought Observatory stated in its August report that low precipitation levels combined with “a sequence of heatwaves from May onwards”. As a result, water levels dropped in some major European rivers such as the Rhine in Germany, the Loire in France and the Tagus in Portugal.

In the Rhine, for example, some parts of the river were running at 45% of their average level for August, said Germany’s Federal Institute of Hydrology. Cargo ships were forced to carry lighter loads, increasing transport costs.

The impacts were even more significant because most of the continent’s wetlands were also depleted, said Colvin. This has left many freshwater ecosystems without their natural “buffer areas,” she added.

The post Seen from space: Extreme drought dries up rivers across the globe appeared first on Climate Home News.

Former leftist president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, leads the polls against the current president Jair Bolsonaro, who is seeking reelection. More than 156 million people are registered to vote on 2 October for the first electoral round.

Despite Bolsonaro’s destructive policies towards the Amazon rainforest, both he and Lula have incorporated proposals to halt deforestation, in an effort to attract concerned voters.

More than in previous years, the climate crisis has become a significant voter priority for this election, analysts told Climate Home News.

The South American country of 212 million people is the world’s sixth largest greenhouse gas emitter and home to most of the Amazon rainforest, which has experienced rising deforestation and extreme wildfires in the last four years.

Colombia’s new president calls for debt swap to protect the Amazon

In the case of all major candidates, avoiding climate action in their plans would be a “political suicide”, given the global and national context, said Thales Castro, head of the Political Science Program at the Catholic University of Pernambuco (Unicap).

Bolsonaro’s government plan proposes the use of green bonds and carbon credits to finance emissions reductions, as well as hiring 6,000 firefighters to control extreme wildfires.

The document says he’ll seek to accelerate “actions to reduce” emissions, and adds that Brazil can be a “provider of climate solutions and establishing itself as a world leader in a global green supply chain”.

But Bolsonaro’s deforestation record and his support for large agribusiness show that these proposals cannot be taken seriously, said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the climate NGO coalition Observatório do Clima.

Under his term, deforestation in the Amazon rose to a 12-year high. After this data was revealed by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, he denied it and sacked the head of the space agency.

Lula has a more positive conservation record as president 2003-2011, but if elected will face the challenge of undoing some of Bolsonaro’s legislation, said Cynthia Suassuna, climate policy researcher at Unicap. For example, a “land-grab” bill that legitimises squatters who raze Amazon rainforest for cattle ranches or soy plantations, which has passed the lower house of parliament and is on the government priority list for a Senate vote before the election.

The former president’s platform includes strengthening environmental institutions weakened by Bolsonaro’s presidency, providing “green” farm loans and meeting Brazil’s Paris Agreement goals.

On fossil fuels, Lula – like Bolsonaro – supports increasing production. His plan calls for development of the “pre-salt”, an abundant reserve of high quality petroleum found near Brazil’s shores.

“It’s necessary to expand the production capacity of (petroleum) derivatives in Brazil, taking advantage of the great wealth of the pre-salt, with prices that take into account the production costs in Brazil,” Lula’s plan reads.

Thanks to its abundant hydropower capacity, Brazil has a relatively clean electricity, with fossil fuels representing only 12% of the generation mix. However, Brazil is a major oil exporter and Latin America’s top producer.

The post Brazil election: Lula challenges Bolsonaro’s deforestation record, backs oil development appeared first on Climate Home News.