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.

That’s the question being asked at the UN headquarters in New York. Mexican diplomat Patricia Espinosa is stepping down as head of UN Climate Change in July after a six-year stint.

Discussions for her replacement have been slow to get going. The job ad for her successor was posted on the UN website on Friday, leaving just over a month for governments to put their candidates forward before the 24 June deadline.

Applicants will need to demonstrate senior leadership experience, “strategic vision and an intimate understanding” of climate and development issues. Ministerial experience is a plus. The job is based at the UN Climate Change headquarters in Bonn, Germany, and the salary is $207,000, according to the latest UN pay grid.

With previous executive secretaries from Europe and Latin America, there is a push for African and Asian candidates to be given a chance. Female applicants are “especially welcome,” the advert stipulates.

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UN chief António Guterres has been a vocal promoter of women’s leadership. Capitals will lobby and his deputy Amina Mohammed is understood to have influence over the process. Ultimately, the decision lies with him.

This is a tough job. The successful candidate will need to steer international climate efforts through a critical decade of action for meeting global climate goals.

They will “need to start building a new architecture of accountability,” one senior source close to the UN told Climate Home News.

Managing the transition from focusing on negotiations to implementation will be essential. “That is a huge organisational challenge. Ideally you will need someone with direct experience of delivery beyond the world of diplomacy,” said Kaveh Guilanpour, veteran climate adviser.

In no particular order, here are nine runners and riders.

Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya – Rwanda

Rwanda’s environment minister Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya (Photo: Rwanda’s ministry of enviornment/Flickr)

Rwanda’s environment minister has a strong diplomatic record and longstanding ministerial experience. Her name comes up a lot in climate circles as a potential successor to Espinosa.

At the Cop26 climate talks, she co-led ministerial discussions to align countries’ climate plans over a common time period. More recently, she jointly and successfully proposed a resolution for a plastic pollution treaty at the UN Environment Assembly.

She studied physical chemistry in Russia and holds a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology-IIT Roorkee. 

Before her appointment at the environment ministry in November 2019, Mujawamariya served as Rwanda’s ambassador to Russia, and the country’s education and subsequently gender minister. 

She is fluent in English, French and Russian.

Yasmine Fouad –  Egypt

Yasmine Fouad, environment minister for Egypt (Pic: IISD/ENB)

Environment minister Yasmine Fouad was assigned “ministerial coordinator and envoy” for Cop27, the climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh this November – a role she would have to quit to step into Espinosa’s shoes.

While the government gave her the junior role to foreign minister Sameh Shoukry’s presidency of the Cop, Fouad has ample climate and UN experience.

A climate scientist by background, Fouad was a lead author on a chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on desertification in 2017.

She was made deputy environment minister in 2014, when she supported the Egyptian president as coordinator of the committee of African heads of states for climate change (CAHOSCC), before her promotion to minister in 2018.

Fouad has worked with several UN organisations including the Green Climate Fund, the Global Environment Facility and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on implementing development and climate projects in Egypt.

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane – South Africa

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South African minister of women, youth and persons with disabilities (Photo: GCIS/Government ZA/Flickr)

South Africa’s minister of women, youth and persons with disabilities has been a vocal advocate for gender-responsive climate policy.

She has been a minister for 13 years, serving on the international relations and cooperation portfolio for nine years. During that time, South Africa became a member of the group of emerging economies known as Brics (together with Brazil, Russia, India and China).

In 2011, Nkoana-Mashabane presided over Cop17 in Durban, one of the latest running UN climate summits on record. Countries agreed on a roadmap to a global climate treaty (which became the Paris Agreement) and established the Green Climate Fund.

Some sources that have worked with her describe her as “a superb candidate”.

But campaigners are not impressed by her record. Nkoana-Mashabane’s support for disgraced president Jacob Zuma, who is facing corruption charges, could play against her.

Sharon Ikeazor – Nigeria

Sharon Ikeazor, Nigeria’s minister of environment (Photo: IISD/ENB/Kiara Worth)

As Nigeria’s environment minister, Ikeazor oversaw a pioneering climate bill to set annual carbon budgets towards net zero emissions by 2060.

Sam Onuigbo, a Nigerian lawmaker who sponsored the bill, described her as “a goal getter and a result-oriented leader”.

Her ministerial term comes to an end in 2023 and she may want to line up the next job.

Before her appointment in 2019, Ikeazor was a lawyer with several national and international banks. She worked for Shell in Nigeria in the early 1990s before establishing her own legal practice.

She continued to provide legal advice to the oil and gas sector in Nigeria before entering politics in 2011.

She is a champion for women’s leadership and founded an NGO to give internally displaced women interest-free loans to start small-scale businesses.

Naoko Ishii – Japan

Naoko Ishii, executive director of the Institute for Future Initiative and former CEO of the Global Enviornment Facility (Photo: IISD/ENB/ Kiara Worth)

Ishii has extensive experience of working with UN organisations on climate and development finance, making her a strong candidate for Asia.

She was elected CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility in 2012 and led the grant-giving organisation for eight years until September 2020.

Before joining the GEF, she served as Japan’s deputy vice minister of finance and negotiated the design of the Green Climate Fund. She held positions at the World Bank, the IMF and the Harvard Institute for International Development.

She serves as the executive vice president of the Institute for Future Initiative and the director of the Center for Global Commons  at the University of Tokyo.

She is a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an ambassador for the Food and Land Use Coalition.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati – Indonesia 

Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia’s finance minister (Photo: Asian Development Bank/Flickr)

An economist by training, Indrawati has served as Indonesia’s finance minister since 2016 – a role she previously occupied 2005-2010.

She resigned as finance minister in 2010 when she was appointed managing director of the World Bank group. She was credited with steering Indonesia’s economy through the 2008 financial crisis by driving investments – although lawmakers raised concerns over “suspicious and possibly fraudulent transactions” during the bailout period.

Indrawati has a solid grasp of the development and finance challenges the developing world is facing.

During the Cop13 climate talks in Bali in 2007, she brought development and finance ministers into the climate tent for the first time. This led to the creation of the “Bali breakfasts”, a series of annual meetings with the World Bank, the IMF and ministers.

She serves as the co-chair of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action.

Teresa Ribera – Spain

Teresa Ribera, Spain’s minister for the ecological transition (Photo: IISD/ENB/ Kiara Worth)

Ribera is widely seen as having some of the most relevant experience to take on the role as head of UN Climate Change.

Climate adviser Guilanpour told Climate Home the Spanish jurist and deputy prime minister “ticks all the boxes”. 

Under her leadership, the Spanish government stepped in to host the Cop25 climate talks in 2019 with just one month’s notice after Chile withdrew because of social unrest in Santiago. She supported the Chilean presidency in clinching a deal, albeit an underwhelming one, two days into overtime.

As minister for the ecological transition, Ribera reached an agreement with Spanish unions to close coal mines as part of an energy transition investment package. She previously headed Paris-based environmental thinktank Iddri.

Her move to Bonn would be a win for the UN and a loss for Spain. However, developing countries may not want to see a European in the top climate job.

Catherine McKenna – Canada 

Catherine McKenna at a technology conference, 2019 (Pic: Sam Barnes/Collision via Sportsfile)

McKenna, Canada’s former environment and infrastructure and communities minister, left politics last year to spend more time on “[her] kids and the climate”.

In March, she was appointed to chair Guterres’ anti-greenwash squad which is tasked with presenting recommendations by Cop27 for ensuring the environmental integrity of companies, cities and regions’ net zero commitments. But as one source put it, “nothing is permanent”.

McKenna is well known in the international climate community. She signed the Paris Agreement on behalf of Canada and jointly spearheaded the Powering Past Coal Alliance.

But she may be more valuable to Guterres on his net zero expert group.

Selwin Hart – Barbados 

Selwin Hart, special adviser to the UN secretary-general on climate action (Photo: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS/OEA/Flickr)

Hart was appointed UN special adviser to the secretary-general on climate action and just transition at the start of 2020.

A former chief climate negotiator for Barbados and a lead negotiator on finance for the Alliance of Small Island Developing States (Aosis), Hart led the UN team that helped deliver the 2014 UN Climate Summit in New York.

He previously served as the executive director for the Caribbean region at the Inter-American Development Bank and as a climate advisor to the Caribbean Development Bank.

Hart has no experience in a ministerial role and sources told Climate Home that will play against him. Plus the last two executive secretary of UN Climate Change have come from the group of Latin America and Caribbean countries. But his proximity to Guterres gives Hart a shot.

The post Who will replace Patricia Espinosa as the UN climate chief? appeared first on Climate Home News.

A stalemate emerged on Thursday evening at a meeting of the 11-member UN Climate Change bureau on how to proceed with preparatory negotiations ahead of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, UK, in November. Members agreed to consult further and defer a decision to the next meeting at the end of March.

The biggest resistance to holding talks online comes from the “like-minded” group of middle-income countries, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting. Among them, representatives of Iran and Pakistan asked for more time to consult with their governments over how to proceed.

India told a UK Cop26 briefing this month that “virtual negotiations should not replace in-person negotiations”, citing the risk of “disadvantages to many, many developing countries”.

The main objection is that poor internet connections could make it hard for negotiators in developing countries to fully participate. Time zone differences are also an issue, as some participants will have to work in the middle of the night.

While negotiators have held consultations and informal discussions on some key issues, no formal talks have been held since December 2019 in Madrid, Spain.

China, US urged to step up as UN warns world ‘very far’ from meeting climate goals

Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ghana, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Switzerland and the European Union wrote to the secretariat supporting interim talks to take place in June “if necessary, in [a] virtual format”.

In a letter dated 25 February and seen by Climate Home News, they expressed “concerns with the current pace of progress in our deliberations”.

“Whilst virtual deliberations are never the preferred option, they are our only option to reach successful conclusions of our negotiations in Glasgow. In doing so, we must do all we can to uphold the principles of inclusivity, transparency, and representation,” they wrote.

This could include leaving time between negotiations to allow for groups to coordinate and holding deliberations over a variety of time zones to avoid favouring one regional group over another, they said.

The interim talks which happen every year between UN climate summits are usually held in Bonn, Germany, where UN Climate Change is headquartered.

Initially scheduled for June 2020, the meeting was tentatively moved to October 2020 because of the pandemic, before being postponed again to unspecified dates this spring.

This meeting is expected to make progress on the last unresolved issues of the Paris Agreement rulebook, which are three years overdue. Climate diplomats have yet to agree the rules of a new global carbon market, the transparency framework for reporting emission reductions and a common timeframe for countries’ climate plans.

Bangladesh scraps nine coal power plants as overseas finance dries up

Earlier this month, UN chief António Guterres urged negotiators to adapt, arguing the climate crisis was too urgent to delay talks any further. He instructed officials to make UN regional hubs available for negotiators to access stable internet connection.

In a letter to chairs of the negotiating groups, UN Climate Change executive secretary Patricia Espinosa said the secretariat had “made every effort to support parties in maximising progress and minimising delay” since the start of the pandemic.

It remained “committed to facilitating transparent and inclusive intergovernmental negotiations towards a successful outcome at Cop26,” she said.

In a briefing note sent to countries ahead of the meeting, the secretariat summarised solutions used by other UN bodies to continue to make progress, including through hybrid summits, streamlined agendas for online sessions and detailed guidance to facilitate decision-making in virtual formats.

Carlos Fuller, climate negotiator for Belize, told Climate Home he was confident preliminary talks would happen virtually in June and that the secretariat would overcome existing concerns.

“The only challenge is how to capture outcomes,” he said, adding that a preferred option would be for any decisions to happen in person.

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Richard Klein, senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, is part of a small group of researchers asking what it would take to move climate negotiations partly or fully online.

“I think it’s feasible but not sure it’s feasible this year,” Klein told Climate Home. On a technical level, issues around connectivity are challenging but can be resolved while time differences remain “one of the biggest hurdles”.

It is as much a political issue as a practical one. The “like-minded” countries that have opposed virtual talks “turn up to Cops with very large delegations that gives them an advantage and a power that is not as visible if the sessions are held online,” Klein said.

Ultimately, moving negotiations online should make the process “better, more inclusive, more transparent and more effective,” he added.

The project, which is funded by the Swedish ministry of environment, takes a longer view than Cop26 and is expected to present a final report in June.

Fragile countries call for investment in rooftop solar to expand energy access

Uncertainty over interim talks will raise further questions over the fate of Cop26, due to be held in Glasgow, UK, on 1-12 November.

The UK organisers maintain they plan to hold in-person negotiations in Glasgow. Responding to questions from UK lawmakers on Wednesday, Cop26 president designate Alok Sharma said his team was “taking into account contingencies”.

Asked how he would ensure that every nation is able to fully participate, Sharma repeated the UK wanted to make the event “the most inclusive Cop ever” but dodged a question about whether vaccination will be required of delegates.

Access to vaccines is raising growing concerns among developing country diplomats, who want to know whether Covid-19 jabs will be a prerequisite to attending Cop26.

Antigua and Barbuda’s UN ambassador Walton Webson has previously warned Sharma that UK and UN organisers needed to ensure negotiators from developing countries have “an equitable opportunity to be vaccinated ahead of Cop26” if the meeting is to be held in person.

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Patricia Espinosa warned that the collective ambition of national plans by the end of 2020 was “very far” from putting the world on track to meet its Paris Agreement goals of limiting global heating to “well below 2C” and strive for 1.5C.

Her comments were based on analysis published by UN Climate Change on Friday of national climate plans submitted before 31 December 2020. Only 75 countries, including EU member states, met the deadline for updating their plans, accounting for about 30% of global emissions.

Their combined plans achieve less than 1% emissions reductions by 2030 compared to 2010 levels, Espinosa said. “And that simply is not good enough”.

“The message is extremely clear,” she told reporters. “We are collectively wondering into a minefield, blindfolded. The next step would mean disaster.”

Espinosa urged major emitters to “step up” and commit to “much more radical” emissions reductions cuts this year. China, the US and India – the world’s top three emitting countries – have yet to reveal their plans.

“I call on all parties, even on those who have submitted already their new updated [climate plans], to look at how they can increase their ambition. If this task was already urgent, it is crucial now,” she said.

Bangladesh scraps nine coal power plants as overseas finance dries up

The report found that new commitments would shave off 2.8% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with previous pledges.

The projected impact of these new plans is an emissions reduction of just 0.7% compared with 1990 and 0.5% from 2010 levels. In the shorter term, emissions would rise by 2% between 1990 and 2025.

Leading scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have said emissions should fall 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 to limit temperatures to 1.5C by the end of the century.

“This report confirms the shocking lack of urgency, and genuine action,” said Aubrey Webson, of Antigua and Barbuda, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States. “We are flirting dangerously with the 1.5C warming limit that the world agreed we need to stay within. It is small island developing states like ours that will pay the ultimate price if we do not.”

UN chief António Guterres described the report as “a red alert” for the planet and urged nations to match their long-term ambition with short-term action. Cop26 president designate Alok Sharma, of the UK, backed the call for major emitters to submit ambitious 2030 targets this year.

Despite the opportunity offered by the Covid-19 recovery to put climate action at the heart of stimulus packages, “many nations are sticking to their business as usual approach,” Espinosa said. “It is a rare moment that cannot be lost.”

Fragile countries call for investment in rooftop solar to expand energy access

While countries were expected to submit improved national contributions to meet the Paris goals – known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – before the end of 2020, fewer than half did so. Many nations experienced delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In total, 113 countries are yet to submit updated climate plans.

Among large emitters, the EU, the UK and Argentina stepped up their climate ambition last year. And overall, the report points to an improvement in the quality of countries’ climate goals.

More countries are adopting absolute emissions reduction targets, with most climate plans covering all sectors of the economy.

But a number of big emitters have failed to improve their plans. Brazil and Mexico even backslid on their commitments, with emissions set to rise compared to their previous plans, according to Climate Action Tracker.

Its analysis found that Australia, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland and Vietnam have submitted plans that do not add up to deeper emissions cuts.  Japan and New Zealand did not improve on their plans either but both promised to increase ambition ahead of Cop26 this year.

Meanwhile Indonesia has said it would not strengthen its ambition this year.

“Science-based” corporate climate targets are no such thing, says former advisor

A host of new climate plans could be announced on the 22 April, when the US is hosting a leaders’ climate summit as it revives the Major Economies Forum, a group of 17 large emitters.

Joe Biden reiterated this week that the US would have an improved 2030 climate plan “ready in advance of the summit” and he is under pressure to ensure the US does its fair share. Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau also said he would announce increased ambition by the meeting, according to a White House readout.

China provided a glimpse of its updated climate plan during a climate summit in December. Climate Action Tracker said the proposals would result in a modest increase in ambition compared to current policies.

Despite international pressure, it remains unclear what India is preparing to bring to Cop26.

With new plans expected during the course of the year, UN Climate Change will publish an updated report ahead of Cop26. It is expected to compare countries’ collective level of ambition with scenarios for meeting the 2C and 1.5C temperature goals.

In the meantime, climate campaigners have said the situation was alarming. Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, described it as “a nightmare” and urged governments to “come back with a better offer”.

“With their woefully weak climate targets big emitters like Japan, Australia and Brazil are weighing down overall global ambition when in fact they should be leading,” said Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network.

The story was amended on 26/02/21 to reflect the fact that updated climate plans submitted by 31 December 2020 would reduce emissions by less than 1% by 2030 compared with 2010 levels. Not the combined climate plans of all countries. 

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The UN talks, known as Cop26, had been due to take place in Glasgow from 9-20 November with the goal of spurring deep cuts in greenhouse gases in the coming decade to rein in rising temperatures.

Up to 30,000 delegates were expected from around the world in the biggest diplomatic event the UK has ever hosted.

“The world is currently facing an unprecedented global challenge and countries are rightly focusing their efforts on saving lives and fighting Covid-19,” Alok Sharma, UK president-designate of Cop26, said in a statement. “That is why we have decided to reschedule Cop26.”

“Covid-19 is the most urgent threat facing humanity today, but we cannot forget that climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity over the long term,” said Patricia Espinosa, head of UN Climate Change.

A UN statement seen by Climate Home News said the summit would be postponed into next year, but did not set a new date. A preparatory session of talks due at UN Climate Change’s headquarters in Bonn, Germany, in June were also put off until preliminary dates of 4-13 October, with a review in August.

The session of mid-year talks is due to lay some of the ground work ahead of the Cop, giving negotiators time to advance on technical issues. A number of topics including the reporting of countries’ climate plans and efforts to create a new global carbon market were left unresolved at the last round of talks.

The decision to postpone the talks was taken by the UN Climate Change bureau – which is comprised of top climate diplomats from various countries, including Cop25 president and Chilean environment minister Carolina Schmidt and UN Climate Change head Patricia Espinosa.

Zoom climate diplomacy: ‘Technology doesn’t help build trust’

UN Climate Change and the UK government “agreed to work closely with the COP Bureau members over the next few weeks to identify a suitable date for Cop26,” the statement added.

As of 1 April, coronavirus had killed more than 37,200 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation. The Cop26 venue, the Scottish Event Campus, is being turned into a temporary hospital with an initial 300 beds to increase patient capacity in Scotland during the Covid-19 crisis.

The postponement will give some clarity to governments and diplomats who have been waiting to know the impact of the pandemic on this year’s climate timetable.

It also means governments around the world will have more time to assess the likely stark impact of the US presidential election, on 3 November, on global efforts to avert more heatwaves, wildfires and rising sea levels.

The US will formally leave the Paris Agreement on 4 November, under a decision by President Donald Trump. Democratic candidates to take on Trump – Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders – have pledged to immediately rejoin the Paris Agreement if they win.

That means a Democratic victory would make the US a leading voice for climate action at the postponed Cop26, and a mere observer if Trump wins a second term.

Coronavirus pandemic threatens climate monitoring, WMO warns

“Soon, economies will restart. This is a chance for nations to recover better, to include the most vulnerable in those plans, and a chance to shape the 21st century economy in ways that are clean, green, healthy, just, safe and more resilient,” Espinosa said.

“Postponing Cop26 … is the right thing to do – public health and safety must come first now,” said Laurence Tubiana, an architect of the Paris Agreement and CEO of the European Climate Foundation.

Speaking to reporters before the announcement, Tubiana said the pandemic had made carrying out the formal international diplomacy necessary for countries to ramp up their climate plans “really difficult”.

“I think we have to be innovative on the way we keep the momentum going,” she said, adding that governments would have to move away “from a diplomacy only focused on UN Climate Change” and coordinate with others on how stimulus packages can help accelerate the green transition.

Christiana Figueres, former head of UN Climate Change, added “there can be no pushing off the urgent need for climate action in 2020”.

Earlier this year, the UK called the summit its top international priority for 2020, a year when London is also trying to sort out a new relationship with the European Union after Brexit.

In 2021, the UK is due to preside over the G7 and Italy, which submitted a joint bid with London to preside over Cop26 and is due to organise preparatory events known as the pre-Cop, the G20.

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Governments are under pressure to submit tougher climate plans to the UN this year to bridge the gap between current levels of commitments to cut emissions and levels needed to limit global temperature rise “well below 2C”, in line with the Paris Agreement goals.

So far, only four countries – the Marshall Islands, Suriname, Norway and Moldova – have submitted more ambitious climate plans to the UN. On Monday, Japan became the first G7 country to submit an updated plan, but it merely reaffirmed its existing 2030 goal, set in 2015.

If the talks are postponed well into 2021, governments will also have what is likely to be a bleak report about the mounting risks of global warming from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), due to be published in mid-April.

The virus outbreak is also threatening developing countries’ plans to step up climate action this year as expert meetings are being postponed and resources are mobilised to address the public health crisis.

Speaking to Climate Home News, Tenzin Wangmo, of Bhutan and the lead negotiator for the group of Least Developed Countries (LDC), said most countries had only started to work on this climate plans when the virus spread across the world.

“It’s going to be tough to submit climate plans this year,” agreed Carlos Fuller, of Belize and the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States.

The post Cop26 climate talks postponed to 2021 amid coronavirus pandemic appeared first on Climate Home News.

Measures to contain the spread of coronavirus, also known as Covid19, are ramping up globally, with tougher travel restrictions forcing meetings to be postponed later into the year and squeezing timetables for decisions.

An intergovernmental conference aiming to establish a global ocean treaty to protect marine biodiversity in the high seas, beyond areas of national jurisdiction, is the latest of a series of global meetings to be affected by the virus.

A draft decision to postpone the meeting is expected to be considered by the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

The fourth and final round of government negotiations on marine biodiversity had been due to take place at the UN headquarters in New York from 23 March to 3 April.

On Friday, UN Climate Change said it would not hold any physical meetings in its headquarters in Bonn, Germany, or elsewhere in the world from 6 March to the end of April.

Legal gaps and US election could delay climate ambition before Glasgow summit

12 meetings planned between now and the end of April could be affected by the decision, according to UN Climate Change’s calendar. This includes the Adaptation Fund board meeting which has now been postponed.

UN Climate Change secretariat said it was working to find alternative arrangements, including virtual meetings, in coming months.

In a statement, executive secretary of UN Climate Change Patricia Espinosa said the decision to suspend meetings until the end of April acknowledged “the increasing challenges posed by travel restrictions and quarantine measures that some countries have imposed on travellers from Germany”.

Over the past few days, some meetings were unable to make progress because of delegates absence, she said, adding: “Some forthcoming meetings require quorum which can be affected by last-minute cancellations or non-attendance by members or alternates.”

The delays are putting increasing pressure on an already tight timetable ahead of a major biodiversity summit in Kunming, China, in October and UN climate talks in Glasgow, UK, known as Cop26, in November.

In Kunming, countries are due to agree on a new global framework to protect biodiversity over the next decade. In Glasgow, countries are under pressure to enhance their climate plans for the next 10 years and finalise rules for a global carbon market.

Power structures over gender make women more vulnerable to climate change

And the impact is being felt across the UN.

Last month, a preparatory meeting for the biodiversity summit in Kunming, had to be relocated from China to Rome, Italy.

For shipping, the International Maritime Organisation has already postponed two meetings due to take place this month. A key meeting of the IMO’s environmental protection committee held in London from 30 March to 3 April could also be affected.

The committee is expected to review proposals to improve the energy efficiency of ships. A decision on whether to uphold the meeting could be taken later this week, an IMO spokesperson told Climate Home News.

Africa Climate Week, which was due to take place in Kampala on 20-24 April, was also postponed. Uganda is still due to host the meeting but at a later, unconfirmed, date.

Elsewhere, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) board meeting is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, this week, instead of at its headquarters in Songdo, in South Korea. Attendance to the meeting, where board members are due to approve a new strategic plan for the next four years, has been restricted.

Liane Schalatek, an observer to the GCF meeting from the environmental think-tank Heinrich Böll Foundation who is unable to attend the meeting, told CHN this will be “an interesting test case” for whether transparency and remote participation can work at scale via webcasting.

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The scale of the impacts of Covid-19 on the global timetable for action on biodiversity and climate change is not yet known.

Speaking at the UN on Friday, Cop26 president Alok Sharma said the UK, alongside Italy which is hosting the pre-Cop, will be “creating a drumbeat of action in the calendar of international events leading up to Cop26”. The whole of Italy has since been put on lockdown because of the virus.

In private, climate diplomats told CHN the impact could be much greater if Covid-19 were to affect climate talks in Bonn in June, when countries are due to lay the ground work ahead of Cop26.

A spokesperson for the Cop26 presidency team said the summit was still many months away but it was “monitoring the situation closely”.

“Our officials are attending planned engagements but we are aware that this is an issue which may affect some international travel. We will adapt our plans accordingly to ensure necessary discussions and diplomacy with international partners can continue,” she said.

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Meanwhile, it is still unclear whether a key EU-China meeting at the end of the month in Shanghai can go ahead as planned.

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council president Charles Michel are due to travel to Beijing to prepare an EU-China summit in Germany in September.

The EU is hoping to engage Beijing in a race to the top to ensure global action to curb emissions remains meaningful ahead of Cop26, even without the US on board.

Last month, EU Commission’s climate chief Frans Timmermans’ planned trip to Beijing was cancelled. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also cancelled his trip to Brussels amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

On Monday, the World Health Organisation reported 1,112 cases in Germany and more than 110,000 confirmed cases across the world. More than 3,800 people have died of the virus so far.

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