Public pressure for faster and deeper emissions cuts has peaked this year and a growing alliance of countries, regions, cities and businesses are pushing for more ambitious climate action.  

Across the world, the reality of climate impacts has grown ever starker. But support to help the most vulnerable cope is lacking. Meanwhile, scientists continue to warn of a narrowing window of time to act. 

Entrenched nationalism continues to threaten the multilateral order which underpins the Paris Agreement and a global commitment to limit warming “well below 2C”. 

Donald Trump has officially started to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement and Jair Bolsonaro is working to open up the Amazon to large agribusiness interests. Other emerging economies such as China and India are seemingly hiding behind the US retreat to delay bolder action. 

Throughout 2019, Climate Home News has continued to report on the science, the people and the big diplomatic players shaping the commitments and disagreements taking the world into the future. Here were the biggest moments. 

People’s demands 

Public outcry for more ambitious climate action has never been stronger, and resonated through the western world and beyond. 

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg inspired a generation of young climate strikers demanding their governments curb emissions growth and protect their future. Millions took to the streets in September calling for faster action aligned with limiting warming to 1.5C – the tougher goal of the Paris Agreement. 

• ‘Four million’ join students in climate marches, building pressure on leaders
• Irresistible Greta Thunberg meets immovable UN climate talks

In the UK, a non-violent uprising by the civil disobedience group Extinction Rebellion saw thousands of climate protesters being arrested in the name of climate action. They demanded rich countries cut their emissions to net zero in less than 10 years. 

• Extinction Rebellion eyes global climate campaign of non-violence
• Leading climate lawyer arrested after gluing herself to Shell headquarters
• Extinction Rebellion face police crackdown in London, as global blockade begins
• Comment: The Paris Agreement always needed Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg

Over the channel in France, CHN reported on how the crackdown on anti-government protesters is stifling the climate movement. We also looked at how the gilets jaunes, often wrongly framed as against climate action, see themselves.

• Emmanuel Macron’s war on climate activism
• ‘We were ecologists before the capitalists’: the gilets jaunes and climate justice

The climate sector is not immune to abusive power dynamics and a life-destroying work environment. In one of CHN’s most powerful investigations this year, Megan Darby exposed the culture of bullying and harassment under Wael Hmaidan, former head of the climate movement’s largest network of organisations, Climate Action Network International. 

• NGO ignored warnings about bullying boss, before and after tragedy

We also exposed the harassment and racism accusations that preceded the resignation of the UN’s biodiversity chief, just as the world prepares for what some are calling the ‘super year’ for nature.

• UN biodiversity chief quits. Documents show she had been accused of misconduct

All this reporting is free to access, but not to produce. Please give a few dollars a month to support CHN’s work through our Patreon account. It’s safe, easy and a high help.

Climate impacts

Cyclones, water shortages, droughts, floods and wildfires have caused devastating damage around the world, affecting people from California and Australia to Mozambique and India and hitting the most vulnerable the hardest. Sophie Mbugua reported from Zimbabwe where the taps ran dry as part of CHN’s African reporting programme.  

• Two million in Zimbabwe’s capital have no water as city turns off taps
• Trains deliver emergency water to drought-hit Chennai
• Mozambique ‘faces climate debt trap’ as Cyclone Kenneth follows Idai
• Deadly Japan heatwave ‘essentially impossible’ without global warming

Great forests under threat

Natalie Sauer went to Siberia to report on illegal logging in the taiga, the Russian boreal forest. And Fabiano Maisonnave has continued to report on the struggle of indigenous people under the Bolsonaro administration in the Amazon. 

• The fight for the world’s largest forest
• Seven stories that will help you understand the destruction of the Amazon
• A brutal murder reveals the chaos spreading in Bolsonaro’s Amazon

Science 

Two major scientific reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) put the spotlight on the impacts of warming on land and oceans and the implications for growing food and coastal communities. CHN broke down the key findings: 

• IPCC: Urgent action needed to tackle hunger alongside climate crisis
• Dying oceans rising faster than predicted, UN warns in stark report

In the air and at sea 

How to cut emissions from the quickly growing aviation industry?  Should climate activists stop flying? Greta Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic twice to avoid the high carbon footprint of international flights, spurring the flight-shaming movement. This has become one of the thorniest debates among the climate movement this year.

• Comment: Ban flying to UN climate talks? That’s a dangerous idea

Yet, the body responsible for the aviation sector is also one of the UN’s most opaque. A CHN investigation found non-disclosure agreements and closed door meetings were the norm at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao).

• Aviation’s black box: Non-disclosure agreements, closed doors and rising CO2

While progress to decarbonise shipping continues  to be slow at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), this year also saw a series of positive announcements from the sector.

• Swedish shipping industry prepares to go fossil-free by 2045
• Maersk aims for zero emissions vessels by 2030

Driving ambition 

UN secretary general António Guterres called a climate action summit to galvanise political leadership ahead of a key meeting in Glasgow next year when countries will be under pressure to increase their climate targets. 

Standing knee-deep in water in the lagoon of a small Pacific island nation, Guterres urged countries to come with plans, not speeches, to cut emissions by 45% by 2030, stop building new coal plants, end fossil fuel subsidies and start working towards carbon neutrality by 2050.

In a deeply insightful piece, Megan Darby looked at the story behind the net zero target. 

• Net zero: the story of the target that will shape our future

But Guterres’ demands failed to resonate among the world’s largest emitters, none of which came to the summit with a plan to decarbonise their economies. CHN reported from this year’s high-level summit in New York. 

• Nationalism could sink the Paris Agreement. The UN chief is fighting back
• The UN asked for climate plans. Major economies failed to answer
• This is what the world promised at the UN climate action summit

The UN climate action summit also showed the willingness of regions, cities and businesses to drive climate action. These non-state actors are playing an ever-growing role inside and outside the UN climate process.

• Comment: Businesses need strong climate policy as they aim for net-zero

EU renewal 

Elections brought a greener EU Parliament to Strasbourg in May, quickly followed by a new EU Commission in Brussels, which made climate change its signature issue.  The commission unveiled proposals to increase the bloc’s 2030 target to reduce emissions by at least 50% from 1990 levels.

Every member state but Poland also agreed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. How quickly the EU can turn its plans into law-binding targets will be critical for countries to ramp up ambition next year. CHN’s coverage of this story continues into next year. 

• European Green Deal portfolio handed to EU vice president, in major elevation
• Von der Leyen offers 55% CO2 cuts by 2030 in bid for EU top job
• European Investment Bank ends lending to fossil fuel projects
• In depth: The EU’s plan to become the first climate-neutral continent

A flop at Cop

Cop25 in Madrid broke records as the longest climate talks in history. But despite the Sunday afternoon finish and two days and nights of extra time, countries could not agree on common rules to set up a global carbon market. 

The summit was also a moment for countries to show their readiness to increase their climate plans next year. Small developing states and European countries backed a clear call for enhancement but a handful of large emitters obstructed progress. 

A host of unresolved issues, including carbon markets, have now been kicked down the road to Cop26 in Glasgow, UK, next year. From Madrid, CHN covered the fortnight of negotiations day by day. 

• Irreconcilable rift cripples UN climate talks as majority stand against polluters
• How Cop25 turned its back on climate action
• Cop25: What was achieved and where to next?

The road to Cop26

As the world enters the 2020 decade, the UK faces a steep climb to facilitate a resolution on the rules governing global carbon markets and leverage the world into promising greater climate ambition at Cop26 in Glasgow next year. 

The country’s diplomatic corps will be put to the test at a time when diplomats are likely to be solicited to strike new trade deals as the UK prepares to leave the EU at the end of January. No small feat.

Indeed, the year ahead is critical for climate action and the spotlight will be on governments to increase their climate plans. Much expectations lie on a key EU-China summit in September that could see the world’s largest emitter promise to enhance its climate target alongside Europe. Watch this space. 

Cop26 is also due to start five days after the US election. Donald Trump is seeking re-election. The outcome could be defining for climate diplomacy. The world will be watching. 

• EU plots climate deal with China
• Trump begins formal US withdrawal from Paris Agreement
• US will keep seat at climate talks after it leaves Paris deal

The post 2019 in review: Polarised world entering era of climate impacts appeared first on Climate Home News.

To drive carbon out of the global economy, governments and businesses have been asked to set out voluntary decarbonisation plans and leaders have long been judged by the strength of their pledges.

On the stage of the UN climate action summit last week, governments, businesses, investors and financiers made dozens of new climate commitments.

But action will deliver emissions cut, promises alone won’t.

Climate Home News put together a (non-exhaustive) list of promises made with a view towards accountability (do tell us if we’ve missed any). We will be returning to the pledges over the next few months and ask leaders what concrete steps they have taken to turn words into action.

Accountability rising up agenda

Writing in the Guardian this week, UN secretary general António Guterres said he will “make sure that the commitments that countries, the private sector and local authorities have made are accounted for”.

This will start at the UN climate talks in Santiago, Chile, in December. Guterres is due to present an analytical report about the summit’s achievement and the support needed to turn the proposed initiatives into reality.

Speaking at a panel event in New York, organised by Climate Home News, Mafalda Duarte, head of the Climate Investment Fund, warned “the next gathering of world leaders [should] be about accountability” and what countries have achieved.

“We have heard commitments in the past and there are not delivered. But we really have to move commitments to action.”

This week’s top stories:

• This is what the world promised at the UN climate action summit
• Estonia backs European net zero carbon target. Poland loses an ally
• Next EU energy chief backs gas as part of climate transition

And in Climate Conversations

• Growing anti-coal alliance could become non-proliferation treaty for fossil fuel
• What does Greta Thunberg’s call for equity mean?

Gas to net zero

At the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, former Estonia minister Kadri Simson scraped enough support from lawmakers to become the bloc’s next energy commissioner.

In a three-hour hearing, Simson kept her cards close to her chest, making no policy commitments beyond what the next EU Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen already pledged: to increase the 2030 emissions reduction target to 50% from 1990 levels.

She did make the case for natural gas to be part of the energy transition to climate neutrality – a position which left the Greens concerned about Simson’s climate credentials.

But Estonia’s prime minister Jüri Ratas delivered a timely assurance that his government unanimously backed the EU’s 2050 net zero emissions goal. A move that further exposed Poland for insisting this week carbon-neutrality was “not possible and not feasible”.

The post Time for accountability – Climate Weekly appeared first on Climate Home News.

Last week, UN chief António Guterres gathered the world’s political, business and civil society leaders in New York in an effort to jump start action on climate change.

While the world’s largest emitters failed to present substantive plans on how they are going to drive carbon out of their economies, dozens of announcements on climate action were made over the three-day summit.

CHN is publishing this (non-exhaustive) list of initiatives, promises and goals with a view toward accountability. We will be returning in the coming months and asking those listed below: what have you done?

If you have information about any of the announcements and the plans to see them fulfilled, or indeed if you think we have missed any, please get in touch to let us know by emailing cf@climatehomenews.com.

Overall government ambition 

• 65 countries expressed their intention to enhance their climate plans by the end of next year. This comes in addition to 11 countries that have already started the process of looking at how they can boost the ambition of their national plans by 2020.
• 66 countries are planning to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. 
• All of the least developing countries have pledged to enhance their climate plans next year and reach net zero emissions by 2050. This is likely to be contingent on receiving climate finance from the wealthiest countries.

Europe 

• EU said at least 25% of the next budget will go to climate-related activities.
• France, Germany and the Netherlands called for EU emissions to be reduced by 55% by 2030 on 1990 levels – up from 40% at present.
• France said it would not enter into any trade agreement with countries that have policies counter to the Paris Agreement.
• Germany committed to carbon neutrality by 2050.
• Germany and Slovakia joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance, bringing the number of members to 32 national governments, 25 subnational governments and 34 businesses.
• Finland promised to become carbon neutral by 2035 and planned to become “carbon negative” soon afterwards.
• Slovakia pledged to end subsidies to coal mines in 2023 as it joined the powering past coal alliance, committing to close all coal mines. It has also committed to carbon neutrality by 2050.
• Ireland has vowed to set a moratorium on exploring for new oil but said it still intends to use gas as a “bridging fuel”.
• Russia ratified the Paris Agreement.
• Italy said it would phase out coal by 2025 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. It also committed to put in place a “Green New Deal”, including a green jobs programme and review its subsidies to fossil fuel.
• Greece pledged to close all lignite power plants by 2028 with coal plants to be dismantled from 2020.
• Hungary promised to phase out all coal-powered electricity production by 2030 and increase forest cover by 30% by 2030. 
• Sweden, South Korea, Denmark and Iceland announced a doubling of their contribution to the Green Climate Fund. A total of 12 countries made financing announcements to the fund, including the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Monaco, Slovenia, Hungary and Lichtenstein. 
• The UK pledged to double its funding to tackle climate change through overseas development aid to £11.6 billion over the next five years.

Asia

• India said it will raise the portion of renewable into its energy mix to 175GW by 2022, with the aim of boosting it to 450GW in the long-term.
• Indonesia promised to cut fossil fuel subsidies and develop a green finance facility.
• Pakistan committed to reach land degradation neutrality by 2030 by restoring at least 30% of degraded forests, 5% degraded croplands, 6% of degraded grasslands and 10% of degraded wetlands, and would plant 10 billion trees over the next five years. 

South and Central America

• Chile promised a full decarbonisation of its energy mix, but did not communicate a date. 
• Bolivia said it would reach 100% of households with electricity, with 79% renewable by 2030.
• Guatemala pledged to restore 1.5 million hectares of forested land by 2022. 
• Colombia has committed to restoring 300,000 hectare (about 180 million trees) of forest by 2022, and an additional 900,000 hectares of agro-forestry and sustainable forest management.

 Small Island States 

• Small island developing states made a collective commitment to raise the ambition of their NDCs by 2020 and move to net zero emissions by 2050, contingent on assistance from the international community. They intend to move to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
• Fiji committed to plant 1 million new trees and said it was exploring planting 31 million more.
• Barbados pledged to plant one million trees by end of 2020 (on 166 square miles of land) and called on all Bajans around the world to come and help.

Oceania

• New Zealand has committed to plant one billion trees by 2028 and to make the country “the most sustainable food producer in the world”. 

Africa 

• Sierra Leone committed to planting 2 million trees by 2023.
• Nigeria said it would employ youth to plant 25 million trees.
• Kenya promised to plant 2 billion trees by 2022. 
• Ethiopia reaffirmed its commitment to planting 4 billion new trees a year.
• Congo DRC committed to stabilize its forest cover at 60%.
• South Africa pledged to finalise a just transition plan compatible with the 1.5C target and a climate change bill to provide the legislative basis for updating its climate plan, allocate sectoral emissions targets, and regulate large emitters. It also vowed to develop a programme to enhance the land’s net emissions sink capacity by restoring subtropical thicket and grasslands, expanding forestry and reduce tillage.
• Morocco promised to produce 52% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.

Subnational actors

• 102 cities committed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
• 10 regions, 93 businesses and 12 investors said they would reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
• 2,000 cities committed to placing climate risk at the centre of their decision-making, planning and investments, including climate-smart urban projects and innovative financing mechanisms.

Business and industry

• 87 businesses have committed to implement the 1.5C target across their operations and value chains. This includes Danone, Engie, Ikea, L’Oréal, Nestle, Sodexo. 
• Getting to zero coalition. Giants from the shipping, energy and finance sectors pledged to work together to make net-zero shipping a commercial reality by 2030.
• Zero carbon buildings. A host of rich and developing countries pledged to decarbonise the construction sector in a UN-endorsed initiative. The partnership will seek to kickstart adequate policy measures and mobilise $1 trillion for energy-efficient buildings in developing countries by 2030. So far Kenya, Turkey, the UK and United Arab Emirates have signed up.
• One Planet Business for Biodiversity. A coalition of 19 companies pledged to develop solutions to scale up regenerative agricultural practices, boost cultivated biodiversity and diets and eliminate deforestation while enhancing the restoration and protection of natural ecosystems. The initiative was launched as part of French president Emmanuel Macron’s ‘One Planet Lab’. Partners are expected to develop policy recommendations during next year’s biodiversity talks in China.
• Insurance firm AXA launched ORRAA, a multi-stakeholder collaboration platform to develop finance products such as blue carbon resilience credits and coral reef insurance which invest in coastal natural capital.

Financial sector

• More than 130 banks, with $47 trillion in assets, signed onto new climate principles.
• The International Development Finance Club (IDFC). A group of 24 national and regional development banks promised to inject $1 trillion into climate projects by 2025, with at least $100 million for adaptation. IDFC also vowed to launch a partnership with the Green Climate Fund to promote direct access to international climate finance and a new $10 million climate facility to support its members on accessing climate finance. 
• Carbon neutral portfolio. Asset owners of the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance representing $2.4 trillion (and annual direct emissions equivalent to 73 coal-fired power plants) committed to align their investments with the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C. This includes Allianz, Caisse des Dépôts and La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ). 
• The Climate Investment Platform was launched to directly mobilize $1 trillion in clean energy investment by 2025 in 20 least developed countries. The platform aims to provide a variety of services to governments and the private sector to scale-up the energy transition and accelerate investments for low carbon, climate-resilient development. It is also intended to enable the delivery of ambitious NDCs. This is a UN-led initiative. 
• Climate risks in infrastructure. A coalition led by the private sector and representing more than 20 institutions with $8 trillion assets under management was launched with the goal of developing the first framework for the pricing of physical climate risks in infrastructure investing.
• Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI) led by Willis Towers Watson, the World Economic Forum, the Global Commission on Adaptation, Jamaica, and UK was launched to facilitate capital investment in resilient infrastructure. Under the scheme, stakeholders pledged that 70% of the $90 trillion expected to be invested in infrastructure globally between now and 2030, will go to low- and middle-income countries exposed to climate risks.
• Risk-informed early action partnership pledged to deliver new and improved early warning systems. The initiative is led by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. 

Joint diplomatic initiatives

• Global deal for nature. Costa Rica called on countries to set aside 30% of the planet as part of a global deal for nature. The deal is expected to be finalised at the 15th biodiversity conference in Kunming, China, in 2020. The Seychelles, the United Arab Emirates, Monaco, Gabon, and Mozambique have backed the initiative.
• Norway launched a high-level panel for the sustainable ocean economy, representing 14 countries that cover approximately 30% of the world’s coastlines, 30% of the world’s exclusive economic zones, 20% of the world’s ocean catch and 20% of the world’s shipping fleet, including a new initiative to build resilience for ocean and marine-protected areas.
• The central African forest initiative pledged to maintain the forest cover of Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea, allowing the Central African rainforest to continue to stock approximately 70 gigatons of carbon and provide livelihoods of 60 million people and maintain regional rainfall patterns.
• 7 Central American countries pledged to establish and manage 10 million hectares of “sustainable productive landscapes that are resilient to climate change,” with a goal to reduce emissions by no less than 40% reduction from the baseline year of 2010 by 2030. Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama have signed up. 
• Amazon. The governments of Germany and France pledged to respectively contribute $250m and $100m to protect the Amazon forest, while the EU said it was drawing €190m through its cooperation and development programmes. The NGO Conservation International represented by actor Harrisson Ford also promised to put $20m on the table.
• Small-holdings. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced $790m to double the funding of the food technology research body CGIAR. The foundation pledged $310m, with the rest to come from the Netherlands, European Commission, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Germany and the World Bank. 
• Insurance resilience. Led by governments, multilateral organisations, the private sector, and civil society, the InsureResilience Partnership 2025 pledged to ensure that 500 million poor people worldwide will be covered against climate shocks by pre-arranged risk finance by 2025. Germany and the UK are enhancing risk finance and insurance programs, and the private insurance industry will commit up to $5bn of risk capacity until 2025. More here. 
• African adaptation initiative promised to ensure regional cooperation on adaptation, and the investment of $1bn in African countries and the doubling of adaptation finance accessed and mobilised by African countries by 2025. The initiative also vowed to translate national adaptation plans into investment plans and projects eligible for funding by 2025.  
• Coalition for sustainable energy access was jointly launched by Morocco and Ethiopia to meet the energy needs of the world’s population with clean energy . The initiative pledged to share experiences and best practices to deploy renewable sources of energy and, where appropriate, model existing practices, particularly in least developed countries.
• LIFE-AR initiative, led by a coalition of least developed countries, promised to strengthen south-south cooperation, mobilise $30-40m, and deliver pathways to climate-resilient development by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050.
• The Three Percent Club. Fifteen governments and ten companies committed to tap into research by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and accelerate energy efficiency by 3% every year. Countries involved include: Argentina, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Portugal, Senegal and the UK.
• The cooling coalition identified cooling as a “major blind spot” with emissions from air conditioning and refrigeration expected to rise 90% from 2017 levels by 2050. The coalition pledged to set ambitious cooling targets and support “cross-sectional” national strategies, policies and national action plans. Bangladesh and Lebanon promised to adopt comprehensive national cooling plans and several countries committed to the Biarritz pledge for fast action on efficient cooling, led by France. Countries which have promised to take action include: Andorra, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, France, Hungary, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, North Macedonia, Norway, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain, and the UK. Five countries are already committing to integrate cooling in their national climate plans:  the Dominican Republic, North Macedonia, Rwanda, Senegal and Spain.
• Industry Transition. 5 companies and 9 countries, including Argentina, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, South Korea and UK, promised to set out pathways for carbon intensive sectors to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
• Transport. 100 organisations, including governments, private sector leaders and cities, pledged to accelerate the decarbonisation of the transport sector. 
• A leadership of urban climate investments initiative promised to accelerate, scale-up and leverage climate finance for climate-friendly urban infrastructure. Led by Germany, it includes France, UK, Mexico, Luxembourg, Cameroon and Japan. The initiative pledged to empower over 2,000 cities in project preparation by 2030, placing climate risk at the centre of decision making, planning, and investments. Up to $64m in grants have been pledged for its implementation.
• Turkey, Kenya, the governor of Maine, US, the mayor of Surabaya, Indonesia, the European Investment Bank, committed funds to strengthen the resilience of 600 million urban slum dwellers by 2030 and to lift them out of poverty.
• Climate action for jobs. Led the International Labour Organisation, Spain and Peru, the initiative pledged to develop a framework for countries that considers job creation, social protection, skills development, and technology and knowledge transfer when taking climate action.
• Thirty-two national governments committed to implementing gender-responsive climate change action plans and policies and empowering women as leaders of climate action. 
• Safer air initiative. 41 countries, 71 sub-national governments and two health finance organisations have committed to achieve air quality and align climate and air quality plans by 2030. The Clean Air Fund, which is taking part, vowed a $50m fund to start implementation.
• African youth climate hub. Led by Morocco’s Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, the initiative committed to showcase the leadership and innovation of African youth.

The UN 

The United Nations secretariat adopted a 10-year climate action plan, pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% and source 80% of electricity from renewable energy by 2030. The plan commits the UN secretariat to achieve absolute and per capita greenhouse gas emission reductions of 25% by 2025 and per capita reductions in electricity consumption of 20% by 2025.  It also pledged to sourcing 40% of its electricity from renewable energy before 2025.

This article was corrected to delete a previous mention of China saying it will cut emissions by over 12 billion tons annually through nature-based solutions. Instead, China was referring to the mitigation potential of nature-based solutions globally. 

The post This is what the world promised at the UN climate action summit appeared first on Climate Home News.

The powering past coal alliance (PPCA) announced an expansion of its membership, now also including countries such as Germany and Slovakia.

The PPCA, established in 2017, is a multi-stakeholder partnership, co-chaired by the UK and Canada, that brings together state and sub-state governments, businesses and other organisations in order to establish a global coal phase-out by 2050 at the latest. It now counts 91 members, all vowing to curtail coal-fired power generation and end the construction of new coal plants by 2020.

The PPCA, as well as similar initiatives, offers a new response to long-standing issues of international climate policy and politics. It challenges a traditionally dominant interest-based approach, inspired by a logic of consequence, through economic incentives, such as carbon pricing or emissions-trading schemes, to mitigate the effects of climate change. Instead, following a logic of appropriateness, the PPCA promotes an ethics-based approach which suggests that there is a moral obligation to act on climate change. In that sense, the PPCA formulates an international anti-fossil fuel norm to phase out coal-fired power generation.

The UN asked for climate plans. Major economies failed to answer

The PPCA echoes initiatives from other fields of international relations, most notably in human security, where a logic of appropriateness and norm-building have played an important role in establishing international agreements and bans on land mines, cluster munitions, or nuclear weapons.

Similarly, if the PPCA were to develop into an international treaty covering the phase-out of coal for electricity generation, it can be part of an overarching international coal “non-proliferation agreement”, or “coal convention” – analogous to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions – that bans the extraction, transport and consumption of coal (and even other fossil fuels) all-together.

There are lessons that can be learned from the PPCA. In a recent article for the journal Energy Research and Social Science, we explore the origins and development of the alliance and examine why countries actually join the PPCA. After all, until Germany’s admission last week, the alliance mostly included countries that use little or no coal for electricity generation. This is of course problematic since the establishment of a meaningful global anti-coal regime requires the participation of key stakeholders and actors.

We found that even though the PPCA formulates an international anti-fossil fuel norm, countries do not necessarily sign up to it based on purely moral or ethical grounds. Our findings point to the interplay of both rational interest-based and identity-based considerations in determining membership of this anti-coal regime.

‘We will not forgive you’: Greta Thunberg’s speech to leaders at UN – video

The momentum and effects of the PPCA are, however, mostly informed by the logic of consequence. Countries that have no coal in their electricity mix and that have adopted a phase-out plan are most likely to join the PPCA. More specifically, countries join the PPCA if they have a phase-out plan and are a climate leader, or they have a phase-out plan and do not have a strong coal industry.

In other words, even if the behaviour of states is mostly constituted by their interests, by which they evaluate expected outcomes, the norms and convictions embedded in their identities are also important to understand decision-making on coal phase-outs and climate action.

What is next? Rather than expanding its membership with countries that consume little or no coal, the PPCA could additionally focus its efforts of technical diplomacy through its network of policy experts and energy specialists. Exchanging best practices and policy experiences is important to diffuse technical knowledge on domestic phase-outs, both with members and outsiders.

This is a reminder that CHN is a small independent news site, dedicated to bringing you news from all over the world. That’s expensive and we need our readers to help. Here’s how you can, even for a few dollars a month.

Another priority should be to maintain political momentum at high-level political events, such as the climate action summit. As it stands now, the PPCA can also function as an external commitment device that creates a feedback, or lock-in, effect for newly elected governments to remain committed to a domestic coal phase-out.

But just like a nuclear non-proliferation treaty cannot work without the presence of nuclear powers, or a chemical weapons convention is not viable without having those countries on board that produce them, the PPCA needs notable coal consumers among its members.

With membership of a country like Germany, still the largest coal consumer in Europe and an international climate leader, the PPCA shows how a normative approach could bolster climate action in the future. This “normative turn” could herald a new era for climate governance, based on an equitable consideration of both morality and interests.

Mathieu Blondeel is doctoral researcher and Thijs Van de Graaf is an assistant professor at the Ghent Institute for International Studies, Belgium.

The post Growing anti-coal alliance could become non-proliferation treaty for fossil fuel appeared first on Climate Home News.

Kyte, who steps down this week as chief of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) and the head of the UN’s push to bring clean energy to the world’s poor, was speaking at a panel event organised by Climate Home News on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.

She warned current “mid-level bureaucratic discussions” were not enough to align financial institutions with the Paris Agreement goals, adding that it was “utterly insane” that the flow of finance to help the the developing world cope with climate change was only “a bit bigger” than before the 2015 accord.

“There has to be a new Bretton Woods summit”, organised by UN secretary general António Guterres, with leaders from China, the EU and the US around the table to reshape multilateralism and align all public investments with climate action, she told the audience in New York.

The panel event was hosted in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Climate Investment Funds. Catch up on highlights in this tweet thread.

The original 1944 conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire laid the foundations for much of today’s global economic order. It also led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. (Kyte is a former vice president of the latter). The system was designed to hold in check the trade conflict and rising nationalism that contributed to the outbreak of World War II.

But those dynamics are resurgent. National interests, domestic politics and the trade war between China and the US have dampened momentum for climate action at a time rising emissions require an acceleration.

On Monday at a UN climate action summit, the world’s largest emitters failed to answer Guterres’ call for plans on how to decarbonise their economies to net zero emissions by 2050.

“If our multilateral structures are failing us and they don’t reform,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), who was also on the panel, “then we are going to have to re-create some of the basis on which the world does business.”

She said president Emmanuel Macron of France was one of the few world leaders attempting to address this problem. Germany and France launched an ‘alliance for multilateralism’ at this week’s UN general assembly.

The UN asked for climate plans. Major economies failed to answer

UN ambassador for Belize and chair of an alliance of small island states Lois Young, said climate finance was “in an abysmal state,” and called for “a transformation” of the financial system. While Farhana Yamin, veteran climate lawyer and Extinction Rebellion activist, warned of “the breakdown of that entire system on which we can confidently rely on evidence-based policy”.

In a report published on Wednesday, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) called for giving governments more power to tackle the climate crisis by reorienting the monetary system toward a “global Green New Deal”.

Speaking to CHN ahead of the UN summit, Kyte said faster finance, new institutions and a more inclusive conversation about the future were needed to close the ambition gap.

After failure in New York, we must reshape the politics of climate change

“The sense of urgency and the application of sustained, concentrated attention is not there everywhere. We need a new generation of institutions,” she said.

Besides the need for reform of the economic order, Kyte also warned that oil and gas companies were holding back efforts to bring clean energy to the poorest people on earth.

SE4All’s latest tracking report showed the world was off the pace for 2030 sustainable development goals to roll out clean electricity and cooking everywhere.

If energy planning decisions are based on dialogue between governments and incumbent – fossil fuel – energy companies, “it is not going to get us where we want to go,” she said.

On the fringe of the UN climate action summit on Monday, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, the industry’s response to climate action which includes 13 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, set out their vision of a future with fossil fuels.

UN agency calls for global Green New Deal to overhaul financial system

Kyte said the industry came to the summit “to be seen in dialogue” with the youth and those calling for ambition. “They cannot even commit to not spending any money lobbying for the other side. This is an action summit.” she said.

Research by the think-tank Influence Map found that ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP and Total spent more than $1 billion of shareholder funds on lobbying and spreading misleading information about climate change in the three years following the 2015 Paris deal.

After nearly four years leading SE4All, Kyte is set to become the first female dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.

While championing radical change, Kyte speaks from personal experience about the importance of making the transition work for households and communities.

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During the UK miners’ strikes in the 1980s, her father was an electrical engineer, called out to fix pylons after a storm – sometimes having to cross picket lines to make critical infrastructure safe. In the wave of energy sector privatisation that followed, he was made redundant.

“The industry was reformed in a fairly callous way,” she told CHN. “You don’t forget what that felt like.”

Her move into academia is partly to escape the relentless jetlag of UN diplomacy and spend more time with her wife and two children. At the same time, she had been looking for a way to work with the next generation.

“I am very inspired by the climate movement, but there is a quality to the young people’s approach to the world that is very inspiring.”

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But on Monday, the presidents and prime ministers of the world’s largest emitting economies stumbled. Signalling just how difficult the work of removing CO2 will be compared to setting targets.

The tougher 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement, backed by UN chief António Guterres and the majority of the world’s nations, requires achieving net zero global emissions by 2050.

Guterres asked leaders to come to UN headquarters in New York and tell the world how they would meet that goal.

A coalition of 77 smaller countries said they were committed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and 70 countries expressed their intention to set a more ambitious climate plan next year, evidence of “a boost of momentum and ambition,” Guterres said in his closing remarks.

While there were “inspiring signs of progress”, with “the private sector and subnational actors moving faster than national governments”, “most of the major economies fell woefully short” of enhancing their ambition, said Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute.

“Much more it still needed to reach carbon neutrality by 2050,” Guterres warned.

The UN climate action summit – as it happened

The “how” of the question, which requires countries to integrate climate action into economy-wide policies, was left unanswered. Fully decarbonising the world economy is a gargantuan task, even for the world’s richest countries.

The path to net zero emissions “is something we are just discovering,” former French climate ambassador and CEO of the European Climate Foundation Laurence Tubiana told CHN. But the top levels of government are not yet engaged.

“I haven’t met any leaders who know… how to get there. Most [countries] haven’t started really seriously” and most leaders “don’t have a clue” how they will meet a 1.5C compatible target.

According to Elina Bardram, head of unit for climate action at the EU Commission, while “numbers and slogans are very easy to go by but the hard work of actually implementing is what drives the process forward”.

Both the UK and France, which have already legislated to become carbon neutral by 2050, have been warned by their climate advisors that without new and robust carbon-cutting measures, they won’t be on track to meet the 2050 goal.

“That’s what we are going to do”, said UK prime minster Boris Johnson said on Friday, by using “technology”.

Michal Kurtyka, Polish environment minister and president of Cop24, told CHN that achieving carbon neutrality was “a civilisational challenge”.  Poland was one of four countries that blocked an EU agreement for the block to achieve net zero emission by 2050 in June – leading the EU to turn up to the summit with only hints at promises.

Net zero: the story of the target that will shape our future

Germany’s environment minister Svenja Schulze, acknowledged her government does “not know exactly how to reach carbon neutrality”, a goal set by chancellor Angela Merkel at the summit.

“We know how to get to 2030 but the last percentage to reach carbon neutrality, we need more techniques, we need new ideas,” Schulze told CHN, adding that “no-one around the world does [know] exactly”.

“The important thing is to say that we want to reach that goal. How is goes with the last percentage, we will see on the way,” she added.

China conversely appears to be wary of setting goals that it does not know it can achieve. Its climate targets are barely better than “business-as-usual”, said Tubiana.

But the window for action is narrowing. Global emissions continue to rise year-on year – increasing the gap between the 1.5C goal and current pathways to get there and closing the door to incremental emission reductions.

“We are still operating a logic of ‘let’s reduce emissions’, even if it’s very small, it’s helpful,” director general for DG Clima at the European Commission Raffaele Mauro Petriccione told CHN. “But we are now moving towards a radical different logic which is we need to eliminate most emissions and then the choices are most difficult.

“We are, in half a century trying to reverse 150 years of very fast economic development based on fossil fuels. It’s possible and it’s desirable, but one shouldn’t be surprised that it’s complicated.”

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And yet, incrementalism was the main theme at the UN climate action summit, as heads of state took to the podium one after the other.

The speeches failed to resonate, except for Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who brought the hall to tears as she called out leaders for their inaction.

“Yet you all come to me for hope? How dare you,” she said.

From China and India there was “nothing”, Tubiana told CHN.

The absence of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s, as the leader of the world’s largest emitting country poured cold water on any expectations of a significant announcement. Instead, Wang Yi, a special representative of Xi, said China would meet its Paris pledge but made no suggestion of when and how Beijing would hike its climate plan and peak its emissions, let alone start the process of reducing them.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi made no mention of reducing its coal dependence; one of Guterres’ key demands. Instead, Modi said India was planning to turbocharge the roll out of renewable energy to 450GW.

‘We will not forgive you’: Greta Thunberg’s speech to leaders at UN – video

The lack of announcements on coal showed the “extremely difficult political shifts” this represents for India, where 75% of the country’s electricity is generated by coal, said Rachel Kyte, the UN secretary general’s special representative for sustainable energy.

“You are going down in the economy and trying to strip one of the fundamental pieces of sub-structure,” she said.

EU Council president Donald Tusk said was only a matter of time for the bloc to adopt net zero emissions by 2050 as its target – but gave few details of how the world’s largest economic bloc was going to transfer away from fossil fuels.

This comes down to leadership. Economy-wide shifts cannot happen “unless it comes from the strong will of the head of state” which can bypass individual ministries, said Isabel Cavelier, a former Colombian climate negotiator and a senior advisor to Mission2020.

There are examples of change. Denmark’s new government which was elected with an ambitious climate target to reduce emissions by 70% by 2030 – something Dan Jorgensen, a Danish social democrat member of parliament and former minister, acknowledged was “a daunting task”.

The new Danish government is changing the structure of decision-making, by appointing a committee on climate change to which all other ministries will be accountable.

“What you are starting to see is governments reorganising themselves,” Kyte said.

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Swedish school girl Greta Thunberg made an angry, accusatory speech to world leaders on Monday in New York.

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you.”

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The announcement came hours before the UN climate action summit convened by António Guterres got under way in New York.

Senior figures from the maritime, infrastructure, energy and finance sector, including shipping behemoth Maersk and oil company Shell, joined the so-called Getting to Zero Coalition.

They will seek to coordinate the launch of clean fuels and vessels while making sure that these are supported by adequate ports, finance and policy incentives.

The UN climate action summit – live

“Energy efficiency has been an important tool which has helped us reduce CO2 emissions per container with 41% over the last decade and position ourselves as a leader 10% ahead of the industry average,” Søren Skou, CEO of the world’s largest container ship operator Maersk, said

“However, efficiency measures can only keep shipping emissions stable, not eliminate them. To take the next big step change towards decarbonization of shipping, a shift in propulsion technologies or a shift to clean fuels is required which implies close collaboration from all parties. The coalition launched today is a crucial vehicle to make this collaboration happen.”

“The challenge around commercially viable zero emission vessels is not (primarily) a technological challenge,” spokesperson for the Global Maritime Forum, Torben Vollemund, wrote in an e-mail. “We can (and are) building engines that can burn zero emission fuels. We can produce zero emission fuels for instance based on biomass and hydrogen produced from renewable electricity or from natural gas combined with carbon capture and storage.”

“The challenge is a collective action challenge, since decarbonizing shipping is about a systemic transformation that is beyond the power of any single stakeholder and stakeholder group,” Vollemund said.

Vollemund also stressed the urgency to act, with ships entering the global fleet in 2030 still operating in 2050.

This “means we only have a decade to get commercially viable and scalable zero emission vessels and fuels in place – and we are not even close”.

Led by the Global Maritime Forum, Friends of the Ocean, and the World Economic Forum, the initiative seeks to make good on the UN International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) pledge to halve emissions from 2008 levels by 2050, with the view of phasing them out as soon as possible in the century.

Currently responsible for 2-3% of annual global emissions, the international shipping industry could see its emissions soar by up to 250% by 2050 in the absence of any action.

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Greta Thunberg, the Swedish activist, was right: people stood for the climate in every continent, even in Antarctica.

Today the spotlight shifts from the streets to the UN Climate Action Summit in New York convened by the UN Secretary General, António Guterres. The big question is: will leaders put forward the bold commitments that are needed?

People demand action. Many fear catastrophic weather events. Only this month The Bahamas and Southern Spain were the latest to be devastated. Mr Guterres grasps the imperative and has surprised some by making concrete asks: no more coal plants after 2020, tax pollution, end public fossil fuel subsidies and announce plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

It is a now or never moment. Governments, cities and the private sector have 15 months to define what they will do – or not – to help steer the world away from our current trajectory, which could see dangerous levels of heating of 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

What is the UN climate action summit?

One of the cultural challenges is the disconnect between our daily lives and the timeframes of climate science reports referencing midcentury and 2100. Young people will still be alive and are furious that their future is at extreme risk and reject this broken inheritance.

In terms of Latin America and the Caribbean’s historical emissions, it has contributed relatively little to the climate crisis, yet many acknowledge that the time has come to act. The region is already suffering more intense extreme climate events, and future impacts look bleak.

LAC countries are joining initiatives to enhance their national climate plans and to align them with long-term decarbonisation strategies. The Inter-American Development Bank is helping build capacity of local modellers in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru on the design of decarbonisation plans and facilitating engagement with decision-makers to insert this local know-how into long-term strategies.

At the Summit, we expect the Presidents of Chile and Costa Rica to call for greater ambition and highlight the benefits of renewable energy and electric mobility, as well as nature-based solutions, which are essential to increase resilience to climate impacts.

We also expect to see Colombia and Peru highlight the importance of enhancing cooperation to protect the Amazon and its inhabitants following efforts by Colombia to bring together six Amazonian neighbours to sign the Leticia Pact to achieve that goal. Caribbean nations such as Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Barbados will also showcase their efforts to unlock private sector finance to boost climate action and build resilience to climate impacts.

Later this year Chile and Costa Rica will host COP25 and the pre-COP and are leading by example with plans to become carbon neutral by 2050. On Friday, Costa Rica was named “Champion of the Earth” by the UN for its plan to decarbonise.

By 2020, governments must present revised and enhanced commitments as part of the first 5-year cycle set out under the Paris Agreement to scale up ambition. The UN Climate Summit will intensify diplomatic efforts to ensure ambition continues to rise from New York through COP25 in Santiago and Glasgow’s COP26 next year.

Many countries in the LAC region have yet to signal when they will revise their climate goals. The progress we are seeing in many sectors provides grounds for increasing ambition. The rapid shift to sustainable mobility in Santiago de Chile surprised many with its fleet of around 400 electric buses. Other cities such as Cali, Medellin and Panama City are following suit; and Bogota aims to have nearly 600 electric buses in 2020.

There is progress in the financial sector, as demonstrated by the launch of Chile’s sovereign green bond. The first of its kind in the Americas, it came in at an historic low interest rate and was 13 times oversubscribed, underscoring the appetite for such offerings. We are also seeing how innovative approaches towards low-carbon agriculture in parts of Brazil and Central America can increase agricultural productivity whilst reforesting degraded land.

These inspiring stories from the region are often missed in the rollercoaster news cycle. That is why it’s important to tell the positive experiences of how decarbonisation works in practice. Efforts are underway to increase the visibility of change makers. The “Ponerse las Pilas” podcast, for example, tells the real-life stories of decarbonisation: From the first woman training electric buses drivers in Panama to pioneering efforts to develop the hydrogen economy in Latin America, which BID Lab, the innovation laboratory of the IDB Group, is supporting to help take to scale.

Greta and the millions of people marching across 163 countries provide an inspiring reminder for Latin America and the Caribbean that no country is too small to contribute towards this great transformation. On Monday we will see which countries are ready to take that stand.

Dr Amal-Lee Amin is Chief of the Climate Change Division at the Inter-American Development Bank @AmaleeAmin

Dr Monica Araya is a Latin American decarbonisation advocate. She has founded several initiatives including Costa Rica Limpia and hosts the Ponerse las Pilas podcast @MonicaArayaTica

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The announcement came hours before the UN climate action summit convened by Antonio Guterres got under way in New York.

The cohort of banks, which include the US Amalgamated Bank and the Dutch ASN and Triodos Banks, will assess and disclose the greenhouse gas emissions generated by their financial products as part of the industry-led initiative Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF).

While the sum is but a fragment of the $386 trillion-high global stock of financial capital, it represents the single largest carbon disclosure initiative within the financial sector. It also marks the first time the financial sector will apply a global carbon accounting standard, with methods previously specific to the US or Netherlands.

‘Four million’ join students in climate marches, building pressure on leaders

The PCAF will enable investors to judge whether their portfolios are compatible with the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit warming to “well below” 2C and make “finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”.

The methodology will apply to a wide range of assets, including sovereign bonds, listed equity, mortgages, real estate and corporate debt.

“PCAF enables the financial industry to take meaningful, collective and global action to combat climate change,” head of Triodos bank Peter Blom said. “Knowing the emissions of their loans and investments means banks can be transparent with their stakeholders. They can better understand and manage the risk of the climate emergency for their business. And, crucially, they can make informed decisions that limit the negative impact, and increase the positive impact, of their financial decisions on the climate.”

What is the UN climate action summit?

“Our experience in the Netherlands is that measuring and tracking climate impact drives concrete action and change,” Kees van Dijkhuizen CEO of the Dutch ABN AMRO said. “At ABN AMRO, PCAF helped us understand that our 800,000 residential mortgages are one of the areas that have the highest carbon impact. With that knowledge, we now promote mortgages that incentivize customers to take energy efficiency measures. Climate action like that is not only good for business – but is a duty to our clients, the planet, and to future generations.”

Founded during the Paris Agreement in 2015, PCAF has assessed $1.2 trillion worth of assets since 2018.

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The global strike was billed as the largest climate protest in history days before  world leaders gather in New York for a three-day climate action summit convened by UN secretary general António Guterres starting Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly young people, some accompanied by parents, gathered in Foley Square in front of the Thurgood Marshall courthouse in downtown Manhattan in September heat, waving colourful hand-painted placards.

“Cooler is cool”, “Remember when the earth was cool” and “The earth should not be hotter than me” read some of the signs, encapsulating a sense that climate action was now utterly mainstream.

What is the UN climate action summit?

The protest marched through the streets of New York to Battery Park, at the southern tip of Manhattan, to hear from Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. The social movement she inspired in such a short amount of time culminated in a powerful message to governments that to remain relevant to young voters, their actions need to change.

Organisers 350.org said protests around the world had mobilised more than four million people in 163 countries. That number could not be independently verified.

Amazing images flooded social media, those are shared below.

At the summit on Monday, politicians will make their response by announcing their plans for greater ambition.

New York City is looking huge! Lower Manhattan is absolutely packed with people. It will take ages for everyone to get to Battery Park.#ClimateStrike #FridaysForFuture pic.twitter.com/InoX8kQmCa

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) September 20, 2019

NYCs massive #ClimateStrike march has begun, from Foley Sq down Centre St to Chambers St across to Broadway… and down to the Battery! Thank you @ClimateCrisis and everyone else marching! pic.twitter.com/WUpeRP0ZQS

— Gale A. Brewer (@galeabrewer) September 20, 2019

Across the world, the climate strike was an expression of people’s democratic power. The day was up to a strong start as hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Sydney, Australia.

Another great Sydney #ClimateStrike photo pic.twitter.com/k5bABTSi0S

— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) September 20, 2019

On the low-lying island of Kirabiti, where plans are already in place to relocate communities vulnerable to sea level rise, young people sent a message to the world that they won’t give up in the face of adversity.

“We are not sinking, we are fighting” #ClimateStrike Kiribati #MatagiMālohi #PacificClimateWarriors pic.twitter.com/UOrtIsCBv9

— 350 Pacific (@350Pacific) September 20, 2019

There were gatherings in Hyderabad, the capital of India’s southern Telangana state.

Keep Calm and show some love towards planet. Burn egos not coal, melt heart not glaciers, change habits not climate. #ClimateStrike #FridaysForFuture.
Hyderabad India @GretaThunberg @CitizensForHyd @greenpeaceindia pic.twitter.com/75hYmh1YV8

— Ali (@7aliabbas1) September 20, 2019

And a roller-blade protest in Uganda.

#Uganda

Here are youth from @MakerereU joining the rest of the world for the #ClimateStrike.#ClimateStrikeUg@youthgogreenug pic.twitter.com/e2dTNGXs02

— Simply Cliff (@GeoffreyEwarwa) September 20, 2019

From Nepal to Frieberg to Angola, people asked their governments to do more to address the climate crisis.

one big family united for #ClimateStrike #FridaysForFuture pic.twitter.com/S53uE48Hf8

— FridaysForFutureNepal (@FridaysNepal) September 20, 2019

In Angola pic.twitter.com/O01yYBOhl1

— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) September 20, 2019

Even in Afghanistan, a country torn by conflict and violence, people walked out for the climate under heavy security.

incredible photo of young Afghan women leading today’s climate strike in Kabul, flanked by armed guards (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP) pic.twitter.com/ppN62SsuUC

— Azeen Ghorayshi (@azeen) September 20, 2019

Huge crowds turned out in London and Berlin.

Everybody London #ClimateStrike is massive. I think I’m gonna cry pic.twitter.com/44OR451v6f

— Hannah Martin (@Hannah_RM) September 20, 2019

#klimastreik #fridaysforfuture Berlin Brandenburger Tor. Klares Zeichen an die Politik!! pic.twitter.com/aIPufbGunb

— David Croyé (@DavidCroye) September 20, 2019

There were marches in Pakistan…..

Gilgit City Climate March! @GretaThunberg @Fridays4future pic.twitter.com/1468eH3Z8L

— FridaysForFuture Pakistan (@Fridays4FutureP) September 20, 2019

…. and in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Just in from Jakarta.

Media and police presence at the #climatestrike today. pic.twitter.com/bdG2f5Pz2T

— 350 dot org (@350) September 20, 2019

Workers in Brazil also showed their solidarity with the strikers.

Metalúrgicos da Compacta Print, em São Paulo, Brasil, aderem ao movimento mundial em defesa do meio ambiente.#ClimateStrike#ClimateAmbition#Unions#GlobalClimateStrike#GreveGlobalpeloClima pic.twitter.com/XmGLSb6VbP

— Metalúrgicos SP (@metalurgicossp) September 20, 2019

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On the eve of the UN’s climate action summit, record numbers of youth climate campaigners are due to be joined by parents, workers, trade unions, businesses and organisations in a global strike ramping up pressure on political leaders to respond to the climate crisis.

More than 2,500 strikes are being planned across 117 countries on Friday, with picket lines and marches anticipated from Russia to Johannesburg and Turkey to New Delhi.

One of the largest demonstrations is to take place in New York, where UN secretary general António Guterres has convened world leaders to, as he put it, “put climate action into higher gear” over a three-day summit starting on Saturday.

What is the UN climate action summit?

The summit has been billed as a critical moment for political leaders to show their willingness to increase their climate plans, in a bid to bridge the ambition gap to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C – the tougher goal of the Paris Agreement demanded by vulnerable countries and backed by Guterres.

On Monday, climate campaigners in Washington are expected to bring the city to a standstill in protest to the lack of action of Donald Trump’s administration.

The strike is modelled on Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s own weekly protests, demanding her government take action commensurate to the findings of the science and a landmark report on 1.5C.

The ‘Fridays For Future’ movement she inspired has dramatically increased public pressure on governments to listen to people’s demands for more ambition climate action.

‘This movement is saving my life’: climate strikers on their year of protest

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Guterres said the leadership and initiative showed by youth around the world was “remarkable”.

“The youth has been showing an enormous leadership, and I hope that that leadership will have a very strong impact on the societies as a whole, on their families and, based on that, on their governments of their countries,” he said.

Young people are due to play a key role throughout the high-level meeting, starting with a youth summit on Saturday.

Of governments that were not taking action, Alexandria Villaseñor, co-founder of US Youth Climate Strike and founder of Earth Uprising, said on Thursday: “They can listen to us now, or they can listen to us later… because our voice is going to continue getting louder as the climate crisis gets more urgent.”

More than 100 countries applied for UN climate summit, half were rejected

“The audacity of simply asking for leaders to lead is extraordinary and we are indebted to young people the world over for pushing us to this place,” Guterres’ special representative for sustainable energy Rachel Kyte told journalists on Thursday.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio backed Friday’s strike, with state-run school students in the city to be excused for participating if they have parental consent.

The strike has also been supported by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which boasts 200 million members globally.

“Your standing up to governments, demanding action around climate has in fact been a game-changer,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the ITUC, addressing the youth. “The solidarity of the trade union movement globally is behind you.”

Dozens of trade unions globally have echoed their support for the strike, including the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Irish union Fórsa, the South African Federation of Trade Unions and the UK’s Trade Union Congress, which is calling for employers to grant workers a 30-minute workday action.

Tomorrow we strike back!
Global Climate Strike September 20-27th:
5225 events
In 156 countries
On all 7 continents
And counting!
Find your local strike or register your own at https://t.co/G06WbXNvl1
Spread the word and see you in the streets!#FridaysForFuture #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/E6MSYFsqug

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) September 19, 2019

The UK is also preparing for its largest climate protest yet, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to join more than 200 events on Friday.

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “The school strikers have led the way in waking the world’s leaders up to the climate crisis,” which he said has “shown people power can move governments”. “It’s time for the rest of us to stand with them in solidarity,” he added.

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Big tech could also play its role, with employees at Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft expected to participate in the strike.

In total, more than 4,600 strikes are registered in cities around the world on both Friday and 27 September, with and 1,240 actions being planned in Europe alone.

The post Millions expected to make Friday climate protest the largest in history appeared first on Climate Home News.

The summit is a moment for political leaders to show their willingness to increase their climate plans and deepen the decarbonisation of their economies. Countries are competing for the limelight, with only the boldest and most transformative action being presented on stage on Monday.

UN special envoy for climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba told reporters last week that around 60 heads of state will take to the podium based on their level of ambition, adding that all countries had been invited to participate in the summit.

A draft agenda for Monday’s key event, seen by CHN, shows 36 speakers were expected to present enhanced national plans in three-minute speeches. Other countries may speak on behalf of a specific initiative that is being presented with a coalition of stakeholders. The FT reported on Wednesday that 63 governments would make the cut.

China and India demand cash for climate action on eve of UN summit

UN deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed said on Tuesday that the UN had to decide which national plans were the boldest “and that’s been tough”, citing the challenge of having to take into account different national contexts.

“We will see on Monday who is stepping up. We will see what climate leadership looks like,” she said.

The UN secretary general’s special representative for sustainable energy Rachel Kyte told journalists on Thursday: “The criteria [the UN applied] was whether the heads of state or government would be coming with a clear articulation of a plan to increase ambition.”

Neither US president Donald Trump, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro nor Australia’s Scott Morrison are attending the summit, with no indication their country submitted enhanced plans for ambition.

South Africa’ president Cyril Ramaphosa will not attend any events during the UN’s general assembly because of domestic issues, including an outburst of violence against immigrants, CHN has learned. However, South Korea is expected to make it to the stage, CHN understands.

Explainer: What is the UN climate action summit?

China, India, France, Germany and the UK are all due to speak at the summit.

But in a statement published on Tuesday, India said it was not in position to enhance its climate plan, leaving uncertainties over what prime minister Narendra Modi has to bring. There are also few signs Beijing is ready to announce anything significant.

On Tuesday, de Alba said he could not confirm the exact number of heads of state attending the summit, because it was still evolving. He added that not all heads of state present will be able to take to the podium “because of time constraint”.

With millions of people around the world expected to take to the streets on Friday to demand climate action, governments are under pressure to listen and respond with commensurate ambition.

Jennifer Tollmann, policy advisor for think-tank E3G’s climate diplomacy team, told CHN, the summit was “a final warning call for governments that what they are doing is fundamentally inadequate”.

“Looking ahead to 2020 and in the face of mounting climate impacts they can’t continue to say they were not ready,” she said.

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De Alba acknowledged that the summit won’t be enough to bridge the gap to the level of ambition needed to keep temperatures to 1.5C, the tougher goal of the Paris Agreement demanded by vulnerable countries. But he added: “If we had not encouraged countries to start working on their [climate plans] through this summit we would have had a much lower level of ambition next year”.

Behind Guterres’ personal efforts to galvanise political leadership for action, the full UN system is backing the summit in an colossal diplomatic effort. And this is expected to carry on after the summit “by committing the overall United Nations system behind those initiative,” de Alba said.

The weekend agenda, shows a string of UN agency heads supporting the meeting, including from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), UN Climate Change, UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), UN Habitat, UN Economic and Social Council and Unesco among others.

Several former climate talks presidents, including Laurent Fabius who presided over the agreement of the Paris deal in 2015, and former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon are also listed to attend.

The post More than 100 countries applied for UN climate summit, half were rejected appeared first on Climate Home News.

The summit has been personally convened by UN secretary general António Guterres as a moment for political leaders to show their willingness to increase their climate plans and deepen the decarbonisation of their economies.

Guterres asked governments to come ready to announce the plans they will set next year.

But in separate statements published on Tuesday, the world’s first and fourth largest emitters put the onus on rich countries to fulfil their commitments to mobilise $100 billion per year by 2020 for developing countries to cope with the impacts of climate change.

What is the UN climate action summit?

As the largest developing country, China “also enjoys the right to receive funds”, it in a statement published by the ministry of ecology and environment.

It said developed countries should “implement and strengthen” and “honour the commitment” to “support the developing world in addressing climate change”.

In its statement, India’s ministry of finance said its plan was set on a “best effort” basis and that “finance holds a key for all its actions”.

With uncertain finance and technology provision, “India can only aspire to implement the already promised climate actions”, the statement said. It added that India “may only be in a position to elaborate or clarify its post 2020 climate” plan at the summit.

Instead, India said will be “better placed” to “suitably recalibrate [its climate plan] through re-examination and improvement,” in 2023, when the next global stocktake to ramp up ambition is due to take place.

The UN summit will include a discussion of climate finance, but it has not been given the primacy of Guterres’ call for ambition.

Beijing set out its action on the summit’s nine work tracks, but remained ambiguous on what it might bring to podium on Monday.

French court finds climate activists stole Macron portraits out of necessity

China reaffirmed its commitment to implement the Paris Agreement, but fell short of making any commitments on its climate targets for Monday’s summit.

Its contribution to climate change, it said, includes the country’s 2020 and 2030 climate targets and the establishment of “an economic system that is green and low-carbon cycle development”. It added it would “actively implement emission reduction commitments, and strengthen climate adaptation”.

“In light of tough economic and geopolitical prospects, China is pondering its options on climate,” Li Shuo, senior energy and climate policy officer at Greenpeace China told Climate Home News, adding that Beijing’s position paper left “plenty of wiggle room for a decision to double down on climate targets in 2020”.

Last week, UN special envoy for climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba said he was “very confident” that China will come to the summit “with a much higher level of ambition”, referring to a statement it issued with France and Guterres on the sidelines of the G20.

China and allies challenge UN chief’s climate vision

However, the stronger language in the G20 statement in which China committed to “update” its climate target “in a manner representing a progression beyond the current one” and publish a long term decarbonisation strategy by 2020, is absent from its position paper.

Even the language of China as a “torchbearer” for climate action previously used by president Xi Jinping was absent, with instead references to China as “an active participant and defender of the multilateral climate process”.

“True leaders rise to the challenges of their time,” warned Li. “If geopolitical challenges have left Chinese leaders unsure, the country’s over-achievements of its climate targets and the improving air quality should offer confidence,” he said.

Both China and India’s positions echoed a statement issued alongside Brazil and South Africa last month, highlighting the need for developed countries with greater historic emissions to shoulder greater responsibility.

For Xi’s government, this principle is “the basis for mutual trust” and the “conditions for the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement”, according to its latest statement.

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Luca Bergamaschi, a senior associate at think-tank E3G, said China and India were developing clean technologies some time at a faster pace than developed countries.

“In a truly globalised world, this old north-south divide does not make sense,” he said.

“Although there is still a high responsibility for developed countries to provide more climate finance and lead with climate action, there is a need for much more cooperation to create open, ‘zero-carbon’ markets and to accelerate technology uptake and green finance reforms.”

The post China and India demand cash for climate action on eve of UN summit appeared first on Climate Home News.

The high-level meeting at the UN headquarters is a critical moment for political leaders to show their willingness to increase their climate plans and deepen the decarbonisation of their economies.

Here is how it’s going to work.

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When and where?

The summit will take place over three days 21-23 September at UN Headquarters in New York. With a culminating summit of national leaders on Monday 23.

What’s going to happen?

A youth climate summit on Saturday 21 September will open the meeting, bringing together young activists, entrepreneurs and change-makers on the day following the world’s first global climate strike.

On Sunday, the nine coalitions are due to meet to take stock of their recent work and finalise details before Monday’s big reveal.

Monday’s plenary meeting, the main event, will be a combination of presentations from the best national plans and coalition initiatives being showcased on stage.

Why another UN climate meeting? Isn’t the Paris Agreement already acting as a compass for action?

Despite commitments by governments to tackle the climate crisis, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise year on year.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries pledged to limit global temperature rise “well below” 2C of warming. But current national commitments will struggle to hold warming below 3C by the end of the century.

Countries have also agreed to review and update their climate plans every five years, with a view to progressively increase their emissions reductions targets. The first stage of this process is due next year.

To galvanise political leadership for ambition at a time when much of the world is gripped by a surge of nationalism and turning inwards, Guterres personally convened the summit, backing it with the full force of the UN machine.

It is expected to be a critical moment for climate diplomacy, intended to kick-start the process of increasing countries’ climate plans.

Further reading: Nationalism could sink the Paris Agreement. The UN chief is fighting back

What is Guterres demanding?

“Bring plans, not speeches,” Guterres told countries.

In a letter sent to every head of state, the UN chief set-out his expectations for the summit, urging governments to come with concrete and meaningful plans for action.

Excerpts of the letter, showed Guterres asked all leaders to come “ready to announce the plans that they will set next year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050”.

His demands, in line with the tougher 1.5C goal of the Paris deal, set a high benchmark for ambition. Reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 is something only a handful of largely developed countries have so far committed to do.

Guterres also called on countries to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030, end fossil fuel subsidies and ban new coal plants after 2020 – a set of asks unusually prescriptive for the head of the UN.

Further reading:

• Guterres asks all countries to plan for carbon neutrality by 2050 
  
• Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

What noises are coming from governments?

Countries are expected to compete for the spotlight with only the most ambitious and meaningful plans being showcased on stage on Monday 23, with the aim to spur a race to the top.

Between 80 and 100 countries have suggested they were ready to increase their climate plans ahead of schedule, with some countries signalling they could make an announcement at the summit, according to the UN.

Special envoy for climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba said a number of countries had told the UN they were “committed to be reaching new [climate] plans but they might not be ready to do that by the summit”. The UN is also expecting countries to set-out how they are going to meet their targets and plan to increase them.

Indications of what large emitters might bring to the summit remain mixed. Days before the summit, de Alba said he was “very confident” that China will come to the summit with clear commitments and “a much higher level of ambition”.

The UN has repeatedly pointed to a statement signed by China, France, and Guterres on the margins of the G20 as an indication of Beijing’s plans. It included a commitment to increase their climate plans and publish their “long-term mid-century low greenhouse gas emissions development strategies by 2020”, something Beijing could flesh out at the event.

In a communique released last week, EU Commission outgoing vice-president for the energy union Maroš Šefčovič said the EU will bring “the fruit of our work”, which he described as “a realistic perspective of a climate-neutral Europe by 2050, backed by ambitious policies set in binding legislation.” The Commission is hoping members states can agree on the target by early next year, but must overcome resistance from some holdouts.

The US is not part of the conversation at the moment. For China and the EU, the ultimate deadline to come up with more ambitious plans will be next year’s climate talks. And yet, without a strong indication that the world’s largest emitters are ready to take more robust climate action, the summit’s success could be compromised.

Further reading:

• UN ‘very confident’ China plans to raise climate ambition
• China pledges to strengthen climate plan
• UN chief’s climate asks fall flat in emerging economies
• EU climate deal fails amid four-nation revolt

So is this all about competition?

No, it’s also about cooperation.

Besides, a push for countries to increase their climate plans, preparation for the summit have seen the creation of nine tracks – or coalitions – under which governments together with businesses, NGOs and other international organisations are expected to present meaningful, realistic and scalable initiatives.

The tracks have been led by national governments and include mitigation (Chile), energy transition (Denmark and Ethiopia); industry transition (India and Sweden); climate finance and carbon pricing (France, Jamaica and Qatar), infrastructure, cities and local action (Turkey and Kenya); nature-based solutions (China and New Zealand), resilience and adaptation (UK and Egypt), youth engagement and public mobilisation (Marshall Islands and Ireland) and social and political drivers (Peru and Spain).

Each track is led by an alliance of countries working with a range of partners, including businesses and civil society. The proposals emerging from these tracks should be “transformational”, the UN said, in a way that doesn’t leave communities who depend on fossil fuels for their livelihood behind.

Who is coming?

60 heads of states are expected to take the podium to announce more ambitious plans – or at least plans to plan in time for next year’s climate talks.

Some of those expected to make an appearance include India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, France’s president Emmanuel Macron, the UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson and German chancellor Angela Merkel. China is due to send a lower-ranking minister than initially anticipated – and the foreign minister is expected to be in attendance.

Neither US president Donald Trump, nor Australian prime minister Scott Morrison will attend the summit despite both attending the UN’s assembly general later in the week. Foreign minister Marise Payne and ambassador for the environment Patrick Suckling are expected to represent Australia, while US state department officials are also due to attend.

Besides business and civil society representatives, more than 500 young people have been selected to attend the summit, with youth due to play a key role throughout the event. The UN has funded travel “as carbon-neutral as possible” to New York for 100 young climate leaders from across the world.

Greta Thunberg, who crossed the Atlantic on a race boat as an alternative to flying, is also due to have a speaking role during the three-day event.

What happens next?

The summit is a political moment for world leaders to take concrete steps to ramp up ambition. It doesn’t replace the annual climate negotiations talks, which this year are taking place in December in Santiago, Chile.

Instead, the summit marks an additional step for countries to build momentum ahead of the 2020 climate talks – the most important negotiating moment since the Paris Agreement when countries are due to announce how they are going to update their climate plans.

Following the summit, Guterres is expected to write an analytical report about the meeting’s achievement in securing additional emissions reduction pledges and the support needed to implement the proposed initiatives.

The report is due to be presented at Cop25 in Chile.

The post What is the UN climate action summit? appeared first on Climate Home News.

Speaking ahead of the high-level meeting convened by UN secretary general in New York on 23 September, UN special envoy on climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba said he was “very confident that China will come to the summit with a clear commitment on a number of areas… with a much higher level of ambition”.

Referring to a statement signed by China, France and UN chief António Guterres on the margins of the G20 summit in July, De Alba said the communique had “made some important announcements”.

“One of them is a commitment of China to enhance their [national climate plan] and to come in September with a proposal on that,” he said.

The statement issued by Beijing and Paris reaffirmed their commitments to update their climate plans “in a manner representing a progression beyond the current one” and to publish their “long-term mid-century low greenhouse gas emissions development strategies by 2020”.

It makes no specific reference to announcements by China at the UN climate action summit and leaves open the timing to release details of the updated plan.

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Guterres is using the summit to kickstart a process for countries to announce increased ambition a year ahead of schedule. Under the Paris Agreement, countries are due to update their climate plans by the end of 2020, to come closer to limiting global temperature rise to “well below” 2C.

The secretary general has also asked countries to reduce emissions by at least 45% by 2030, plan for carbon neutrality by 2050, end fossil fuel subsidies and ban new coal-fired power plants by next year – a set of demands de Alba described as “setting the bar quite high”.

Countries are expected to compete for the spotlight, with only the most ambitious plans being showcased on stage. De Alba confirmed 60 heads of state are due to give presentations about their climate plans, based on their level of ambition.

Signals from China have so far shown little indication that Beijing is ready to announce an increase of its climate target at the summit.

Last month, a statement signed by China alongside Brazil, South Africa and India suggested that countries for bigger historic emissions and more money should shoulder greater responsibility for action.

China is to send a lower-ranking official than initially expected to the high-level meeting – a sign observers said dampens expectations of a significant announcement.

China’s belt and road plan ‘may result in 2.7C warming’

De Alba stressed that what China is doing outside of its borders is as important as its domestic climate plans.

“I see that they are also working with very hard in greening the belt and road initiative, and that is one of the most important contribution that China can do,” he said, adding “this is exactly what we are encouraging them to do”.

De Alba added that while it was “going to be important” for China to come with a more ambitious climate plan, “it’s going to be important for us that the EU will also come with a plan”, expressing his hopes for the EU to enhance its 2030 target and adopt carbon neutrality by 2050.

In a communique released on Wednesday, EU Commission outgoing vice-president for the energy union Maroš Šefčovič said the EU will bring to the UN summit “the fruit of our work”, which he described as “a realistic perspective of a climate-neutral Europe by 2050, backed by ambitious policies set in binding legislation.”

The statement added that the EU Commission was “actively preparing to communicate by early 2020 a long-term strategy with the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050”.

European Green Deal portfolio handed to EU vice president, in major elevation

At an event in London on Tuesday, Finland’s foreign minister Pekka Haavisto hinted that one of the four countries that blocked an agreement on carbon neutrality at the last EU Council in June had now come on side.

“We are close but we are not there yet,” he told Climate Home News, adding that he hoped the bloc could agree on the target before the end of the year, under Finland’s six-month rotating presidency.

Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and an architect of the Paris Agreement, said Europe had a “key role” to play at the summit, adding that the EU should increase its 2030 target to 55% and “has to be in New York and say ‘we will do it’”.

Tubiana said a proposed EU-China summit in the second half of 2020, when Germany takes over the EU’s rotating presidency, would be key.

“We will not have the US of course trying to partner with China on something more so the EU has to do the job,” she said.

“We need to make the Paris Agreement a reality,” she added, and next year’s climate talks “will be a moment of truth” for the Paris deal.

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That is according to a new report published on Tuesday by the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA), led by former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, businessman Bill Gates, and CEO of the World Bank Kristalina Georgieva.

The report gives concrete examples of the ways costs and losses associated with climate risks can be avoided.

For instance, a 24-hour warning system for a coming storm or heat wave could reduce ensuing damage by 30%, according to the report. Investing $800 million on warning systems in developing countries could avoid losses of up to $16 billion per year.

Most efforts to tackle climate change have focused on emissions reduction. Christiana Figueres, former head of the UN Climate Change, called the report a “breakthrough”.

European Central Bank should ‘gradually eliminate’ carbon assets: Lagarde

“For years we have seen adaptation as being the Cinderella of climate change, way behind mitigation. Adaptation and mitigation are the two sides of a same coin. Either we delay and pay, or we have a plan and prosper,” she said.

Developing countries said in their commitments to the Paris Agreement that they will need $50 billion a year for adaptation between 2020 and 2030 – a figure much lower than the estimated costs of adaptation, according to a UN Environment Programme report published last year.

But while money flowing to fund adaptation projects remains largely insufficient, the payback on investment in adaptation is huge, the GCA said.

Climate Weekly: US Dems’ 7-hour climathon

The report found that for every $1 invested in climate adaptation, investors could see between $2 and $10 of net economic benefit. Investing $1.8 trillion globally by 2030 in five identified areas, could generate $7.1 trillion in paybacks.

Research by the World Bank shows that without adaptation, the inequality gap will widen and climate change impacts could push more than 100 million people below the poverty line by 2030.

Patrick Verkooijen, co-director of the Global Centre on Adaptation and a contributor to the report, warned that by failing to tackle the climate emergency head on, “we risk climate apartheid”.

“Our report is a message of hope,” he said, adding that such preparations were “the most successful investments” that could be made.

Calling on world leaders to take stock of the report, former UN chief Ban said he didn’t know “where the passion and commitment of world leaders had gone” since Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the US from the Paris deal. A move he said, had a “deep political and psychological impacts” on other countries.

“Without the political will, this report will not fly,” he warned, calling for “strong partnerships” between governments, businesses and civil society.

“More than ever, we need political leadership,” he said.

The five sectors where investments could trigger significant economic benefits were early warning systems, resilient infrastructure, agriculture, protecting mangroves and water-resilience.

Making new infrastructure climate resilient could see economic returns four times the size of the initial investment. With $60 trillion of infrastructure investment anticipated over the next decade, “the potential benefits of early adaptation are enormous”, the report said.

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Failing to adapt agriculture practices to climate change could cause growth in global agriculture yields to reduce by up to 30% by 2050, affecting small farmers the most and putting increasing pressure on ways to feed the growing global population.

More efficient water allocation is also expected to become vital to economic growth. The economic growth of India, China and Central Asia could be 7 to 12% lower without such measures, and much of African countries would see their GDP reduce by 6% by 2050.

The report warned that the preparations were “not happening at nearly the pace and scale required”, because climate impacts and risks are not yet adequately factored into decision-making and that those most affected by climate change were not given a voice.

“Much of the adaptation money doesn’t come close to the communities affected and that needs to stand on its head,” said Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute. “We are calling for a radical overhaul of how money is being spent.”

Done right, adaptation will benefit the most vulnerable people the most, he added.

The report comes less than a fortnight ahead of the UN climate action summit convened by UN secretary general António Guterres in New York when political, business and civil society leaders are expected to announce plans to ramp up ambition.

The commission pledged to launch a year of action at the 23 September summit, ahead of the first climate adaptation summit in the Netherlands in October 2020. It promised to encourage countries to raise the level of ambition on adaptation in the lead-up to the 2020 climate talks.

The post Preparations for the climate crisis will save trillions, commission finds appeared first on Climate Home News.

In a marathon seven-hour prime-time televised discussion on the climate crisis and how to address it, Democratic candidates set-out unprecedented plans to overhaul the US economy away from fossil fuels with record investments in research and innovation and the promise to create millions of jobs.

Candidates differed on the pace of decarbonisation and scope of the energy transition: former vice-president Joe Biden talked of $1.7 trillion of federal investment over the next 10 years, while Vermont senator Bernie Sanders promised Americans $16.3tn of public investment to finance his transition plan.

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But all were ambitious enough to present a stark contrast to Trump; making the 2020 election critical to global prospects for climate action.

Leading the polls in a field of 20 Democratic hopefuls, Biden, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and Sanders each presented plans to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the century. A move that would send a powerful signal to other large carbon emitters such as China, which has been waiting on the EU and the US to ramp up ambition.

Warren, one of the first sponsors of the Green New Deal which calls for net zero domestic emissions by 2030, committed to achieve 100% zero-emission energy in electricity generation by 2035. Her detailed plan includes milestones in 2028 and 2030 for zero-carbon buildings and zero-emissions vehicles.

Sanders, a veteran politician on the left of the Democratic party, promised to reduce domestic emissions by at least 71% by 2030 and achieve full decarbonisation by 2050.

Meanwhile, Biden, the frontrunner who worked alongside Barack Obama to secure the Paris Agreement, committed to net zero emissions by 2050, promising to put in a place an enforcement mechanism and milestones targets by 2025.

UN secretary general António Guterres has asked all world leaders to plan for carbon neutrality by 2050 ahead of his UN climate action summit later this month. But this demand is something only a handful of developed countries have committed to so far.

And while large emerging economies such as China and India have made noises they were ready to set long-term emissions reductions goals, there are no signs carbon neutrality is under serious consideration.

Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

By adopting a pathway to carbon neutrality, a Trump-defeating Democrat would considerably change the political dynamic on the international stage and further cement the benchmark for ambition set out by Guterres.

“We’re only 20% of the problem,” said Warren, approximating the US’ 15% contribution to emissions. “Now that’s a big hunk of the problem but there is another world out there that is 80% of this problem, so you bet that this is a moment when we better dream big and fight hard.”

The top three candidates promised to re-engage the US in the Paris Agreement and on the international stage to create a race to the top for climate action.

Biden made his experience and ability to assert diplomatic clout among the world’s largest economies a key part of his campaign pledge.

“There is no leadership,” Biden said, referring to the G7 summit. “I know almost every one of these world leaders. If I had been president today, I would have at the G7 made sure this became the topic. There would be no empty chair. I would be pulling the G7 together.”

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In his first 100 days in office, Biden pledged to convene a summit to persuade leaders of the major carbon-emitting countries to make more ambitious national pledges.

He promised to hold China accountable to high environmental standards over its belt and road initiative and strike bilateral agreements with Beijing to reduce emissions – echoing the 2014 agreement between the two countries that paved the way for the Paris deal.

Sanders’s plan includes similar commitments to engage with the world’s emerging economies on climate action.

Both Biden and Sanders said they would recommit the US to the Green Climate Fund, with Sanders promising $200 billion. Warren pledged $100bn over 10 years to countries hardest hit by the climate crisis.

All three candidates have pledged to impose a border carbon adjustment fee on CO2-intensive imported goods. But Warren and Sanders went further still, demanding an end to all overseas financing of fossil fuels and committing to using trade deals as a leverage for climate action.

For Warren, eliminating domestic fuel subsidies should become a precondition for entering trade negotiations with the US. Meanwhile Sanders said his administration would renegotiate trade deals to ensure binding climate standards “with swift enforcement”.

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“External elements, such as the Sino-US trade war, have brought negative impacts and increasing uncertainties to the global economy, which has also made it more difficult for China to tackle climate change,” said Li Gao, head of the climate change office at the ministry of ecology and environment.

The world’s biggest producer of climate-warming greenhouse gases has pledged to bring emissions to a peak by around 2030 as part of the global effort to curb rising temperatures.

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It promised in June to show the “highest possible ambition” when reviewing its climate policies next year, raising hopes it would include more stringent targets in its 2021-2025 five-year plan.

However, Li, briefing reporters ahead of a United Nations climate summit in New York next month, appeared to pour cold water on the idea China would be able to significantly accelerate efforts to bring emissions to a peak.

“Don’t underestimate the determination and confidence of the Chinese government, but at the same time, don’t underestimate the difficulties China is facing,” he said, adding, “China will not be able to meet the goal many years ahead of schedule.”

China’s policies are likely to come under scrutiny at the UN summit, especially after a summer of record-breaking temperatures across the globe.

Ban flying to UN climate talks? That’s a dangerous idea

UN climate envoy Luis de Alba told Reuters earlier this month that the UN had received a “positive response” from China on ending investment in coal, a major source of greenhouse gas and air pollution.

Li said the environment ministry would focus on climate financing in the future and work with the central bank and China’s top planning body to devise policies to support carbon reduction projects throughout the country, including renewables and electric vehicles.

But he said China still relied on fossil fuels and it was difficult to make adjustments, especially with the economy slowing.

“With the economy under downward pressure, the country has to take more measures to guarantee employment and the people’s livelihood,” he said. “Some of those measures may not fit our effort to tackle climate change.”

Li also said China was still unable to meet a major requirement of the Paris climate agreement to compile a full annual carbon inventory that should be submitted to the United Nations, as the country lacked staff and resources.

China’s last full inventory was for 2014, and measured the country’s total emissions at 12.3 billion tonnes, up more than half in just a decade.

An influential government think tank earlier called on China to impose a 2025 cap on carbon emissions, warning that on its current trajectory, the country’s annual CO2 emissions would rise 30% over the next decade.

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Tuvalu’s message could not be clearer or more important – climate change is real and the future of their children and all the children of our blue Pacific is uncertain – unless urgent, ambitious action is taken to limit global warming to below 1.5C.

Last year, Pacific Islands Forum leaders reaffirmed, through the Boe Declaration on Regional Security, that climate change is the single greatest threat facing the region. At their 50th meeting in Tuvalu, leaders discussed this threat and resolved, by consensus, to take urgent action.

Following their meeting, leaders issued the Kainaki II Declaration for Urgent Climate Change Action Now.

Australia seeks to water down climate declaration at Pacific summit

Over the past week, I have seen significant interest in the Kainaki II Declaration from people all around our region and internationally. The level of interest, debate and discussion is very positive and speaks to the nature of the climate change crisis that we now face, and the catastrophic consequences of inaction for many of the forum’s members.

As secretary general, I want to use this opportunity to make one very important point about the declaration.

The Kainaki II Declaration for Urgent Climate Change Action Now is the strongest statement the Pacific Islands Forum has ever issued collectively on climate change, and will stand as a key advocacy instrument to support the Pacific’s collective voice at the UN secretary-general’s climate action summit to be held in New York next month, the 25th Conference of the Parties (Cop25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Chile in December and other global meetings.

Pacific islands criticise Australia’s carbon accounting dodge

The Kainaki II Declaration is a significant milestone. Especially so, when you consider that Australia and New Zealand are developed country parties within the context of international climate change negotiations and are part of a negotiating group which consists of larger countries such as the US, Japan and Canada. The fact that Australia and New Zealand, as members of the Pacific Islands Forum, support and endorse the Kainaki II Declaration will elevate and add considerable weight to the Pacific’s negotiating priorities at the international level, including at the upcoming Cop25.

The Kainaki II Declaration is the first time the Pacific Islands Forum has agreed and declared that there is a ‘climate change crisis’ facing the Pacific island nations. It appears twice in the declaration in paragraphs 1 and 9. By agreeing to use the term ‘climate change crisis’, Pacific leaders have set a new bar for the international community, as “crisis” is currently not agreed language in the Paris Agreement or in the UNFCCC process.

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We all know that limiting the global average temperature rise to below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is a red line for Pacific island nations. In response, the Kainaki II Declaration references the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2018 Special Report on 1.5C at least three times and also declares the need to limit global average temperature increase to 1.5C five times. This is a strong signal from Pacific leaders to ensure the international community meets all obligations under the Paris Agreement and increases the pressure for all countries to take urgent action to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and prevent catastrophic global warming.

To ensure we are on track for the 1.5C pathway greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2020 and decline thereafter reaching net zero by 2050. Reflecting this, the Kainaki II Declaration mentions ‘achieving net zero carbon by 2050’ twice, alongside the need to formulate long-term low emissions strategies by 2020.

On nationally determined contributions (NDCs), the language in the Kainaki II Declaration recognises the need for all parties to the Paris Agreement to update and communicate their revised NDCs in 2020, including meeting or exceeding their current commitments to pursue efforts to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5C, whilst recognising the opportunity presented during the first global stocktake, to take place in 2023.

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Several leaders in our region have consistently called on industralised nations and large emitters to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and ban the construction of new coal plants. The Kainaki II Declaration references the term ‘just transition from fossil fuels’, which refers to a transition away from coal, oil and gas and calls on members of G7 and G20 to ‘rapidly implement’ their existing commitment to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies is a positive step.

It is widely acknowledged that simplified access to scaled-up international climate finance is a key priority to forum island countries. In this regard, the Kainaki II Declaration not only seeks support for replenishment of the Green Climate Fund, but also calls on the international community to meet their climate finance commitments to jointly mobilise $100 billion per year by 2020 and to conclude work on the Adaptation Fund serving the Paris Agreement. I note today’s news that the United Kingdom will double its contribution to the Green Climate Fund as a positive response to the Kainaki II Declaration. We hope other development partners will follow this lead.

The last issue I want to note is the importance of the climate-ocean nexus to our blue pacific continent. In welcoming the Cop25 presidency’s focus on oceans, the Kainaki II Declaration calls on all parties attending Cop25 to consider a work programme on oceans within the UNFCCC process. This is a significant step, noting the work on the climate-ocean nexus has been running parallel, rather than as an integrated component within international climate change negotiations.

In closing, while the Kainaki II Declaration is a milestone for the Pacific Islands Forum, we realise that more still needs to be done if we are to increase the ambition levels of industrialised nations and large emitters globally. For many of the countries of the forum, climate change is not a political issue but an existential one and we do not have the time to delay commitments for transformative change. Urgent political will and ambition, both internationally and domestically, is immediately required to respond to the climate change crisis facing our region.

I have personally witnessed the robustness and richness of the discussions by our leaders on climate change issues evolve and grow from year-to-year. The strength of the consensus formed around Kainaki II speaks to the strength of our collective and to our solidarity as a family.

The Kainaki II Declaration is statement of urgent action that all Pacific people should be proud of, and I am certain it will further enhance the Pacific Islands Forum’s strong record for global leadership on climate issues.

Meg Taylor is the secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum.

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Environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China (Basic) put the onus on industrialised nations to lead carbon-cutting efforts, in a draft declaration seen by Climate Home News. Observers did not expect the content to change significantly before the statement is finalised on Friday.

In a pointed message to UN chief António Guterres, they wrote that the climate summit he is hosting in New York next month “should be fully respectful of the principles and provisions of the [UN climate convention]”. That is code for countries with bigger historic emissions and more money shouldering greater responsibility for action.

The statement does not answer Guterres’ call for national plans to go carbon neutral by 2050 and new coal plants to be banned from 2020 – asks that just a handful of countries are prepared to deliver.

Instead, Basic ministers “look forward” to “positive outcomes for pre-2020 ambition and implementation support for developing countries”. Under UN agreements, pre-2020 climate commitments and finance obligations only apply to developed countries.

Analysis: UN chief’s climate asks fall flat in emerging economies

“The Basic statement makes it clear that different visions for the [UN climate action] summit exist,” Greenpeace China expert Li Shuo commented on the draft. “Basic countries stressed that the summit should pivot to pre-2020 action and enhanced support. This is a different narrative than the one [Guterres] has been driving.”

Guterres wrote to every head of state last month, giving them a 7 August deadline to submit a “a brief summary or an indication of the plans” they intended to bring to his summit. These should include commitments to strengthen their national pledges under the Paris Agreement by 2020, he wrote.

Climate Home News asked a spokesperson for Guterres whether any Basic countries had met that deadline. At time of publication, there was no response.

China has given some indications it will update its national targets, notably in a joint statement with France and Guterres on the sidelines of a G20 summit in June. It remains unclear how ambitious the update will be, as the government is still developing its next five-year plan.

This week the government-run National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation recommended setting a cap on greenhouse gas emissions 2021-25 in order to meet China’s commitment to peak emissions around 2030, but that is not settled policy.

Analysis: Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

UN envoy Luis Alfonso de Alba met Indian officials last month, noting that the country is outperforming its clean energy target and urging the government to hike its commitments.

South Africa has introduced the continent’s first carbon tax on heavy industry, but at a price environmentalists say will make little impact on emissions.

Meanwhile Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro is actively opening the Amazon rainforest to mining and agribusiness, in defiance of a national pledge to curb deforestation.

Faced with international pressure over surging rates of forest destruction, Bolsonaro dismissed the data as “lies” and fired the head of the national space agency. He then shrugged off the withdrawal of €35 million ($40m) in German performance-based payments for forest protection.

Bolsonaro shrugs off German aid cuts, as deforestation surges

The draft Basic statement showed little sign of peer pressure within the group to bring more ambition to the table. Its demands were directed outwards, calling on developed countries to double the finance channeled through the Green Climate Fund in the current fundraising round and commit to scaling up climate finance in the longer term.

Ministers “underscored that global climate action must promote climate justice by recognition of fundamental right of all people in accessing economic growth and sustainable development”.

In parallel with efforts to mobilise higher ambition from national leaders, Guterres has set out nine “tracks” of work for the summit. These include climate finance and carbon pricing, “nature-based solutions” to climate change and the energy transition.

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The secretary general aims to galvanise global political leadership for climate action by convening a high-level summit in New York on 23 September. Countries with the most ambitious plans to accelerate decarbonisation are expected to compete for the spotlight.

With little more than a month to go before the summit, environment ministers from the “Brics” countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are meeting in Brazil. “Basic” – the same group minus Russia – is anticipated to have its own meeting focusing on climate issues. But for both occasions, expectations are low.

A statement put out by the Brics foreign ministers last month contained only a token mention of climate cooperation. It “looked forward” to “positive outcomes” at the UN climate action summit and reaffirmed ministers’ commitments to the Paris Agreement, “including the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”.

Under this principle, developing countries assert the industrialised world should shoulder more responsibility for their historical emissions – something Guterres has not mentioned in connection to his summit.

China is expanding its UN presence, in belt and road push

Last month, Guterres wrote to every head of state asking them to come to the summit ready to announce how they will strengthen their 2030 target and plan for carbon neutrality by 2050.

His message to governments, unusually prescriptive for a UN chief, has gone further, asking countries to tax carbon, stop subsidising fossil fuels and stop building new coal plants.

For many in the developing world, where coal remains a large part of the energy mix, these demands reflect the narrative of developed countries, where coal is largely on the way out and rapidly being replaced with gas and renewable energy sources.

“No new coal [plants by 2020] will be considered to be a pro-developed countries agenda because the US and Europe have more or less moved to gas,” Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and the Environment (CSE) told Climate Home News.

“I think that is not going to happen for most developing countries,” he said, despite India having “significantly downgraded its ambition on coal and increased its renewable ambition”.

“The silver lining is that if it’s not 2020, it could be 2025 given the kind of tech momentum that we are seeing.”

Guterres asks all countries to plan for carbon neutrality by 2050

Last month, UN special envoy on climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba visited New Delhi to urge the Indian government to strengthen its decarbonisation plans ahead of the summit.

But Bhushan poured cold water on any expectations that India might be ready to increase its climate target. “If the UN [secretary general] can reignite countries’ excitement about tackling climate change, that would be a huge achievement. But I am not expecting any big announcements at the [summit],” he said.

Li Shuo, senior climate and energy policy officer at Greenpeace China, expected no more from Beijing, saying China’s representative at the summit is tipped to be a lower ranking official than initially expected.

China is “keeping its cards very close to its chest but I’m expecting a procedural statement with commitments to update its climate targets and publish a long-term strategy before the end of 2020,” he said.

Meanwhile from Brazil, “there is a possibility that nobody comes to the summit,” Alice Amorim, climate policy coordinator at the Rio de Janeiro-based Climate and Society Institute told CHN. She added that Bolsonaro’s government was more concerned about the impacts of rising deforestation on trade agreements than about climate action.

Bolsonaro shrugs off German aid cuts, as deforestation surges

Across the group, domestic issues are outranking climate change on the agenda.

Beijing is preoccupied by escalating trade tensions with Washington and mass street protests in Hong Kong. In India, prime minister Narendra Modi’s move to revoke the autonomy of the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir has inflamed a long-running conflict with neighbouring Pakistan. And in South Africa, a power struggle for control of the ruling ANC party continues to dominate national politics.

In this context of rising nationalism, coupled with US withdrawal and fragmented European politics, “the idea that countries will commit themselves to share the burden [of climate action] equally is completely unrealistic,” Paulo Esteves, senior research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies and director of the Brics Policy Center told Climate Home News.

Esteves argued that Guterres’ horizontal approach to climate action was “not effective”.

“It’s not the way to get these [emerging] countries to stand up for climate action. Having said that, I don’t know any other way,” he admitted.

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To Bhushan, Guterres’ summit should be “cooperative” rather than “competitive”.

“Instead of squeezing and pushing emerging economies, I think the debate has to be a discussion about how do we collaborate. I don’t think a competitive framework is going to solve climate change,” he said.

And yet, for collaboration to work, richer and more developed countries are expected to make the first step for developing countries to follow.

“If developed countries do not sow the seeds of change, I think the developing world will never embrace the speed of change that is needed,” Amorim said.

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An annotated draft of the Pacific Islands Forum declaration, seen by Climate Home News, showed Australia trying to suppress references to the climate “crisis”, 1.5C, carbon neutrality, a ban on new coal plants and phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies.

Climate change is high on the agenda at the forum this week, putting small island nations vulnerable to sea level rise on a collision course with Australian prime minister Scott Morrison’s pro-coal government. Morrison is due to arrive in the Tuvalu capital Funafuti on Wednesday.

Ahead of the leaders’ summit, governments were invited to comment on a draft declaration, to form the basis for a political statement to be negotiated over the next couple of days.

Pacific islands criticise Australia’s carbon accounting dodge

Fiji’s prime minister Frank Bainimarama, who presided over the 2017 UN climate talks, directly appealed to Australia to transition away from coal “to energy sources that do not contribute to climate change” during an informal meeting in Tuvalu on Monday.

Bainimarama said that while it was not for Fiji “to be prescriptive” over national affairs, he urged Canberra to appreciate “the existential threat” facing Pacific nations.

But in comments on the draft dated 7 August, Australia sought to wriggle out of its climate commitments and weaken language on limiting global temperatures to 1.5C of warming – the tougher target of the Paris Agreement that small island states say is essential to their survival.

Among suggested edits, Australia deleted references to the 1.5C goal being an “irrefutable red-line” for forum members, instead referring to limiting temperature rise “in line with the Paris Agreement”.

It also pushed back against efforts to bring national policies in line with the latest science on 1.5C from the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report on 1.5C.

Analysis: Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

Australia agreed to “recognis[e] the information” in the report without endorsing its conclusion that global emissions must fall 45% by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050 for a reasonable chance of limiting warming to 1.5C. Indeed, Australia’s version excises any mention of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

This is something only a handful of largely developed countries have committed to, with New Zealand indicating in notes that it would support achieving net zero carbon “around 2050”.

UN secretary general António Guterres has thrown his weight behind the issue, demanding every country start planning for carbon neutrality by 2050 ahead of his climate action summit on 23 September in New York.

Instead, Australia’s edits call on countries to “formulate and communicate long term [greenhouse gas] emissions development strategies by 2020” – a looser framework that allows for varying levels of ambition.

The draft statement echoes others of Guterre’s demands and calls for “an immediate global ban on the construction of new coal plants and coal mines” and the “urgent phase out of all fossil fuel subsidies”.

Guterres asks all countries to plan for carbon neutrality by 2050

On both instances, Australia suggested deleting the paragraph, asserting that the issue is “not a shared forum priority”.

The draft statement concludes on a call to all countries, “with no caveats”, to take decisive and transformative action – a likely dig at Australia for planning to use Kyoto-era carbon credits to meet its Paris Agreement pledges. Again, Australia pushed to cut the “no caveats” clause.

Morrison appeared to curry favour with small island nations on Tuesday, proposing to redirect AU$500 million (US$340m) from existing aid funds to boost investments in renewable energy and climate and disaster resilient infrastructure.

In a statement, Morrison said the measure highlighted Australia’s “commitment to not just meeting our emissions reduction obligations at home but supporting our neighbours and friends,” adding the country was “doing [its] part to cut global emissions”.

Australia has pledged to cut emissions by 26% from 2005 levels by 2030 – a target it is yet not on track to meet.

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Pacific nations leaders were left unimpressed by the proposal.

Tuvalu’s prime minister Enele Sopoaga told reporters: “No matter how much money you put on the table, it doesn’t give you the excuse to not to do the right thing that is cutting down your emissions, including not opening your coal mines.”

Sopoaga said the Pacific Island Forum declaration “must push forward and seek urgent actions, concrete actions by the global community” and expressed the hope “our Australian colleagues and others will take heat of this imperative”.

In a statement following Monday’s informal discussions, seen by CHN, the Pacific small island developing states said climate change represented “the single greatest [threat] to the security of Pacific island countries”.

The statement urged world leaders to “acknowledge that we are already facing a climate crisis”, “dramatically accelerate a global response to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement” and take action in line with Guterres’ demands for ramping up ambition.

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Why? Because we know the climate emergency requires a real and dramatic response. We also know that it will not be easily achieved. It requires both system shifts and exceptional co-operation. So it’s tempting to avoid the issue and let someone else tackle it.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change today released a report on the links between land use and climate change. Some of its findings make for alarming reading by further highlighting the challenges that lie ahead if we fail to take decisive action.

However, when it comes to the shifts and cooperation needed for climate change, all of us must stay positive, resourceful and hopeful. By viewing the report through the lens of hope rather than despair, we can see how better connecting people and nature can and must form an integral part of our response to many of the challenges facing our world.

Analysis: Nine solutions to the food-forests-fuel trilemma

Nature-based solutions that reduce carbon emissions are cost effective and globally scalable. They are an indispensable complement to the rapid decarbonization that must take place in all corners of our economies. Without them, we will not be able to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. And they can be rolled out in ways that combat land degradation, put healthy and nutritious food on peoples’ tables, deliver economic benefits, create jobs in rural communities and build resilience to climate change, all at the same time.

There have been huge steps forward in the field of climate-smart agriculture, which seeks to enhance productivity, build resilience and reduce emissions. We are seeing great strides with efforts to enhance the natural capabilities of soil to store carbon and support agricultural productivity. Sustainable forestry is a way to generate income from forests while maintaining their carbon storage services, rather than converting them into plantations. Improving land tenure for indigenous and local communities is proving to be one of the most effective ways to reduce deforestation and improve forest management. And we are constantly seeing new alternatives to industrial agriculture from small-holder producers who are pioneering organic and regenerative practices.

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All told, the full deployment of nature-based solutions will deliver more than a third of the emission reductions needed by 2030. Yet, at the moment only a small percentage of the finance being directed towards climate change is invested in our relationship with nature. The private capital invested in activity that harms our relationship with nature outweighs the positive investment by a ratio of 40 to 1. If those who make decisions say that they value the planet, let us see it reflected in their financial decisions.

Nature-based solutions make good sense for the planet and good sense for people. Strategies for protecting and restoring forests, wetlands and grasslands – together with strategies for better managing how we use land for forestry and agriculture – have been estimated to have the potential to lift a billion people out of poverty, create 80 million jobs, and add an additional $2.3 trillion in productive growth to the global economy. At the same time, they will contribute to the resilience of millions of households that are already threatened by the effects of climate change. All great sources for optimism.

Bolsonaro under fire for deforestation denial, after sacking space agency chief

Right now, all around the world, countries and communities, companies and investors are starting to make this shift. But there is still a great ways to go.

It means buying smarter, whether it is in more fuel-efficient transport or less single use plastic. It means eating diets that are good for our health. It means food production systems that are sustainable and reward the producers fairly. It means businesses that protect – and do not destroy – forests, wetlands, coastlines and the ocean. It means predictable funding for nature-based solutions from private and public sources and cancelling funds for unsustainable practices. Most of all, it means people, and their governments, reassessing nature’s offer – for themselves, their households, their communities and their nations.

We look to world leaders, as they prepare for the UN secretary general’s Climate Action Summit in September, to help all nations and people reboot their relationships with nature. This means bringing the nature-based solutions that are needed for climate change into the heart of planning and decision-making – all strategies, government plans, financial decisions, business operations, scientific institutions, school classrooms and households. Now is the time to seize the great opportunity before us to turn denial into hope and let nature come to the rescue.

Susan Gardner and Dr David Nabarro are co-facilitators of the nature-based solutions work stream for the UN secretary general’s Climate Action Summit September 2019.  

Susan Gardner serves as director, ecosystems division at UN Environment; David Nabarro as professor of global health, Imperial College London and founder of 4SD Switzerland.

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The 16-year-old Swedish activist, who has galvanised Europe’s youth to rise for the climate, will cross the pond from the UK to New York on a racing yacht to attend the climate action summit convened by UN chief António Guterres on 23 September.

The high-level meeting is a critical moment for governments to show increased ambition on climate action. Youth are to play a prominent role, with Guterres calling on young people to “revolutionise the world”.

After New York, where she will join climate demonstrations, Thunberg is expected to tour the US, Canada and Mexico before traveling to the UN climate talks in Santiago, Chile, which start on 2 December – taking a sabbatical year from school to dedicate herself to activism.

Guterres asks all countries to plan for carbon neutrality by 2050

Refusing to fly because of the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions associated with air travel, Thunberg will go by sea on a 60-foot sailboat fitted with solar panels and underwater turbines that generate electricity. The aim is a zero carbon voyage.

Thunberg said she decided to make the trip because the “window of time when things are in our hands” to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C “is closing fast”. She warned world leaders had to listen to the voices of millions of young people concerned about the climate crisis.

“Together with many other young people across the Americas and the world, I will be there, even if the journey will be long and challenging,” she said.

Good news!
I’ll be joining the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, COP25 in Santiago and other events along the way.
I’ve been offered a ride on the 60ft racing boat Malizia II. We’ll be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to NYC in mid August.#UniteBehindTheScience pic.twitter.com/9OH6mOEDce

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) July 29, 2019

The boat on which Thunberg will travel is called Malizia II and is owned by German property developer Gerhard Senft.

It is rented to Monaco Yacht Club and team Malizia’s co-founder Pierre Casiraghi, the grandson of Monaco’s Prince Rainier III and actress Grace Kelly, who will accompany Thunberg along with professional race skipper and captain Boris Herrmann.

Thunberg’s father Svante and a filmmaker will also be aboard.

Greta Thunberg will sail across the Atlantic aboard the racing sailboat Milizia II (Photo: AndreasLindlahr)

A spokeswoman for team Malizia told Climate Home News: “We are doing the trip of our own accord because we strongly believe in Greta’s mission.”

In a statement, Herrmann praised Thunberg’s “courage” in speaking up about the climate crisis “in front of the most powerful people”. He said he was “not surprised that she considers this trip as something perfectly achievable for her” despite “the lack of comfort”.

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Thunberg is due to set out from the UK shores mid-August and – depending on the weather – arrive in New York around two weeks later. It is hurricane season in the Atlantic, meaning the boat will be sailing against the wind and may meet rough weather. Forecasters anticipate about a dozen storms between June and November.

Aware of his responsibility, skipper Herrmann added: “We will make sure she will reach New York in the safest way possible.”

Since July 2018, the boat has been fitted with CO2 sensors to collect data on carbon in the oceans as well as the waters’ temperature, acidity and salinity levels.

The data is shared with Germany-based organisations the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Munich and the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel to inform research.

‘Fake news’: UN aviation body blocks online climate critics

Lucy Gilliam, aviation and shipping officer at NGO Transport & Environment, welcomed Thunberg’s decision to sail to the New York meeting, adding that many environmentalists remained “a little in denial over the impacts of flying”.

A transatlantic flight doubles the typical annual carbon footprint of a western European, she told CHN.

A keen sailor who has previously crossed the Atlantic, Gilliam warned it was likely to be a “difficult” and “pretty uncomfortable” voyage. “The faster you can get across, the better. It’s going to be full on. Good luck to them,” she said.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao) meets in Montreal a day after the UN’s climate action summit in New York. Icao has been criticised for setting weak climate targets for the sector and shrouding technical talks in secrecy.

Gilliam said she hoped Thunberg would seize the opportunity “to highlight the disparities between different UN bodies” on climate action.

It has not been revealed how Thunberg will travel home to Sweden after ending her Americas tour in Chile.

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UN chief António Guterres sent a personal letter to every head of state asking them to come to his climate action summit in September ready to announce how they are going to increase their 2030 targets and plan for carbon neutrality by 2050.

This is an ambitious ask since only a handful of developed – mostly European – countries have committed to net zero by the middle of the century, with so far no sign that big emitters like China and India are ready to follow.

UN special envoy for climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba hammered home the message during a visit to New Delhi. He told Beijing the same.

In case officials were not feeling the heat, Guterres set a deadline of 7 August for leaders to indicate what they will bring to the summit. Will major economies will be ready to up their game in time to earn a place on stage?

Climate conversations

How von der Leyen could make a carbon border tax work – Harro van Asselt, Susanne Dröge and Michael Mehling

A weak carbon price is worse than no carbon price – Darragh Conway, Climate Focus

Corporate compensation 

An uphill battle is under way to reform an obscure international system that allows coal, oil and gas companies to sue governments if climate policies hit their profits.

Under this private courts system, known as the investor state dispute settlement (ISDS), a growing number of claims have been made against environmental measures.

The issue is making the sparks fly between the pro-reform EU and a block of countries led by the US and Japan defending business as usual.

*Calling African journalists*

We are looking for original, hard-hitting stories on links between climate science and African development. Details of how to pitch here

The Boris shuffle

Number 10 has a new resident this week, as former London mayor Boris Johnson takes on the big job of delivering Brexit – and, he says, delivering on net zero emissions. The latter remains to be seen.

That means it’s all change at Whitehall. Former energy minister Claire Perry was provisionally appointed Cop26 president – a little prematurely, since the UK is still waiting for approval to host next year’s UN climate talks.

Former UN Climate Change head Christiana Figueres is already confident the 2020 summit is “in good hands”.

Quick hits:

• EU moots crackdown on deforestation through supply chains
• Zimbabweans work at night to beat hydropower shortage as drought bites
• Car boom brings gridlock misery to ‘green and happy’ Bhutan

The post Climate Weekly: Guterres cracks the whip appeared first on Climate Home News.

UN special envoy on climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba met with Indian government officials in Delhi on Tuesday to discuss what the country will bring to the New York event.

It comes after UN secretary general António Guterres sent a letter to all heads of state, asking them to come to the summit with plans to upgrade their 2030 ambition and set a course for carbon neutrality by 2050. Countries are due to formally submit updated climate plans to UN Climate Change by 2020.

India is the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, the US and EU. Its carbon footprint is growing fast as the government encourages both coal and renewable generation to expand access to energy among its 1.2 billion people.

Under the Paris Agreement, India pledged to reduce the emissions intensity of its economy 33-35% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. But forecasts show India is likely to significantly overachieve one of its commitments.

Guterres asks all countries to plan for carbon neutrality by 2050

A recent report by India’s Central Electricity Authority shows the country is already close to achieving its 2030 target to get 40% of power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources – more than a decade early – and could reach 65% in March 2030.

“I am aware that India has achieved a lot and it may surpass its Paris agreement targets. I hope that this will translate into enhanced [climate commitments],” de Alba said in a briefing with national media.

“That is a decision the Indian Government should take in the coming day,” he said, adding that “more needs to be done on agriculture, air quality and other issues”.

De Alba hinted at a commitment from the Indian government to increase its climate targets but said he wasn’t aware of the specifics. “It’s for the government to announce that at the summit,” he said.

Following the meeting, India’s environment minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted the government was “walking the talk” on climate action.

Riding an electric tuk tuk in Delhi, announcing the Clean Air Initiative today – one of many actions to be presented at the #ClimateAction Summit. Calling on governments at all levels to get on board! Read more: https://t.co/UNAsWDqQKf pic.twitter.com/hwcOqwsTYs

— Luis Alfonso de Alba (@ladealba) July 23, 2019

Not everyone is optimistic India is ready to ramp up ambition. Guterres set a 7 August deadline for countries to communicate what they will bring to the meeting.

J M Mauskar, a former Indian climate negotiator and co-chair of the UN climate talks in 2012, told Climate Home News: “I am not sure any large country will be able to announce anything new about their [national climate contributions] by that deadline…

“But it’s entirely possible that by September there will be some degree of elaboration and clarification of the [climate] goal – note that I am not talking about enhancement here.”

Mauskar was equally sceptical about India’s capacity to adopt a carbon neutrality by 2050 target.

“In India, carbon neutrality is not being talked about as a firm target but as an aspirational goal,” he said, adding that achieving net zero emissions would depend on the availability of finance and technology.

Analysis: Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

For a 50% chance to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C of warming by the end of the century, the world needs to become carbon neutral by 2050, according to the latest scientific report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

If rich, developed countries were to achieve carbon neutrality earlier than 2050, it would give poorer countries longer to make the shift. But while the UK and France have each set a 2050 net zero emissions target in law, no major economy has adopted a more ambitious timeline.

Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general of the New Delhi-based  Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) told Climate Home News “if the UK is saying [net zero by] 2050, India will say we are going to do it by 2070”.

“I would like India to be [carbon neutral by] 2050 and the UK to be doing aggressive work in the next 15 years, with all the money and resources [it has]” to achieve net zero earlier, he said.

Other campaigners in India are calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lead by example and establish a viable pathway to net zero emissions by 2050.

This would make India “an example for other rapidly developing economies to emulate,” said Damandeep Singh, director of CDP India, an initiative to get corporations disclosing and managing climate risk.

EU: Climate a ‘signature issue’ as Ursula von der Leyen anointed commission chief

Elsewhere, Guterres’ efforts to push countries to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 have been welcomed by campaigners.

In China, Li Shuo, senior climate and energy policy officer at Greenpeace, praised Guterres’ asks for being “perfectly in line with the Paris Agreement”.

“However politically audacious it may look, his letter is no more than a simple reminder to the countries of their own obligations,” he told CHN, adding Guterres’ summit will be a test for China and other major emitters.

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Guterres is championing ambitious climate action ahead of a critical UN summit on 23 September in New York, when countries are due to present concrete proposals to accelerate the pace of decarbonisation.

In excerpts of the letter seen by Climate Home News, Guterres invited governments to send “a brief summary or an indication of the plans” they are expecting to bring to the summit by 7 August. Countries are expected to compete for the spotlight during the high-level meeting, with only the most ambitious and meaningful strategies being showcased on stage.

After a preparatory meeting for the summit in Abu Dhabi last month, sources said some confusion remained over the benchmark for participation.

Clarifying his demands, Guterres said he had “asked all leaders to come to the Summit ready to announce the plans that they will set next year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.”

Analysis: Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

The latter demand is something only a handful of – developed – countries have committed to. While some poorer countries share the aspiration to achieve carbon neutrality, it is not under serious consideration for major emerging economies like China.

Guterres added that the plans should include “a commitment as concrete as possible” to increase countries’ contribution under the Paris Agreement in 2020 and indicate the long-term strategies countries will submit to UN Climate Change before the end of next year. “Long-term strategies” is a more inclusive framework that allows for varying rates of ambition and is also being pursued in Beijing.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries have agreed to progressively raise the ambition of their climate plans to achieve the emission reductions needed to limit global temperature rise to “well below” 2C of warming. They are due to submit updates in 2020.

The letter comes after the secretary general previously wrote to all G20 members setting out specific requests.

In a letter to European Council president Donald Tusk seen by Reuters, Guterres said the bloc should lead by example and reduce its emissions by 55% below 1990 levels by 2030 – a tougher target than the current 40% and one that president-elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen subsequently said the EU would aim for.

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Besides governments strengthening their national climate commitments, coalitions of countries, businesses and civil society leaders are also expected to come up with initiatives that have the potential to scale up climate action across the global economy. The coalitions are being formed under nine work tracks led by different countries, and include increasing mitigation, energy transition, industry transition, resilience and adaptation, nature-based solutions, climate finance and infrastructure and cities.

In the letter, Guterres encouraged countries to get involved in these coalitions and come up with plans to adapt to the “unavoidable impacts of climate change” and “address [its] social dimension”. He also told countries to bring “specific finance commitments” to turn these plans into action.

“We must ensure that no one is left behind,” he wrote.

Following the Abu Dhabi meeting, announcements expected from these coalitions include a commitment from a group of heavy industrial companies to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The announcement from companies operating in sectors such as chemicals, cement, steel and trucking, which are particularly difficult to decarbonise, is expected to include a clear roadmap on how this will be achieved.

Other initiatives are expected to focus on zero net emissions in buildings by 2050, improving the resilience of 600 million slum dwellers and upscaling climate finance for cities in low- and middle-income countries.

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With a combined $15 trillion of assets under management, the global investment companies said they would support the implementation of a Macron-backed initiative to pressure companies to become more climate-friendly.

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Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Natixis, Amundi, State Street and Northern Trust committed to form a coalition and work with six sovereign wealth funds to consider the climate-risks of large financial assets following a meeting with Macron on Wednesday, the Elysée confirmed.

The coalition said it would reconvene during the climate action summit organised by UN secretary general António Guterres in September to update Macron on the progress of its initiatives for climate-resilient investments.

The summit will engage a host of different stakeholders, including countries, business leaders, researchers and youth activists to present meaningful initiatives to deepen and quicken the pace of decarbonisation.

The meeting is being prepared through nine workstreams led by different countries with France together with Jamaica leading the track on climate finance. Only the most high-impact initiatives are due to be presented on stage with countries expected to compete for the spotlight.

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“Finance will be green or it won’t be. It will help to finance the ecological transition or it won’t be,” declared France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire, welcoming the coalition of investors.

The announcement comes after Macron gathered six sovereign wealth funds managing more than $3 trillion of assets at the Elysée Palace last July to come up with a pro-environment investment framework.

The guidelines aim to help the funds put pressure on companies they invest in to meet the same pro-environment standards and encourage other large asset managers to follow suit.

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Diplomats privately express growing frustration at tactics used by Saudi Arabia, after the petrostate refused to engage in substantive debate on how best to use the report’s findings to inform climate policies.

The obstruction, supported by a handful of other large oil producers, led to the report being excluded from formal negotiation in UN Climate Change’s science stream. That was despite an overwhelming majority of countries calling for a thorough discussion of the topic.

One European diplomat described “a toxic political atmosphere” during technical climate talks in Bonn last week, when the row occurred.

“We need to be smart about how we use the UN space for political gains to drive ambition,” said the official, who was not authorised to speak on the record, “and not that [a] lack of consensus halts the whole system”.

Yvo de Boer, former head of UN Climate Change between 2006 and 2010, vented his outrage on Twitter that “a totalitarian, murderous, sexist regime can exploit consensus rules to block the consideration of science”.

‘Revolutionise the world’: UN chief calls for youth to lead on climate

He told Climate Home News that UN climate talks had become “like a huge Christmas tree” with lots of different topics being discussed.

“Does everyone need to be in consensus on everything or can you split topics more logically into smaller groups?” he asked, adding that groups of countries should be given the space to discuss topics of common interest “without having everybody in the room”.

“Not all consensus needs unanimity. When there is a clear consensus on something, it sometimes seems a bit over the top to achieve unanimity,” he said.

On consensus, there is consensus that the process has its limitations, but not on whether it can or should be fundamentally changed.

At an event organised by CHN during London Climate Action Week, former special advisor to the Moroccan presidency of Cop22 Ayman Cherkaoui argued consensus was important for international cooperation, adding that it was “needed in terms of agreement but not in terms of action”.

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Emmanuel Guérin, coordinator for international issues at the European Climate Foundation, stressed the importance of the UN in bringing countries together to drive ambition.

“Consensus building is not working… but we are not going to get an alternative rule adopted because to do that we need a consensus,” he told CHN.

“We need to push the level of ambition with the largest possible groups of countries,” he said, warning that the laggards “will have to face the consequences”.

That is the idea behind the climate action summit convened personally by secretary general António Guterres in New York in September and driven by the whole UN system.

The summit will offer a different dynamic to the climate talks and engage a wider range of stakeholders, including youth activists, researchers and business leaders. Guterres has told leaders to bring concrete plans to deepen and quicken the pace of decarbonisation. Countries are expected to compete for space in the spotlight.

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Attendees at a preparatory meeting in Abu Dhabi earlier this week said it had been “constructive” but “messy”, with “a ridiculous amount of work” still to be done. While there was no shortage of proposals from think-tanks and campaign groups, national governments appeared unsure of what they would bring to the table.

De Boer suggested that the summit, which coincides with the UN’s general assembly, was an opportunity to move climate action beyond the narrow parameters of UN Climate Change.

“Since climate policy now reaches into every aspect of our life, it’s a bit like suggesting that the environment ministry should be running each country, which I don’t think is realistic. Is [UN Climate Change] actually the best place to be discussing everything? There are certain topics that could be much better addressed in different forums,” he said.

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The world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas, China committed to enhance its national contribution under the Paris Agreement to reflect its “highest possible ambition”.

In a statement issued with France and UN chief António Guterres on Saturday, China committed to “update” its climate target “in a manner representing a progression beyond the current one”.  It also vowed to publish a long term decarbonisation strategy by next year.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries have agreed to update their climate plans to achieve the emission reductions needed to limit global temperature rise to 2C of warming. There is growing international pressure for this to happen by 2020 and some observers believed the statement indicates China will move by next year.

“To my knowledge, China had not publicly indicated that it was planning to enhance its [climate plans] with ambition,” said David Waskow, director of the World Resources Institute’s international climate initiative.

Waskow described the agreement between China and France as “quite significant” and a clear expression of ambition on climate action.

“That’s what the EU has not actually come forward to say,” he said.

Profile: UN chief António Guterres fights nationalism in climate quest

Li Shuo, senior climate policy officer at Greenpeace China, told Reuters that China’s commitment to update its climate targets rather than reaffirm existing ones suggests political will in Beijing to take more ambitious carbon-cutting measures.

“I think [Chinese leaders] get the idea that they need to enhance their ambition, not only for their image as international climate leaders but also for larger geopolitical reasons, such as supporting multilateralism,” he said.

In the statement, France and China also called on countries to “continue to uphold multilateralism and inject political impetus into the international cooperation on jointly fighting climate change”.

The statement was issued on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, where 19 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to implementing the Paris pact. In a separate paragraph, the US reiterated its plan to withdraw from the deal, arguing “it disadvantages American workers and taxpayers”.

Analysis: Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

Hours later, national delegates met in Abu Dhabi in preparation for a climate action summit to be held at the UN’s New York headquarters in September.

The UN chief is convening the summit to spur greater efforts to limit global heating to 1.5C – the goal demanded by vulnerable countries.

So far, the EU has nothing to show at the summit after four eastern European countries blocked a consensus to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 at the last EU Council meeting.

This is the second time France and China have issued a joint statement on climate change at the G20. In a statement in Argentina last year, the two countries expressed their “highest political commitment” to implementing the Paris Agreement.

This article was amended. It originally said China had pledged to update its NDC before 2020.

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“You need to revolutionise the world and force my generation to understand that it is our obligation to move fast,” said the secretary general, adding that young people had a “fantastic weapon” in social media.

Guterres described older generations as being “very paternalistic” but urged the youth to take the lead in demanding immediate climate action, warning “we are still slowly destroying the world”.

Nationalism could sink the Paris Agreement. The UN chief is fighting back

The secretary general was answering questions from global youth representatives in front of diplomats, private and civil society leaders at the opening of a two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday in preparation for the UN climate action summit in September.

Guterres said that if young people could sway public opinion in favour of robust action “governments will follow”, because “governments are concerned about winning the next election or staying in power”.

“You need to make as much noise as possible, you need to organise yourself as strongly as possible. You need to ask for more. You need to push for more because let’s be clear, with the present level of engagement and of international commitments to address these problems we will not solve the challenges we face,” he said.

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Under countries’ current climate plans, the world is expected to reach 3C of warming by the end of the century – more than double the more ambitious target of the Paris Agreement of 1.5C and a “catastrophe for life as we know”, Guterres said.

He said it was “even more worrying” that many countries were not keeping pace with their climate pledges. That was the reason he personally convened the September summit and pressed countries to revisit their plans to reduce emissions one year earlier than the Paris Agreement demands.

Scientists have warned that staying below 1.5C means cutting global emissions by 45% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. Earlier this week, France’s High Council for the Climate warned the country, which legislated to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, was not on track to meet its goals and needed to triple the pace of emissions reduction.

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Guterres said countries needed to present their updated climate plans at the September summit or by December 2020 at the latest, the deadline under the Paris Agreement for countries to review their climate targets.

The climate action summit, he said, would be an opportunity for political, business and civil society leaders “to set an example” and that the meeting in Abu Dhabi was “pointing in the right direction”.

Ahead of the summit, diplomats were cautiously optimistic about the meeting, with countries appearing ready to engage in discussions but with little sign of strong leadership from the EU or any other major emitting countries which could leverage climate action among other countries.

The meeting concludes a fortnight of high-level talks which saw 19 of the G20 leaders reaffirming the “irreversibility” of the Paris Agreement, while the US reiterated its decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord “because it disadvantages American workers and taxpayers”.

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The plans countries have submitted to the deal set emissions reduction targets and scale up renewable energy. But a remarkable number fail to address a vitally important piece of the climate puzzle: fossil fuel production.

The international climate community is in Abu Dhabi this weekend to prepare for the landmark UN Climate Action Summit this September. Spearheaded by the UN Secretary-General, the summit will mobilise political leaders, the private sector, and civil society to give a much-needed boost to collective climate ambition.

Already, the UN has signalled some 80 countries may be increasing their international climate pledges as part of this effort. But if the past is any guide, these country pledges will fail to include their production of the fuels that drive global warming.

New research from SEI shows that a third of fossil-fuel-producing countries make no mention of extraction in their current nationally determined contributions (NDCs). And not a single country has mapped a path away from coal, oil, or gas extraction.

It’s time to change that, if we are to have any chance of meeting the Paris Agreement’s goals.

Four countries have declared climate emergencies, yet give billions to fossil fuels

Countries are right to address fossil fuel consumption. But they must also address production to ensure deeper emission reductions, broader buy-in, and better planned transitions.

Calls are growing for countries to take action to wind down fossil fuel production. Over 500 NGOs have signed the Lofoten Declaration, which calls for an end to fossil fuel development and a managed decline of existing production. The leaders of the Pacific islands similarly called for an international moratorium in the Suva Declaration. And fossil fuel supply-side policies are beginning to gain ground globally: from bans on oil exploration in Costa Rica, France and Belize; to the shuttering of outdated coal mines in China; and increased taxation of coal production in India.

This momentum can build within the international climate process. The Paris Agreement creates various new opportunities for countries to address fossil fuel supply. For example, countries could include targets, pathways and policy measures to wind down fossil fuel production within their NDCs and their long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies (LEDS). They could also include plans for economic diversification and a just transition for fossil-fuel dependent workers and communities.

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Due to the bottom-up nature of these plans, countries can include these supply-side approaches without agreement among all parties. In the short term, at least, this renders it a more politically feasible strategy than supply-side measures that require consensus. This approach could nevertheless help socialise supply-side action at the UN level, and generate a virtuous cycle that encourages countries to take more ambitious supply-side action.

So far, countries have not taken advantage of this potential. Only two nations – India and Nigeria – have included measures in their NDCs to financially disincentivise, or address public support for, fossil fuel production.

When countries’ climate plans do discuss fossil fuels, this is mainly in the context of reducing the emissions associated with their extraction and delivery. While important, such efforts would, at their fullest potential, contribute just a few percent to global emissions reductions, and do not obviate the need to scale down overall production. Some plans also highlight the need for a just transition and economic diversification away from fossil fuel production; however, they tend to lack concrete measures to make such visions a reality.

A handful of countries also express an intention to continue or ramp up their fossil fuel production. Though every country does not need to curb extraction at the same pace, it is important for countries to grapple with the question of whose carbon is burnable in a climate-constrained world. When referencing fossil fuel production, countries should therefore explain why their plans are fair and ambitious.

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Countries are expected to “demonstrate a leap in collective national political ambition” when they meet at the Climate Action Summit in September. By addressing fossil fuel production in their NDCs and LEDS, countries would take a key step in bringing this bold – but necessary – vision within reach.

To date, we’ve tried tackling the climate crisis almost exclusively through demand-focused policies. It’s time to change the status quo, and take the road less taken – one that prioritises reducing both the use and the production of fossil fuels.

Cleo Verkuijl is a research fellow and Natalie Jones is a policy intern at the Stockholm Environment Institute. Their recent research on NDCs and LEDS is detailed in the working paper, Untapped ambition: addressing fossil fuel production through NDCs and LEDS.

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After EU leaders could not agree on Thursday night to commit to carbon neutrality by 2050, concerns were raised about the bloc’s ability to leverage climate action in some of the world’s most powerful countries.

The proposal, pushed by France and Germany, would have brought “an optimist feel” into the UN climate action summit later this year, which is “what the world needs,” said Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe.

UN chief Antonio Guterres called on countries to bring “concrete, realistic plans” to reach net zero by 2050 to a summit in September.

On Thursday night, the EU council failed to broker such a goal after all member states but Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Poland had backed it. That leaves the bloc with so far nothing to show at the UN secretary general summit.

EU climate deal fails amid four-nation revolt

The negotiation, which French President Emmanuel Macron described in a tweet as “high stakes” before the meeting took place, was seen as a catalyst to drive China’s climate ambition.

The failed proposal is “not only a blow to EU domestic policy, but an unfortunate set back of climate diplomacy,” said Li Shuo, senior climate policy officer at Greenpeace China. Beijing, traditionally reluctant to move alone, has looked to the EU as a partner in the absence of US leadership.

“European politicians need to understand their action matters to not just its member states but bears global ramifications,” Li added.

A spokesperson for the French ministry for ecological transition said: “We have pushed our partners to be as ambitious as possible, because we are aware of the urgency… On this subject, we needed unanimity. We can regret this but it is the rule.”

Analysis: Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

The French official added there was “an overwhelming majority of countries for carbon neutrality in 2050. Until recently, countries like Germany and the United Kingdom were reluctant about the idea but they have now been convinced. These are all victories, for the climate and for the example that we could give”.

The issue could be forced back on the agenda of another EU Council meeting scheduled for 30 June. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, EU council president Donald Tusk said there was “good reason to believe” a deal could be made in the coming months.

If that does not happen, Trio said individual member states could arrive at the UN summit with announcements on their domestic climate plans, but that would have little leverage power on the rest of the international community.

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“It’s the EU that has weight at the international level not individual member states,” he said.

Quentin Genard, acting head of think-tank E3G in Brussels, said that if EU countries failed to reach a consensus on the issue, the bloc would struggle to infuse dynamism and leverage other countries in ramping-up ambition.

“There needs to be something more form the EU to drive the conversation on ambition,” he said.

Campaigners now hope the EU can work towards enhancing its 2030 target to retain its climate leadership. Guterres has already called on the EU to cut its emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 – far more than the bloc’s current 40 per cent target.

Mohamed Adow, international climate lead at Christian Aid, said the EU must be prepared to strengthen its 2030 target and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 or face “making a fool of itself on the global stage”.

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Ever since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began to give us clear signals that we humans are responsible for climate change, Germany has been on the front lines of political efforts to agree international action. Germany hosted the first Conference of Parties to the Climate Convention, providing the mandate to negotiate and agree rich country targets. Two years later the Kyoto Protocol was successfully adopted. At that gruelling session, then environment minister Angela Merkel urged her EU colleagues into line and negotiated the agreement with other nations.

Ever since, all Germany’s presidencies of the EU and each G8 (and G7) meeting Germany has hosted, have led to strong political agreement on climate action, even at times when the White House was less than eager to play along. Germany helped to negotiate Russia’s ratification of the Kyoto Protocol as a gateway to Russia’s OECD membership and Germany has forged a strong EU foreign policy on climate, including telling then-president George W. Bush that he might not care about climate, but that there were also things in his interest that might not be front and centre in terms of European attention.

Majority of EU states, including Germany, now support 2050 net zero climate goal

Similarly Germany has recognised the need to support developing country action to address climate change in the face of pressing challenges to eradicate poverty and drive economic growth. It has created numerous financial instruments and support programmes to help the south engage. Chancellor Merkel was probably also the first world leader to recognize that fighting climate change at its roots in Africa was probably a better way to stem the flow of migrants than to invest in more patrol boats along the Mediterranean coast.

Last but not least, Germany has led at home. Reaching strong agreements with domestic industry, launching a massive energy transition and plastering the rural landscape with solar panels. Similarly Germany has been key in agreeing European goals, not just on emissions, but also on the circular economy and the need to fundamentally shift Europe’s business model to be clean, clever and competitive.

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This has built the strong reputation of Merkel as the German “climate chancellor”. But as international momentum accelerated – Germany took its foot off the gas and kept burning coal. You would have thought the Paris Agreement and IPCC 1.5C report might have given Berlin the space it needed to boost German leadership even further. It did not – quite the contrary. Germany seems to have moved to the back seat of EU climate ambition and despite announcing a 2038 coal phase-out date is struggling to set out a clear path for domestic targets to be achieved.

This week with the upcoming European Council, Germany has the chance step up again. It would be key at a time when perhaps we need European ambition most, especially given the European election outcomes, the Brexit trauma and less than favourable stances of the US, Russia and Brazil. The ask from the UN secretary general is clear, he expects leaders to come prepared with a net-zero goal by 2050, the commitment to enhance their NDC next year and a concrete plan how to get there.

Which countries have a net zero carbon goal?

Will Germany stand for strong ambition at the forthcoming European Council or will it join the ranks of those who thinking that talking climate action is enough to do the trick? At a time when VW is rolling out a new range of electric cars, and Daimler is announcing a carbon neutral car fleet by 2039, the signals from Germany’s industrial giants could not be clearer. The stunning success of Germany’s greens in the EU elections and polls showing 81% of Germans want tougher climate action should offer Merkel further comfort that ambition is the only way to go.

At a time when one is hard pressed to find a solid argument not to act on climate change, be it economic, social or environmental. We need rigour and consistency to bring us all, and especially business, what is needed most: consistent ambition.

Yvo de Boer is president of Gold Standard. He was executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2006-2010.

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EU leaders could give their blessing to a proposed long-term climate strategy during a European Council summit in Brussels, taking place Thursday and Friday (20-21 June).

Eighteen of the EU’s 28 members are now ready to support the European Commission’s proposed carbon neutrality objective for 2050, according to documents obtained by EURACTIV.

This is up from just eight countries during a March summit, which had exposed an East-West divide on the matter.

Momentum could continue to build ahead of Thursday, where the commission’s strategy will feature on an agenda that is mostly focused on doling out top institutional jobs.

Indications last week suggested there would be no agreement on the plan. A draft summit statement, seen by EURACTIV, said EU leaders would return to the issue in late 2019, with the intention of finalising a deal “in early 2020”.

EU aims for long term climate deal by ‘early 2020’

But now that Germany is on board, according to a leaked position seen by EURACTIV, a green light for the plan looks more plausible.

Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted in May that the Bunderepublik was in favour of the target’s principles but that more work on the details was still needed. The rise in fortunes of Germany’s Greens is thought to have accelerated Merkel’s slow-and-steady approach.

However, while Germany is now subscribed to the target, its position still maintains wording that would suggest an agreement will be brokered in late 2019 or “at the latest in early 2020”.

Germany’s blessing means that Berlin joins the economic powerhouses of France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom in pushing for the EU’s economy to reducing carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050.

Incoming EU presidency holder Finland recently announced that it will aim for net-zero emissions by 2035 and to become a carbon-negative country by 2050.

EU should not raise 2030 climate target, says Juncker

Italy too has ditched its objections to what some diplomats had initially mocked as a ‘Macron plan’.

“It is of the utmost importance that the EU pursue environment-friendly policies also in promoting and supporting circular economy, and confirm its commitment towards the objective of climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest,” reads a note by the Italian authorities.

With two more heavyweights on board – Germany and Italy – and a broad majority of countries in favour of the 2050 strategy, EU leaders now look well-placed to adopt the strategy later this week if all goes to plan.

“Nailing a net-zero climate target is a no-brainer,” says Sebastian Mang, a clean energy campaigner at Greenpeace. “Averting humanity’s greatest threat requires us to fully decarbonise our economies as fast as possible – that’s just a fact. The majority of EU leaders have finally understood this,” he said.

But they still have some convincing to do. Central and Eastern European countries remain the most sceptical. They are particularly wary of any explicit mention of a 2050 deadline and would rather opt for vaguer wording like ‘mid-century’.

Net zero: Which countries have set the goal?

However, EURACTIV understands that at least Hungary is close to joining the 2050 club. If Budapest does abandon its hard line on climate policy then the Czech Republic and Poland, two of Hungary’s Visegrad Group compadres, will present the primary obstacles to a potential EU deal.

Political observers say that Czech opposition could be tempered by ongoing unrest in the country. Prime minister Andrej Babiš is accused of an alleged conflict of interest with EU funding and protesters have demonstrated en masse in favour of his resignation.

In Poland, upcoming elections at the end of the year and public interest in improving the country’s poor air quality, which ranks among Europe’s worst, could play a role.

Warsaw could also be brought on side by promises of more funding for coal-dependent regions and industries, which will be part of ongoing talks on the bloc’s next long term budget.

A ‘Just Transition Fund’ proposed by the European Parliament would help finance retraining of workers in fossil fuel industries, or bring support in the form of unemployment benefits. There is also a €25 billion renovation programme that is still in search of financing.

Previously sceptical countries like Bulgaria do not reject the carbon neutrality goal outright and could also be persuaded with additional funding, while the Valletta Declaration adopted last Friday also sees Cyprus and Malta lend their support to the 2050 goal.

A signed and sealed deal on climate neutrality would be a huge boon to the EU’s green credentials ahead of a UN summit in September, where signatories to the Paris Agreement are expected to ratchet up their ambition.

This week’s EU summit meeting is the last on the Brussels agenda until October, meaning it is the final chance to go to the New York meet-up with an agreement in tow.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres wrote to council president Donald Tusk last month to outline his expectations for the meeting. He wrote: “I would […] welcome the announcement of the adoption of its strategic long-term vision”.

UK unveils 2050 net zero carbon target, in a first for a major economy

The Portuguese leader, who had urged leaders to come to New York with “ambitious plans not speeches”, also told Tusk that “it would send a powerful message of leadership and commitment” if the EU increased its emissions-reduction goal for 2030.

Currently set at 40% cuts compared with 1990, the target predates 2015’s Paris Agreement and is considered outdated by several member states, as well as the European Commission.

The EU executive said last year that the bloc will “de-facto” hit 45% cuts under current policies, while the European Parliament voted in favour of increasing it to 55%. Guterres also backs 55%.

“To avert climate breakdown and safeguard the EU’s global leadership, European leaders need to show that they are also prepared to boost existing 2030 targets ahead of a crucial UN climate summit in September,” said Greenpeace EU.

But changing the 2030 target presents arguably a bigger challenge than securing support for the 2050 plan, given the politically-delicate task of tweaking benchmarks that have already been agreed.

At an event in Brussels last week, outgoing commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said “to fix new goals again and again doesn’t make sense”, adding “let’s focus on delivering what we’ve already got”.

Juncker also disappointed environmental groups in May, when he suggested that the 2030 goal is more important than the carbon-neutrality plan.

“Let’s not try to escape from our responsibilities by fixing a target a long time after the active time we spend in politics,” the Luxemburger said at a summit in Romania.

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On Tuesday (18 June), the commission is expected to issue recommendations to all 28 member states on how to tweak their draft climate and energy plans for the next decade.

Governments submitted their strategies earlier this year and the EU executive has looked in to whether their combined effort will be enough to achieve targets set out by new regulations on renewables and energy efficiency.

Officials told EURACTIV that the current plans will not be sufficient to meet those goals but that the commission will suggest a number of policy tweaks for the 28 members to take into account before finalising their plans by December.

EU leaders arrive in Brussels on Thursday for the two-day summit and some will meet again at the end of the month in Japan, for the start of the G20.

This article was first published by CHN media partner Euractiv. It has been amended to reflect that Slovenia, not Slovakia, supports the carbon neutrality goal.

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EU leaders are set to grant the incoming Finnish EU Presidency a mandate during next week’s summit to ramp up talks on an ambitious plan to make the bloc carbon neutral by 2050.

In draft conclusions obtained by EURACTIV, the EU’s 28 national governments and the European Commission are invited “to advance work on the conditions, the incentives and the enabling framework to be put in place to support the fair transition to a climate-neutral EU”.

“The European Council will finalise its guidance before the end of the year with a view to the adoption of the EU’s long-term strategy in early 2020,” the conclusions add.

The “early 2020” date is not a firm deadline for EU member states to reach agreement, one EU official told EURACTIV. Instead, it is meant to focus minds ahead of the final summit of the year in December.

Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, the EU has to submit a long-term plan “by 2020”, which technically means the bloc has until December 2020 to reach an agreement.

UK unveils 2050 net zero carbon target, in a first for a major economy

But the EU’s climate leader aspirations would likely take a hit if a deal takes that long to reach on a strategy the European Commission first unveiled in November 2018.

Japan is among the major world powers coming to a UN summit in September with new commitments. On Tuesday, its government agreed its own plan to completely decarbonise by mid-century the third largest economy in the world.

Next week is the EU’s last opportunity to go to the UN meeting with a finalised plan in tow, but a packed agenda mostly geared around doling out top institutional jobs like the commission presidency means it is highly unlikely.

For campaigners, this looks like foot-dragging. Next week’s summit is the “last chance for governments to show they’re prepared to ramp up ambition,” said Sebastian Mang from Greenpeace. “Waiting until 2020 would be an irresponsible denial of the science,” he told EURACTIV.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged world leaders to come to September’s meeting with “concrete, realistic plans” to boost their emissions-reduction efforts.

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Governments were asked to either present their long-term plans in full or to show that they will be ready for 2020. The way things stand, the EU will only be able to demonstrate the latter.

Next week’s conclusions will give the bloc some ammunition, although it could fail to convince critics who say it is not living up to its tag of climate champion.

Another point Brussels could emphasise is the question of financing the energy transition. The draft conclusions say that the EU is still committed to “a timely, well-managed and successful replenishment process for the Green Climate Fund” aimed at supporting developing countries.

Delaying agreement on the EU’s climate plan until early 2020 will also align the talks with ongoing negotiations on the EU’s long-term budget, the so-called multi-annual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027.

Political wrangling around the budget will continue until December, although EU sources say the commission is pushing for an extra dedicated summit in September to move things along.

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An agreement on climate change spending, which EU heads want to be at least 25% of the budget, could also be a strong statement in lieu of a full-blown strategy, although one EU source told EURACTIV that “the idea is not to buy climate neutrality”.

The list of EU countries now in favour of signing up to the 2050 plan numbers around 12, even though they differ in how outward they are in their support.

In May, Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain all signed a joint appeal explicitly backing the net-zero target by 2050.

Finland’s new government just announced it will go climate neutral by 2035, while Theresa May’s last major act as UK prime minister was to commit her country to the same goal by 2050. Latvia and Slovenia are also among those on board.

Italy’s government was previously unwilling to support a plan that some diplomats consider “a Macron strategy”, although EURACTIV understands that Rome will now back an agreement.

Central and Eastern European countries like Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Poland are the most sceptical, despite data showing that they are the most susceptible to damages caused by climate change.

Germany remains potentially the biggest obstacle though but the council’s new timeframe now matches the Bundesrepublik’s, given that Angela Merkel’s government is due to update Germany’s climate protection strategy by the end of the year too.

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The chancellor said in May that it “is not about whether but how we can achieve this goal”. The European Council appears to have made its peace with that slow and steady approach in its “before the end of the year” conclusions.

However, there is not enough support yet to include a deadline for climate neutrality in the EU’s plan for the next five years, known as the strategic agenda.

The document is currently being tweaked by member state officials and ambassadors but the 2050 date is very unlikely to make it into the final draft. Heads of government will adopt it at next week’s summit.

This article was first published by CHN media partner Euractiv.

The post EU aims for long term climate deal by ‘early 2020’ appeared first on Climate Home News.