In a first-of-its-kind poll, 59% of voters decided to keep oil in the ground in the Yasuní National Park, one of the largest biodiversity hotspots on the planet and home to indigenous people in voluntary isolation.

Following Sunday’s result, Ecuador’s state-0wned oil company, Petroecuador, has roughly a year to halt its operations in an area that currently produces more than 55,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

Yasunidos, the environmental group behind the referendum, has described the result as “a historic victory for Ecuador and for the planet” in a tweet.

¡Hoy hicimos historia!

Esta consulta, nacida desde la ciudadanía, demuestra el mayor consenso nacional en Ecuador. Es la primera vez que un país decide defender la vida y dejar el petróleo bajo tierra.

¡Es una victoria histórica para Ecuador y para el planeta!#SÍalYasuní pic.twitter.com/RBvHzkozxp

— YASunidos (@Yasunidos) August 21, 2023

Their success marks the end of a decade-long battle with the government which argued such an outcome would have “catastrophic” effects on the economy.

Crude oil remains Ecuador’s biggest export, but its contribution to the country’s gross domestic product declined by nearly a third between 2011 and 2021.

The referendum was held during the first round of the country’s presidential election, in which leftist candidate Luisa González took the lead and headed to a second round against centrist Daniel Noboa.

Residents of Quito, Ecuador’s capital, also voted on whether to keep mining activities in the Chocó Andino reserve, another biodiversity hotspot located 40km from the city. 69% of voters rejected mining in this area, which is rich in gold and copper.

A long fight

For decades, Yasuní has been threatened by extractive industries. According to reports from the Andean Amazon Monitoring Project, at least 689 hectares have been deforested in the Yasuní, most of it, by the oil industry. Experts warn that tree loss, alongside frequent oil spills, threatens the unique biodiversity of the Amazon.

On Sunday voters were asked specifically about the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil project, also known as Block 43, located on the eastern edge of the park.

Efforts to keep Yasuní oil in the ground date back to 2007 when then-president Rafael Correa appealed to wealthy countries for $3.6 billion in exchange for not going ahead with drilling in the area.

But six years later, as international donors failed to deliver the money required to offset lost revenue, Correa scrapped the initiative and gave the green light to oil operations in the Amazon rainforest.

Economic argument

In the same year, activists from Yasunidos began campaigning for a public vote. They quickly collected over 750,000 signatures – many more than the number required to trigger a referendum – but the Correa administration voided half of them. Following an extensive legal process, Ecuador’s top court ruled last May to include the vote in the upcoming presidential election.

While the battle raged on, drilling in the Yasuní went underway. In 2016 Petroecuador began extracting crude from Block 43, which now contributes to around 12% of the country’s oil output.

Satellite images show the development of oil production facilities in the Yasuní National Park since drilling began in 2016

During the referendum campaign Ecuador’s outgoing administration argued that an oil drilling ban would have catastrophic consequences for the country’s economy. Fernando Santos, the then-energy minister, said Ecuador would lose $1.2 billion in income per year if the proposal was successful.

Impact on indigenous communities

But the indigenous populations in the area have been raising severe concerns over how the industry has changed their way of life.

Speaking to Climate Home News ahead of the vote, Norma Nenquimo, an indigenous leader from the Amazon, equated oil drilling in Yasuní to “an invasion”.

Devastating Beijing floods test China’s ‘sponge cities’

“They don’t talk about the environmental impact, only about the profit,” she added. “We depend on this land. We don’t depend on anyone else to help us. A place with biodiversity is like a human heart. A person cannot live without a heart.”

Experts also saw the referendum as an opportunity to redefine Ecuador’s economic model, less dependent on dwindling oil reserves. A 2019 study by the Geological and Energetic Research Institute, a public research institution in Ecuador, estimated that by 2029, “oil could no longer be the main source of income” in the country.

Indonesia delays $20bn green plan, after split with rich nations on grants and new coal plants

Luis Suárez, Executive Director at Conservation International Ecuador, told Climate Home News last month that the country could move towards tourism and developing a “bioeconomy”.

The post Ecuadorians reject Amazon oil drilling in historic referendum appeared first on Climate Home News.

Leaders will be meeting next month at the Amazon Summit in Belém, a city also due to host the Cop30 climate talks in 2025, to discuss the 45-year-old Amazon Cooperation Treaty for the first time in several years.

The final guest list is not yet clear, but nations across Latin America are expected to be represented as well as some from Europe.

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has rebooted the summit in the hope of using it to build support for his commitment to end illegal deforestation in the Amazon by 2030, but curbing fossil fuel extraction does not appear to be on the agenda.

G20 divisions over key climate goals pile pressure on Cop28 hosts

However, a grassroots campaign led by Indigenous groups and civil society argues such a move is essential to combat climate change, and to protect biodiversity and the Indigenous people that live there.

The campaign builds on an existing effort to get a global pact for the permanent protection of four-fifths of Amazonia by 2025. Focusing specifically on oil and gas, it calls for an Amazon exclusion zone where no fossil fuels can be exploited, in line with the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) warning that there can be no new fossil fuel projects if the world is to stay under a 1.5°C warming threshold.

Domestic exploitation

A number of South American countries in which the Amazon rainforest lies have been trying to boost domestic oil and gas exploration and extraction in recent years. 

Peru is proposing to place 31 oil blocks over 435 indigenous communities, while Bolivia recently finalised an ‘Upstream Reactivation Plan’.

Meanwhile, the result of a forthcoming Ecuadorian referendum about oil exploitation in the Yasuní rainforest will be hugely significant for that part of the Amazon but will also send a wider message about the region’s priorities.

In Brazil, a far-right Congress is proposing to gut the powers of both the ministries of the environment and Indigenous peoples, throwing Lula’s deforestation pledge into doubt. 

The Brazilian president’s own ambitions of positioning himself as climate leader have also been called into question over his stance on an oil drilling project at the mouth of the Amazon river. He recently said he found it “difficult” to believe that oil exploration in the Amazon basin would damage the region’s rainforest.

EU and Argentina strike gas, hydrogen & renewables deal

Ahead of the Amazon Summit, Indigenous groups will be meeting in Brazil to share fossil fuel resistance strategies, with the support of campaign group 350.org. 

“From this we hope will come a very powerful document that will inform the discussions of the presidents in Belém,” said Ilan Zugman, 350.org’s Latin America managing director. “Hopefully it will have some very strong messages saying no new fossil fuel projects in the Amazon.”

Petro’s lead

Zugman said Colombian president Gustavo Petro had been a “very loud voice” in support of this idea. In January, Petro announced a halt in all new oil and gas exploration contracts, keeping 380 currently active contracts. 

In a recent opinion piece for the Miami Herald, Petro called on Amazon countries and their partners in the Global North to follow him on ending all new oil and gas exploration in the Amazon.

He said that, while ending deforestation was “fundamental”, it had to be accompanied by “an ambitious transnational policy to phase out fossil fuels”. Oil, gas and coal accounts for about half of all Colombian exports.

Dozens of oil & industry lobbyists attended secretive shipping emissions talks

Petro said some countries, like Colombia, could allocate a “substantial amount of resources” to protect the Amazon. 

But he stressed that curbing oil and gas exploitation would have a big economic impact on poorer South American nations and called on countries like the US to help with financial mechanisms such as debt-for-climate swaps, a multilateral fund that funds environmental protection services by inhabitants of these territories, or the kind of financial reforms being progressed by the Bridgetown initiative. 

At a recent meeting, the Colombian and Brazilian presidents pledged to cooperate to protect the Amazon but the latter did not appear to make any concessions on oil and gas.

“We need to convince other presidents like Lula.. to step up as well and really play this leadership role,” said Zugman, “to not allow fossil fuel exploration in one of the most important places of the world.” 

Banking spotlight

Campaigners are also stepping up pressure on financial institutions to stop financing oil and gas projects in the region.

A report, published today by NGO Stand.earth and the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), shows that US$20 billion has been provided to explore and exploit reserves in Peru, Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador over the past 15 years.

More than half of this (US$11 billion) came from just eight banks: JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Itaú Unibanco, HSBC, Santander, Bank of America, Banco Bradesco and Goldman Sachs.

Six of these banks are either headquartered in the US or act through their US subsidiary and operate in deals across the region, while the two Brazilian companies – Itaú Unibanco and Banco Bradesco – are highly connected to specific oil and gas projects in that country. 

The report is accompanied by a database of all the banks involved in Amazon oil and gas through directly traceable and indirect financing, for example by providing loans or underwriting bond deals for upstream and midstream development and transport of oil and gas in Amazonia. 

The EU-Mercosur trade deal will harm Brazil’s indigenous communities

JPMorgan Chase tops the list, having directly provided US$1.9 billion in direct financing to oil and gas in the region over the past decade and a half.

Together with HSBC, it was a major backer of Petroperú’s Talara refinery expansion project, which is driving the exploitation of oil on Indigenous land in the Peruvian Amazon.

JPMorgan Chase has ruled out support for the highly controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline project, but made no such commitment on oil and gas activity in the Amazon or wider fossil fuel expansion. 

The Stand.earth report says an Amazon exclusion for financial institutions is an “essential strategy” to protect the region from oil, gas, and other extractive industries.

Although no banks have completely ruled out funding fossil fuels in Amazonia – the geographic region around the Amazon basin – the report does praise some companies for starting to recognise the risks involved. 

Exclusion policies

 In May 2022, BNP Paribas pledged to no longer finance or invest in companies producing from oil and gas reserves in the Amazon or developing related infrastructure, becoming the first major bank to adopt a geographical exclusion of oil and gas in this area.

And in December 2022, HSBC amended its policies to exclude all new finance and advisory services for any client for oil and gas project exploration, appraisal, development, and production in the Amazon Biome.

The EU-Mercosur trade deal will harm Brazil’s indigenous communities

Stand.earth says these two companies, along with some others, are “sending important signals” that banks should be willing to review their relationship to Amazon destruction and take steps to manage that risk.

These also go some way towards the Exit Amazon Oil and Gas principles devised by international advocacy groups including Stand.earth and Amazon Indigenous leaders.

Clear boundaries

Angeline Robertson, lead researcher of Stand Research Group, said efforts to restrict fossil fuels should cover the wider Amazonia area “to avoid confusion or allow banks to define the exclusion zone themselves.

This was an issue with Arctic exclusions, where banks used different boundaries in their policies.”  Standard Chartered’s and BNP Paribas’ exclusions, for example, cover the ‘Amazon’ or ‘Amazon Basin’, while Société Générale and Intesa Sanpaolo’s policies include only the Amazon regions of Ecuador and Peru.

Zugman said both governments and financial institutions had a big role to play in protecting the region. “Governments need to step up first. And banks… should be there by their side to support these bold decisions and to help accelerate the just energy transition.”

He added that banks could play an important role in the Amazon by supporting a just energy transition. “Energy access is still a big deal in the Amazon and banks could, in consultation with communities, be helping them have clean access to energy instead of investing in businesses that are going to destroy their lands.”

Zugman said the Belém summit was vital because it would inform about protection of the Amazon at Cop28 in December as well as the next G20 meeting which Brazil is due to host. “We’re really pushing together for this moment.” 

The post Pressure grows on governments and banks to stop supporting Amazon oil and gas  appeared first on Climate Home News.

Chances are, unless you work in a green NGO, it would have passed you by.

That’s a shame, as the four-day meeting in Ecuador capital Quito could deliver some vital inputs into global efforts to build more sustainable and greener urban areas.

As such it’s directly plugged into efforts to decarbonise the world’s economy, to wean people off cars and ensure cities are not simply concrete jungles with dirty air and water.

A 24-page final draft of the declaration which will underpin this meeting contains 22 references to climate change 10 mentions of climate adaptation.

Under “our shared vision” it sees future cities that:

“adopt and implement disaster risk reduction and management, reduce vulnerability, build resilience and responsiveness to natural and man-made hazards, and foster mitigation and adaptation to climate change”

And under a list of commitments it says environmental sustainability must be a central principle for future planning:

“by promoting clean energy, sustainable use of land and resources in urban development as well as protecting ecosystems and biodiversity, including adopting healthy lifestyles in harmony with nature; promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns; building urban resilience; reducing disaster risks; and mitigating and adapting to climate change.”

Why is all this important?

Take a look at the 2014 New Climate Economy report – commissioned by the UK, Norway, Sweden, South Korea, Ethiopia, Colombia and Indonesia.

Cities are responsible for 70% of energy consumption and a similar level of emissions. By 2030, 60% of us will live in cities or towns. 90% of urban growth is projected to take place in the developing world.

More than half the world’s population lives in urban areas, and of those a quarter are classed by the UN as slums. According to the World Bank 1.2 billion people live in sub-standard housing, with 3 billion requiring new homes by 2030.

More than 1/2 the world population lives in urban areas, about 1/4 of these live in #slums. We must change this! #HabitatDay #Habitat3 pic.twitter.com/XB4SFldJ2F

— UN ECOSOC President (@UNECOSOC) October 3, 2016

What makes Habitat III exciting is its rarity: it only takes place once every 20 years.

What makes it less exciting is that despite an agreed declaration and input from a huge number of governments, what is agreed will not be binding.

David Satterthwaite is a senior fellow in the Human Settlements Group at IIED, a London-based development think tank.

“There is a lack of focus on local government capacity and accountability (central to delivering most SDGs) and at best ‘the poor’ are seen as passive recipients. At worst they and their needs are invisible,” he writes.

“Yet again, national governments will make long lists of solemn commitments that they will not or even cannot meet without local government and local civil society.”

As one senior London-based development official put it to me last week, “the Mayor of London’s office are unlikely to be poring over the Habitat III findings to work out what to build next and how to do it”.

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate politics update

Leilani Farha is the special rapporteur on the right to housing for the UN’s Human Rights Commission. She contends a current draft declaration must go further if the aim is to create a fairer world.

“A realistic vision of inclusive and sustainable cities cannot affirm the importance of economic growth without demanding a new approach to economic policymaking,” she says in the Guardian.

“This must be based on the realisation of human rights and more equitable distribution of resources in cities, including land and access to public space.”

Still – other analysts and development professionals reckon it can deliver positive if incremental change – especially on pulling together the various strands on climate, cities, clean energy and disaster risk reduction.

Here’s a briefing note from Camilla Born, a policy advisor at the London-based E3G environmental think tank, highlighting the climate links to the meeting, which starts on 17 October.

What is Habitat III?

-A meeting every 20 years that outlines the “urban agenda”
-A process that creates a guide to building the cities of the future, responding to the challenges of the time
-Habitat III will produce a declaration the reflects the world’s urgent contemporary need to deliver sustainable development – Agenda 2030, Paris, Sendai, mass migration, refugees, increasing conflict, resource crunches and climate change, inequality

What can we expect?

-A nice UN summit
-An “energiser” for the sustainable urban agenda
-The creation of a go-to document for progressive cities, planners, funders and governments
-An expansion of the evidence base for sustainably planned and managed cities

The draft declaration – this is not the final draft

-Is pretty good – if you delivered on all of this you’d be looking at a pretty utopian city. Saying that none of the policies are crazy or out of reach, each one of them will have been delivered somewhere before. However holistic delivery will require a new way of urban planning, funding and… politics.

-Climate goals are integrated through the various components of the declaration, climate action is firmly seen as an asset which can produce many mutual benefits

-The declaration seeks to reposition cities as engines for sustained and inclusive economic growth and that this can only be delivered with systemic changes in governance, planning, financing, development and management of cities

A few notable details:

-Explicitly cites unsustainable production and consumption, pollution, disasters and climate change risks as forces which are undermining efforts to end poverty

-Places the declaration in context of Agenda 2030, Paris and Sendai. Mentions well below 2C and pursuing effort to limit to 1.5C

-Commits to promote international, national, sub-national and local climate action

-Commits to medium to long-term adaptation planning processes, as well as city level vulnerability and impact assessments

-Seeks to explore feasible solutions for climate and disaster risks, including through collaboration with insurance and reinsurance institutions

-Other clean and green policies include: renewables, efficiency in multiple sectors, smart grids, community energy, EE buildings, resilience to disasters, sustainable infrastructure, risk informed planning, disaster contingency plans, electric transport

-Supports the establishment of a UN-habitat multi trust fund for capacity development in support of sustainable urban development for developing countries. Will collaborate with climate funds to secure resources.

-Report on Habitat III implementation every 4 years. UN Habitat as focal point for sustainable urbanisation but call on other UN agencies to compliment.

The post Habitat III: what to expect from the UN’s urban summit appeared first on Climate Home News.

Add different civil society representatives, stakeholders from the private sector as well as legislators from regional and national governments.

Now picture them discussing on round tables how their cities could become more sustainable. Imagine then a concluding session in the plenary where all findings would be boiled down to five key recommendations.

What’s the result? Well, “building political will” is definitely among these five key findings. Why are we so sure? Because we’ve experienced these sessions hundreds of times.

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate politics update

Political will is lacking when it comes to making our cities greener, cleaner and more liveable. But frankly, that’s not the point.

The question is: what will actually generate this political will and what are the causes of its absence? What do we have to change so that mayors, local authorities and governments will actually start to act?

Certainly the different measures for making cities more sustainable need to make economic sense.

They need to fit the needs of the people and they have to be compatible with the social DNA of every single place. But that’s not enough.

They also need to be supported by national governments. Most importantly, the different governmental levels need to work better together.

What is Habitat III?
It’s a major UN summit focused on urban infrastructure and the cities of the future, taking place in Ecuador’s capital Quito from 17-20 October. A key focus of the meeting will be how human settlements can be built and adapted to focus on sustainable development and  climate change goals.

This article focuses on this latter point. How do we overcome the competition for power between national, regional and local governments?

How do we ensure that representatives from across levels of government really understand that sustainable development requires them to collaborate much more closely?

How do we make better use of integrated urban development policy approaches?

Habitat III: an opportunity

The upcoming UN Habitat III conference to be hosted in Quito next October will bring together a huge range of stakeholders and actors, ranging from the UN-level down to the municipal level.

This will be a precious opportunity to launch and promote cross-cutting proposals to enable this multi-level governance that we so much need.

A proposal that we believe could offer a concrete tool to improve multi-level governance, would be the creation of National Urban Policy Commissions.

These would be cross-ministerial and cross-governmental  commissions co-led by national, regional and local governments which would help to bridge incompatibilities between local and national legislations and hence help the effective and consistent implementation of national programmes within the local context (e.g. sustainability programmes).

High density housing in Sicily, Italy (Pic: Pixabay)

The NUPCs would serve as a bridge to promote understanding from national governments of the diversity of local governments and the need for tailored approaches to certain policies and programs.

The Commission would be equally composed of members from different levels of government (from the city to the national level).

This will ensure representation of all government levels and that these can work cohesively and constructively on establishing and implementing a sustainability roadmap for cities.

Other stakeholders such as civil society organizations, interest groups and the private sector would also be involved within these commissions to ensure comprehensive representation and to stimulate cross-sectoral collaboration.

These NUPCs would also be the institutional platform for the monitoring of National Urban Policies (as outlined in Habitat III Policy Paper 3) as well as of the New Urban Agenda (as to be agreed by the UN General Assembly in October 2016).

This would allow the commission to assume two key roles. On one hand, the role of improving multi-level governance by supervising cross-level collaboration.

On the other hand, it would serve as a dedicated national taskforce for monitoring and advising the implementation of the New Urban Agenda following its ratification at the Habitat III in Quito in October 2016.

What would NUCPs do?

Design National Urban Policies. The Commission is in charge of advising on the design, the implementation and the monitoring of National Urban Policies.

Facilitate coordination and help cross-departmental collaboration. The Commission is in charge of encouraging projects and collaboration across governmental departments and national ministries to find integrated, and cross-silos policy solutions for cities. Many times departments both at the national level (e.g. ministries) and at the municipal level (e.g. city councils) struggle to work jointly and cohesively. The Commission therefore facilitates collaboration across governmental departments to ensure coherence across sectorial policies at the national as well as at the municipal level.

Establish Cooperation Projects Across Levels of Government. The Commission ensures enhanced coordination and collaboration across the different levels of government. Coordination between the national and municipal governments is essential in ensuring improved effectiveness of policy implementation, greater efficiency in the administrative procedures as well as ensure consistency and coherence between national and local policies. It is also important to ensure a balance between top-down and bottom up approaches.

Advise different government levels on the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda. The Commission is helping that the agreements of the New Urban Agenda are considered when designing and implementing National Urban Policies. This Commission will be adapting the international targets and objectives agreed in the New Urban Agenda to the national and local contexts and explore concrete action-oriented solutions to achieve those targets. The Commission therefore facilitates the enactment of the New Urban Agenda and ensures consistency of national and local policies with international agreements.

Coordinate Multi-Stakeholder Engagement. The commission engages different experts and stakeholders from a variety of sectors (government, private sector, civil society, etc.) when drafting National Urban Policies. This ensures that all voices are heard and all interests considered in an open, fair and transparent way.

Coordinate City-to-City Collaboration. The Commission also facilitates the cooperation of cities across the country and promote exchange of knowledge and best policy solutions among cities from the same country and from abroad.

Current progress to make our cities a better place is indeed held back by the lack of political will. But that shouldn’t be a conclusion.

It should be the point of departure to actually generate this political commitment.

The best way to reduce political tensions among different levels of governments from different political views should be to institutionalize the cross-sector collaboration in a way that is fair for all of them.

Daniela Chacón is Deputy Mayor and City Council Member of the Metropolitan District of Quito, Ecuador. Stefan Schurig is a member of the Executive Board of the World Future Council Foundation

The post Habitat III: we need a new urban climate agenda appeared first on Climate Home News.

Repeated drought and tree loss mean that there is increasing risk that the forest may one day cease to be a “sink” for atmospheric carbon released by the combustion of fossil fuels.

But even as climate scientists shake their heads in distress, plant taxonomists may be holding their heads in despair. They have just been told that so rich and various are the trees of the great Brazilian rainforest that another three centuries may pass before they can all be identified.

Both reports are the product of prolonged and careful study by generations of botanists, ecologists and foresters.

Scientists who monitor the Amazon Basin have for years been pointing out that loss of tree canopy is contributing to imminent climate disaster, and that extreme weather events associated with climate change can only make things worse.

Weekly briefing: Sign up for your essential climate politics update

They have also explained that the forest’s role as a carbon sink that right now holds 100 billion tonnes of carbon in the form of roots, wood and foliage is not just threatened.

In a severe and prolonged drought, the forest is actually likely to release more carbon into the atmosphere, to stoke up further warming.

So the latest study, published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles journal is just another confirmation of some alarming portents.

Researchers looked at two dramatic droughts, in 2005 and 2010.

They gathered measurements across nearly 100 locations and observed that, while both severe droughts killed trees, the second of the two slowed the growth rates of the survivors in the years that followed. The implication is that what didn’t kill trees made them weaker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynUC_BqI90A

Study leader Ted Feldpausch, senior lecturer in geography at of the University of Exeter in the UK, says: “The first large-scale, direct demonstration of tropical drought slowing tree growth is extremely important.

“It tells us that climate changes not only increase the rate of loss of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, by killing trees, but also slow down the rate of uptake.

“And yet the Amazon clearly has resilience, because in the years between the droughts the whole system returned to being a carbon sink, with growth outstripping mortality.”

His co-author, Oliver Phillips, professor in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds in the UK, says that “the Amazon has been providing a tremendous service, taking up hundreds of millions more tonnes of carbon every year in tree growth than it loses through tree death. But both the 2005 and 2010 droughts eliminated those gains.”

Scientists have now been observing measured plots of primary forest in the region for decades, but the sheer richness and variety of the forest remains a puzzle.

An international team of scientists write in Scientific Reports journal that they examined all the tree data from the region – more than half a million inventories made in Amazonia between the years 1707 and 2015 – and began a species count.

Altogether they arrived at a checklist of 11,676 species of tree grouped into 1,225 different genera and 150 families.

After 300 Years of Collecting, Nearly 12,000 Amazon Tree Species Are Found https://t.co/MxuVeyL83j pic.twitter.com/2zXLQXT6XC

— Amazon Watch (@amazonwatch) July 19, 2016

But the best estimates of those plant species more than 10cm in thickness at breast height – a rough and ready definition of a tree – in the whole region is now 16,000. That means that around 4,000 species remain to be discovered and identified.

One of the report’s authors, Nigel Pitman, senior conservation ecologist at theField Museum in Chicago, says: “Since 1900, between 50 and 250 new trees have been discovered in the Amazon every year. Our analysis suggests we won’t be done discovering new tree species for three more centuries.”

Research such as this may be essentially academic – it is based on available data assembled in university and research laboratory libraries over centuries – but it has practical value.

People who wish to conserve forests have to begin with a better understanding of why some species are rare and some well-represented, and how the population patterns of tree species change with distance and time.

“We’re trying to give people tools so they are not just labouring in the dark,” says the study’s lead author, Hans ter Steege, biodiversity dynamics group leader at theNaturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands, who has been mapping the rates of loss in the forest.

“The checklist gives scientists a better idea of what’s actually growing in the Amazon Basin, and that helps conservation efforts.”

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

The post Amazon Basin drought stunts planet’s ‘green lungs’ appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Copyright of IISD/ENB)

By Ed King in Paris

“It has been risk management till today, but now it’s the real loss and damage.”

That’s the view of Ecuador’s environment minister Daniel Ortega Pacheco, one of a handful of officials hand-picked by the French government to help steer a global climate pact safely into port by the end of the week.

Up until 3am on Wednesday morning liaising with colleagues in capital Quito, Ortega was back at the north-east Paris conference centre just after 8am to continue discussions.

He is “quietly optimistic” about plans for an agreement, he says, an opinion based on the closed-door discussions he has participated in with fellow ministers in the past two days.

Politically volatile issues over climate compensation, funding to poor countries and the burden emerging economies will have to take in a new agreement remain unresolved, yet Ortega says spirits in the inner circle of ministers are high.

Report: UN to release ‘clean’ draft of Paris climate deal
Report: Trillions hang on two sentences as Paris climate talks near climax

Much of that confidence is due to the handling of these talks by Laurent Fabius, the immaculately-dressed French foreign minister, a diplomat who appears to charm anyone he meets.

“People love the guy – when he came into a dinner the other night everyone was smiling. He is a lovely guy,” says Ortega. More importantly, “he has delivered on what he has promised.”

Fabius said he would have a final text for a global climate deal ready by late Wednesday, and it looks like he’s on course to do it. And for Ortega to show confidence is telling.

Ecuador is part of a group of Latin American countries known as ALBA, including the likes of Venezuela and Bolivia that has long despaired of these talks, arguing they are being asked to make greenhouse gas cuts but being offered little in return.

Now all three of those countries are represented in Fabius’ inner circle in Paris. Firebrand Claudia Salerno, a one-time favourite of the late Hugo Chavez, is even tasked with producing the ‘preamble’ to a global deal.

“Having three ministers from ALBA is a major compromise and it shows political will,” says Ortega.

Paris climate talks: What do the last 3 days have in store?
Analysis: Meet the suits at Paris climate change talks

Still, he has reservations. There’s a lurking fear that Fabius may try and pass off a draft text as the finished item today. Ortega believes that’s unlikely but says he’ll be watching closely. “Hopefully they don’t think it is the agreement,” he says.

There’s also the wider question of what will be in a pact and how forceful it will be?

Ecuador is a supporter of reducing the warming threshold to what scientists say will be a safer yet much harder to attain 1.5C.

“That is a big breakthrough… if you are aiming for 1.5C policy should change, and if it is the goal some countries may be willing to adapt to the 5-year goal.”

India, Saudi Arabia and China are known opponents, but pressure on them to agree to some reference to this line will inevitably increase as Friday nears.

But it’s resources that worries many developing countries. They want richer nations like the US, Australia, Japan and EU 28 to commit to boosting climate finance up to and beyond 2020.

“We will not be able to achieve 1.5C if we do not receive significant climate financing,” he says. So far there’s little sign of that crystalising in a deal, although there is still time.

And it’s the lack of clarity on this issue which makes a new so-called ‘Coalition Of Ambition’ launched by the EU, US and 79 African, Caribbean and small island states on Tuesday curious.

While the 100+ group of nations is calling for a tough new deal, it offers little detail on resources and it’s hard to work out what is ambitious about its position.

National climate plans from some of its developed country members are rated at the low end of adequate to inadequate by analysts at Climate Action Tracker.

Many in the negotiating halls assume it’s less a real coalition and more a tactical ploy to encourage bigger emitters to submit to regular reviews of their climate plans.

“It is a coalition for what?,” says Ortega with a knowing smile. “A binding deal, resources or simply an agreement in Paris?

“What is the real will of this coalition? Everyone likes the idea of this agreement but there is still need for clarity on where resources are coming from.

“Any attempt to speed up the negotiations is welcome from me but we need to understand what the members of the group are doing.”

The post Ecuador minister ‘quietly optimistic’ at Paris climate summit appeared first on Climate Home News.

By Alex Pashley in Paris

Ecuador’s climate chief accused the US of skewing a global climate deal, in an interview with Climate Home on the sidelines of COP21.

President Barack Obama is demanding a non-legally binding pact, so he can steer it past a hostile Republican-dominated Congress.

The US is among a few countries engineering a less ambitious pact with “no resources” for developing nations, Daniel Ortega Pacheco said at the Paris talks.

“What I can tell you is there is no right for any country to kidnap the negotiation process, and condition the outcome for the rest of us.”

Ortega recognised steps taken by the Obama administration to tackle counter climate change, but said the lack of a legal framework to bind countries to carbon-cutting pledges left no “track for implementation”.

Ecuador makes up the leftist negotiating bloc ALBA with Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela, which walked out on a deal in 2009.

Ortega said the bloc was the “voice of conscience” at the talks, fighting for climate justice for the poorest people of the planet.

An oil extraction levy and a proposal to compensate developing countries for keeping forests in the ground were examples of “very positive” initiatives made by Ecuador, he said.

A joint climate declaration by Latin America and Caribbean states expected before the Paris summit is expected within the next few days  he added.

This article has been changed to reflect that Ecuador didn’t say they would veto a deal. The oil levy and other proposals were shared just by Ecuador, not ALBA. And a declaration by Latin America and Caribbean states is expected in a few days.

The post Ecuador: US has no right to ‘kidnap’ Paris climate talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

President Rafael Correa is set to write a newspaper op-ed to make the case for his country’s innovative climate proposals ahead of Paris (credit: Wikimedia commons)

By Alex Pashley

Ecuador favours a small tax on oil exports rather than depending on rich countries for climate cash, according to a top climate envoy.

The smallest member of OPEC, a club of oil-producing countries, Ecuador is calling for a global levy to raise funds for climate projects in the developing world.

A 3-5% tax on every barrel of oil exported to the developed world could raise US$30 billion a year for the UN-backed Green Climate Fund, Daniel Ortega Pacheco told RTCC.

Due to falling oil prices, that figure has dropped from $80 billion projected Ecuador floated the idea at an OPEC meeting in 2013. But it is three times the sum donated by governments so far.

“When we see rich countries are not living up to promises, that’s why Ecuador in a separate fashion is calling for a new ecotax to raise taxes for the Fund,” said Ortega.

“You can generate much more money and at the same time reduce emissions.”

Report: Ecuador seeks to unite Latin America behind climate justice crusade

Finance to help poor countries meet their climate goals is critical to the global deal due to be struck in Paris this December.

Countries so far have pledged $10 billion for the South Korea-based GCF to channel into projects that cut carbon and build resilience to extreme weather.

Not all have paid up, with the $3 billion US contribution at risk of being vetoed by Congress.

And there is still uncertainty over how rich countries plan to meet their commitment to mobilise $100 billion a year by 2020.

Ecuador’s proposal remains in the latest UN text dated 24 July

Ecuador’s proposed oil export levy failed to win support from OPEC. Ortega admitted it “would be suicide for any country pushing for incentives on exploitation of oil”.

But it showed Ecuador’s commitment to the climate agenda, he said. “We are changing our energy mix.”

A slump in the oil price has roiled Ecuador’s economy, which relies on crude for a third of its state budget. In August it became the first OPEC member to admit it was pumping oil at a loss.

Known as a Daly-Correa tax, after the World Bank economist who proposed it and Ecuador’s president, the proposed oil export levy is on a long list of potential elements of a Paris deal.

Climate pledge

Meanwhile, the South American country has yet to submit an “intended nationally determined contribution” (INDC) ahead of the UN’s 1 October deadline.

Ortega said Ecuador wouldn’t bow to pressure to deliver the INDC and criticised the “simple promises” of the likes of Morocco, Macedonia and Kenya that have made explicit requests for cash to meet their climate targets.

“They have to mean something. That’s why we continue to promote the tax.”

A maverick at UN talks, Ecuador has put forward the idea of “net avoided emissions” and made headlines with its abandoned plan for countries to fund conservation of oil-rich Amazon rainforest.

In 2007, wealthy countries and donors were asked to stump up US$3.6 billion to keep 846 million barrels of oil worth around US$ 7.2 billion in the ground. That was predicted to avoid over a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in a 30-year period.

The plan didn’t fly, with the 10,000 square-kilometre park of pristine jungle home to velvet worms, crab spiders, two tribes living in voluntary isolation now signed off for drilling.

Report: Anger and frustration as Ecuador’s Yasuni dreams die

The country, which plans to unite Latin America behind a crusade for climate justice at the Paris summit, has come under fire for its own treatment of environmental activists.

Humans Rights Watch have warned of a crackdown by President Rafael Correa, citing an executive order intended to muzzle NGOs. Indigenous groups in the Amazon basin have marched to capital Quito to file their complaints.

Freedom House and the Committee for Protection of Journalists have voiced concern of declining press freedoms, particularly with respect to reporting on environmental stories.

Ortega said there was freedom of expression and the government was consulting civil society on its climate plans.

“We are conducting a citizens’ revolution for the majority of the population, particularly for the poor.

“If you ask them if they can speak in the country they will say we definitely can. We can’t make possibilities for a few over the whole.”

Rolling out 3 million clean cookstoves and getting 96% of its electricity from “fossil-free sources” make up some of its contributions, Ortega said, while the exploitation of its natural resources will be fair for all.

“We need to distribute domestically, its part of justice. If we promote justice at international level, we have to do it internally with all revenues remaining in the territories.”

The post Ecuador reheats oil export tax in climate pitch appeared first on Climate Home News.

Protecting the Amazon is central to addressing climate change – around 15% of emissions come from deforestation (Pic: Global Water Forum)

By Ed King

Latin America’s remaining indigenous peoples are “under siege” from rapacious mining, ranching and energy companies, actress turned human rights activist Bianca Jagger has warned.

Earlier this month eight leaders from across the continent announced plans to replant 20 million hectares of forests by 2020, a sign they said of their commitment to protect the region’s precious rainforests from further degradation.

But Jagger said recent history indicated these were likely to be “empty promises”, and would not protect the rights or the future of the 385 indigenous Amazon tribes who rely on the health of their traditional lands to survive.

“My problem is that many of these leaders are talking the talk but not walking the walk. There are a lot of empty promises,” Jagger told RTCC in an interview.

“What I’m seeing in Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil and Nicaragua, it is not a response from Latin American leaders towards their indigenous people. What I see is an irrational course to get more drilling, mining and hydroelectric.”

Tropical deforestation is a huge climate problem, accounting for an estimated 6-17% greenhouse gas emissions, say scientists. Between 2000-2012 it increased by 2100 squared kilometres.

Halting it would increase to 65% the chance of limiting warming to below 2C, a level deemed safe by government officials.

But for Amazon tribes, the issue is personal. Some tribes, like the 51,000 strong Guarani in Brazil, have had their villages and forests divided up by ranchers and loggers, leaving them with a fraction of their ancestral lands.

In November one of the group’s most vocal leaders, Marinalva Manoel, was found stabbed to death on the side of a road.

Pitched against these abuses and warnings from scientists are the undoubted huge reserves of timber, minerals and fossil fuels above and beneath the Amazon, home to what are rumoured to be “super giant oil and gas fields” according to a senior oil executive.

Ecuador tried to resist the lure of black gold in 2007 by asking rich countries to donate $3.7 billion for it not to drill in an ecologically sensitive part of the rainforest called Yasuni, but in 2013 President Rafael Correa ditched the plans and authorised limited drilling.

Last week the government in Quito said it had suspended a $53 million aid package from Germany after legislators from Berlin tried to visit Yasuni and see the effects of oil exploitation on local communities.

Growing rage

A recent round of UN climate change talks in Lima, Peru, was meant to offer hope to small tribal groups living in the Amazon rainforest, which is shared by Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and five other countries.

But negotiations on a forest protection framework known as REDD+ broke down in Peru, due to continued disagreement between governments over the status of safeguards which are meant to ensure the protection of basic human rights.

“They don’t want to come to terms with the provisions to protect indigenous peoples,” said Jagger.

Where Lima did succeed was in highlighting the desperate plight of these communities, many of who lack legal documents proving they own land their families have farmed for generations.

On the second week of the UN conference over 15,000 people marched through the streets of Lima calling for a global climate change agreement that respected “human rights for all” and protected their natural resources.

Their anger was sparked by a series of deaths of indigenous leaders in the past two months, first four Peruvian anti-logging campaigners in September, and then the suspected murder of José Isidro Tendetza Antún of the Shuar people in Ecuador.

These are the latest in a series of murky killings linked to illegal logging and extractive industries in the Amazon.

According to the charity Global Witness 57 environmental activists were killed between 2002 and 2014 in Peru, the majority over land rights disputes.

A veteran of campaigns for indigenous tribes, Jagger described herself as “shocked” at the lack of progress during the Lima talks on protecting the rights of forest dwellers.

“Are we really seeing as decision from Latin American leaders to come forward, demarcate the land, give them the title?” she said.

“I truly don’t see that. But if they’re not capable to agree on the safeguards in 2014 for REDD+, then when are we going to see that?”

Hydro dilemma

Jagger also pointed to the 242 planned dams in the Amazon, adding to what she said are 412 mega damns in the region, “harmful to indigenous people, which will threaten their livelihood, survival and culture.”

Of those, the vast 11,233MW, 18 turbine hydroelectric plant at Belo Monte on the Xingu river is emblematic of the change sweeping the Amazon.

After three decades of vigorous opposition to the dam, the Juruna tribe has been largely defeated by a mixture of bribes, threats and economic realities as the forest they lived in disappears.

When it comes online in 2015, the dammed river will flood 478 square kilometres, affecting the flow and temperature of the Xingu and its tributaries, potentially wiping out some species of fish and turtle that thrive in its waters.

For Brazil’s government, the dam is a necessary evil to ensure the lights and TVs stay on across the rapidly developing country, while keeping the country’s carbon emissions in check.

But evidence is clear that to win the battle against climate change, huge rainforests like the Amazon need to be protected – and the best way to do that is to empower local communities.

Local protection

According to a scientific study in the journal Carbon Management published in Lima during the UN talks, designated indigenous areas in the Amazon store an estimated 28,000 megatons of carbon.

That’s more than Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo combined, and “sufficient to irreversibly alter continental-scale rainfall and climate regimes if released” write the authors.

These account for 52% of Amazonia’s tropical ecosystems across nine countries, but of this 20% is under threat from planned developments.

But where local groups are offered legal protection and remain in control of their lands, they continue to live in a “largely sustainable” way, said the study.

“The inextricable relationship between Amazonian indigenous cultural identity and tropical forest ecosystems, including their flora and fauna, forms the basis of indigenous peoples’ ongoing political struggle for recognition of their land and resource rights and the extant indigenous territories.”

For Jagger, who at times could barely contain her anger at the lack of protection afforded vulnerable communities in her home continent, the solution is simple. But it requires political will from leaders who rarely fail to disappoint.

“In order to protect and safeguard the rainforest we need indigenous people. We cannot achieve that without them, and if we are not able to understand that I don’t really see how we will be able to tackle climate change,” she said.

“On the one hand I don’t know we will really have a legally binding treaty leading up to Paris, and if we’re not able top have some concrete policies to protect those people I don’t know how we will address the issue of the most important challenge we face in our life today.”

The post Bianca Jagger: Amazon tribes “under siege” from developers appeared first on Climate Home News.

Solar panels powering government buildings in Monrovia, Liberia (Pic: UN Photos/Christoher Herwig)

By Daniel V. Ortega Pacheco

States, society and other actors are confronted with need for effectiveness and transparency in the context of global collective action to combat climate change. 

Financing is to climate action as energy is to industry. Achieving the highest levels of effectiveness and transparency would ensure the highest levels of flow.

This would create a virtuous circle between action and management that can be strengthened with an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification system (MRV).

But the lack of political will to discuss this issue has limited the opportunities to elucidate the political and technical questions related to its complex nature.

Research efforts seeking to understand this need have found great complexity in studying the flows of climate finance and the difficulty of separating the political and technical aspects of its measurement.

Some of the literature that permeates the negotiations has identified that

i) methodologies to evaluate and estimate climate finance vary greatly
ii) lack of common measures results in a shortage of consistent and comprehensive data to allow traceability and measurement effectiveness
iii) serious risks of double-accounting.

Financing for climate change cannot be exempt from MRV.

Developing countries have argued there is a need for an institutional arrangement based on effectiveness and transparency.

Recognizing its importance under the 2015 agreement, Ecuador has played a role of facilitator and bridge between different groups of both the north and south.

This work today allows the global community to have a proposal of guiding principles for MRV of financing which was originally introduced by the African Group.

The Ecuadorian delegation found a parallel work in its own efforts in the proposal submitted by the African Group on October 3, 2011 during the intercessional discussions in Panama.

Since then a revised proposal built on the African original idea has come to receive the support of the LMDC -Like Minded Developing Countries.

Report: UN Green Fund says it’s ready and open f0r business

Today, there are few countries that would oppose in advancing on existing measures for reporting and review funding as well as to understand the processes and experiences aimed to that goal and implemented domestically or even by groups of countries.

That is the task ahead of Cancun in its decision 1 / CP.16 to 40.

There is the possibility of a common framework for actions and MRV support that can enable the context for a cycle of contributions on mitigation, adaptation and financing.

The Ecuadorian delegation has incorporated views from different spaces.

That has allowed the December 2, 2011 submission of a joint proposal of the G77 + China.

This submission not only aimed to provide guidelines to improve accounting but also allow increase transparency of its effectiveness in the use of funds.

It also proposed evaluating the level of compliance with funding obligations to the Convention on mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer and capacity building.

The underlying premise is that joint management of the subject may be the one that allows better accounting as an effort to mobilize $ 100 billion by 2020 and support the management of the financing mechanism of the Convention and the Green Fund.

The size of this challenge calls us all to join forces in two ways.

1) the political will of all parties to discuss the forms and scope of an integrated system of MRV
2) the role and importance of for a space for dialogue in the Conference of Lima

An open and flexible dialogue is the only way to address these questions in order to achieve progress in Lima.

This political will has been lacking delaying this area of ​​negotiation.

A new era of cooperation can ensure concrete progress toward an agreement 2015 which incorporates MRV experiences.

This can inscribe the necessary guidelines pre-2020 and beyond as well as to explore design options to develop the climate support-action nexus.

Daniel V. Ortega Pacheco is Ecuador’s lead climate change negotiator

The post We need more transparency on climate finance appeared first on Climate Home News.

UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon (Pic: UN Photos)

By Ed King

Driving up levels of financial support for developing countries should be the top priority for Ban Ki-moon’s forthcoming climate summit.

That is the view of Ecuador’s lead climate negotiator Daniel Ortega-Pacheco. He says the UN secretary general has the power to tackle one of the most contentious issues holding back progress on a world deal to limit global warming.

The New York meeting, scheduled for September 23, will bring together heads of state, business leaders and civil society for a day of intensive talks on ways to curb rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Ortega-Pacheco, who has seen a draft of Ban’s final outcome document, says there are “encouraging” references to a global carbon price. He wants the UN’s top official to push for greater financial assurances from wealthy countries, however.

“If Ban Ki-moon wants to prove he can bring groups together, he needs to bring them together around finance,” Ortega-Pacheco told RTCC.

“It is of utmost importance to get a real handle on the climate change issue in this region… the political interest is there, and Ban Ki-moon may have the political muscle to find that space for common understanding.”

Urgent need

Developing countries say they need billions in financial support for low carbon infrastructure and energy systems, to ensure they don’t have to rely on fossil fuels.

Around $30 billion was delivered by governments between 2010 and 2012. This flow has since slowed, although leading development banks are still offering significant support.

Earlier this year the UN’s flagship Green Climate Fund (GCF) finally launched, with a plea for an initial US$10-15 billion of capital. So far only Germany, Norway and France have committed funds.

Ortega-Pacheco said the successful launch of the GCF is a “major expectation” for developing countries, who in 2009 were promised $100 billion a year by 2020, a sum that so far remains elusive.

And he said the UN’s main climate summit of 2014, in Lima this December, must finally crack the funding dilemma or risk stalling progress towards a Paris deal in 2015.

“Lima has to be a financing COP [conference of parties] – I don’t see another real alternative if we want to see real action taking place on the ground,” he said.

Path to Paris

The UN’s Peru meeting is also likely to see the release of a draft negotiating text for a climate agreement, outlining who will take part and elaborating on its legal nature.

Last month the two UN officials tasked with co-chairing discussion released a wide-ranging set of options designed to focus minds on what the text could look like.

Speed is deemed essential, as officially a final text is needed around six months before it is due to be signed off, so countries can examine what its impacts could be.

But Ortega-Pacheco said Ecuador, which sits in the Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group, does not believe the latest proposals are a clear platform to work from.

“The co-chairs so far have not been very helpful taking the group to a common position. Sometimes we perceive that some of the voices have not been heard,” he said.

“If you look at the LMDC proposals we put forward for a draft negotiating text, and you compare that to the co-chairs one… it’s like – there’s not hearing. We hope there is more hearing in Lima.”

The 12-country LMDC bloc, which includes China, Egypt, India and Saudi Arabia, has a reputation at UN talks of blocking efforts to make all countries liable to cut emissions.

Last year the EU’s climate chief Connie Hedegaard became embroiled in a bitter row with some of its members, after accusing it of trying to “reinstall the firewall” and prevent developing countries from making carbon cuts.

The intervention prompted a fierce response from LMDC spokesperson Claudia Salerno, a Venezuelan diplomat, who said Hedegaard was “starting a blame game through the media”.

Acknowledging that some observers see it as a troublesome group, Ortega-Pacheco stressed LMDC countries are committed to a deal in Paris, and called on the EU to try and work with its members in the lead up to Lima.

“I was not amused to see how Connie Hedegaard interpreted our attempt to contribute to the negotiations as a group… and I remember the statement of Claudia was very straightforward,” he said.

“At the end it was a blaming game that was not positive or productive for the discussions. I really hope that this year we can find each other in a more constructive fashion.”

The post Call for finance to top agenda at Ban Ki-moon climate summit appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Yasuni national park is home to pristine Amazon forests and home to two uncontacted tribes. (Pic: geoff Gallice/Flickr)

By Adam Vaughan, the Guardian

Drilling for oil in a part of the Amazon rainforest considered one of the most biodiverse hotspots on the planet is to go ahead less than a year after Ecuador’s president lifted a moratorium on oil drilling there.

Last August, Rafeal Correa scrapped a pioneering scheme, the Yasuni Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) initiative, to keep oil in the ground under a corner of the Yasuni national park in return for donations from the international community.

He said only $13m (£8m) of the $3.6bn goal had been given, and that “the world has failed us”, giving the green light to drilling.

On Thursday, environment minister, Lorena Tapia, said permits for drilling had been signed for the 6,500-square-mile reserve, known as block 43, and oil production might begin as soon as 2016.

The permits allow Petroamazonas, a subsidary of the state oil company, to begin construction of access roads and camps to prepare for drilling.

Esperanza Martinez, an environmental activist in Ecuador, was quoted in a leading national daily as saying Petroamazonas had a bad record on oil spills and it could not be trusted to drill safely in the Yasuni-ITT.

The petition’s backers, YASunidos, accused the government of fraud after only 359,762 signatures of around 850,000 submitted were deemed genuine – the threshold for forcing a referendum is 583,323.

The ITT block of the Yasuni park, where the drilling will go ahead, is home to two uncontacted tribes. It is a Unesco site, and one hectare of the area is home to a richer mix of trees, birds, amphibians, and reptiles than the US and Canada put together.

Oil drilling has been taking place in the wider Yasuni national park for decades, dating back to Shell in the 1940s. In 2012, access roads had already been built in blocks neighbouring Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini.

In February, the Guardian revealed that documents showed the Ecuadorean government had been negotiating a $1bn deal with a Chinese bank to drill for oil in the area, at the same time as seeking donations for the Yasuni-ITT initiative. The Ecuadorean ambassador to the UK, Juan Falconi Puig, rejected the claim as “baseless” and claimed the document was “fraudulent.”

This article first appeared in the Guardian. RTCC is part of the Guardian Environment Network.

The post Ecuador gives green light to oil drilling in Amazon’s Yasuni national park appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: ggallice)

By Guy Edwards and Keith Madden

This year Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa terminated the Yasuní-ITT Initiative following the lack of international support.

Ecuador proposed to keep 846 million barrels of “oil in the soil” under the Yasuní national park in exchange for compensation from the international community.

However, in a country where oil revenues cover over one-third of the national budget, Ecuador’s government decided it could wait no longer for the international community to donate the funds.

Consequently, “Plan B” is now in motion, which will likely see the exploitation of three new oil blocks in the Yasuní national park, roughly 20% of Ecuador’s oil reserves, with an estimated value of $18 billion.

At the heart of this shift in national policy is Ecuador’s massive $10 billion debt to China, which is to be repaid in oil.

In this context of structural dependence between the two countries, Ecuador’s recent alliance with China at the UN climate change negotiations is perhaps not surprising, but it is of serious concern.

As a country particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such an alliance with China, which has played a largely obstructionist role (along with the US) in recent international climate politics, is ultimately against Ecuador’s national interests.

With the UN Climate Conference in Warsaw next week (COP19), Ecuador’s proximity to China, along with the termination of its flagship Yasuní-ITT Initiative, risks jeopardising its credibility in the negotiations.

A major shift in strategy is needed if Ecuador is to play a positive leadership role towards achieving a new adequate climate deal in 2015.

Bye-bye Yasuní

The decision to utilise the oil reserves will expose one of the world’s most biodiverse areas to the irreversible trauma of oil exploitation.

As the Ecuadorian Amazon’s interior withers away, indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation are seeing their ancestral homelands get picked apart by oil profiteers and illegal loggers and at extreme risk to their survival due to immunological vulnerabilities.

Carbon emissions will also increase due to the exploitation: by not extracting the oil reserves, around 407 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions would have been avoided.

Ecuador took the decision to terminate the Yasuní -ITT Initiative for many reasons, including only securing $13 million out of the $3.6 billion in solicited funds and the unfortunate timing of the initiative’s launch in 2007 which coincided with the global financial crisis. The Ecuadorian government’s regular hints at the possibility of ‘Plan B’ to exploit the oil were also a major limitation.

The Ecuadorian public was strongly in favour of the initiative and Correa’s decision was met with protests.

In response, a propaganda offensive was launched explaining how the $18 billion of oil wealth would be used.

Recent polls suggest increasing support for exploitation, but a movement to protect the Yasuní and the indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation is gaining momentum and may force a national referendum despite the National Assembly’s green light for exploitation.

The primacy of oil for Ecuador’s social spending on schools and hospitals and debt repayments to China reveals the fragility of climate policies to economic necessity.

Ecuador’s partnerships with China have grown through the extension of loans following Ecuador’s default on its sovereign debt in 2008-2009, which discouraged other lenders. China has lent Ecuador roughly $10 billion, mostly via commodity backed loans, which will be repaid in oil.

Chinese companies have also been directly linked to the exploitation of the Yasuní oil blocks.

Ecuador’s climate policies

Ecuador is highly vulnerable to climate impacts.

In recent years floods and droughts have caused billions of dollars in damages.

Although Ecuador emits around 0,001% of global GHG emissions, it is taking various steps to tackle climate change.

Ecuador has made impressive advances through its forestry protection scheme Plan Socio Bosque which incentivises forest protection, developing a national REDD+ programme and through Quito’s Climate Action Plan. Ecuador is also the first country in the world that has adopted the rights of nature in its Constitution.

By 2017, Ecuador aims to generate 6% of electricity from non-hydroelectric renewable sources and 93% from hydroelectric. However, Ecuador’s most recent yearly budget dedicated over $4.5 billion dollars to fossil-fuel related subsidies, which exceeds the quantity it requested for the Yasuní-ITT Initiative by just over a billion.

At the UN climate negotiations, Ecuador has gained a reputation as an innovative and pragmatic player.

In addition to the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, Ecuador has been active in putting forward pioneering proposals.

Ecuador has tabled plans for a small carbon tax on oil at a May meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The initiative, known as the Daly-Correa tax would see a 3-5% tax levied on every barrel of oil exported to rich countries, with the proceeds transferred directly to the UNFCCC’s Green Climate Fund.

Ecuador will promote the Daly-Correa tax proposal in Warsaw, which it thinks could raise up to $80 billion a year.

Ecuador negotiates at the UNFCCC alongside its ALBA partners including Bolivia and Venezuela.

Ecuador and ALBA also participate in the Like-Minded Group with China, Saudi Arabia, India and others. The group focuses primarily on upholding the principles of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities” (CBDR+RC) and equity. The group also works to strengthen the unity of G77 and emphasises developed countries’ historical responsibility for climate change.

Given Ecuador’s minimal contribution to global GHG emissions, its alignment with China, the world’s largest emitter, and the Like-Minded Group is intriguing.

Ecuador and ALBA’s insistence on developing countries’ rights to develop aligns them with China’s positions.

Second, Ecuador (and ALBA) and China claim the historical responsibility of developed countries to act first.

Finally, taking these positions provides Ecuador and China with the opportunity to challenge the global status quo and US hegemony.

One of China’s main strategies has been to frame climate change as a North-South issue thus prolonging the “firewall” between developed and developing countries.

It has framed its opposition to binding commitments in the language of CBDR allowing it to use rhetoric that appeals strongly with developing countries including Ecuador.

Solidarity within the G77 to confront a sense of inequality and exclusion in the global economic system creates common purpose among the G77, including Ecuador, and results in positions that promote inclusiveness and consensual decision-making.

G77 leaders, including President Correa, are also presented with an opportunity to score political points at home and abroad by berating developed countries for their lack of action on reducing emissions.

These overlapping interests, combined with Ecuador’s dependence on China in the form of substantial debt, give us some insight as to why Ecuador and China would participate together in the Like-Minded Group.

However, the risks posed by climate change to Ecuador today and in the future if a strong agreement is not reached with substantial emissions reductions from all countries including China, suggest membership of the Like-Minded Group goes against Ecuador’s national interests.

To Paris (via Lima)

With the demise of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative and Ecuador’s proximity to China and the Like-Minded Group’s entrenched positions on the North-South “firewall”, Ecuador risks diluting its potential leadership role at the UNFCCC.

Quito should reevaluate its proximity to the Like-Minded Group at COP19, and build alliances with nations with a more flexible and ambitious approach.

This realignment is in Ecuador’s national interest.

With climate impacts set to becoming increasingly severe, a far-reaching agreement from all countries is required to limit global temperature increases to no more than 2°C.

Ecuador would not abandon its solidarity with the G77, but rather use its domestic climate policy and pioneering proposals to better use, through building alliances with more progressive groups in the G77 such as the Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC), Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Least Developed Country Groups and the European Union.

As Ecuador is the most progressive country within ALBA, it can act as bridge between ALBA and others within the G77 in the run up to COP20 in Peru.

With the 2015 deadline to reach a new global climate deal fast approaching, Ecuador stands at a crossroads.

The failure of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative may have tragic consequences for Ecuador’s Amazon region and indigenous peoples, but in terms of the UN climate negotiations it is but one of many setbacks.

Ecuador’s position at the UNFCCC may have been weakened by the end of Yasuní-ITT, but its proximity to China and the Like-Minded Group could make a bad situation far worse if this group’s entrenched positions lead to further paralysis in the negotiations.

Ecuador has a choice.

It can bemoan the obstinacy of the international community for failing to support its flagship project and throw in its lot with China, or it can bounce back by ensuring a well-managed national referendum on the Yasuní and promoting its pioneering proposals, emboldened by new alliances with other progressive nations at the UN climate talks.

In Warsaw, Quito has the chance to be a crucial player in building a new ambitious axis of progressive nations, and move the world forward towards the successful outcome needed in Paris in 2015.

Guy Edwards is a Research Fellow at the Center for Environmental Studies and co-director of the Climate and Development Lab at Brown University.

Keith Madden is a senior at Brown University and a member of the Climate and Development Lab.

The post Ecuador’s climate ambition faces test post Yasuni appeared first on Climate Home News.

The Yasuni ITT initiative was hailed as the ‘future of conservation’ when it was launched in 2007 (Pic: Geoff Gallice/Flickr)

By Ed King

Last Thursday in Quito Ecuador President Rafa Correa confirmed the news that many had feared for some time – the Yasuni initiative was finished.

A pioneering and audacious proposal to persuade rich countries to pay Ecuador to preserve its Amazon rainforests, the project was feted around the world.

In 2007 wealthy countries and donors were asked to stump up US$3.6 billion to keep 846 million barrels of oil worth around US$ 7.2 billion in the ground.

The country’s submission to the UN in 2011 predicted this would avoid over a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in a 30 year period, but this wasn’t just about preventing global warming.

Yasuni’s pristine jungles cover 10,000 square kilometres, home to velvet worms, crab spiders, narrow-mouth frogs and two tribes living in voluntary isolation.

“The world has failed us,” lamented Correa in a televised address, accusing rich nations of lacking the responsibility to deal with climate change.

And as angry protestors gathered outside the Presidential Palace, jostling a police cordon, pundits were queuing up to apportion blame.

But what seems clear is that for many, the plan to stop oil exploration in the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) regions of Yasuni seemed – and perhaps was – too good to be true.

The park is home to 2,200 species of tree and more than 100,000 different types of insects per hectare (Pic: Geoff Gallice/Flickr)

Guy Edwards is a Latin American analyst at Brown University and co-founder of the Intercambio Climatico news service.

He says Yasuni was popular with the public, and Correa’s decision has sparked “anger and dismay” among many, but points to a variety of reasons for its collapse.

“Factors contributing to its demise were the financial crisis forced possible donors to reconsider; the confusion about some of the Initiative’s details; and the Ecuadorian government’s hints at the possibility of ‘Plan B’ to drill caused a further decline in interest,” he says.

“Unquestionably, Ecuador’s Yasuni-ITT Initiative was a bold and ambitious attempt to avoid carbon emissions, protect biodiversity, uphold the rights of nature and indigenous peoples and encourage the transition to sustainable development.

“However the primacy of oil for Ecuador’s development reveals the fragility of such policies to economic necessity.”

Financial shortfall

Despite anger directed at Correa, it seems clear his government did not receive the financial assurances they asked for at the Yasuni-ITT launch.

Leading donors included Spain, Germany and Italy, which signed a €35 million debt-swap with Ecuador in 2012. Others included Georgia, China and Colombia, while foundations in USA, Japan, Russia also made contributions.

But together these fell well short. Figures emailed to RTCC by the UN Development Programme, which ran the Yasuni Trust Fund with Ecuador, indicate commitments of US$52,227,852 were made, with US$10,190,820 deposited in the bank.

Ecuador’s plan for an OPEC oil tax to fill the breach apparently met with a cool response from other members of the oil cartel.

And with developed countries still debating how they can raise the US$100 billion by 2020 promised in 2009, the hopes of further cash injections dried up.

Guarantees

Speaking to RTCC in February, Ecuador climate diplomat Daniel Ortega admitted that the global economic crisis had hit the project hard – but others point to a lack of clarity from the government on how the money would be managed.

Ecuador’s government defaulted on a $3.2 billion debt in 2008, and State Department cables exposed during the Wikileaks drama in 2009 revealed US concern over a “lack of clarity on the guarantees that the GOE will provide”.

Collaboration with the UNDP was supposed to assuage these worries, but critics like Bill Twist from the Pachamama Alliance, which works with local tribes, say the plan “lacked integrity” from the start.

“The whole time Ecuador was trying to enroll international support they were also moving forward with plans for oil exploitation of adjacent rainforest lands that were more than 20 times the size of the Yasuni-ITT oil block,” he told RTCC.

“I think the decision is unfortunate and that it is totally disingenuous for Pres. Correa to accuse the international community for being in some way responsible for the failure of the initiative—accusing the international community of hypocrisy for not supporting the plan.”

Economic dip

Other analysts are more sympathetic to Correa, pointing out that Ecuador relies on oil for a third of its national budget. Political analyst Jose Fuentes from Quito’s Flacso University told the Guardian the President had opted “for economic pragmatism” in ditching the plans.

Poverty eradication is one factor. Despite its oil wealth, this is a poor country that has seen public spending triple since Correa took power six years ago.

And in a bitterly ironic twist, the country spends as much each year in subsidies that encourage fossil fuel use as it was trying to raise in the Yasuni ITT Trust fund.

Bloomberg analysts say poor economic growth forecasts have forced the President to try and increase the flow of oil from their current rate of 527,000 barrels of crude a day.

The three untouched blocks of oil in Yasuni now have an estimated value of US$18.3 billion, and reports suggest Chinese-owned PetroOriental and Spain’s Repsol are already circling.

Consequences

The worst affected, apart from the diverse species that live in Ecuador’s Amazon, are the Huaorani, Tagaeri and Taromenane tribes, who still regard the forests as home.

Bill Twist warns of “significant negative impacts” for local communities in the coming years, calling on the government to work with tribes to develop safeguards restricting the reach of oil companies.

“How much care the government actually puts into the process of consultation will be a key indicator of the degree of social and environmental impact the eventual development process will produce,” he says.

Internationally, this is also a blow for Ecuador’s hard working and engaging team at the UN climate talks. Led by Daniel Ortega, the country has offered a progressive and proactive voice to negotiations.

The Yasuni-ITT Initiative and related “Net Avoided Emissions” proposal were regarded by many as a template for global efforts to promote and fund conservation, and were being followed closely by NGOs and governments alike.

“By terminating the plan, Ecuador has eliminated its most powerful contribution to the UN climate talks which helped legitimize its rhetoric against developed countries’ woefully inadequate response to climate change,” says Guy Edwards.

“As a result, Ecuador’s position at the UN climate talks has been weakened.”

The post Anger and frustration as Ecuador’s Yasuni dreams die appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Source: ggallice)

Ecuador: Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has abandoned a unique and ambitious plan to persuade rich countries to pay his country not to drill for oil in a pristine Amazon rainforest preserve. (The Guardian)

New Zealand: New Zealand scaled back its target for reducing carbon emissions on Friday, saying the move was an interim step ahead of a new United Nations pact from 2020. (Reuters)

Research: Methane emissions from natural gas production are not well quantified and have the potential to offset the climate benefits of natural gas over other fossil fuels, says new research. (Wiley Online Library)

UK: The Church of England has begun legal action to claim ancient mineral rights beneath thousands of homes and farms, prompting fears the church could seek to cash in on fracking. (The Telegraph)

Ireland: Ireland will experience “huge increases” in temperatures over this century, according to a leading Irish expert on climate change. (Irish Times)

Australia: On Friday, opposition leader Tony Abbott visited a Linfox trucking depot in Melbourne, despite the fact that the company previously signed a statement supporting the idea of a carbon price and featured in a Labor government promotional video. (Sydney Morning Herald)

US: Dow Chemical’s chief executive Andrew Liveris is spearheading a public campaign against increased exports of natural gas, which he sees as a threat to a manufacturing renaissance in the United States. (New York Times)

Research: Smallholder farmers in the Amazon sell timber from trees that have grown on fallow fields to improve income, but such production can go unrecognised in official statistics — often because it is commercialised through informal channels, according to research. (Forests News)

US: After nearly three years, the White House began installing solar panels on the First Family’s residence this week, a White House official confirmed Thursday. (Washington Post)

Denmark: The Danish government has analysed 78 possible projects that will help it to achieve its 40% emissions reduction target by 2020. (RTCC)

UK: ActionAid report says biofuel costs are likely to send petrol bills spiralling, but producers disagree. (RTCC)

Research: Climate scientists have predicted maize and wheat yields could fall by 19-30% by 2065, a disparity which has now been solved by researchers at Princeton University. (RTCC)

The post Ecuador abandons Yasuni initiative to stop Amazon drilling appeared first on Climate Home News.

Ecuador has said it wants OPEC to establish a fund to compensate countries who keep Amazon oil in the ground.

The country’s Yasuni-ITT initiative asks donors to compensate the government in return for it leaving oil reserves underneath the one million hectares of the Yasuni national park untouched.

Dr Ivonne Baki, Ecuador’s Secretary of State for the Yasuni Initiative told RTCC that the country’s proposed OPEC oil tax could be used to establish a $50bn a year climate action fighting fund. Some of the revenue used to compensate other Amazon nations to keep their oil in the ground.

“We will present it [the levy] again in Vienna at the next OPEC meeting and talk about how it could be implemented. A charge of 32¢ per barrel or $1 a barrel would generate a fund of a similar size to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) that is supposed to generate $100bn a year by 2020,” she said.

The money could be chanelled through the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) with the proviso that it is amended so that members can also be recipients of its investments, she said.

Yasuni National Park (Source: Flickr/Josh Bousel)

Dr Baki admitted the green OPEC tax received a relatively cold reception when it was first mooted in 2011 but said the tide is turning. A recent meeting of South American and Arab nations, representing nine of OPEC’s 12 members saw growing support.

“We want to unite the Amazon countries. It’s not enough for us to do it ourselves. We are starting with Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Brazil but we want to unite all the Amazon nations.

“We recently had a successful meeting of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization in Lima. It was very positive. They have not been working together very well but now that is changing.”

Key to the success of any united effort by Amazon nations is Brazil, which has around 60% of the Amazon region in its territory.

“Brazil and the others are watching. I know President Dilma Rousseff’s position because we have talked with one of her representatives. They want to protect the Amazon but a President has the responsibility to provide services to the people. Of course they want to save it, but they want to save the people as well. It’s a big dilemma.”

Disappointment

While Ecuador tries to stir more action from its neighbours, Baki said the lack of effort from richer nations, including their enthusiasm for Yasuni, had disappointed Ecuador’s President Correa. Dr Baki also expressed frustration with developed nations for their lack of urgency and the slow development of the GCF.

Environmental policies are often portrayed in Europe as damaging to the economy, whereas 80% of Ecuadorians backed the Yasuni project, despite it asking for $3.6bn in compensation for reserves now worth $40bn. It has raised $340m so far.

“Ecuador has a lot of awareness on this issue. The people believe a lot in nature and have a connection with nature,” said Dr Baki.

“I don’t see that in Europe. I see awareness in Europe, but I don’t see people defending and taking care of the Earth.”

Criticism

Many critics of the Yasuni have called it blackmail and a recent deal with China to search three million hectares of forest for oil has drawn accusations of hypocrisy.

Dr Baki countered these by pointing out that the country is still developing and is dependent on oil for its income.

“We cannot say no to everything from one day to another,” she said. “I still believe we can drill in areas that are not as fragile as the Yasuni if we ensure high standards of environmental protection.”

She also defended the country’s record of consulting indigenous people on developments in the forest and sharing revenues. She claimed that the current government is the first in 40 years of oil exploration in the country to return benefits to the people that live in the Amazon.

OPEC will be presented with Ecuador’s proposals for the implementation of a climate sales tax on a barrel of oil at its meeting in Vienna on May 31.

The post Ecuador reveals plan for OPEC to save the Amazon appeared first on Climate Home News.

Ecuador will introduce plans for a small carbon tax on oil at the May meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The initiative would see a 3-5% tax levied on every barrel of oil exported to rich countries. Funds would be transferred directly to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and Ecuador believes it could raise up to US$80bn a year.

Speaking to RTCC on a visit to London, Ecuador Ministerial Advisor Daniel Ortega said hopes were high it would be accepted by the world’s larger oil producers in May.

“It’s still in the design stage, but it will be taken to the OPEC meeting in the next few months. The idea will be for it to be first entertained in the OPEC arena, develop a status, and at the final stage it will be taken to the UNFCCC,” he said.

“We think it is a proposal that can generate a sufficient amount of resources, so as perhaps to match 80% of what is needed for the Green Climate Fund.”

OPEC’s oil exports represent about 60% of the total petroleum traded internationally (Pic: Shell)

Ecuador has already consulted some OPEC partners, and Ortega says the concept is “politically acceptable to everyone”.

As yet the finer details on how it would be implemented, including who collects the money and how that gets to the Green Climate Fund. Ortega also stresses that the effect on demand for oil will also have to be assessed – a critical concern for all 12 OPEC members.

“OPEC meetings have their own politics but we believe we can make some progress when this group gets together and actually explores the mechanism,” he said.

“Perhaps what is most important at this time is that the OPEC countries agree that the sources of financing should be discussed under UNFCCC, and if this proposal actually provides incentives for that to occur, it is more than welcome.

“Some of the questions have been targeted at how the mechanism actually works. I think the idea of generating resources for all developing countries through a tax of this kind is politically acceptable to everyone.”

Daly-Correa tax

The idea of a tax on oil was first suggested in 2001 by Herman Daly, formerly a senior environmental economist at the World Bank.

Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa resurrected the concept last October at a summit of Latin American and Arab countries, where it was greeted with interest.

What is often called the “Daly-Correa tax” was discussed by OPEC countries at the last round of UN climate talks in Doha, although no formal resolution or position was announced.

OPEC could in theory take a unilateral decision and impose the tax, but it could face protests from key importers such as the EU and USA.

The Organisation’s oil exports represent about 60% of the total petroleum traded internationally, and because of this market share, OPEC’s actions influence international oil prices.

But to be effective it would need to be matched by other leading oil producers, such as Russia or China.

A move solely by OPEC could also offer supporters of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline with another reason to back the project, which they argue will reduce the USA’s reliance on imported supplies.

Finance

Sourcing funds for climate mitigation and adaptation projects in the developing world is becoming an increasingly tough process.

The Green Climate Fund is expected to start its work in Songdo, South Korea in the second half of 2013, which means that it can launch activities in 2014.

But it is currently a bank shaking its tin can on a street corner. The Doha round of talks ended with no new cash on the table.

Developed countries repeated a commitment to deliver on long-term climate finance support to developing nations, with a view to mobilizing US$100 billion both for adaptation and mitigation by 2020.

Germany, the UK, France, Denmark, Sweden and the EU Commission announced concrete finance pledges totalling US $6bn for the period up to 2015.

FULL INTERVIEW: Ecuador’s Dr Daniel Ortega on potential of oil tax to fill Green Climate Fund

Ortega LONG from Responding to Climate Change on Vimeo.

The post Ecuador finalising OPEC oil tax plans appeared first on Climate Home News.