[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”2/3″][vc_text_separator title=”DAY 7: KEY UPDATES” title_align=”separator_align_left”][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”30″][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Welcome to the 2nd week of the UN climate change negotiations! Where there will be more people, longer nights and less space at the COP venue! Ready for that?
The good
The first week ended with mixed feelings. The closing plenaries closed the work of important issues, like the Indigenous People’s platform or the Koronivia work for Agriculture. We had a very beautiful moment when Indigenous people sang a song at the plenary, and everybody was very emotional, especially the chair, Paul Watkinson.
The bad
However, the Saturday also ended in a sad note. Negotiators could not agree how to include the latest science regarding keeping temperature below 1.5 degreesof warming: they found no consensus on how to link the recent IPCC report to the negotiations. For some countries, the bottom line was using “welcome” the report, but the US, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Russia wanted to use the less binding word “note”. There was no agreement reached, and the decision on this has been moved to June next year. A very sad day for climate science.
Moving forward
Aside from this and moving forward to the second week, the countries agreed to work with the texts they had so far, but wanted more time to keep solving some of the technical issues.
Ministers arrive today, so they will be focusing on the politically contentious issues (such as finance, which is today’s focus), while the technical negotiations continue aside. The technical part will have to be closed by Tuesday.
10 years from now
The so-called “common timeframes” will start in 2031. The negotiations also closed this issue on Saturday, and asked the implementation body of these negotiations (called SBI) to continue working on it next June.
That means that, for now, countries get to keep their own climate plans, no matter if they are a 5-year period or a 10-year one. And they will develop new rules to see how they are implementing them from 2031 onwards. But there is no decision yet on how this may look like: will countries be allowed to submit 5 or 10 year plans? Or we will leave that to their willingness, making it more difficult of keeping track of climate action?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”2/3″][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”30″][vc_text_separator title=”DAY 7: KEY UPDATES” title_align=”separator_align_left”][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”30″][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]
Katowice was a buzz in protests over the weekend, with over 3000 protestors, and what felt like many more police, lining the streets around the UN climate talks. From our reporters in Vietnam.
Gabriella writes in Poland’s biggest media about the lack of any “transition” going on for miners here. In a comparison to Spain, she highlights that miners in Poland aren’t being told to prepare for new jobs, but “that their grandchildren will be mining for coal.”
Also, in case you didn’t know – we have 2 extra days of “technical negotiations” to push through some tougher diplomatic issues. Manka explains in the Times of India.
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Investors have demanded urgent cuts in carbon emissions and the phasing out of all coal burning. With language that sounds more like ‘the hippies’ rather than the ‘bankers’ the Chris Newton told the Guardian that ““The long-term nature of the challenge has, in our view, met a zombie-like response by many.” Check out their Global Investor Statement here.
Airlines are WAY BEHIND on their emissions reduction targets. This includes Virgin btw, which ranks in at 83.
Climate Home scooped almost everyone who was feeling a little tired in COP24 on Saturday night, as they broke down the 1.5 debacle.
HuffPost has a nice video on young people, featuring some of Climate Tracker’s friends from Brazil and Malaysia.
Bioplastics aren’t as simply wonderful as might seem. Sure they aren’t going to kill turtles. But a new study that looks at land-use and the crops we would need to replace plastics suggests that it could even see an increase in deforestation-related emissions. This research obviously assumes we don’t radically improve regulations over agricultural expansion, and is a clear warning for those assuming that biofuels could play the key role in mitigating emissions globally.
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