Hola!
And welcome to COP25 day 5, live from Madrid.
Here an update from the negotiations today.
THE NEGOTIATIONS
Credits: UNFCCC.
Loss and damage and the markets discussions seem a bit stuck…. so what is happening in the negotiations?
Response Measures: there is good progress in making a concrete 6 year work program, with a lot of activities on the table.
Periodic review: Developing countries are focussed on making sure that developed countries bump up their Pre-2020 actions, otherwise they do not want to hear about science.
Common timeframes: Big step backwards – 8 different ideas on the table around when national plans should be accounted for, including an option to decide this next year. Seems like everything will be postponed to the next session.
IPCC discussion on land and Oceans: Now under SBSTA they are discussing how we can include these reports into the negotiations. The ongoing challenge over whether they want to ‘welcome’, ’note’, ’note with appreciation’ the science.
Gender: The Gender action plan was seen as a big “win” for this COP, but with a Saturday deadline, there isn’t clarity if countries will agree on the scope of activities for the 6 year workplan in the future. This would be a big shame, as funding and activities could risk getting in the way of a clearly agreed element of the talks.
Everyone is placing their bets on what the final COP Decision should include, some ideas are: Call for new climate plans to be presented in 2020, stress for the roadmap on finance, push for pre-2020 goals to be met and recognising of UNSG summit.
MEDIA WRAP UP
Credits: UNFCCC.
Brazil walks back from funding demand – stating it will still negotiate and won’t block everything if it doesn’t get 10billion of the 100billion (As their Environmental Minister stated before)
EU lawmakers announced tighter regulations on green bonds. There will now be 3 levels of “green-ness” that should make green investing more transparent, especially for the divestment movement
EU is pushing to increase its 2050 and maybe even its 2030 targets, but it is currently not on track to meet its 40% reduction target for 2030 – proving that the low-hanging fruits of emissions cuts may have largely been picked already
. Private sector report highlighted that 285 companies have implemented Science Based Targets – with combined greenhouse gas pollution that totals more than that of France and Spain put together – collectively, the list which includes McDonalds, Nike and Pepsi have committed to cutting 265 million tonnes of emissions –
Interesting angle – 800,000 protested in France yesterday as part of ongoing protests from transport workers. Interestingly, during the protest, the environmental group Extinction Rebellion claimed responsibility for trashing 3,600 electric scooters across French cities by obscuring their QR codes; calling electric scooters “ecologically catastrophic
CLIMATE TRACKER’S RECOMMENDED READINGS
Scientific American has a great recap on this year’s record-breaking Atlantic Ocean storms, including 18 storms, 6 hurricanes, 3 intense hurricanes.
Here’s some nice local reporting in Madrid from Al Jazeera, highlighting how Madrid’s mayor isn’t doing enough to curb toxic air pollution levels. Madrid is one of only 3 cities in Europe to frequently break air quality regulations set in 2010
If you’re interested in agriculture, you might like this piece in DW about a 15 year plan to support apple growers in Catalonia:
GOOD BACKGROUND BRIEFING
I’ve been obsessed by the Repsol piece each day this week, and 350.org released a critical press briefing today.
Covering Climate Now is calling this 5 min video one of the best examples of coverage this week. What do you think? It even highlights burger king.
CLIMATE TRACKER
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