1) Paris Climate Agreement ‘On The Brink’ As Western Governments Refuse To Transfer $100 Billion P.A.
AFP, 9 September 2018
UN climate talks in Bangkok have foundered over the key issue of how efforts to limit climate change are funded and how contributions are reported. Activists called out the European Union, Britain and Australia for falling into line with Washington’s position.
Developing countries rounded on the United States and its allies at emergency climate talks Sunday, accusing the world’s richest nations of stalling a deal aimed at preventing runaway global warming.
Experts from around the world have been locked in discussions this week in Bangkok, aiming to reach a comprehensive rulebook for countries to implement the landmark Paris Accord on climate change.
But talks have foundered over the key issue of how efforts to limit climate change are funded and how contributions are reported.
Delegates representing some of Earth’s poorest and smallest nations said on the final day of the summit that the US and other Western economies were failing to live up to their green spending commitments.
“Developed countries are responsible for the vast majority of historic emissions, and many became remarkably wealthy burning fossil fuels,” said Amjad Abdulla, the head of a negotiating bloc of small island states.
“Yet, we face devastating climate impacts and some of us could be lost forever to rising seas” without progress on the Paris deal by the end of the year, he added.
The Paris deal, struck in 2015, aims to limit global temperature rises to less than two degrees Celsius and to below 1.5C if possible by the end of the century.
To do this, countries agreed to a set of promises, including to establish an annual $100-billion fund to help developing nations react to our heating planet.
The US and other developed economies want less oversight on how their funding is gathered and more flexibility over how future funding is structured.
But developing nations insist they need predictable and open funding in order to effectively plan their fight against the fallout from climate change.
A senior source within the African nations’ negotiating bloc told AFP the US and others were reneging on pledges made in Paris by refusing to discuss future climate funding.
“It’s as if we started from scratch” in Bangkok, the source said.
Paris deal ‘on brink’
The Bangkok talks were organised as an emergency negotiating session after little progress was made at previous rounds towards a final rulebook.
Under the timeframe set in Paris, the guidelines for nations must be finalised by the COP 24 climate
summit in Poland in December.
While delegates have made some progress on areas such as new technology and carbon markets, activists said the US — with Western acquiesence — had stonewalled any momentum on the key funding issue.
Harjeet Singh, global lead on climate change for NGO ActionAid, said Sunday the Paris deal was “on the brink”.
“Developed countries are going back on their word and refusing to agree clear rules governing climate finance,” he told reporters.
“If they remain stuck in their positions and fail to loosen their purses, this treaty may collapse.”
The US under President Donald Trump will leave the Paris process in 2020, but multiple delegates in Bangkok told AFP that it was still actively hindering progress in talks.
One senior negotiator said the US was “poisoning” the atmosphere of trust that led to the Paris accord.
Activists also called out the European Union, Britain and Australia for falling into line with Washington’s position.
Full story
2) Real News: Bangkok Meet Fails To Finalize Draft On Paris Agreement Rules
Associated Press, 9 September 2018
BANGKOK (AP) — An international meeting in Bangkok has fallen short of its aim of completing fruitful preparations so an agreement can be reached in December on guidelines to implement the 2015 Paris climate change agreement.
The six-day Bangkok meeting was scheduled to accelerate progress in the battle against rising global carbon emissions by adopting a completed text that could be presented at the COP24 conference in Poland in December.
There are notable disagreements over fair financing for implementation of the rules by developing countries, and the scale and details of reporting progress.
Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said Sunday at the closing press briefing for the Bangkok meeting that progress was made on most issues, but nothing has been finalized.
3) Climate News: 'Good Progress' At Bangkok Climate Talks On Draft Paris Accord Rules: U.N. Official
Reuters, 9 September 2018
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A United Nations climate change meeting in Bangkok made good progress on drafting a ‘rule book’ for the implementation of the 2015 Paris accord before a summit in Poland this December, a top U.N. official said on Sunday, the last day of the talks.
The Paris agreement, which was adopted by almost 200 nations and is due to come into force in 2020, set a sweeping goal of ending the fossil fuel era this century.
“We made good progress, but we cannot sit back, we need to continue to speed up and deepen the conversation,” Patricia Espinosa, who leads the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which steers the talks, told a news conference in the Thai capital.
The negotiated text lays down the groundwork for a summit in Katowice from Dec. 2-14 at which governments will meet to agree rules on implementing the accord.
The UNFCCC earlier this week agreed to add an extra day to the December talks to allow more work to be done.
“We need a streamlined draft that will assist us in Poland,” Philip S. Weech, a delegate from the Group of 77 and China, told fellow negotiators earlier in the day.
Espinosa would discuss some fundamental issues with G7 environment ministers next week, she said.
Negotiations, however still needed to “achieve full clarity in climate finance,” Espinosa said, referring to a $100 billion fund to help developing countries tackle climate change, describing funding as a “politically sensitive” issue.
Critics say that developed countries remained uncommitted over finance.
Full story
4) Oh Dear: The BBC Referee Gets It Wrong
Global Warming Policy Forum, 8 September 2018
Amazing. The BBC can’t even get the most basic facts right in its official climate change guidelines.
Its new guidelines on reporting climate change state:
To achieve impartiality, you do not need to include outright deniers of climate change in BBC coverage, in the same way you would not have someone denying that Manchester United won 2-0 last Saturday. The referee has spoken.”
Actually we do deny this claim. And so should the BBC.
Manchester United did not beat Burnley FC 2-0 last Saturday. The match was played last Sunday.
The BBC must have spoken to the wrong referee.
It would appear the BBC guidelines are as callow and ill-advised as much of it reporting on climate and climate policy.
See also: Kathy Gyngell -- Set in stone – the BBC’s climate change bias
The London-based Global Warming Policy Forum is a world leading think tank on global warming policy issues. The GWPF newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.thegwpf.com. |
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