Paris talks within incredibly narrow parameters - Burdon

Peter Burdon.

Discussions at the Paris climate talks take place within incredibly narrow parameters. In fact, it would not be too great an exaggeration to say that the summit’s main purpose is to send the private sector a message about which way it should steer its future investments.

The financial press tends to be the most explicit on this point. The Financial Times, for instance, described the purpose of the Paris summit like this:

“Investors will need to be persuaded that governments are going to make it easier for them to make money from a new electric bus system or a wind farm rather than a highway or a coal power plant.”

I am under no illusion about the scale of business investment required to help developing countries move to low-carbon energy sources.

Read the piece on The Conversation by Senior lecturer, Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide, Peter Burdon - “Naomi Klein’s ‘Leap Manifesto’: we can’t rely on big business for a climate fix.”

Kyoto promises leave Australia dangling

Five big developed countries have voluntarily cancelled emission reduction “credits” achieved by overshooting their first Kyoto Protocol greenhouse targets – the same kind of credits Australia is banking to boast it has already “met and beaten” its international pledges.

Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain have announced they will cancel 634.6m tonnes of emission reduction credits they were technically able to count towards their targets for the second Kyoto period, in a bid to overcome what has been described as a giant “hot air” loophole.

Australia, in stark contrast, is banking 128m tonnes of carryover from overshooting its lenient target in the first Kyoto commitment period and using it to be able to claim – as the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, did in his speech to the Paris summit – that it is already on track to meet its second pledge.

Read The Guardian story - “Australia isolated as developed nations cancel carry over credits fromKyoto.”

Mayors and governors rush to the Vatican to sign-up to Pope's climate declaration

M

ayors and governors from major world cities are convening at the Vatican today and tomorrow in a first-of-its-kind meeting to urge global action on climate change.

The summit is part of Pope Francis’ ongoing campaign to urge global leaders to take meaningful action on climate change at this year’s UN climate talks in Paris.

The leaders will sign today a declaration stating that the Paris summit “may be the last effective opportunity to negotiate arrangements that keep human-induced warming below 2 degrees centigrade.”

In one of the opening speeches, California Gov. Jerry Brown “denounced global warming deniers, who he said are ‘bamboozling’ the public and politicians with false information to persuade them that the world isn’t getting warmer,” according to The Blaze.

Gov. Jerry Brown, whose state is in the midst of an epic drought, urged world leaders to stand up in opposition to climate deniers.

Read the EcoWatch story - “Mayors Flock to Vatican to Sign Pope Francis’ Climate Declaration”.