UN report on 1.5C blocked from climate talks after Saudi Arabia disputes science

A major report on 1.5C has been excluded from formal UN climate negotiations, after Saudi Arabia tried to discredit its scientific underpinnings.

Climate science was buried at a meeting in Bonn. Meanwhile,
diplomats planted trees to symbolise their intention to combat desertification.

Discussions came to a deadlock at the talks in Bonn after a small group of countries refused to engage in substantive discussions over how the report’s findings could be used to inform policies on increasing the pace and scale of decarbonisation.

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) lays out the differences between 1.5C and 2C of warming – a matter of survival for many vulnerable countries including small island states which pushed for the findings to lead to more ambitious carbon-cutting policies.

Read the Climate Home News story by Cholé Farand - “UN report on 1.5C blocked from climate talks after Saudi Arabia disputes science.” 

Australia’s silence during climate change debate shocks COP24 delegates

As four of the world’s largest oil and gas producers blocked UN climate talks from “welcoming” a key scientific report on global warming, Australia’s silence during a key debate is being viewed as tacit support for the four oil allies: the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait.

Greenpeace activists project words “No hope without
climate action” on the roof of the venue of the COP24
 conference in Katowice, Poland. Australia stood on
 the sidelines of a heated debate. 

The end of the first week of the UN climate talks – known as COP24 – in Katowice, Poland, has been mired by protracted debate over whether the conference should “welcome” or “note” a key report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Read the story from The Guardian by Ben Doherty - “Australia’s silence during climate change debate shocks COP24 delegates.”

Saudi Arabia acts while Australia sits on its hands

As the Saudis act urgently to escape
the grip of fossil fuel addiction, what
is Malcolm Turnbull's "agile and
 innovative" Australia doing?

The most carbon-dependent nation on earth, Saudi Arabia, this week announced a plan for a post-oil economy. "We have an addiction to oil," said the kingdom's de facto ruler, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "This is dangerous. It has delayed development of other sectors."

The superpower of the oil world has decided that the most prized commodity of the 20th century is a big risk in the 21st. It's attempting a decisive break under a plan called Vision 2030.

Saudi Arabia is not an admirable country and it's not any kind of model for Australia.

But in demonstrating the risks of fossil fuel addiction, it is more than the proverbial canary in the proverbial coal mine. It is the coal mine, and the coal mine is acknowledging openly that it's in terminal decline.

Note that this has nothing to do with saving the planet from climate change. For the Saudis, it's strictly a matter of economics.

As the Saudis act urgently to escape the grip of fossil fuel addiction, what is Malcolm Turnbull's "agile and innovative" Australia doing?

Read the Sydney Morning Herald story by Peter Hartcher story - “New Malcolm Turnbull plays Tony Abbott's old election game of scares and slogan.”

Madness afoot in U.S. Republican presidential pre-selections

Madness afoot in U.S, presidential
pre-selections with Republican
Ted Cruz promising to end the 'war on coal'.

Republican candidate Ted Cruz promised to roll back what he calls President Barack Obama's 'war on coal' if he's elected president.

The Texas senator made the pledge in a speech to the Republican State Convention in Casper on Saturday.

Wyoming, the nation's leading coal-producing state, has seen hundreds of coal industry layoffs in recent months as several of the nation's largest coal companies have filed for federal bankruptcy protections.

Calling America, "the Saudi Arabia of coal," Cruz promised to roll back federal regulations he says hamper coal production.

The Obama administration recently imposed a moratorium on new coal leases.

Wyoming and other states have mounted legal challenges in recent years to US Environmental Protection Agency regulations tightening emission limits on coal-fired power plants.

"Hillary Clinton promises that if she's elected, she's going to finish the task and bankrupt anyone associated with coal," Cruz said.

"I give you my word right now, we are going to lift the federal regulators back, we are going to end the war on coal."

Obama, in announcing the restrictions in 2014, said carbon emission cause health problems and contribute to global warming.

Read the Ben Neary story in the BusinessDay section of today’s Melbourne Age - “Republican candidateTed Cruz vows to fight against 'war on coal’.”

(Stop the bus, I want to get off – madness is afoot among Republican candidates in the U.S. presidential pre-selection process with Ted Cruz showing his disdain for climate science in allowing full-rein to the use of coal and Donald Trump’s spokeswoman, Clara Powers, of Wheatland, telling the crowd she has three grandchildren and "I do not want any of them working with next generation science."

"I do not want my grandchildren to believe in evolution. I do not want my grandchildren thinking that global warming is more important than our national security," she added.

My shoulders droop – obviously, neither Cruz, Trump, or any of their supporters has any faith or belief in science,the science that has delivered modernity to their lives, and ache for the “the good ‘ol days”, which any objective investigation will quickly and irrefutably illustrate, were not so good – Robert McLean.)

Australia belatedly joins the 'coalition of ambition' in Paris

Australia has belatedly joined a “coalition of ambition” in the Paris climate talks – a loose grouping of more than 100 developed and developing countries including the US, EU, Canada and Brazil – aimed at countering a push by China, India and Saudi Arabia to water down aspects of the climate pact as negotiations run overtime.

Tony de Brum, foreign minister of the tiny Marshall Islands, and a founder of the new alliance, insisted Australia had not yet joined, and Australia was not represented at a press conference to announce new members – which also include Brazil, Switzerland, Iceland, the Philippines, the Seychelles, Luxembourg and Canada.

Read The Guardian story - “Australia belatedly joins 'coalition of ambition' at Paris climate talks.”

Australia's climate change record again questioned

Tom Arup.

Australia's record on climate change has again been brought into question with a new report card ranking the country third last among major emitters ahead of only oil-rich Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.

Released at the Paris climate summit, the rankings by European environment groups look at 58 countries responsible for 90 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia fared badly – the report argues that a transition to a lower emissions economy will require significant policy changes from the current regime.

Read Tom Arup’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Paris UN climate conference 2015: Australia ranked third to last for emissions.”

Bonn climate change conversations end in failure

E

nvoys in Bonn failed to agree on whether or not to acknowledge science after more than a week of UN climate talks.

Countries collectively decided to prevent risky levels of warming of above 2C back in 2009.

But a set of talks aimed at establishing what level of emission reductions were on the table ended in failure on Wednesday.

As RTCC reported on Tuesday the EU, Least Developed Countries and the Africa Group wanted more detail on the national strategies of major polluters.

But China, India and Saudi Arabia were among those who rejected this call, and said it should wait until countries gather in Paris in December to discuss a global pact to avert warming.

Read the RTCC story  - “Governments silenced over UN climate change target”.

'Biggest' or 'best' is easy is the cost doesn't matter

Becoming “the best” or “the biggest” at anything is easy if you are prepared to pay the cost.

Maybe this looks like a
slice of cake, but it is an
image of fracking.
 

The United States oil industry is ready to stride past Saudi Arabia to become the world’s biggest oil producer, but the cost will be measured in ruined communities and countless lives left in disarray.

Energy independence, or oil self-sufficiency at least, hinges on the recent development and arrival of hydraulic fracturing that has allowed the U.S, to extract oil previously economically unavailable.

The lure of “energy independence”, and of course massive profits for just a few, has overridden the short-term benefits and costs, that include among them the long-term potential pollution of aquifers, the inordinate use of water upon which communities depend and the fact that if could be all over in just few years.

The Huffington Post writes about this development in a story headed: “U.S. to be world’s top oil producer by 2016, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia, IEA predicts”.