Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow postponed until 2021

The UN climate talks due to be held in Glasgow later this year have been postponed as governments around the world struggle to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Mark Carney, the ex-Bank of England
governor and now Cop26 finance adviser
to the prime minister, launches the
 private finance agenda for the talks in London.

The most important climate negotiations since the Paris agreement in 2015 were scheduled to take place this November to put countries back on track to avoid climate breakdown. They will now be pushed back to 2021.

A statement from the UN on Wednesday night confirmed that the meeting of over 26,000 attendees would be delayed until next year. It said new dates for the conference would be decided in due course.

The UK energy minister and president of the Cop26 conference, Alok Sharma, held crunch talks with the UN and several other countries on Wednesday evening to confirm the timing of the summit. “The world is currently facing an unprecedented global challenge and countries are rightly focusing their efforts on saving lives and fighting Covid-19. That is why we have decided to reschedule Cop26,” he said.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jillian Ambrose and Fiona Harvey - “Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow postponed until 2021.”

COP25: Anger Over Lack of Action for Vulnerable States as Climate Talks Conclude

Climate activists have found plenty to be angry about at this year’s UN climate talks, which are scheduled to conclude in Madrid tonight. From youth groups to indigenous people, civil society has been more riled than in previous years, as the disconnect grows between momentum on the streets and the slow progress of the negotiations.

“It’s like two parallel worlds,” says Sara Shaw, part of the Friends of the Earth International delegation at the meeting, known as COP25. “It’s so stark, the contrast between climate breakdown, the potential of massive expansion of fossil fuels, using markets to game the system, the access polluters have to these talks when civil society is really marginalised. I think it’s just coming together in a huge amount of frustration at the injustice of it all.”

While the UN climate talks have always been an opportunity for activists to express their displeasure – there were hunger strikes in 2013, for instance, following a typhoon in the Philippines – civil society groups have been particularly united in their frustration at the process this year, which culminated in activists being forcibly barred from the venue on Wednesday.

Read the story from Desmog by Sophie Yeo - “COP25: Anger Over Lack of Action for Vulnerable States as Climate Talks Conclude.”

About 100 countries at UN climate talks challenge Australia's use of carryover credits

Australia’s plan to use an accounting loophole to meet its international emissions targets has been formally challenged at UN climate talks, with about 100 countries wanting the practice banned under the Paris agreement.

Extinction Rebellion protesters at the COP25 UN climate talks
 in Madrid where Australia’s use of carryover credits has been
challenged by about 100 countries.

Delegates from developing countries led by Belize and Costa Rica have introduced a ban on using carryover credits from the Kyoto protocol into the text of the rulebook for the Paris climate agreement, which is being debated at a meeting in Madrid.

It is a crucial debate for the Morrison government as it relies on using the accounting measure to meet its commitment under the Paris deal. The emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, arrived in Madrid on Sunday to make Australia’s case at the second week of the talks.

Emissions projections released as Taylor left Australia suggested the Morrison government was on track to meet its 2030 target (at least a 26% emissions cut below 2005 levels), but only if it used carryover credits. Without them it expected emissions to achieve just a 16% cut. Government advisers found Australia’s fair share under a meaningful global deal would be at least 45%.

Read the story from The Guardian by Adam Morton - “About 100 countries at UN climate talks challenge Australia's use of carryover credits.”

UN climate talks set stage for humanity’s two most crucial years

The mood was more one of relief than triumph on Sunday when the world’s governments eventually found common ground at the UN climate talks in Katowice, Poland.

COP24 in Poland highlighted the growing threat of fossil
fuel interests and the nationalist politicians they fund. 

This was not just because exhausted delegates were glad to go home after negotiations that dragged on 30 hours beyond the deadline. It also reflected the harder miles and tougher battles to come over the next two years if the planet is to remain habitable.

Scientist after scientist told the conference that the decisions made by 2020 will determine whether global heating can be kept to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, after which the already apparent dangers of climate instability become far worse.

Read the story by the global environment editor from The Guardian, Jonathon Watts - “UN climate talks set stage for humanity’s two most crucial years.”

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.”

Protesters march as UN climate talks hit fossil fuel snag

Katowice: Thousands of people from around the world have marched through the southern Polish city that's hosting this year's UN climate talks, demanding that their governments take tougher action to curb global warming.

A climate activist at the March for Climate in a protest
against global warming in Katowice, Poland, on Saturday.

Protesters included farmers from Latin America, environmentalists from Asia, students from the United States and families from Europe, many of whom said climate change is already affecting their lives.

Read the story by Frank Jordans from The Sydney Morning Herald - “Protesters march as UN climate talks hit fossil fuel snag.”

11 ways the Paris climate deal is working in the real world

Like an old car that has gone as far as it can go, UN climate talks in Bonn last week stuttered, spluttered and stalled.

In 2015 in Paris, governments struck a deal that lacked much of the substance needed to fight climate change. Now diplomats are trying to negotiate the complex rules of the deal. Their failure to make serious progress has been met with concern around the world.

Climate negotiations are becoming ever-more detached from the starburst of activity released by the Paris deal. In the coming years, the role of the UN will remain important, but no longer be the primary driver of global change.

Read the energypost story - “11 ways the Paris climate deal is working in the real world.”

Coal trumps Trump as climate talks villain

Bonn: The villain of this year's UN climate talks hasn't been Donald Trump, as many expected, instead coal took centre stage.

A replica of the Statue of Liberty by Danish artist Jens
Galschiot emits smoke in a park outside the 23rd
 UN Conference of the Parties (COP) in Bonn, Germany, on Friday.

The fortnight-long conference in Bonn was expected to be dominated by the US President's withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, but talks focused instead on weaning the world's dependence on coal.

The conference culminated in 20 countries - including New Zealand, the UK and Canada - creating a new Powering Past Coal alliance, which promises to build no more coal power plants and phase out traditional ones by 2030.

They hope to have 50 members by next year's COP, to be held in December in coal-hungry Poland.

Read the story from Bonn by Katina Curtis in today’s Melbourne Age - “Coal trumps Trump as climate talks villain.”

Strathbogie Voices draws a busy year to a close

T

he Euroa based Strathbogie Voices has drawn a busy year to a close with two important projects – its taking its message to the UN climate talks in Paris and it has produced a video - “Little talks to Big HD.”

Strathbogie Voices has staged ten “conversations” this year in what is described as “watershed year”.

The group brought an impressive array of speakers to the small northern Victorian town to help the many people who attended the near day-long conversations better understand the unfolding dilemma that is climate change.