1 December 2015, Business Green, Paris climate summit: Three sets of figures dominate Day One. Richard Black reflects on how money talked during the opening of COP21. Cynics have always said that money lies at the heart of the UN climate process. The first day of these potentially seminal Paris talks partially proved them right on the money; but not on the cynicism. Public and private sectors came to the party, with money pledged for both fundamental aims of the UN climate convention: reducing emissions, and helping poor nations prepare for impacts that are inevitable. For clean energy, a doubling in governments’ R&D spend to $20bn, and further research billions from private investors such as Bill Gates through an new initiative called the Break through Energy Coalition. And $500m from the World Bank and donor governments to create the Transformative Carbon Asset Facility, which will help developing countries implement schemes to incentivise emission cutting in areas such as transport and urban development. On the adaptation side, we saw $248m pledged from 11 donor nations to help the poorest countries prepare and adapt. And there’s a little more due on forests too, we hear. Read More here
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1 December 2015, Climate News Network, India highlights rich-poor climate split. COP21: Significant changes are being made by India to its energy and environment policies, but they may not be enough to ensure a successful outcome to the UN climate talks. Two of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, India and China, are changing. But while hopes remain high at COP21 − the UN climate change conference − for an effective agreement to reduce emissions, two Indian analysts say there are bleaker realities to be faced. Their verdict is stark: “The 2015 COP is crucial because it can determine the direction to be taken by global energy generation systems after 2020. But, by current indications, this opportunity will at best lead to a . . . programme that will be too weak to combat climate change effectively.” In a briefing called Hot Air: Climate Negotiations and India, Joydeep Gupta and Tirthankar Mandal, of the India Climate Dialogue news and discussion forum, list some of the reasons they are apprehensive about what Paris can achieve. Ambitious plans First, they see a split between the emerging economies and the rest of the developing world over what the UN calls “common but differentiated responsibilities” – the fact that developed countries have been emitting greenhouse gases for centuries, unlike the poorer world, and should therefore do more to remedy the problem. They point out that the first priority for India, where more than 300 million people still have no access to electricity, is to ensure development. While it has ambitious plans to generate 40% of its electricity needs from renewable sources such as solar power by 2030, India insists that it must also expand coal-based power generation to achieve its development aims. Gupta and Mandal write: “The split has been encouraged by the US and some other rich countries, which point out that China and India are now the world’s largest and fourth largest emitters, but gloss over the fact that rich countries have placed almost all the greenhouse gases that have been accumulating in the Earth’s atmosphere from the start of the Industrial Age. Read More here
1 December 2015, The Conversation, New ‘vulnerable nations’ bloc looks set to redraw the climate politics map. Vulnerable states have featured prominently on the first day of Paris Climate talks. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon unveiled a new initiative to strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable people and countries to the effects of climate change. But it is the emergence of a bloc of 44 vulnerable countries calling for much stronger climate action that may be the real game-changer in international climate politics. While the so-called North-South divide has long characterised international climate deliberations, there are signs it may be on its last legs in that forum. And that’s a good thing. Ending the North-South divide? The first major international environmental conference was the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972. By most accounts, the conference – already undermined by the status of environmental concerns as “fringe” global issues at the time – was devastated by the scale of a divide between rich and poor countries. Read More here
1 December 2015, The Conversation, When climate change hits our food supply, city foodbowls could come to the rescue. Australians may need to get used to coping with more disruptions to their food supply and rising food prices in a warming climate. But the food produced near our cities – our “city foodbowls” – could play a vital role in increasing the resilience of our food supply, as discussed in a new briefing from our Foodprint Melbourne project. The urban fringes of Australia’s major cities are some of the most productive agricultural regions in Australia. They also have access to valuable urban waste streams to support food production, including recycled water from city water treatment plants and desalination plants. Nonetheless, Australia’s city foodbowls are at risk of urban development, and the opportunity to develop them as climate resilient foodbowls could be lost unless their value is recognised in metropolitan planning policy. Climate shock The Queensland floods of 2010-11 showed how a sudden extreme weather event could disrupt a city’s food supply. Major transport routes to Brisbane and other cities were cut off and supermarkets began to run short of some food. And the Millennium Drought demonstrated the impact that drought could have on food prices, when fruit prices in Australia increased 43% between 2005 and 2007, and vegetable prices by around 33%. Climate change is expected to reduce the capacity for food production across southern Australia due to water scarcity, increasing temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events. Read More here