Proud moment: The U.S. is no longer the world’s biggest jerk on climate change. What stood out most about the United States’ role in the United Nations climate talks that just wrapped in Warsaw, Poland, was how little the United States stood out. While the U.S. is used to being the bad guy — or at least one of them — in the international climate arena, this year the Americans seemed perfectly happy to keep their heads down, quietly do their business, and let other big polluters take the punches. It doesn’t usually work this way. For the nearly two decades that the U.N.’s annual climate talks have been held — and especially for the past 12 years, since the U.S. backed out of the Kyoto Protocol that it had helped design — the world’s largest historical greenhouse gas polluter has taken most of the blame from environmental groups and poor countries for essentially causing the problem and doing squat to solve it.
Indeed, Australia, during the two-week negotiations, Canada, and Japan all took turns officially weakening their emissions pledges. A new polluter class. A Varsovie, « tout ce qu'on a eu, ce sont des cacahuètes ». As Warsaw climate talks end, scraps of good news in a mess of bad. The latest round of U.N. climate talks extended the worldwide drought on climate-fighting leadership. Things were going so badly on Thursday that many of the world’s biggest environmental groups stormed out in frustration. But late during the two weeks of negotiations in Warsaw, Poland, known as COP19, which ended Saturday, a few drops of refreshing news splashed down. Here’s a full rundown. The big news In 2015, each of the planet’s nations will offer a proposal for contributing to a reduction in worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
This agreement didn’t come until Saturday night, a day after the talks were supposed to have ended. The AP reported that the “modest deal” averted “a last-minute breakdown.” The U.S. and other countries plan to publish their commitments to reduce emissions in early 2015 — ahead of what’s supposed to be a final round of negotiations for a new climate treaty in Paris in late 2015.
Forests The main agreement related to the awkwardly named Redd+. Loss and damage. Climat: La conférence de Varsovie s'achève sur un accord. Chaud. La conférence climat de Varsovie est parvenue samedi in extremis à un accord qui pose les premiers jalons sur le chemin jusqu'au grand rendez-vous de Paris en 2015, mais offre un avant-goût de la difficulté des négociations à venir avec les grands émergents, la Chine en tête.Ce texte est venu couronner plus de trente heures de négociations non-stop dans le grand stade de Varsovie, où se tenait cette conférence rassemblant plus de 190 pays et qui devait s'achever officiellement vendredi. «Juste à temps, les négociateurs à Varsovie ont fait juste ce qu'il fallait faire pour que ce processus continue d'avancer, a commenté Jennifer Morgan, directrice du Centre de recherches World Resources Institute (WRI). Les représentants des différents pays doivent désormais rentrer chez eux et faire des progrès significatifs sur leurs offres [en matière de lutte contre le changement climatique] qui doivent devenir la colonne vertébrale du nouvel accord sur le climat.»
V. C. avec AFP. Un accord sur le climat adopté à Varsovie. Factbox: Main decisions at U.N. climate talks in Warsaw. WARSAW (Reuters) - Around 195 countries ended a two-week meeting in Warsaw on Saturday evening to agree the outlines of a deal meant to be agreed in 2015 to combat global warming. Following are some of the main decisions: Developed nations promised in 2009 to increase their aid to poorer countries to help them cope with climate change to $100 billion a year after 2020, from $10 billion a year in 2010-12. But in Warsaw they rejected calls to set targets for 2013-19.
A draft text merely urged developed nations to set "increasing levels" of aid, to be reviewed every two years. The talks agreed a new "Warsaw International Mechanism" to provide expertise, and possibly aid, to help developing nations cope with losses from extreme events related to climate change. Countries agreed to announce plans for curbs on greenhouse gases beyond 2020 "well in advance" of a summit in Paris in December 2015 and "by the first quarter of 2015 for those in a position to do so". Norway, UK, US allocate $280 million to stop deforestation.
The governments of Norway, Britain and the United States on Wednesday said they will allocate $280 million of their multi-billion dollar climate change finances to a new initiative aimed at halting deforestation. The announcement was made at U.N. talks in Warsaw, where more than 9,000 delegates are meeting to hammer out the foundations of a new global treaty to combat climate change. The money, part of the nations’ previously announced climate finances, will be administered by the World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund and aims to fund sustainable farming and better land use. Agriculture drives around 80 percent of the planet’s deforestation, causing nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions as forest roughly the size of Costa Rica is chopped down worldwide each year.
“This isn’t just an environmental issue. It’s an economic issue. Norway will contribute up to $135 million to the initiative, Britain $120 million and the United States $25 million. Super Euros: Top 10 climate-change-fighting countries are all in Europe. There isn’t a country in the world that’s on track to reduce emissions to the extent needed to keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius (3.7 Fahrenheit). But for a glimpse of something resembling climate leadership, peer across the pond.
The Climate Change Performance Index [PDF], produced by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe, ranks countries based on their greenhouse gas emissions, emissions-reduction efforts, energy efficiency, renewable energy portfolios, and policies aimed at slowing climate change. Here’s the top-10 list from this year. Every country is in Europe: DenmarkUnited KingdomPortugalSwedenSwitzerlandMaltaFranceHungaryIrelandIceland Eight of those 10 countries are part of the European Union, which is also taking action — and even committing real money — to fight climate change.
E.U. climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard discussed the budget during a press conference in Warsaw, Poland, where U.N. climate negotiations are underway. U.S. says poor countries’ calls for climate compensation could screw up climate treaty process. The U.N. climate treaty process, hatched in the ’90s, was intended to fight the looming threat of climate change. But as climate negotiators meet in Warsaw this month to develop a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, they are doing so not under the looming threat of climate change — they are doing so in a world currently being throttled by climate change.
That change in the weather is changing the tone of the negotiations. And it’s doing so in a way that some say is a distraction from the original purpose of the treaty process, which was to try to arrest climate change. No longer are poor countries asking rich ones merely to shoulder the financial burden of reducing emissions. (In past talks, wealthy countries committed to pouring $100 billion a year by 2020 into the new Green Climate Fund to help the others reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.) And the U.S. fears that bid is going to derail climate negotiations, particularly those now under way in Warsaw.
The Guardian explains: Want a climate deal? Rich nations will have to pay up to help poor ones. It’s helpful to understand game theory if you want to know why it’s so difficult to reach an international deal to reduce climate emissions. Everyone will be better off if everyone does their part, but if one country gets away with doing nothing while the others reduce their emissions, that country would be the biggest winner of all, enjoying the benefits of averted catastrophe without any of the costs. That calculation could lead to a lot of countries bailing out. No one wants to be the sucker who cuts emissions but still doesn’t prevent catastrophic climate change because no one else participated. So making a deal and sticking to it will require countries to place a lot of trust in one another.
And it’s not even that much money we’re talking about here. Here are some other points of comparison: $526.6 billion: the amount of discretionary funding for the U.S. Paying into the Green Climate Fund should be a no-brainer. American negotiators are taking a predictably dim view of this. At U.N. climate talks in Warsaw, hunger games get serious. It started like this: On the first day of the U.N.’s climate change talks (a.k.a. COP19) in Warsaw, Philippines delegate Naderev (a.k.a. Yeb) Saño made an announcement. Barring any concrete agreement on how the Annex 1 countries (basically the U.S., Australia, the E.U., and Japan) would help countries currently being hammered by climate change, he would be going on hunger strike. Among people who actually want to stop climate change, the talks have a reputation of being kind of like the icing on a giant cake of powerlessness.
In his speech, Saño was a bit less harsh, but he added: 20 years hence we continue to fall short of the ultimate objective: which is to prevent dangerous trophogenic interference with a climate system. By failing to meet the objective of the convention, we may have ratified our own doom. Saño was fasting, he said, out of solidarity with the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, some of whom were probably friends and family he was waiting to hear word from. Then it spread. Climat : les mouvements et ONG quittent les négociations – Explications ! En décidant de quitter les négociations climat ce jeudi 21 novembre à Varsovie, les mouvements sociaux et ONG veulent faire dérailler le train-train de conférences qui nous mènent dans le mur. Place aux véritables solutions portées par les populations !
Il serait tentant, mais beaucoup trop facile, d'accabler la présidence polonaise de la 19ème conférence de l'ONU sur le climat qui se déroule à Varsovie (11-22 nov). Au risque de laisser dans l'ombre ceux qui ont conduit ces négociations dans une impasse tragique. A Varsovie, c'est à se demander si le climat et des objectifs ambitieux de réduction d'émissions de gaz à effets de serre n'ont tout simplement pas disparu des négociations. Place à la promotion des énergies fossiles et à la liquidation du reste. Mainmise du secteur privé sur le climat ! Mieux ! « No numbers, no roadmap, no finance » C'est à celui qui sera le moins ambitieux ! L'Union européenne aux abonnés absents Pas un zloty sur la table ! « Assez c'est assez » ! Rien n'y fait.
Warsaw walkout: Big green groups bail on U.N. climate talks. WARSAW, Poland – For the first time ever, environmental groups have staged a mass walkout of a U.N. climate summit. Citing immense frustration with the lack of productive action in the COP19 climate talks, which have been dogged by a persistent rift between rich and poor countries on the responsibility of paying for climate damages, hundreds of people from dozens of environmental groups and movements from all corners of the Earth have voluntarily withdrawn from the talks. According to a spokesperson for Oxfam, around 800 civil society members (which is the label applied to all advocate and activist types at these meetings) have walked out. In a joint statement, group leaders offered that “the best use of their time” was to now focus “on mobilizing people to push our governments to take leadership for serious climate action.”
“The real hooligans are the CEOs of fossil fuel companies,” Naidoo told the crowd. Jamie Henn of 350.org offered this statement: Coal industry tries to crash Warsaw climate talks, gets spanked. WARSAW, Poland – The masters of the black-rock industry gathered at the International Coal & Climate Summit in Warsaw this week — strategically hosted just a stone’s throw from the U.N. climate conference (COP19) — and they would like you to believe that coal has a place in a climate-friendly future. At the summit, hosted by the World Coal Association (WCA), industry reps are promoting “high-efficiency” coal plants, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and other, wacky tech “breakthroughs” (gasification, anyone?). The overall theme of the coal summit is that countries can keep burning coal and meet climate targets. They can have their cake and eat it, too.
Probably because CCS and other breakthroughs are still entirely unproven commercially, there’s been particular hype around so-called “high-efficiency coal.” It’s a claim oft-repeated this week in Warsaw: High-efficiency coal is a climate solution. “The solution they’re offering is completely at odds with the need,” Metz told me. Pologne : climat, charbon .... et hésitations. C’est la deuxième semaine de la Conférence mondiale des Nations unies sur les changements climatiques, la COP. Mise à jour du 21 novembre : les ONG ont décidé ce matin de se retirer des discussions. Nous, société civile, avons déjà affirmé notre solidarité avec les victimes du super typhon Hayian, ainsi qu’avec tous ceux qui subissent les impacts des changements climatiques.
Cette solidarité nous pousse à exposer ce qui se passe vraiment à la Conférence Mondiale de Varsovie sur les changements climatiques. (Voir l’intégralité du communiqué de presse du Réseau Action Climat France) Cette 19ème édition de la COP se tient à Varsovie, en Pologne. 194 nations sont donc rassemblées pour cette “conférence de transition” visant à préparer l’édition de 2015 qui doit aboutir à un accord mondial pour faire face aux changements climatiques.
(pour une lecture décryptée du rapport du GIEC voir le site du Réseau action climat : Et si les politiques ouvraient les yeux ? Coal Seen as New Tobacco Sparking Investor Backlash: Commodities. About $8 trillion of known coal reserves lie beneath the earth’s surface. The companies planning to mine and burn them are being targeted by a growing group of investors concerned with the greenhouse gases that will be made. Storebrand ASA (STB), which manages $74 billion of assets from Norway, sold out of 24 coal and oil-sands companies since July including Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU), the largest U.S. coal producer, citing a desire to cut fossil-fuel industry holdings. This month Norway’s opposition Labour Party proposed banning the country’s $800 billion sovereign wealth fund from coal investments. “Maybe we’ve hit some kind of nerve in the debate,” Christine Torklep Meisingset, Storebrand’s head of sustainable investments in Oslo, said by telephone.
The movement is an offshoot of a campaign by more than 70 investors to pressure all fossil-fuel industries on climate change. No Retreat Coal, whose burning spews about twice the greenhouse gases as natural gas, is not in retreat. La Pologne, le climat et les entreprises françaises de l'énergie. Faut-il y voir un signe da la résignation de la communauté internationale à l’inaction en matière de changement climatique ? Le pays chargé cette année d’accueillir, du 11 au 22 novembre, la dix-neuvième conférence des parties de la Convention-cadre des Nations unies sur le changement climatique (COP19) n’est autre que la Pologne. C’est-à-dire un pays surtout réputé pour son attachement indéfectible à la filière charbon et son opposition à tout objectif ambitieux de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre au niveau européen.
Le charbon représente, selon scientifiques et environnementalistes, plus du tiers des émissions de gaz à effet de serre d’origine humaine. Sa part dans le mix énergétique mondial a recommencé à croître, ce qui explique largement les records d’émissions enregistrés en 2012. Le charbon pourvoit actuellement à 90% des besoins en électricité de la Pologne, et la situation ne semble pas près de changer. Une conférence sous influence ?