Nina Chestney, Alister Doyle Reuters 18 Nov 17;
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Almost 200 nations kept a 2015 global agreement to tackle climate change on track on Saturday after marathon talks overshadowed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out.
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, presiding at the two-week talks in Bonn, said the outcome “underscores the importance of keeping the momentum and of holding the spirit and vision of our Paris Agreement.”
Delegates agreed to launch a process in 2018 to start reviewing existing plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions as part of a long-term effort to ratchet up ambition. It would be called the ”Talanoa Dialogue, after a Fijian word for story-telling and sharing experiences.
And they made progress to draft a detailed rule book for the 2015 Paris agreement, which seeks to end the fossil fuel era this century, at the meeting in Bonn that ran overnight beyond a planned ending on Friday.
The rule book, covering aspects such as how to report and monitor each nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, is due to be ready by December next year.
Many delegates said the work needed to go faster.
“Right now we’re moving at a brisk walk, so all countries will need to really pick up the pace from here,” said Jose Sarney Filho, Brazil’s minister for the environment.
Gebru Jember Endalew of Ethiopia, who leads the group of least developed countries, also said “many areas of work are still lagging behind”, despite steps forward in Bonn.
The Paris pact aims to limit a rise in average world temperatures to “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, ideally 1.5 (5.4F) to limit more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels.
Steam rises from a coal power plant of RWE, one of Europe's biggest electricity companies in Neurath, north-west of Cologne, Germany, November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay
But existing policies are on track to cause a rise of about three degrees (5.4F) by 2100. The Talanoa Dialogue would be a step toward tighter policies.
The Bonn meeting was under the shadow of Trump’s decision in June to withdraw from the Paris accord and instead promote the coal and oil industry. Trump doubts that man-made emissions are the prime cause of rising temperatures.
No other nations have followed suit and even nations whose economies depend on fossil fuels have rallied around.
“Everyone got together and said ‘we have to protect the world. We have to protect the Paris Agreement’. Countries are moving forward,” United Arab Emirates Climate Minister Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi told Reuters.
One senior European diplomat said Trump’s decision had “sedated” the talks into a numbed sense of unity, avoiding major confrontations to underscore that the main faultline on policy was between Trump and the rest of the world.
Washington retains its place in the talks for now because the Paris pact stipulates that no country can formally pull out before November 2020.
The fossil fuel industry was very much under the spotlight during the talks. The U.S. administration’s only event in Bonn was to promote coal, which jarred with many other nations who wanted talks to focus on renewable energies.
In seeming defiance, 20 countries and two U.S. states joined an international alliance to phase out coal from power generation before 2030.
Environmental groups said the outcome in Bonn was a step in the right direction, but many issues needed to be resolved over the next year, including financial support for developing nations who want to cut emissions and for adaptation.
Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
UN climate envoys agree on way forward, despite Trump
Mariette le Roux and Marlowe Hood AFP Yahoo News 18 Nov 17;
Bonn (AFP) - Negotiations to bolster the climate-saving Paris Agreement, crafted over two decades, closed in Bonn Saturday, deflated but not derailed by Donald Trump's rejection of the treaty and defence of fossil fuels.
The US President's decision to yank the United States from the hard-fought global pact cast a long shadow over the talks, which ran deep into overtime. Negotiations were marked by revived divisions between developing countries and rich ones.
With a wary eye on America, which sent negotiators to a forum it intends to quit, envoys from nearly 200 countries got on with the business of designing a "rule book" for enacting the agreement, which enters into full force in three years' time.
"The Trump administration failed to stop the global climate talks from moving forward," said Greenpeace observer Jens Mattias Clausen.
Closing two weeks of talks, negotiators agreed in the early hours of Saturday to hold a stocktake in 2018 of national efforts to cut fossil fuel emissions.
The Paris treaty calls for limiting average global warming to "well under" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels, or 1.5 C if possible.
Anything over 2 C, experts say, dooms the world to calamitous climate change, with more extreme superstorms, droughts, floods, and land-gobbling sea level rise.
A report this week warned that emissions of carbon dioxide, the main planet-warming gas, were set to rise by two percent in 2017 after three years of hardly any growth.
"Starting now, emissions need to decrease to zero over the next 40 years to prevent us breaching the 1.5 C threshold," Piers Forster, a professor of climate change at the University of Leeds, said.
Nations have submitted voluntary emissions-cutting commitments under the Paris pact championed by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama.
But scientists say current pledges place the world on course for warming of 3 C or more, and counsel an urgent upgrade of the global commitment to phasing out greenhouse gases produced by burning coal, oil and natural gas.
- Islands in peril -
"While the Paris Agreement represents a remarkable diplomatic achievement, it will be judged by history as little more than words on paper if the world fails to take the level of action needed to prevent the loss of entire island nations," Maldives environment minister Thoriq Ibrahim told delegates Friday.
The stocktake agreed Saturday must quantify the shortfall to determine what more needs to be done.
In Bonn, negotiators also worked on a nuts-and-bolts rulebook, to be finalised at the next UN climate conference in Katowice, Poland in December 2018, for putting the Paris Agreement into action.
Some progress was made, but observers and delegates complained that things were moving too slowly.
Many lamented the void in "political leadership" left by the departure of Obama, and by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's failure to set a timetable for phasing out coal-fired power plants, which produce 40 percent of Germany's electricity.
The talks saw rich and poor nations butt heads on several issues -- mainly money.
Developing countries demand detailed progress reports on rich nations' promise to boost climate finance to $100 billion (85 billion euros) per year by 2020.
The world's poorer nations -- often the first to feel the sting of climate change impacts -- need cash to make the costly shift away from atmosphere-fouling coal, and to shore up their defences against extreme weather.
Donor nations, in turn, insists that emissions cuts by developing countries be subject to verification.
- Act, soon -
The United States, which under Trump has slashed funding for climate bodies and projects, took a tough stance in the finance negotiations in Bonn, a position that angered some delegates.
Adding to the tension, White House officials and energy company executives hosted an event on the conference margins to defend the use of fossil fuels.
On Thursday, 20 governments from both wealthy and developing nations, led by Britain and Canada, countered with the launch of a coal phase-out initiative.
The United States is the world's biggest historical greenhouse gas polluter, second only to China.
"In a year marked by extreme weather disasters and potentially the first increase in carbon emissions in four years, the paradox between what we are doing and need to be delivering is clear," WWF climate head Manuel Pulgar-Vidal said of the talks.
"Countries must act with greater climate ambition, and soon."
Observers hope that the "One Planet Summit" hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on December 12 will boost momentum.
Macron has invited some 100 heads of state and government, but not Trump, as well as business leaders, to discuss finance for climate projects.
Small steps forward as UN climate talks end in Bonn
Matt McGrath BBC 18 Nov 17;
UN climate talks in Bonn have concluded with progress on technical issues, but with bigger questions about cutting carbon unresolved.
Delegates say they are pleased that the rulebook for the Paris climate agreement is finally coming together.
But these technical discussions took place against the backdrop of a larger battle about coal, oil and gas.
It means that next year's conference in Poland is set for a major showdown on the future of fossil fuels.
This meeting, known as COP23, was tasked with clarifying complex operational issues around the workings of the Paris climate agreement.
One of the most important elements was the development of a process that would help countries to review and ratchet up their commitments to cut carbon.
Fiji, holding the presidency of this meeting, proposed what's being called the Talanoa Dialogue.
Over the next year, a series of discussions will take place to help countries look at the promises they have made under the Paris pact.
"A key element in Poland is this Talanoa dialogue, to make sure it doesn't result in just a talk show," said Yamide Dagnet with the World Resources Institute.
"In Poland, ministers will have to look each other in the eye and say they will go home and enhance their actions, so that by 2020 we end up with national plans that will be a much more ambitious set of climate actions."
Looming over these discussions in Bonn was the question of coal, oil and gas.
US coal and nuclear companies organised a presentation here arguing that fossil fuels should be a key part of the solution to rising temperatures.
Glimmers of hope
BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin
Optimistic would be too strong. Slightly less pessimistic would be more accurate. After two decades of grindingly under-ambitious conferences, at last a faint glimmer of light.
The flamboyant flourish of the Paris accord offered more dramatic cause for optimism, with its world leaders, hugs and tears.
But dull Bonn gave a more prosaic hint of what might be achieved if politicians can capitalise on a world shifting towards clean technology far faster than anyone could have expected.
Trump's snub didn't derail negotiations, which were mostly cordial, with a clear common goal.
Governments can now see a clean energy future is not just achievable but affordable. Many know they need to cut emissions further, and some are ready to do so.
However, the gulf remains between aspiration and actions. There is acrimony also over the lack of cash to help poor nations.
And the venue of the next annual meeting - Poland's coal capital Katowice.
So, the battle's not over, but real-world energy economics are on the cusp of overtaking politics as the main driver of climate protection.
And that's a glimmer indeed.
Their meeting was interrupted by dozens of singing protestors, who echoed the feelings of many delegates that unabated fossil fuels shouldn't be part of the future energy mix.
The US seemed to have a divided presence at this gathering.
Leaders from states and cities that want to stay in the Paris agreement were highly visible.
President Trump could "tweet his fingers off, but he won't stop us," said Governor Jay Inslee from Washington State.
White House special adviser on climate change, George David Banks, told reporters that President Trump was still open to staying in the Paris pact.
"The President has said multiple times that he is willing to consider re-engaging if he can find or identify terms that are suitable, that are fair to the United States," he said.
That line didn't seem to impress many attendees who said there could be no re-negotiation.
Even the US official negotiating team struck a different tone from the White House when they made their national statement to the meeting. There wasn't a single mention of coal or fossil fuels.
Instead, it stated that the while the US might be out of the Paris deal, it wasn't walking away from international climate discussions in one form or another.
"The United States intends to remain engaged with our many partners and allies around the world on these issues, here in the UN Framework Convention and everywhere else."
In a further rebuff to those who came here to promote fossil fuels, the UK, Canada and Mexico, close allies and neighbours of the US, led a new global alliance to move away from coal.
Some 20 countries have signed up to end their reliance on unabated coal as an energy source. The Powering Past Coal Alliance hopes to have 50 members by the time of next year's meeting in Poland.
2018's summit in Katowice is seen as a critical junction on the road to making the Paris agreement work effectively when it comes into force in 2020.
By next December, the rulebook needs to be finished and there is to be a key review of carbon-cutting commitments made in 2015.
Many delegates are concerned that Poland's widespread and continued use of coal makes it unlikely that there will be decisive steps taken at the meeting.
Some observers believe that measures are being taken to ensure that Poland doesn't derail the momentum that has built up since Paris, and generally maintained here in Bonn.
"We had to leave Bonn with the process intact," said one seasoned observer.
"We now need a series of ministerial meetings in the coming months to make political progress on the key elements, so that we box in Poland over the next year."
Climate summit goes slow and steady but King Coal looms
Little drama in Bonn other than some star turns and a pantomime villain. All eyes are now on Poland, the next summit host
Damian Carrington in Bonn The Guardian 17 Nov 17;
For an issue that often seems to lurch from crisis to catastrophe, the steady but vital progress at the UN’s global climate change talks in Bonn was reassuring. But there remains a very long way to go before the world gets on track to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming.
There was little drama as the diplomatic sherpas trekked up the mountain of turning the political triumph of the 2015 Paris agreement into a technical reality, with a rulebook that would allow countries to start ramping up action. They got about as far as expected in turning the conceptual into the textual, but no further.
But that is not to say there were no star turns. Timoci Naulusala, a 12-year-old Fijian boy, gave a passionate yet nerveless account of the destruction of his village by Cyclone Winston in 2016 to the gathered heads of state and ministers. “Climate change is real, not a dream,” he said.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, turned on the charisma and heartened the gathered nations with a pledge to replace the US funding dumped by Donald Trump for the UN’s climate science body.
The Trump administration, which wants the US to be the only country in the world not in the Paris deal, was the pantomime villain, but only succeeded in uniting the 195 other nations against it. The sole US event brought an executive from Peabody, the US coal company with a long history of funding climate denial, to argue for “clean coal”. A protest song and walkout from most of the audience followed and for the rest of the summit, the US delegation was irrelevant.
But the large coalition of US cities and states backing climate action – which as a group represents the third-largest economy in the world – stole the American show, with the California governor, Jerry Brown, popping up everywhere, pumping up the crowds.
The multi-nation pledge to phase out coal use was the political high point, but the dragging on of the coalition talks in Germany prevented Angela Merkel from potentially joining the party. The politics is key: UN climate talks run on consensus, with no votes, so trust and momentum are vital and were preserved in Bonn.
But the summit was like a dress rehearsal for next year, when the Paris rulebook has to be finalised and poorer and vulnerable nations will demand much more action and funding from the rich countries they blame for climate change. Further gatherings in Paris in December and California next year will also help prepare the stage for the 2018 UN climate summit.
That will be in Silesia, a heartland of Europe’s King Coal, Poland, which has already started feeling the international pressure to clean up its act. If that summit achieves its goals – accelerating carbon cuts – then the curtain will have been raised on the clean, green 21st century, against a backdrop of the mines and power plants of the 20th century.
How China is inching into the void left when Trump pulled US out of Paris climate change deal
Delegates at recent conference say Beijing prefers to get its own house in order first rather than dominating discussions on global warming,
South China Morning Post 18 Nov 17;
China has filled some of the void on climate change leadership left by US President Donald Trump’s decision to quit the 2015 Paris climate pact by curbing its own greenhouse emissions but it did not seek to dominate the latest talks which finished on Friday, according to delegates.
Some nations had expected that Beijing would be more active in making proposals and pushing its views that the rich should be doing far more to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to provide finance to poor nations.
But its delegation has acted broadly in line with past meetings on climate change, other attendees said, championing the cause of emerging nations and pointing to its domestic programmes to limit carbon dioxide emissions.
“They were rather quiet in the meetings,” one senior European negotiator said at the talks in the German city of Bonn. “Their focus is very much on action at home.”
“China has been pretty much the same as always,” echoed Ian Fry, who represents the Pacific Island of Tuvalu. “I don’t think they tried to fill the space left by the US.”
The talks, which made progress on detailed rules for the Paris agreement, are the first since Trump decided in June to pull out of the pact, handing Beijing a chance to reflect President Xi Jinping’s drive for a bigger global role.
Trump, who doubts that climate change is caused by man-made greenhouse gases, plans to promote domestic coal and oil. Under the terms of the Paris accord, a US pull-out will take until 2020.
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts, said China has to work out how to balance its need for more fossil fuel energy to fuel economic growth with conflicting demands to curb air pollution and climate change.
“I don’t think they were in a position to make bold claims in Bonn,” he said. The Paris Agreement seeks to cut emissions to limit a rise in temperatures to avert heatwaves, floods, storms and rising sea levels.
Beijing has traditionally seen itself as only the leader of emerging economies, arguing that the United States, the European Union and Japan have to lead in making cuts because they have emitted the most greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution.
Still, the basic design of the Paris agreement was hammered out by US President Barack Obama and Xi in 2015. With Washington leaving, many predicted clear Chinese leadership.
“I’ve heard that point (about China taking over), I think it’s largely rhetorical,” said George David Banks, a Trump adviser on energy and the environment attending the Bonn talks.
He noted that China’s goal under the Paris Agreement was for its carbon dioxide emissions to peak by 2030.
“Is that leadership in climate mitigation? At the same time the United States continues to reduce its emissions … We have been a global leader,” he said. “It’s about actions, not words.”
US emissions peaked about a decade ago but Trump opposes Obama’s pledge to cut them by between 26 and 28 per cent by 2025 from 2005 levels, saying it would harm US competitiveness.
China says it needs to use more energy to lift living standards for its 1.3 billion population and still places the burden squarely on the rich to cut emissions.
“Before 2020 we hope developed countries can implement the consensus we have reached in the past,” said Xie Zhenhua, China’s lead climate official at the talks. “China has taken better actions than we are asked to do.”
Many delegates predict that China will reach a peak in carbon emissions years before 2030 and praise its actions to shift from coal to solar and wind power.
“The fact is that China is going all in on renewables with something like US$361 billion in investments expected by 2020,” said Thoriq Ibrahim, energy and environment minister for the Maldives and chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States.
“If leadership is defined by action, then China is way out in front,” he told Reuters.
Mohamed Adow, of Christian Aid, said that many nations were stepping up actions. “We’re seeing distributed leadership across the world. The days when you look to one country to lead the transition are gone,” he said.
Among other nations the European Union’s efforts to fill the gap have been held back because German Chancellor Angela Merkel is locked in negotiations on forming a coalition, where she is facing pressure to do more to phase out coal.
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