(This dispatch is compiled by the GCCA team at the UN climate change conference in Lima, Peru, Runs December 1-12.)
Wednesday’s talks opened with a serious dose of climate reality. Lima’s famous fog gave way to oppressive heat, just in time for the World Meteorological Organization’s press conference with UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, warning that 2014 is on track to be the warmest year on record. Civil society also turned up the heat with an action in response to yesterday’s media reports exposing Japan’sassertion that US $1 billion in international loans for coal-fired power plant loans should count as part of their climate finance contribution.
Governments dug deeper into negotiations on the new global climate agreement, focusing on the text that will shape the contents of countries’ individual contributions - called Intended Nationally Determined Commitments (INDCs); and a text elaborating on elements that will make up the 2015 deal, such as adaptation, finance, mitigation, and technology. On the latter, negotiators won’t need to reach a final agreement in Lima. They will need to get countries’ views on the table and reflected in the text in a fair way, and they’ve only just started.
Procedural wrangling dominated discussions on the INDC side - primarily over whether governments could move from verbal discussion into line-by-line analysis of the text. Negotiations thus far focused heavily on cutting emissions, while many of the issues around finance and adaptation - which are the priorities of developing countries - were neglected. Line-by-line negotiations could give developing countries a better chance at rebalancing the text to better reflect their needs.
According to Union of Concerned Scientists’ Alden Meyer: “The hope of the co-chairs is that they can complete the first round of discussion on both [texts] by the end of this week, come back over the weekend with two revised texts that reflect the input from all the parties, get down to detailed negotiations next week.”
Lima also needs to kick-start the development of a climate finance roadmap that gets us from this year’s near $10 billion in pledges to the $100 billion in annual climate finance promised by industrialized countries by 2020. These negotiations moved forward in the UNFCCC’s subsidiary bodies today, and will make up an important part of the political package for next week.
Switzerland earned the dubious Fossil of the Day Wednesday for taking a hard line and slowing a progress in the finance negotiations. CAN also awarded its first Ray of the Day of the conference. The honor went to the Alliance of Small Island States for directly supporting the complete phase out of carbon pollution by 2050. Even more powerful than this public statement from AOSIS, is that other countries added their voices too, specifically the Latin American alliance AILAC and Norway.
Resources & Tools
From our partners
To date, the global divestment movement has pushed 181 institutions and local governments and inspired thousands of individuals to divest from fossil fuels, representing a collective $50 billion in assets - 350.org announced plans to build on that momentum, launching plans for aGlobal Divestment Day! The worldwide day of action will take place on February 13th.
Members of the Climate Action Network pivoted to pressure Brazil in a Tuesday press conference. Brazil, which is quickly joining the ranks of the world’s biggest polluters, has seemingly taken a turn backwards on its emissions reductions. New analysis out last month showed that – thanks to a rise in deforestation and the use of thermal power stations – in 2013 the country’s emissions rose for the first time since 2004.
In the wake of an investigation which exposed Japan for bank-rolling coal-fired power plants with money meant to go into climate change, our partners are demanding tighter rules on climate finance for poor nations. The groups are calling on strong and clear rules relating to climate finance and for an ‘exclusion list’ for the Green Climate Fund of projects that cannot receive funds.
CAN International’s latest ECO newsletter focuses on the negotiations around climate finance, Germany’s plans to reduce emissions and meet its ambitious climate change targets and digs into the issue of loss and damage.
In the news
Fitting nicely with the announcement on the upcoming global divestment day, Norway’s $870bn wealth fund announced the findings of a recent government commission review its fossil fuel investments - recommending that the fund strengthen its active ownership, put more weight on climate change and sell out of the worst offenders.
News headlines today have focused around the new research from the World Meteorological Organization, re-affirming that 2014 is set to be the hottest year ever on record, providing fresh impetus for those calling on governments in Lima to take strong climate action.
In the biggest assessment of climate finance flows to date, the UNFCCC, today, detailed how finance for projects aimed at limiting global warming has reached $650 billion a year, warning that this figure will need to double to help prevent dangerous levels of climate change.
Germany unveiled plans today that could place the country more firmly on a path away from dirty fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. In an effort to ensure the country meets its ambitious 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target, the German cabinet agreed to slash CO2 emissions by up to 78 million tonnes by 2020.
AP follow up their Japan investigation with calls from NGOs to exclude dirty energy projects from the Green Climate Fund.
RTCC turns the spotlight on COP20 host Peru, with a report focusing on the plea from the widows of four environmental activists killed in the country earlier this year for the government to provide them with justice and state protection.
From the Negotiator Trackers
Avik Roy digs down into the role that India could play in changing the dynamics of the international climate negotiations.
Federico Brocchieri looks at the importance of education in ensuring engagement in and action on climate change.
As another typhoon threatens the Philippines, Denise Fontanilla looks at the exposure of the country to extreme weather events.
Lots more great Adopt a Negotiator blogs can be found here on the website.
Tools and resources
E3G’s Liz Gallagher provides a great video briefingon the first few days of the negotiations and where countries stand.
Check out the latest round-up from the iisd, including a great photo-blog.
More photos from the corridors of the negotiations can be found on the Adopt a Negotiator flickr page.
Track the talks on TckTckTck’s daily liveblog
For the full duration of the talks, we’re liveblogging on the TckTckTck website. Check out our embeddable Storify-powered feed for up-to-the-hour news on negotiation progress, NGO efforts and the COP19 experience. SEE IT HERE>>
We will help drive the conversation on Twitter by pulling together to trending tweets, hashtags and memes for our partners to use in regular social media blasts throughout the talks. SIGN UP HERE >>
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