A dispatch from the GCCA team at the UN climate change conference in Lima, Peru, Runs December 1-12.
“COP’s the most terrible time of the year.” That was the headline of a blog by our Philippines Tracker, who arrived in Lima just weeks after joining a 1000km ‘Climate Walk’ across her country, commemorating Super Typhoon Haiyan’s one-year anniversary. Another super typhoon is due to make landfall in the Philippines on Friday - the third such devastating storm to strike the country during the annual end of year round of UN climate talks - once again offering up a too-real illustration of the high-stakes of the climate challenge.
Yesterday’s
procedural wranglings over how to negotiate the scope and content of countries’ national contributions to the 2015 agreement bled into this morning, as developing countries sought ways to better advance issues like finance and adaptation. Once they found a way forward, the on-going issue of the length of commitment periods resurfaced. Five year commitment periods could capture the fast evolving dynamics of domestic political and energy situations and the bloc of Latin American countries AILAC led the chorus of governments pushing to that end. The EU, on the other hand, earned the ire of many of our partners (and a
Fossil of the Day award) for pushing a 10 year commitment period; more likely to lock low levels of ambition in to any future climate deal.
We also saw an important development in negotiations on the elements of the 2015 deal. The Africa Group, supported by most of the world’s developing countries, put a new proposal on finance into the mix, raising the profile of key issues such as a public finance goal and the need to scale up finance beyond 2020, which is when the new deal and countries’ respective commitments would take effect.
Outside of the negotiation halls, much of the focus today was on the role that youth have to play in the UN process. Young people and future generations set to bear the brunt of climate change, unless the world urgently transition away from dirty energy. They ensured their voice was heard today as they called on their country delegations to support strong climate action by driving a complete phase out of fossil fuels as early as possible.
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It was Youth & Future Generations Day today in Lima and young activists were out in force to demand climate action ambitious enough to protect their futures. US youth groups SustainUS, Sierra Student Coalition and the US Climate Plan launched a new project, #ClimateTest, set to ask one simple question - do energy project and policies lead the world towards a just transition? If the answer is no, the project should never see the light of day, they say.
With the People’s Climate Summit and march just days away, the spotlight is shifting to the host government Peru. In a press conference promoting the march, at the TierraActiva Convergence Space in Lima, activists warned Peru’s government that all eyes were on it as they undertook the prestigious host role. Friday, the focus will again be on the country, as the widow’s of four environmental activists murdered in September join international activists at the “Pentagonito” complex to demand justice for their husbands and their communities.
In CAN international’s latest press conference, NGOs focused on the role finance has in providing a positive impetus in the negotiations and the need for government’s to phase out dirty energy subsidies.
In the news
Typhoon-hit Filipinos are paying with their lives for climate change. A levy on fossil fuels could help protect them. Saleemul Huq has more about the opportunity in RTCC.
Negotiators able to pull themselves away from a busy schedule of negotiations were once again faced with the stark reality of climate change, with media reports focused on the threat of rising sea levels to the Pacific Island of Kiribati, which could disappear in the matter of decades without strong climate action.
Both RTCC and Reuters focused on a press briefing given by China on Thursday. RTCC dove into the country’s vision for the 2015 deal, and their role in it, while Reuters focused on the government’s condemnation of those countrieswho failed to pledge to the Green Climate Fund.
More mixed reports on the role that India is likely to play in the next year of negotiations. Reporting on a television interview with the country’s environment minister Prakash Javaderkar, AFP says India is ready to commit to tackling climate change, but at the same time the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter has vowed to protect its own interest.
In case you missed this one earlier, Buzzfeed have a great, and very visual breakdown of why the UN climate talks matter.
From the Negotiator Trackers
Two of our Trackers focused on developing country’s joined a press conferenceoutlining the expectations of the most vulnerable countries and least developed countries groupings for the Lima conference.
Lots more great Adopt a Negotiator blogs canbe found on our website.
Tools and resources
The latest iisd reportbreakdowns day four of the UN climate talks. It also has a great photo blog from inside the negotiating rooms.
The latest ECO newsletterfocuses on the role of youth as well as shining a spotlight on the Peruvian government.
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>>
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