LIVE NOW: High Level Event - Forging a CVF - COP 26 Climate Emergency Pact. (Be sure to choose “English) On Demand previous sessions.
I spent much of yesterday following this COP virtually, and it brings back wonderful and exciting memories of the very first COP I reported on. It was in COP16 in Cancun and as I walked into the cafeteria, I saw Bill Mckibben sitting by himself at a table. I walked up and introduced myself as boatsie. We knew each other as Bill was always willing to take the time to participate in our climate change blogathons, but we had never met in person at that point. I’d see him throughout the course of the conference, slipping into some of the meetings I was reporting on. The next time I saw him was at a demonstration to blockade an oil refinery in Richmond, CA. I was marching with my two dogs and he called his wife (“She’s a real animal lover!”) over to introduce us.
Here’s Bill writing from Glasgow at the onset of COP26:
I’ll plan on doing short updates from Glasgow this week—I’m here for the first half of COP 26, acutely conscious of just how many of these gatherings there have been. They blend together in the mind, especially since they’re always this time of year, and often in northern Europe—which means lots of raw rainy days like today. They also all feature vast spaceship-like convention centers, filled with people—30,000 in this case—moving intently back and forth doing something, but what isn’t totally clear: to the extent that there are actual negotiations going on, they usually involve a few dozen players from key countries in well-guarded back rooms. There’s a ton of information exchanged, but there’s something a little grim and tiring about the whole enterprise—a shoe convention, except for saving the world. And the fact that all 30,000 have to swab their nostrils each morning and mail the results to the UN is probably wise, and definitely adds to the charmlessness.
People don’t have much power at the COP—it’s all experts and diplomats and lobbyists. But people, by building movements, have set the bar high enough to matter. Movements are why we’re talking about 1.5 degrees as a target; movements are why politicians feel they can’t come home from Glasgow with nothing, as they did a decade ago at Copenhagen. At the concert, attendees took the time to write thousands of letters to Chase Bank CEO Jamie Dimon; they know that when Glasgow ends, the work continues, with the emphasis shifting for a season from the world of politics to the world of finance.
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- Watch COP26 TV for shows throughout the conference with programming explaining why reaching net-zero carbon by 2050 is too late and interviews with people from the Global South.
- The Agenda for Day 2
- The US Press Conference at about 5:30 AM Pacific
“Sea level rise has doubled from 30 years ago. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.” United Nations secretary general, António Guterres
I have a vivid memory of the opening plenary in Warsaw, when that huge storm hit the Philippines and Yeb Sano was at the podium. You could hear people crying in the large auditorium across the corridor. That was COP19, when the delegates recognized the need to address loss and damage related to climate by establishing the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. Loss and damage remains a key negotiating point today at COP26, with countries in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate crisis bearing the brunt of the impacts. (See ‘Loss and Damage’ are critical issues for fragile Caribbean states at COP26.)
Article 6 Explained
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement is one of the most significant issues facing negotiators at Glasgow’s COP26. It aims to vitalize carbon markets and establish global carbon credit transfers.
The topic was tabled at the last COP in 2019.
While several countries (and industry) rely on carbon markets as a method to reduce their emissions and strengthen their climate pledges, skeptics of this approach believe it just reinforces our addiction to fossil fuels, postponing converting to clean energy sources. They want commitments to convert to clean energy now.
Reuters reports in The toughest of tasks at U.N. climate talks: Article 6 on CO2 markets that this COP needs to reach agreement on “a market-based mechanism” through which countries and companies could utilize global carbon offsets as a means of reaching net zero 50 and maintaining the aspiration for a 1.5 degree C world.
"Depending on how the rules are structured, Article 6 could help the world avoid dangerous levels of global warming...or let countries off the hook from making meaningful emissions cuts," said Yamide Dagnet, director of climate negotiations at the World Resources Institute.
"The integrity of the Paris Agreement and countries’ climate commitments hang in the balance," she added.
Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives at Apple, noted that the danger are players who are not “rigorous about the carbon removal, isn't rigorous about community enhancement, you can have a lot of money going towards projects that either aren't viable or good or create injustice along the way,"
In an article from the Global Landscape Forum, Would a decision on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement do more harm than good?, Gabriel Lipton writes there are three major players involved in Article 6: developed countries, developing countries, and companies, primarily members of the fossil fuel or aviation industries.
“You’ve got developed countries coming at this from a few different angles,” says Steve Leonard, climate change policy analyst with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), who has been engaged in the climate negotiations for more than a decade. “You’ve got some that seem to want to undermine the process. You’ve got some that struggle to take domestic climate action because the cost is politically high for them at the national level, and so they want to pay other countries to reduce their emissions. And you’ve got some that are trying to do the right thing, that are trying to see strong safeguards and strong human rights outcomes.”
Gender @ COP26
WEDO: Fierce Feminist Advocacy at COP26
The Women & Gender Constituency presents its demands for Parties to “meet the climate crisis and advance key issues such as loss and damage, robust financing, and advancing gender justice through the Gender Action Plan and beyond.”
They are calling upon COP26 delegates to:
- Fulfill commitment to human rights in the Paris Agreement & keep 1.5 alive
- Deliver on finance and prioritise loss & damage
- Ensure human rights & ecosystem integrity in Article 6
- Advance the Gender Action Plan
- Reject false solutions & invest in gender-just climate action
- Facilitate gender-just transitions to a regenerative economy
- Invest in resilient, gender-transformative, climate justice education
- Promote health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights
- Ensure rights to water and sanitation in all climate action
- Protect the ocean, cryosphere, coastal ecosystems and local communities
- Ensure collective women’s land rights
Leaders of island nations made impassioned appeals at the U.N. climate summit, arguing not only that the rest of the world should act in its own self-interest, but that it has an obligation specifically to them.
“The existence of our low-lying neighbors is not negotiable,” said Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister of Fiji.
The world faces a choice between “our grandchildren’s future” and corporate greed, he said, insisting that the international target of keeping average temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius is feasible.
“All that’s missing is courage to act,” he said. www.nytimes.com/...
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland has pledged a £1 million fund to help developing countries deal with “loss and damage” from climate change, such as floods and wildfires. She speaks with Christiane Amanpour about her "genuine concern" for progress.
Tuesday, Nov 2, 2021 · 5:58:42 PM +00:00 · boatsie
White House announces new methane regulations, kicking off global pledge
The EPA rules target, in particular, methane leaks and instances when methane gas is purposefully vented, or flared, during the production process.
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced plans to introduce some of the nation's strongest regulations against methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, part of a broader push to tackle climate change that White House officials are unveiling at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The new rules, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, aim to curb methane emissions for new and existing oil and gas infrastructure, thereby reducing a significant source of pollution from fossil fuel companies. The regulations target methane leaks and instances when methane gas is purposefully vented, or flared, during the production process.