This is what I have found for a COP26 Roundup
- “We have been cheated again”: Why developing nations feel silenced at Cop26
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COP HAS FAILED, TIME TO REBEL: Extinction Rebellion disrupts Lord Mayor’s Show to declare COP26 a failure
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At COP26, Youth Activists From Around the World Call Out Decades of Delay
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Leaders at COP26 Are 'Massively Killing the Paris Agreement,' Critics Say as Talks Drag On Past Deadline
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What is ‘loss and damage’ and why is it critical for success at Cop26?
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Countries strike deal at COP26 climate summit after last-minute compromise on coal
- Cop26 ends in climate agreement despite India watering down coal resolution
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THE OCEAN ANCHORED IN GLASGOW CLIMATE PACT
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After COP26, US President Under Fire for 'Failing to Act on Fossil Fuels'
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COP26: World leaders fail to honor climate pledge
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Taylor Energy loses appeal against Belle Chasse company cleaning up its 17-year-long oil leak
This Is An Open Thread
“We have been cheated again”: Why developing nations feel silenced at Cop26
Countries in the Global South that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are angry. They came to the climate summit in Glasgow in good faith. Yet the latest draft Cop26 agreement that was published today (13 November) does not give them the certainty they want, and need, to know developed countries are serious about ditching all fossil fuels and helping them do the same. They are suffering the worst impacts of extreme weather, but feel rich nations are still refusing to accept their historic responsibility for the crisis.
In 2009, developed countries promised to deliver $100bn a year to help poorer countries adapt to climate change. Yet this money has never been forthcoming in its entirety. An agreement made just before Cop means the full amount — which developing countries are clear is far too small to deal with the task at hand — will not be delivered until 2023.
As part of the Glasgow Cop outcome, developing countries, backed by China, want a “loss and damage finance facility” included in the final declaration. This would improve access to funding that can help populations cope better and faster with the destruction wrought by extreme weather. African nations are already spending up to 10 per cent of annual GDP on adaptation and it can take several years to access funding. But such specific language has not appeared in the latest text, and developing countries feel the issue is again being pushed down the road.
COP HAS FAILED, TIME TO REBEL: Extinction Rebellion disrupts Lord Mayor’s Show to declare COP26 a failure
At 12pm today, Extinction Rebellion disrupted the Lord Mayor’s show in the City of London – the heart of fossil fuel investment in the UK – and several other locations along the parade. Riding a float entered into the show under the company name of the London Physical Society, Extinction Rebellion declared that COP26 had failed, and demanded the City of London take responsibility for their part in the climate and nature emergency by ending all fossil fuel investments immediately.
The float, disguised as an organisation dedicated to promoting the use of sustainable building materials, revealed itself at Bank Junction, where it displayed a giant drowning head and two outstretched arms reaching towards a large globe atop a structure made from mycelium based building blocks. On the sides of the float hung large banners saying ‘COP HAS FAILED’ and ‘STOP FOSSIL FUEL FUNDING’. People dressed up with giant heads depicting Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson addressed the crowds and began smashing the globe, with others locking themselves together to block the road in front of the Lord Mayor’s stands.
Further along the march route a group of children were stopped by police from delivering the Children’s Charter to the Lord Mayor, hours after the Oath of Allegiance. The Charter read, “We stand here the day after COP26, which has failed to bring about the action necessary to tackle the climate and ecological emergency, to call on you to prioritise the next seven generations above the short term greed that focuses on wealth accumulation right here in the City of London.”
At COP26, Youth Activists From Around the World Call Out Decades of Delay
Jon Bonifacio was on his way to becoming a doctor when the urgency and seriousness of the climate crisis began to sink in. The Philippines, where the 24-year-old was in medical school, was already feeling global warming’s effects, with more intense cyclones striking the low-lying archipelago. Projections of sea level rise indicated that even the hospital he expected to intern in would be underwater by 2050.
“The reality of it really makes you want to do something,” he said.
What he did was to drop out of medical school earlier this year to devote himself full-time to addressing climate change. Last week, he headed for the climate meetings in Glasgow, representing Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines, an organization he founded in 2019 with a small group of friends and that now counts hundreds of members all over the country.
Thousands of diplomats, policy wonks, scientists and activists from all over the world have flocked to Scotland for the 26th United Nations Conference of the Parties, known as COP26. Some of the most outspoken and visible participants are, like Bonifacio, also among the youngest. On Nov. 5, Bonifacio took the stage alongside Greta Thunberg of Sweden and Vanessa Nakate of Uganda as part of the school strike staged by Fridays for Future outside the COP26 meeting halls.
Leaders at COP26 Are 'Massively Killing the Paris Agreement,' Critics Say as Talks Drag On Past Deadline
After nearly two weeks of negotiations, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland was expected to extend into the weekend Friday as policymakers missed the evening deadline for finalizing their deal on how countries will combat the climate crisis—with leaders unable to come to an agreement thus far regarding financial support for the Global South, fossil fuel subsidies, and other key issues.
Hundreds of campaigners representing Indigenous communities, young people, and civil society groups poured into the hallways of the venue where COP26 is taking place, chanting, "Keep 1.5°C Alive" and condemning political leaders for failing to deliver an agreement that will limit global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
Advocates called the demonstration a "people's plenary" and proceeded out into the street for a rally with members of Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future.
What is ‘loss and damage’ and why is it critical for success at Cop26?
“Loss and damage” is the phrase for the destruction already being wreaked by the climate crisis on lives, livelihoods and infrastructure. It has become a critical issue at Cop26, with the potential to make or break an ambitious deal in Glasgow.
Vulnerable and poor countries, which did little to cause the climate crisis, arrived with a determination to win a commitment from rich nations to compensate them for this damage.
It has become perhaps the most bitterly fought-over issue of all, with the low-income nations believing they have a moral right to this money – some call it compensation or reparations. Rich parties such as the US and EU are very reluctant to comply, fearing exposure to unlimited financial liabilities.
Countries strike deal at COP26 climate summit after last-minute compromise on coal
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries at the COP26 summit on Saturday reached an agreement to try to prevent progressively worse and potentially irreversible climate impacts.
The announcement comes several hours after the scheduled Friday evening deadline.
Delegates had struggled to resolve major sticking points, such as phasing out coal, fossil fuel subsidies and financial support to low-income countries.
India, among the world’s biggest burners of coal, raised a last-minute change of fossil fuel language in the pact, going from a “phase out” of coal to a “phase down.” After initial objections, opposing countries ultimately conceded.
I added the bold
Cop26 ends in climate agreement despite India watering down coal resolution
Countries have agreed a deal on the climate crisis that its backers said would keep within reach the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C, the key threshold of safety set out in the 2015 Paris agreement.
The negotiations carried on late into Saturday evening, as governments squabbled over provisions on phasing out coal, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and providing money to the poor world.
The “Glasgow climate pact” was adopted despite a last-minute intervention by India to water down language on “phasing out” coal to merely “phasing down”.
THE OCEAN ANCHORED IN GLASGOW CLIMATE PACT
The six years of efforts that began at COP21 in Paris have paid off, with COP26’s decision to anchor permanently the ocean in the multilateral climate change regime.
In its preamble, the Glasgow Climate Pact adopted on Saturday evening, 13 November 2021 highlights “the importance of ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including in forests, the ocean and the cryosphere, and the protection of biodiversity […]”. In Paragraph 58, the Glasgow Climate Pact welcomes the informal summary report of the COP25-mandated “Ocean and Climate Dialogue to consider how to strengthen adaptation and mitigation action”. In Paragraph 60, the relevant work programmes and constituted bodies under the UNFCCC are invited “to consider how to integrate and strengthen ocean-based action in their existing mandates and work plans and to report on these activities within the existing reporting processes”, and (Paragraph 61) the Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice is also invited “to hold an annual dialogue (starting in June 2022) to strengthen ocean-based action and to prepare an informal summary report thereon and make it available to the COP”.
After COP26, US President Under Fire for 'Failing to Act on Fossil Fuels'
As climate campaigners worldwide on Saturday slammed the United Nations summit in Scotland and its resulting Glasgow Climate Pact as betrayals of the Global South by rich countries that have polluted the planet, U.S. President Joe Biden faced growing pressure to improve both his national and global policies.
"Failing to act on fossil fuels is beyond climate denial, it's climate atrocity."
The fresh demands built on previous comments and calls throughout COP26—such as a Friday statement Food & Water Watch, whose policy director Mitch Jones said that "this White House should fulfill its campaign promise to stop oil and gas drilling on public lands, put an end to oil and gas exports, and stop approving new dirty energy power plants and pipelines."
As the summit ended a day late with the pact that critics worry won't lead to the international community meeting the Paris agreement's 1.5°C temperature goal for this century, Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, highlighted U.S. failures.
COP26: World leaders fail to honor climate pledge
At first, negotiators at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow wanted a faster phase-out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies.
Then they pushed for ending "unabated" coal burning and "inefficient" subsidies. A third draft suggested accelerating "efforts toward" their phase-out.
By the time diplomats hammered out a text they could all agree to, the term was downgraded to a "phase-down" the use of unabated coal.
The result of that semantic spat — watered down to levels well below what scientists say is needed to halt global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures — was among the hardest-fought outcomes of two weeks of international negotiations to stop the planet hurtling closer towards catastrophic changes in the climate.
But like many of the decisions coming out of the COP26 climate summit, the final agreement has been widely slammed as weak and ineffective.
Taylor Energy loses appeal against Belle Chasse company cleaning up its 17-year-long oil leak
A federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by New Orleans oil company Taylor Energy against the government contractor hired to clean up Taylor’s nearly two decadeslong oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a U.S. District Court judge’s ruling in August that Belle Chasse marine contractor Couvillion Group has legal immunity while performing work ordered by the federal government.
Taylor is also suing the U.S. Coast Guard over its order to halt what had become one of the largest and longest-running oil disasters in U.S. history.
There is so much info out there! I need to stop here.
ECOCIDE is the result from COP26 IMO
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