Feed aggregator
Cop26 failure could mean mass migration and food shortages, says Boris Johnson
Ahead of G20 meeting, PM warns of ‘difficult geopolitical events’ echoing those that ended Roman empire
A failure by world leaders to commit to tackling the climate emergency at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow could prompt “very difficult geopolitical events” including mass migration and global competition for food and water, Boris Johnson has said.
Speaking before the start of a gathering of leaders from the G20 industrialised nations in Rome, where he will push for countries to arrive in Glasgow with fixed plans to cut emissions, Johnson said the chances of success hung in the balance.
Continue reading...Afghans have Cop26 delegate applications rejected days before event
Five men and one woman who have fled Taliban are given no reason for rejection
Six environmental experts from Afghanistan who were due to attend Cop26 as their country’s delegates to the global conference have had their applications rejected just days before the event begins.
The six – five men and one woman who cannot be named because it could jeopardise their safety – were looking forward to travelling to the event to help make the concerns of Afghans about the climate emergency heard at the summit.
Continue reading...Our climate demands we change the world right now. The good news? We can | Rebecca Solnit
Glasgow has to be a turning point. There is no other option
Nothing and everything and not nearly enough has changed in the six years since the Paris climate summit and agreement. The four players in our climate future – climate chaos, climate activism, climate solutions and climate finance – are still on a playing field filled with floods, flames and false solutions. Two of them are racing away from catastrophe, one is rushing toward it, and the fourth is undecided.
Runaway climate change itself has gotten far worse: we’re seeing chaos and destruction, ice melt and early signs of systemic collapse of ocean currents, ice sheets and much else. Both the climate movement and the practical solutions have gotten far stronger, more ambitious, more capable, more diverse. Climate finance has run in both directions: far too much money is still pumped into the fossil fuel industry, but there have been significant successes getting governments, development banks, and private investors to cut financing and reframe the industry as fundamentally criminal.
Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses
Continue reading...Cop26 will be whitest and most privileged ever, warn campaigners
Thousands from frontline communities in global south have been excluded, activists claim
The global climate summit in Glasgow will be the whitest and most privileged ever, according to campaigners, who warn that thousands of people from frontline communities in the global south have been excluded.
World leaders and delegates are expected to be joined by celebrities, corporate chief executives and royals at the critical two-week event.
an underlying “hostile attitude” from the UK Home Office towards those travelling from countries in the global south, particularly Africa, which has led to many visas being refused;
a failure to honour a pledge to offer Covid vaccines to all delegates, leaving many to search for vaccines in countries with little or no access;
constantly changing Covid restrictions for those entering the UK, with travel banned from countries on the UK’s red list, which, until this month, included many of the countries worst hit by the climate crisis. This has left many to seek costly and complicated routes to Glasgow via third countries;
an accommodation crisis in the city that has made finding a safe place to stay difficult and expensive. Campaigners have set up a “homestay network” to try to link people up with spare rooms, but say they have thousands on their waiting list
Continue reading...UK’s top climate adviser launches scathing attack on Australia on eve of Cop26
Lord Deben says there is ‘no indication’ Scott Morrison has a plan to deliver the net zero commitment ‘we’ve squeezed out of him’
The UK government’s climate change adviser has launched a scathing attack on Australia’s net zero commitment on the eve of critical talks in Glasgow.
Lord Deben, the Climate Change Committee chair, told the BBC on Saturday there was “no indication” that the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, had a plan to deliver on the commitment to net zero that was “squeezed out of him”.
Continue reading...G20 must say goodbye to fossil fuel and recommit to Paris 1.5C goal | The Secret Negotiator
G20 countries are way off track on delivering on 1.5C. Acknowledging this would be a good start ahead of Cop26
The Glasgow Cop26 talks could fail before the conference even begins. This weekend, just as Cop26 starts, the G20 are meeting in Rome. This is a moment of maximum trepidation, as those 20 developed and emerging economies account for 78% of global greenhouse gas emissions. They meet outside the scrutiny and inclusivity of the UN process in Glasgow. What they agree to, or not, could affirm the Paris agreement goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C, or put it firmly out of reach for ever.
First, the bad news. The G20 communique is a consensus document, a minimum agreement. If one country says no, for example, to specifying a phase-out date for coal, it won’t be in the final communique, so a vaguer formulation may be used.
Every week we’ll hear from negotiators from a developing country that is involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and will be attending the Cop26 climate conference.
Continue reading...CP Daily: Friday October 29, 2021
Climate experts warn world leaders 1.5C is ‘real science’, not just talking point
Scientists say keeping temperature rises to 1.5C is vital physical threshold for planet that cannot be negotiated
The 1.5C temperature limit to be discussed by world leaders at critical meetings this weekend is a vital physical threshold for the planet’s climate, and not an arbitrary political construct that can be haggled over, leading climate scientists have warned.
World leaders are meeting in Rome and Glasgow over the next four days to thrash out a common approach aimed at holding global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the lower of two limits set out in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Continue reading...Cop26: the time for prevarication is over | Katharine Viner
Glasgow 2021 must be the moment when the promise of Paris 2015 becomes real – history will not forgive us otherwise
Summits do not always live up to the name. They can get bogged down in detail and disagreement, never really reaching altitude.
That is often the case with the annual UN climate summits known simply as the Cop, which have earned a reputation since the first was held 26 years ago for being bewildering marathons that overrun and underdeliver.
Make a contribution from just £1
Become a digital subscriber and get something in return for your money
Continue reading...Electric blue: bioluminescence on Sydney’s northern beaches – in pictures
Jamen Percy was taking photos of surfers at Freshwater beach on the northern beaches of Sydney last week when he noticed the water turning blue – he was witnessing a rare bioluminescence bloom
Continue reading...Death of key Article 6 negotiator to weigh heavily at COP26
WCI emitters massively unravel net short position, speculators boost net long
Developer strikes VCM deal that includes corresponding adjustments
US Supreme Court accepts appeal to hamstring power sector CO2 regulations
‘If we don’t act now it will be too late’, warns Johnson ahead of Cop26
Prime minister says ‘too many countries doing too little’ amid last-minute talks before summit
World leaders have been warned that Cop26 must “mark the beginning of the end of climate change” amid last-minute talks that could help determine the future of the planet.
With the long-awaited environmental summit due to start on Monday, Boris Johnson issued his plea while saying “too many countries are still doing too little”.
Continue reading...California LCFS registers surprise surplus in Q2 as multiple credit generators post records
Scott Morrison’s nerves showed as he squibbed net zero target and staged a climate farce | Katharine Murphy
The PM should be taking a higher 2030 emissions reduction target to Cop26. No ifs, buts or maybes. Yet he squibbed it
When Scott Morrison strode into his press conference room on Tuesday to confirm Australia would be taking a net zero emissions target to the Cop26 in Glasgow, the prime minister was running on high revs.
Possibly this was an excess of adrenalin. Big parliamentary day and all that. But he looked nervous. Morrison rarely looks nervous, so this presentation was memorable.
Continue reading...Honeybees use social distancing when mites threaten hives – study
Foraging bees keep away from centre of colony when infested with mites, find researchers
In the past 18 months humans have become all too familiar with the term “social distancing”. But it turns out we are not the only ones to give our peers a wide berth when our health may be at risk: research suggests honeybees do it too.
Scientists have found that when a hive of honeybees is under threat from the mite Varroa destructor – a parasite linked to the collapse of honeybee colonies – the bees respond by changing the way they interact with one another.
Continue reading...COMMENT: Switzerland’s bilateral agreements set a poor precedent for ambition ahead of COP26
COP26 PREVIEW: Nations under pressure to finalise carbon market rules in Glasgow
Pages
