Politics pull down climate talks, emission ups
June 17 / Bonn
Possibility of a global treaty looks thin in Durban later this year
By Aditya Ghosh
Bonn: Global emissions peaked in 2010 to an all time high inspiring some hope of reviving the world economy out of the gloom of recession that the world has been plagued by for over three years now.
June 16 / Bonn
Accounting loopholes, modest targets, spiraling emissions
Cancun pledges from developed countries can be met even without any actual reduction thanks to crafty calculations, points out two studies
By Aditya Ghosh
Developed countries can meet their modest Cancun Pledges on mitigation even without any actual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) domestically, pointed out two separate studies launched on Thursday during ongoing climate talks in Bonn.
June 16 / Bonn
NGOs barred at Bonn climate talks
Developed and developing countries blame each other for not allowing civil society participation in negotiation process
By Aditya Ghosh
Politics of climate negotiations have taken a transparency twist, with developed countries surreptitiously accusing developing ones of not allowing the meetings to be ‘open’. The developing countries, however, claimed that they had little choice as the observers, mostly comprising international NGOs, would only help in quietly pushing the agenda of the developed countries into the negotiations acting as stooges.
June 15 / Bonn
Health adaptation to cost up to US$ 5billion by 2020
If we don’t act now by plugging holes in public health system along with addressing housing, water woes and air pollution, says WHO
By Aditya Ghosh
Bonn, June 15: Investing on public health to strengthen weak areas that would be vulnerable to climate induced changes must start immediately to avoid major health catastrophe, epidemic and long term health hazards. A report by the World Health Organisation that draws from seven pilot studies across seven countries in the Europe and Central Asia said that the work has to start now to avoid more expensive intervention later.
June 14 / Bonn
Kyoto fight turns nasty, progress stalled over rules
Developed countries insist that without all emitters on board, second KP period would be an empty box
By Aditya Ghosh
Bonn, June 14: Vitriolic exchanges and political one-upmanship continue between developed and developing countries over the future of Kyoto Protocol at Bonn climate negotiations. While non-Annex I countries refuse to discuss rules for developing countries under AWG-KP, some of the developed countries made it clear that all major emitters must be bought to the fold of any legal mechanism, LCA or KP.
June 14 / Bonn
Black carbon, ozone report stirs climate negotiations
But UNEP makes it clear that it only offers co-benefits in short-range to reduce them, cannot replace CO2 cuts
By Aditya Ghosh
Bonn, June 14: The politically sensitive issue of black carbon sneaked in the climate negotiations following a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) that was released here in Bonn on Tuesday. The findings of the study indicated that controlling black carbon from soot and smog would help significantly to arrest global temperature increase in wake of increasing green house gases in the atmosphere.
June 13 / Bonn
Bali resurfaces at Bonn to amend Cancun flaws
G77 & China ensure that Bali Action Plan remain the negotiating reference, even if it delays final outcome
By Aditya Ghosh
Bonn, June 13: The enforced optimism of Cancun Agreements seems to have waned completely and developing country parties are back to the reference level of Bali Action Plan (BAP). While this makes the process of negotiations longer, it would certainly help various aspects to ‘get back on the table that had fallen off the negotiation agenda at Cancun’, felt negotiators.
June 13 / Bonn
Talk transparently, countries and NGOs demand
Climate negotiations come under scanner yet again for being unfair to smaller nations, civil society
Aditya Ghosh
Bonn, June 13: The UNFCCC climate talks were once again accused of being unfair and not inclusive, this time by Venezuela and a host of NGO observers, in Bonn. Too much fragmentation was not fulfilling the cause of a transparent negotiation, these groups claimed.
June 12 / Bonn
Durban may be a damp squib
Developed countries resort to wordy diplomacy while poorer countries grow weary
By Aditya Ghosh
Bonn, June 12: Political procrastination by developed countries may lead to an unproductive Conference of Parties (CoP) in Durban later this year. In a meeting organized by South Africa to outline expectations from various countries in this year’s CoP, the difference between ambitions and aspirations of different countries clearly underlined that while developing countries were fatigued over deadlocks created by the developed countries, the wealthy nations preferred to remain engaged in procedural matters, avoiding the political commitment required to make meaningful progress at Durban.
June 12 / Bonn
Stalemate deepens over future of GHG reductions
One after other, developed countries decline to any binding commitments post-Kyoto
By Aditya Ghosh
Bonn, June 12: Future course of mitigation of green house gas (GHG) emissions seem in jeopardy with wealthy countries pulling out of any extension of Kyoto or Protocol or a similar legally binding commitment one by one. The latest in the list is Canada which joined Japan, Australia and Russia here in UNFCCC meeting at Bonn to declare that neither would the country meet Kyoto targets nor will they commit to any legally binding emission targets post-KP. New Zealand also has refused a low-carbon development plan, something which has come under heavy criticism from its own NGOs.
June 11/ Bonn
Don’t need to be accountable for fast start fund: USA
Says it’s voluntary and transparency wasn’t a part of the original deal
By Aditya Ghosh
Bonn, June 11: The Big Brother slammed poorer countries at the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Bonn, claiming it was unfair to put conditions of transparency and additionality on the fast start funds (FSF). FSF was promised first in Copenhagen Conference of Parties (CoP) and then institutionalised in Cancun CoP by the developed nations to meet expenses of climate change mitigation and adaptation in poorer countries. The total value of FSF was to be US$30bn between 2010 and 2012 and then US$100bn a year by 2020.
June 11/ Bonn
Climate vulnerable regions get insurance boost
Ecosystem adaptation model fits with the compensation instruments
By Aditya Ghosh
Bonn, June 11: Ecosystem based adaptation to climate change impacts has emerged as the most cost-effective method both for climate insurance schemes and developing resilience in communities to combat climate change.
| Hard evidence |
| World Banks’ double-handedness |
.jpg) A report released by Friends of the Earth shows how the World Bank hit a new record in 2010 for annual fossil fuel lending at $4.7 billion, increasing its coal-related spending alone by 256 percent. The World Bank has now been made a trustee of the Green Climate Fund which will administer the flow of funds from developed to developing countries to cope with climate change, which includes deploying 'clean energy' solutions. |
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Highest ever recorded GHG emissions were reached in 2010 |
.jpg) The world CO2 emissions have hit a record high in 2010 at 30.6 gigatonnes, according to a recent study by the IEA. This is a 5% increase from previous record of 29.3 Gt in 2008. An IEA scenario sets the emissions limit at 32 Gigatonnes for 2020 in order to stay within the “safe” 2 degrees Celsius rise. This means that the rise in emissions for the next 10 years needs to be lesser than that between 2009 and 2010. |
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A Financial Transaction Tax could effectively address climate finance woes |
.jpg) A new report from CIDSE throws light on how the climate financing challenge can be met by taxing global financial transactions. A financial transaction tax, such as this, introduced at a mere .05% could raise up to US$ 6661.1 billion. |
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Climate change will mean lesser water availability for food production new FAO report warns |
.jpg) A comprehensive survey of existing literature points to the impacts that climate change will have on water used in agriculture. Those dependent on glacial melt water for irrigation will be heavily impacted; this covers 40% of the world’s population. The report, although issues a risk warning for both rural livelihoods and food security of city populations, states the rural poor will be the most vulnerable. |
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South Asia and parts of Africa are amongst climate hotspots where food supplies will be worst hit |
.jpg) The study which maps out regions based on sensitivity to and capacity to adapt to the impacts of shifts in temperature and precipitation highlights the South Asian region where millions of already-impoverished people will be further impacted due to loss in agricultural productivity. |
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