COP27

[kassy]

India asks to not ‘single out’ coal as part of its demands at Cop27

India has once again demanded to not single out coal at the ongoing United Nations climate summit at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, while denying that it wants an expansion of the language in the final deal to include oil and gas.

A draft of the cover text for the final deal was under discussion on Saturday at the end of the first week of the 27th Conference Of Parties, or Cop27, with negotiators from 194 countries present. The draft would provide an indication of what the final deal would look like.

A text of the submissions made by India to be included in the draft, seen by The Independent, shows the coal-dependent South Asian nation has demanded that “all fossil fuels” that contribute to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions should be taken into account instead of just “singling out coal”.

Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the country’s negotiators were demanding the text include a phase-down of oil and gas.

...

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/india-cop27-coal-draft-deal-b2223915.html

Jousting with words again.

The text should include all fossil fuels because it is about time.

[kassy]

350.org Responds To President Biden’s Speech At COP27

“In his speech today, President Biden emphasized that all nations are interconnected. He’s right, and that’s why the U.S.must build on their domestic achievements with the Inflation Reduction Act by showing the necessary support needed globally, particularly for countries who’ve had the least to do with creating climate chaos.

“The U.S. is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses globally, and bears the largest responsibility for accelerating climate chaos across the globe, and causing irreparable harm to communities in the Global South. To be a true global climate leader, the U.S. needs to own their responsibility and pay up what is owed for adaptation, stop funding fossil fuel projects and commit to real and significant investments in loss and damage in support of the most vulnerable nations

“Tackling the climate crisis requires much more than small investments in adaptation measures. At this critical juncture, where every tenth of a degree matters, there is no time left for incremental change. We need radical action now.The U.S. must lead on holding the fossil fuel industry accountable and shifting trillions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies into financing climate solutions.

more on:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2211/S00095/350org-responds-to-president-bidens-speech-at-cop27.htm

[kassy]

Timmermans: EU’s 2030 climate goal ‘can now be increased to 57%’

The European Union’s climate chief, Frans Timmermans, arrives in Sharm El-Sheikh for the COP27 summit with some good news: The EU’s 2030 climate goal “can now be increased to 57%,” from 55% previously, he confirmed.

....

Yet, the EU’s climate chief also insisted that mitigation – the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions – was still vitally important to maintain a chance of keeping global warming below 2.0 degrees Celsius, and if possible under 1.5°C, one of the goals of the Paris Agreement.

“If we don’t drastically reduce our emissions, there’s no amount of money or effort put into adaptation or loss and damage that will allow humanity to face the catastrophes that will occur,” he argued.

“Keeping the 1.5 alive is still very very much on the agenda and especially as far as the G20 countries are concerned, who are collectively responsible for 80% of global emissions,” he told journalists on Friday.

And on this count, he said Europe was delivering.

Last week, the EU concluded negotiations on two pieces of legislation that are part of a broader package of laws aimed at reducing the bloc’s emissions by 55% by 2030. These come after the bloc reached a landmark agreement two weeks ago requiring all new cars and vans to be zero-emission as of 2035, a move that effectively spells the end of petrol and diesel engines.

For the Dutchman, the higher level of ambition shown by EU legislators means Europe is now in a position to increase its emissions reduction target submitted to the United Nations, its Nationally Determined Contribution.

...

https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/timmermans-eus-2030-climate-goal-can-now-be-increased-to-57/

[kassy]

Mexico Raises Target For Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Boosting Renewable Energy Rollout

Mexico announced Saturday it’s boosting the rollout of renewable energy and is making efforts in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The country would aim to cut down emissions by 35% compared to doing nothing by 2030, said Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, reported the AP News. The figure is up from a pledge of 22% cuts that Mexico had made two years ago. Mexico will double its investments in clean energy over the next eight years to achieve the goal.

The country will expand protected forest areas, reduce methane emissions from its natural gas industry and boost electric car use. ABC News reported that Ebrard made the announcement of the new target alongside U.S. climate envoy John Kerry. It was announced on the sidelines of the U.N. climate talks in Egypt.

Kerry told reporters that this is a "huge, significant shift from where Mexico was last year in Glasgow." He shared that Mexico has “extraordinary availability of sun, extraordinary availability of wind power." Ending gas production flaring would help Mexico in saving an estimated $1.7 billion dollars.

Mexico also announced Monday that it plans to increase the amount of power that it generates from renewable sources of energy, Yahoo! News reported. It will deploy more than 30 additional gigawatts of annual electricity generation from solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower by 2030. Mexico aims to generate more than 40 gigawatts of power from solar and wind by the end of the decade.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as of 2019, the country had 80 gigawatts of installed electricity generation capacity. The majority of that comes from natural gas. Renewables, on the other hand, account for 10% and hydropower 7%. So the new aim would represent a huge shift toward a largely renewable energy portfolio if Mexico manages to meet its new target.

more:
https://www.latintimes.com/mexico-raises-target-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-boosting-renewable-energy-rollout-533238

[kassy]

COP27 Sponsor The Coca-Cola Company named worst plastic polluter for five years in a row according to 2022 Brand Audit

Manila — The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and Nestlé come in as the world’s top plastic polluters for five years running, according to Break Free From Plastic’s latest global brand audit report. The 2022 Brand Audit analyzes five years’ worth of citizen science trash-collection data, exposing how corporate voluntary commitments are not effectively reducing these companies’ devastating environmental impacts. In response, activists around the world are calling for a Global Plastics Treaty that can provide legally-binding mechanisms and enforcement policies to effectively reduce the amount of plastic both produced and used by corporations.

...

https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/2022/11/15/the-coca-cola-company-named-worst-plastic-polluter-for-five-years-in-a-row-brand-audit-2022-report/

[kassy]

LOOK: It's make or break time for global food systems at COP27

The critical inclusion of vital sustainable food systems within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is at risk of not being passed.

The first-ever Food Systems and Agriculture Days at a Climate COP began on November 12. The occasion also marked a make or break for food-based climate action and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

According to a World Wildlife Fund press release, November 11 was the deadline for a new, more ambitious mandate for the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, the only formal process to include food in UNFCCC, with negotiators failing to deliver the required agreement.

“Unfortunately, negotiators have not yet agreed on the mandate we needed to solve the Koronivia Crisis. As we move into week two of COP27, it is imperative that food systems approaches are adopted as a critical part of the climate solution and the mandate for the future work on agriculture,” said Joao Campari, global food practice leader at WWF.

...

Farm-to-fork food systems produce around 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Even if all other sectors decarbonise by 2050, business-as-usual food systems would account for nearly the whole carbon budget of a two degrees Celsius future.

WWF said that in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, urgent action is needed to adopt nature-positive food production at scale, shift to healthier and more sustainable diets, and radically cut food loss and waste. Limiting food-based action to agriculture would make it extremely unlikely the world can deliver on the Paris Agreement.

...

https://www.iol.co.za/news/environment/look-its-make-or-break-time-for-global-food-systems-at-cop27-e0e26f69-cbb2-4a64-95e9-623f90e247e4

[gerontocrat]

The IEA released its electricity, oil and natural gas data for August 22 today

You can see some of the results on the "renewable" energy and "oil & gas issues" threads.

Basically no signs of peak fossil fuels arriving, except maybe for electricity generation if wind+solar maintain their current above linear trend growth.

Optimism dies when confronted with hard data.

[trm1958]

“Keeping the 1.5 alive is still very very much on the agenda and especially as far as the G20 countries are concerned, who are collectively responsible for 80% of global emissions,” he told journalists on Friday.

And on this count, he said Europe was delivering.

Last week, the EU concluded negotiations on two pieces of legislation that are part of a broader package of laws aimed at reducing the bloc’s emissions by 55% by 2030. These come after the bloc reached a landmark agreement two weeks ago requiring all new cars and vans to be zero-emission as of 2035, a move that effectively spells the end of petrol and diesel engines.

For the Dutchman, the higher level of ambition shown by EU legislators means Europe is now in a position to increase its emissions reduction target submitted to the United Nations, its Nationally Determined Contribution.

Yeah, right. If countries kept their pledges and targets we would have nearly solved AGW by now.
Call me back when it happens.

[NeilT]

Optimism dies when confronted with hard data.

Optimism should have been dead the moment the politicians turned up with their fossil lobby retinue.

[kassy]

Nearing the end. Doesn´t look like they got too much done. The 1,5C target stays but Indias proposal to phase out all fossil fuels did not make it to the draft version of the final text.

25 months to realize meaningful reductions.

[NeilT]

25 months to realize meaningful reductions.

That it is little more than a talking shop.

[kassy]

It was a clarification on the AR6 report. For some reason that was summarized as we need reductions before 2030 but to do that you actually need reductions before 2025. At some point you need to start reducing fossil fuel pollution in a meaningful way. If you do it later and peak is higher the end result will worse.

This matters, especially for the people who will have to live in it.

[NeilT]

This matters, especially for the people who will have to live in it.

We will all have to live in it, only some will have to live in it sooner.

[kassy]

We will all have to live with the part of the consequences that happen in our time.

Will we see the absolute maximum temperatures? Probably not because we are not the youngest.
It would be one thing if the whole world was working together to reduce fossil fuel pollution but we are not. We are phasing down coal...

Are we going to see the 2C or 2,7C that could happen at the end of the century? Nope because barring all else old age would have come for us.

Just as we do not have to deal with the problematic sea level rise in our time but later they will need to do something (mostly move).

Someone who gets born in 2050 will still need to clean up a mess they did not make. Etc.

[NeilT]

I think we have already passed the time where living in it, for anyone currently alive, is going to have an impact on their lives.

The scale of impact.  Now that's a real differentiator.  As you say, anyone born now will have a serious impact in 2100.  Anyone born in 2050 is going to see really bad times.

But my view is everyone, now and future, needs to know that there is no longer any "no impact time".  Only then will they start to act or demand their governments act.

[gerontocrat]

One result from COP27 that was not on the agenda.....

extract from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2022/nov/18/cop27-egypt-eu-finance-fund-poorer-countries-climate-conference-live
Surprisingly large number of gas deals struck at Egyptian summit

by Oliver Milman

While negotiators frantically try to hammer out some sort of deal at Cop27, the fossil fuel industry has already secured a result of sorts, with more than a dozen major gas deals struck during the two-week span of the climate talks.

The announced deals include an agreement between Tanzania and Shell for an LNG export facility, a move by the French oil and gas giant Total to drill in Lebanon, a partnership between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia on oil and gas extraction and a deal spearheaded by the US to provide new renewable energy investment to Egypt, in return for gas exports to Europe.

“There is no sign the oil and gas industries are slowing down, we are at risk of a major surge in gas projects that could push us beyond 1.5C,” said David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International.

The gas deals are, at least, being outstripped by new clean energy announcements – at least 26 new renewable projects or agreements have been publicly announced since the start of Cop.

But the heavy presence of oil and gas lobbyists in Sharm el-Sheikh – more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists have attended, a record – and the featuring of oil and gas representatives in events held by the Egyptian organisers of the talks suggests that climate conferences are still not feared places to tread for the primary instigators of the climate crisis.

“It’s definitely noticeable how many oil and gas people there are here compared to previous Cops,” said Tong, who has been to eight of the UN climate summits. “On top of that, it’s still hard to tell whether any reference to phasing out fossil fuels will make it into the draft decision here.”

but Musk/Twitter is getting a lot more media attention (including on the ASIF).

[gerontocrat]

& who else is at COP27 - BIG AG
No doubt they were all ready to play their part in reducing AGW and encouraging biodiversity

Big Ag representatives at Cop in large numbers this year
Helena Horton

A great scoop here from Desmog, who have found that representatives from big agriculture have more than doubled at Cop27 this year.

Meat, dairy and pesticide producers were all present at the climate conference, which this year had a focus on biodiversity.

Many have complained that there has been little discussion of how meat and dairy production is responsible for a large portion of both emissions and biodiversity degradation.

DeSmog counted the number of registered COP27 delegates who were either directly linked to the world’s largest agribusiness firms – such as meatpackers JBS, food corporation Cargill, or biotech leaders Bayer – or participating in the UN talks as part of delegations that represent industry interests.

They found that the number of delegates linked to such businesses rose from 76 in 2021 to at least 160 this year – double the presence at COP26 in Glasgow. The world’s top five pesticide producers sent 27 representatives, according to the research, which is more than some country delegations.

There were 35 delegates linked to the biggest meat and dairy companies and associated industry lobby groups, which DeSmog worked out is greater than the combined delegations of the Philippines and Haiti, which are among the countries most affected by climate breakdown.

[kassy]

But my view is everyone, now and future, needs to know that there is no longer any "no impact time".  Only then will they start to act or demand their governments act.

Well that we agree on. The question is how much impact people need. We have seen some bad things but there is so much else demanding attention. So i fear we need something really drastic and by that time we will have wasted more time and endangered many. 

Surprisingly large number of gas deals struck at Egyptian summit
Big Ag representatives at Cop in large numbers this year

I think it would waste less energy if we cancel COP 28 and on. In general all the business interests should not be invited. You can lobby and bribe at home...saves at least some flying. 

[NeilT]

Yes but it is such a good deal for the fossil lobby.  All their targets In one venue.

[gerontocrat]

COP27 - Lack of Progress Report
Looks like you can forget emissions peaking in 2025 and greenwashing rules, OK.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2022/nov/19/cop27-fears-15c-target-danger-negotiations-overrun-live
Despite breakthrough on loss and damage fund, Cop27 outcomes look disappointingly similar to last year’s climate summit in Scotland

Sun 20 Nov 2022 05.57 GMT
It is almost 8am in Sharm El-Sheikh and the closing plenary is still going, with final statements being made by parties and observers.

Some of the elation at Cop27’s historic deal on loss and damage is giving way to the realisation the conference didn’t deliver on the fundamental challenge of agreeing more rapid cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia’s lead climate negotiator, Kristen Tilley, has just made a statement on behalf of members of the Umbrella group – a negotiating bloc that includes Australia, Canada, Japan, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, the UK and the United States.

The loss and damage deal was historic, she said, but:

We must go further in light of the stark findings of the latest science including by recognising that global emissions must peak by 2025 to keep 1.5C alive.

In a speech to the plenary, She asked all countries to come up with an “urgent escalation of our efforts”.

Parties, we must turn resolve into action. We are deeply disappointed that some parties have sought to restrain the ambition of this work [climate mitigation] work program. We cannot decide to do less.

05.36 GMT
The European Union’s climate policy chief Frans Timmermans has just delivered an impassioned plea to the floor of the closing plenary at Cop27 in Egypt.

Timmermans said sacrifices had been made in order to get the agreement for loss and damage over the line, but he left the room in no doubt of his disappointment.

Friends are not friends if they only tell you what you want to hear. Last night our talks have stalled. There were too many attempts to roll back even on what we agreed in Glasgow.

Timmermans asked all countries to do more.

The fight for ambition for a better future is not yet over. In fact it’s only just begun. We know the cost of inaction is so much higher than the cost of action.

We have all fallen short in actions to avoid loss and damage. Our citizens expect us to lead. That means far more rapidly reduced emissions.

05.10 GMT
UN secretary general:
He’s already described the creation of a loss and damage fund for developing countries as an important step for climate justice.

He said financial institutions and multinational banks needed to “accept more risk and systematically leverage private finance for developing countries at reasonable costs.”

But let’s be clear. Our planet is still in the emergency room.

We need to drastically reduce emissions now – and this is an issue this COP did not address.

A fund for loss and damage is essential – but it’s not an answer if the climate crisis washes a small island state off the map – or turns an entire African country to desert.

The world still needs a giant leap on climate ambition.

The red line we must not cross is the line that takes our planet over the 1.5 degree temperature limit.

04.39 GMT
Progress on loss and damage comes despite stalled climate ambitions
Oliver Milman
While there has been a landmark breakthrough on loss and damage, the other outcomes of Cop27 look disappointingly similar to last year’s climate summit in Scotland.

Last year, for the first time, a fossil fuel – namely coal – was mentioned for “phase down” in a UN climate agreement and several countries, and climate campaigners, had pushed for all fossil fuels, including oil and gas, to be named for elimination at Cop27.

But this did not happen, nor did any stronger language around achieving the in-peril target of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This has led to frustration among some countries.

Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s environment minister, said

We were suggesting we should have a phaseout of unabated fossil fuels, of course this is not in, I would prefer it to be in.

It’s not as strong as we’d like it to be, but it doesn’t raise ambition further and that’s something we have to work on further at Cop28.

Even worse to some was the inclusion in the agreement text of “low-emission” as well as renewable energy, a wording that could be interpreted as an endorsement of gas, which is seen as a cleaner fossil fuel than coal and yet still comes with substantial planet-heating emissions.

Collin Rees, campaign manager at Oil Change International, said:

Cop27’s key steps toward a loss and damage fund are deeply marred by the lack of progress on fossil fuels.

Despite unprecedented discussion of equitably phasing out oil, gas, and coal, the end result was yet another Cop without formal recognition that Big Oil is driving the climate crisis and harming communities.

Climate scientists have warned that there currently is no credible path to staying below 1.5C given countries’ insufficient emissions reduction targets, with 2022 on track to set a new record for global greenhouse gas emissions.

Some proposals that have come before the Cop have gone unresolved and so have been been referred back to the next meeting,

It is 6.45am in Sharm El-Sheikh and some officials on the main stage are struggling to keep their eyes open.

04.27 GMT
A historic deal to set up a “loss and damage” fund to pay poorer countries harmed by the impacts of the climate crisis has been agreed to at a UN summit, capping a decades-long fight by climate campaigners and developing nations.

The decision marked a breakthrough at the climate negotiations, where for years developing countries have pressed wealthier nations to provide a form of compensation for the droughts, wildfires, floods and other escalating climate impacts they’ve faced due to the planet-heating emissions that have mostly come from the richest corners of the world.

Nina Lakhani
When the dust settles on Cop27, the new carbon market rules – article 6 of the Paris agreement – will likely be one of the most controversial and far reaching deals of the summit.

Critics say it lacks transparency, allows questionable accounting practices, backtracks on human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, and locks in loopholes for polluting industries and countries to greenwash and delay greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

Rachel Rose Jackson from Corporate Accountability said:

These outcomes are only worthy of celebration if you are either a carbon marketeer about to profit immensely, or the Global North governments who are locking in their ability to recklessly use offsets and removals - without required human rights and other safeguards - to ignore their obligation to actually reduce emissions. This is not reflective of keeping 1.5 alive.

[NeilT]

There is no need to go into any detail on this. All that is needed is to go back and look at compliance with kyoto.

No compliance with kyoto and everything else is just talk to make the concerned think that the government's care.

[oren]

COP is coopted by the lobbyists and polluters.

[trm1958]

Capitalism Versus Climate Justice – thoughts on my first and last experience of climate COP
Professor Jem Bendell
https://jembendell.com/2022/11/18/capitalism-versus-climate-justice-thoughts-on-my-first-and-last-experience-of-climate-cop/#more-2956

Maybe better luck at COP28? 

[be cause]

or maybe the one in China in Wae Tu Late ?

[gerontocrat]

My final post on COP27. I thought about locking the thread in disgust but... whatever.

Extracts from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/20/world-still-on-brink-of-climate-catastrophe-after-cop27-deal  plus my comments

World still ‘on brink of climate catastrophe’ after Cop27 deal
Experts say biggest economies must pledge more cuts to carbon emissions but hail agreement to set up loss and damage fund

A deal on loss and damage, but a blow to 1.5C – what will be Cop27’s legacy?

The agreement reached in Sharm el-Sheikh early on Sunday morning, after a marathon final negotiating session that ran 40 hours beyond its deadline, was hailed for providing poor countries for the first time with financial assistance known as loss and damage. A fund will be set up by rich governments for the rescue and rebuilding of vulnerable areas stricken by climate disaster, a key demand of developing nations for the last 30 years of climate talks.

So what happened to the "polluter pays" principle?
It looks like the polluter (the fossil fuel industry) pays nothing while Governments (that's you and me) cough up the loot.

And the fossil fuel industry got another few years of BAU (see below)

But the outcome was widely judged a failure on efforts to cut carbon dioxide, after oil-producing countries and high emitters weakened and removed key commitments on greenhouse gases and phasing out fossil fuels.

Oil-producing countries had thwarted attempts to strengthen the deal, said Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, now chief executive of the European Climate Foundation. “The influence of the fossil fuel industry was found across the board,” she said. “This Cop has weakened requirements around countries making new and more ambitious commitments [on cutting emissions]. The text [of the deal] makes no mention of phasing out fossil fuels, and scant reference to the 1.5C target.”

She blamed the host country, Egypt, for allowing its regional alliances to sway the final decision, a claim hotly denied by the hosts.

Next year’s conference....will take place in Dubai, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s biggest oil exporters.

Alok Sharma, the UK’s Cop26 president, sacked as a minister by Rishi Sunak, was visibly angry at the close of the conference.

In Glasgow, in the final moments a commitment to phase out coal was watered down by China and India to a phase down of coal, a last-minute trial that reduced Sharma to the brink of tears. At Cop27, he joined with efforts to include a phase down of all fossil fuels in the text, but it was reduced in the final stages to a simple repetition of the Glasgow commitment to phase down coal.

Sharma listed commitments weakened or lost, hitting the table for emphasis: “We joined with many parties to propose a number of measures that would have contributed to this.

Emissions peaking before 2025, as the science tells us is necessary.
Not in this text.

Clear follow-through on the phase down of coal.
Not in this text.

A commitment to phase out all fossil fuels.
Not in this text.

And the energy text, weakened in the final minutes [to endorse “low-emissions energy”, which can be interpreted as a reference to gas].”

Sharma concluded: “I said in Glasgow that the pulse of 1.5C was weak. Unfortunately, it remains on life support.”

Sharma is an optimist. +1.5 is dead, gone, finis. +2.0 is on life support

[Human Habitat Index]

Industrial civilisation is a heat engine with no reverse gear. Indigenous civilisations are clearly superior in terms of sustainability but are over run because Industrial economies survive on growth and hence exploitation.

Net zero ? How ? What about the aerosol masking effect ? What is the effiency of renewables ? How many millions of kms of interconnectiveness will be needed in Australia ? Poles, wires sequestrated land ? What about depreciation, maintenance and replacement ?

I was done after Copenhagen and have since got through the stages of grief.

There are no good guys or bad guys.

It is what it is.

[Sebastian Jones]

Holding the next COP in  the UAE is really rubbing our faces in it.
The fossil fuel industry certainly had a good COP; the $ spent on the 600+ lobbyists they sent was well spent, and the assistance provided them by oil exporting countries (including, to my shame, Canada) was invaluable in helping to keep us locked into fossil fuels.

[GreenPatch]

Is anyone here at COP27?

[kassy]

I suspect not. It would be a waste of time and energy going there anyway.