Lethal Heating: 12/16/19

16/12/2019

UN COP25 Summit Ends With Anger With Global Warming's 'Window Of Escape' Getting Harder

More than 100 activists lined up outside the venue to promote their message. (AP: Bernat Armangue)

Key points

The summit was due to end Friday but dragged on with disputes over implementing the Paris deal
The Paris agreement enters a crucial implementation phase in 2020
The EU's 28 member states, bar Poland, agreed to target net zero emissions by 2050

Major economies have resisted calls for bolder commitments as a UN summit in Madrid has limped towards a delayed conclusion, dimming hopes that nations would act in time to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
World leaders have been tasked with setting new emissions reduction benchmarks at COP25 in Madrid — the 25th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change — but many nations slammed Chile, presiding over the talks, for drafting a summit text that they said risked throwing the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle global warming into reverse.

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The Paris Agreement came into force in November 2016 and calls on signatories to drastically reduce emissions to a limit global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius before 2100.
It also called on wealthier nations to provide developing countries with financial aid to assist their transitions to cleaner economies.
The annual UN climate summit had been due to conclude on Friday but dragged on with delegates mired in multiple disputes over implementing the Paris deal, which has so far failed to stem the upward march of global carbon emissions.
The leaders are yet to agree on several issues including targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, financial aid for countries most at risk and rules on carbon trading.
Long-time participants in the talks were outraged at the unwillingness of major polluters, including Australia, to show more ambition with plans to tackle the climate crisis, after a year of wildfires, cyclones, droughts and floods.

'Our window of escape is getting harder and harder'

Rising sea levels are already forcing displacement among some vulnerable Pacific coastal communities. (Brad Marsellos: ABC Open)

Current national climate plans, if achieved, would lead to a temperature rise of at least 3 degrees, a level of warming that scientists say could lead to widespread food and water scarcity, more weather disasters and rising seas.
The science and growing public demand for action is heaping pressure on governments to meet a deadline to strengthen their climate plans by the end of next year — but only about 80 smaller-emitting countries have so far said they will.

For clarity, obviously all countries are here to advance their national interest. For some that's to stop all their citizens dying. For others it's profit #COP25 https://t.co/CaSy8OzeQU
— Patrick Galey (@patrickgaley) December 14, 2019

The European Union, small island states and many other nations had been calling for the Madrid decision to signal that the more than 190 countries participating in the Paris process will submit more ambitious pledges to cut emissions next year.
Carlos Fuller, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, said the 44 low-lying nations in the bloc wanted strict rules but were being sidelined as larger countries dominated the talks.
"Are we a party to this process or not?" Mr Fuller asked reporters outside a meeting hall.
This was echoed by Papua New Guinea's climate envoy Kevin Conrad, who told reporters "90 per cent" of COP25's participants had not been involved.
The agreement enters a crucial implementation phase in 2020 when countries are supposed to ratchet up their ambitions ahead of the next major round of talks in Glasgow.

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If big polluters such as Australia, China, India, Japan, Brazil and others fail to agree to more meaningful climate action soon, then scientists say already slim hopes of averting catastrophic temperature rises will all but vanish.
Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he had attended the climate negotiations since they first started in 1991.
"But never have I seen the almost total disconnect we've seen here at COP25 in Madrid between what the science requires and the people of the world demand, and what the climate negotiations are delivering in terms of meaningful action," he said.

"The planet is on fire and our window of escape is getting harder and harder to reach the longer we wait to act."

'A quantum leap in the other direction'

There was anger among campaigners directed at Chile, which is presiding over the summit. (Reuters: Javier Barbancho)

Although no advanced economy is yet on track for the kind of action scientists say is needed to steer the climate onto a safer path, all the EU's 28 member states, bar Poland, agreed in Brussels on Thursday to target net-zero emissions by 2050.Krista Mikkonen, Finland's Environment Minister, speaking on behalf of the EU, told the talks that it would be "impossible to leave" without agreeing a "strong message" on the need to redouble pledges to cut emissions next year.
Tina Steger, climate envoy of the Marshall Islands, echoed the call, telling delegates: "It appears we are going backwards on the issue of ambition when in fact we should be calling for a quantum leap in the other direction."

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Ministers broke into groups on Saturday (local time) for eleventh-hour negotiations on a tangle of issues, including finance for climate-vulnerable countries, carbon markets, and the all-important issue of the strength of the summit's final text.
The Paris process has been weakened by a move by US President Donald Trump to begin withdrawing the world's largest historical emitter from the agreement last month, making it easier for other big countries to backslide.
Chile became the target of anger among campaigners, who said the draft text circulating was among the worst they had seen in many years of UN climate negotiations.
Outside the talks, supporters of the international group Extinction Rebellion stood on 12 blocks of ice with nooses around their necks to symbolise the disappearing time left to "change the trajectory and truly face the reality of the planetary climate and ecological emergency", the group said.

Extinction Rebellion protesters warned of the "planetary climate and ecological emergency" in Madrid. (AP: Manu Fernandez)

"At a time when scientists are queuing up to warn about terrifying consequences if emissions keep rising, and school children are taking to the streets in their millions, what we have here in Madrid is a betrayal of people across the world," said Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy think tank in Nairobi.

"The approach Chile has taken on this text shows how it has listened to the polluters and not to the people," said Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International.

In response to critics, Andres Landerretche, coordinator of the summit for Chile, said they would aim "at a more ambitious text".
"We are at a defining moment and we need to have an outcome based on what the science is telling us," he said.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has issued a dire warning that humanity is running out of time to save itself from climate change. (ABC News)

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(AU) 'Not Winning Friends': Australia Cops Blame As Climate Talks Extended

Sydney Morning Herald - Peter Hannam

Global climate talks have been extended into the weekend as nations wrangle over carbon accounting issues, including whether Australia should be able to slash its Paris emissions reduction goals using a surplus from an earlier era.
As is typical with Conference of the Parties (COP) events, the gathering in the Spanish capital of Madrid blew past its Friday deadline. Observers expect negotiations on carbon trading rules and other issues to last until at least Sunday, Australian time.

Still time for last-minutes snaps: Climate talks in Madrid, Spain, have run over time as nations wrangle over key definitions that could affect Australia. Credit: Getty

International media singled out Australia's insistence it be allowed to count "over-achievement" during the 2012-20 Kyoto Protocol period to reduce its abatement task during the 2021-30 Paris accord as one brake on progress.
Sweden's TT News Agency blamed the stalled talks on Australia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil.
John Connor, chief executive of the Carbon Markets Institute, said a ban on Australia's use of so-called Kyoto carry-over credits remained an option in final drafts.
The use of a "surplus" – effectively halving Australia's Paris pledge of reducing 2005-levels of emissions by 26 per cent by 2030 – opened the door to India and former Soviet nations to cut their ambition too, he said.

Angus Taylor, Australia's Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister (right), sits with other delegations during a panel session earlier this week on financing the Paris climate agreement. Credit: EPA/Juan Carlos Hidalgo

"Other countries definitely care ... because the Kyoto carryover is a card only developed countries, who had carbon budget commitments under the Kyoto protocol, can play," Mr Connor said. "To date it remains that only Australia is willing to play that card and it’s not winning them friends."
The Carbon Markets Institute said 76 per cent of Australian businesses are opposed to the Morrison government's plan to use Kyoto credits to cut the Paris abatement task, citing survey results it will release on Monday.
From Madrid, Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said: "We are working professionally and constructively to finalise the outstanding elements of the Paris Agreement 'rulebook'."
Lately, the government has argued the credits don't belong in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement being debated in Madrid because it has no intention to trade or sell them to other countries.

Richie Merzian, a former climate negotiator for Australia, said it remained likely Australia would get its way and have the banning clause removed from the final draft rather than stall progress on carbon trading or other issues.
Still, it "will most likely rear its head next year", at the next COP to be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
"All countries will be pressured to do more to increase their [emissions] targets or tighten the back end," Mr Merzian, now an analyst with The Australia Institute, said from Madrid. "It's certainly not going off the agenda."
Labor last week reiterated its opposition to the use of Kyoto credits. Its climate spokesman, Mark Butler, said Scott Morrison’s government was "trying every accounting trick in the book rather than take any action on climate change".
"As the country continues to burn and hot weather records are imminent, Australians are rightly fed up that this government won’t take climate action and they have no plans to reduce emissions," he said.
Adam Bandt, the Greens' climate spokesman, said the government's absence of climate policy was "no longer politically tenable at home or abroad".
“This climate cheating won’t just undermine the global climate push, it will jeopardise our economy, such as in the current trade negotiations with the European Union, Australia’s second largest trading partner," Mr Bandt said.

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(AU) Wake Up, Australia: Deceit And Post-Truth Politics Will Not Save You From The Flames

The Guardian - Quentin Grafton | Matthew Colloff | Virginia Marshall | John Williams

With the country facing water and climate emergencies, the last thing we need is more spin from leaders in thrall to the big end of town

‘Over the last week, Australians witnessed a full-scale retreat to the delusions of the past about the nature of the continent on which we live.’ Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

Authors

Quentin Grafton, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University (ANU)

Matthew Colloff, Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU

Virginia Marshall, School of Regulation and Global Governance and Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU

John Williams Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU

A mega fire from the Hunter region threatened our largest city while its residents sucked in polluted air and saw ash coming from the sky. An apocalyptic vision of what is in store in the now not-so-lucky country.

Do not be fooled. In a post-truth world our leaders would have us believe that the lack of water is all about the drought and the bushfires are part of a typical Australian summer (ignoring the thousands of years of sound water and land management by Indigenous Australians). The truth is that governments have mismanaged our most precious resource, water, and failed to act on climate change.
The facts are: Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing since the carbon tax was abolished in 2014, our climate is warming, and CSIRO has concluded that southern and eastern Australia is “projected to experience harsher fire weather (high confidence)”.
It is high time we woke up and saw the world the way it is, not the way our leaders, stuck in their post-truth bubbles, pretend it is. We have a critical water emergency. We have a climate emergency. We have a public policy emergency. An emergency requires urgent and effective actions.

If you went to a hospital emergency department with a severe heart attack and were seen by a spin doctor, you would die. Yet parliamentary spin doctors are killing our future. If you do not believe this, then look out your window (if you can see anything through the haze), breathe in the smoke outside and read the media releases from our political leaders.
Our leaders’ solution to the water emergency is to build more dams that will not fill up in a drought. Our leaders’ solution to a climate emergency is to double down on policies that are proven failures.

Australian political leaders have been captured by vested interests

Over the last week, Australians witnessed some of the worst examples of policy on the run and a full-scale retreat to the myths and delusions of the past about the nature of the continent on which we live.
Despite saying they want to listen to “quiet Australians”, it seems the government actually listens to the noisy Australians, at least those from the big end of town who come knocking on ministerial doors demanding more water. This is about clawing back the independence of the commonwealth environmental water holder. Contrast the self-serving “can the plan” protesters who want more water at the expense of other people’s livelihoods with the volunteer firefighters putting their lives on the line. Yet it is the protesters who got what they asked for while our firefighters struggle to stop Australia burning with insufficient equipment and a lack of water.
The federal water minister has given the noisy protesters an inquiry headed by a hand-picked and Barnaby Joyce-quoting interim inspector general to see if water can be reallocated to upstream irrigation. It is hard to imagine how Mick Keelty can resolve water disputes that stretch back to federation (and British settlement). But those who protested in front of parliament, and also New South Wales’ “rip up the Basin plan” deputy premier, are pleased with the inquiry. We, the people, should be very concerned.
Meanwhile, the First Australians, Indigenous peoples of this ancient continent, many living in rural and remote communities, are forgotten. Australia’s First Peoples live in struggling communities in the northern basin, suffering from little or no water and inadequate water services, conditions that many Australians in the big cities would be appalled by and would not tolerate. Have we just stopped caring? Australia’s First Peoples continue to be dispossessed from water resources in their own country: the First Australians own or control less than 1% of all water entitlements yet foreign entities own more than 10%.
Keelty, who described his boss, David Littleproud, as demonstrating “exceedingly good leadership” after meeting the leaders of the “can the plan” protesters for five hours, reported to parliament on 5 December on the northern Murray-Darling basin. Despite evidence to the contrary, including from the Productivity Commission, he praised the Murray-Darling Basin Authority as a “stand-out agency”. He also quoted a description of the largest irrigation property in Australia (Cubbie station) as “an example of the private and public sectors engaging with one another to develop new ways of helping to meet environmental objectives”.
Keelty’s post-truth does not agree with the facts on the ground (have we forgotten so quickly the massive fish kill in January, or the towns without water?) or with the authoritative findings of the Australian Academy of Science and the Murray-Darling basin royal commission (including its findings that governments need to address their failures in Aboriginal water engagement). The royal commission concluded that the MDBA was responsible for “maladministration” and that, in relation to the MDBA’s northern basin review, its actions were largely driven by “political considerations” and that this was “not only unlawful but deplorable”.
To add to the smoke and spin, the prime minister announced that the departments of Energy and the Environment would be subsumed into a super Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. A cynic might rename it the Department of Conflicted Interests. And which interests do you think will be prioritised in this “super” department when it comes to reallocating water?
Australian political leaders have been captured by vested interests. How else can we explain why it took so long to get a royal commission on the banking sector? Or why lumps of coal are used as props in parliament or auctioned while our planet slowly burns? And why tens of thousands of Australians are stuck, with very little legal recourse, with apartments in dodgy buildings that they were told were properly inspected and certified safe?
Wake up Australia, before it is too late. There really is a water emergency and a climate emergency. Our democracy is on life support.
Facts and choices do matter and spin won’t put out bushfires. Nor will responding to the big end of town deliver water justice. The voiceless Australians need to be heard and truth must confront post-truth. If not, we risk losing what we hold most dear.

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