(BBC) Climate Change: Stop Smoke And Mirrors, Rich Nations Told

BBC - Matt McGrath

Young protesters in Milan argue that ministers aren't doing enough. EPA

Rich countries' plans to curb carbon are "smoke and mirrors" and must be urgently improved, say poorer nations.

Ministers meeting here in Milan at the final UN session before the Glasgow COP26 climate conference heard that some progress was being made.

But officials from developing countries demanded tougher targets for cutting carbon emissions and more cash to combat climate change.

One minister condemned "selfishness or lack of good faith" in the rich world.

US special envoy John Kerry said all major economies "must stretch" to do the maximum they can.

Around 50 ministers from a range of countries met here to try to overcome some significant hurdles before world leaders gather in Glasgow in November.

But for extremely vulnerable countries to a changing climate the priority is more ambitious carbon reductions from the rich, to preserve the 1.5C temperature target set by the 2015 Paris agreement.

Scientists have warned that allowing the world temperatures to rise more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is highly dangerous.

An assessment of the promises made so far to cut carbon suggests that the world is on track for around 2.7C.

Ministers from developing countries say this is just not acceptable - they are already experiencing significant impacts on their economies with warming currently just over 1C.

US special envoy John Kerry called on all richer countries to step up. Reuters

"We're already on hellish ground at 1.1C," said Simon Steill, Grenada's environment minister who argues that the plans in place just weren't good enough to prevent disaster for his island state.

"We're talking about lives, we're talking about livelihoods, they cannot apply smoke and mirrors to that."

"Every action that is taken, every decision that is taken, has to be aligned with 1.5C, we have no choice."

Some delegates felt that richer countries aren't sufficiently engaged on the issue of 1.5C, because they are wealthy enough to adapt to the changes.

"They don't care about 1.5C because if there's sea level rise, they have the means to build sea walls, and they are just remaining there in their high walls of comfort," said Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Some countries are willing to do things but they don't have the means, some have the means but are not willing to do things. Now how do we find the right choreography?"

On this question of choreography, ministers were in agreement that the G20 group of countries should be leading the dance.

Alok Sharma is the UK minister in charge of COP26. Reuters

Mr Kerry called on India and China, who are part of the G20, to put new carbon plans on the table before leaders gather in Glasgow. "All G20 countries, all large economies, all need to try to stretch to do more," he told the gathering.

"I'm not singling out one nation over another. But I am encouraging all of us to try to do the maximum we can."

Analysis Victoria Gill, science correspondent The mood on the street in Milan could not have contrasted more sharply with the formal, political roundtable discussions inside the PreCOP26 conference. On Friday, students and activists marched to the doors of the conference venue - banners waving and arms linked in a human wall to protect Greta Thunberg, who led the procession. There were cheers of: "We are unstoppable, another world is possible". And just one day after sharing the stage with world leaders, and after meeting the Italian prime minister, 18-year-old Greta told a cheering crowd: "We are sick of their blah blah blah and sick of their lies." Meanwhile, behind the concrete walls of the conference hall on Saturday, ministers were cautiously optimistic that their discussions had laid crucial foundations for the UN climate meeting in November. As he brought the meeting to a close, Alok Sharma, president for the much-anticipated COP26 in Glasgow, assured me that there was now a tangible "sense of urgency". "It's this set of world leaders that are deciding the future," he said. "We're going to respond to what we've heard here from young people."

One of the biggest remaining hurdles to progress remains the question of finance. The richer world promised to pay developing nations $100bn a year from 2020.

That figure hasn't yet been met and while ministers here were confident it would be achieved in Glasgow, the failure to land the money is eroding trust.

"Everything we need to do, we know what that is, and now it's just a question of who's going to be paying for it, who is going to be willing to share their technology," said Tosi Mpanu Mpanu.

"And that's where the problem is. So there seems to be at times selfishness or lack of good faith."

Despite these reservations, the UK minister tasked with delivering success in Glasgow was in positive mood after the meeting in Milan. "I think we go forward to Glasgow with a spirit of co-operation," said Alok Sharma.

"I do not want to underestimate the amount of work that is required but I think there is a renewed urgency in our discussions."

However there are significant hurdles to clear before leaders arrive in Glasgow and technical questions about carbon markets and transparency are still unresolved.

"We need to change. And we need to change radically, we need to change fast," said EU vice-president Frans Timmermans. "And that's going to be bloody hard."

Links

• COP26
• Money on the agenda at Milan climate talks
• Youth have right to be angry on climate, UK PM says
• Australia PM may skip COP26 climate summit
• (CNN) Australia's Climate Policy Is Being Dictated By A Former Accountant In A Cowboy Hat
• (AU SMH) While The 2050 Battle Rages In Australia, The World Is Talking 2030
• (CNET) Climate Change: COP26 Is The Biggest Conference In The World. Here's Why It Matters
• (The Guardian) The Climate Crisis Has Sparked An Economic Arms Race – And Australia Cannot Afford To Stay Idle
• (ABC) Crowdfunded Billboards At World Climate Conference To Take Aim At The Australian Government
• (CNN) Australia's Scott Morrison Under Climate Pressure At Home As Biggest State Boosts Targets

(AU The Guardian) NSW Environment Minister Urges Moderate Liberals To Push The Party Harder On Net Zero

The Guardian - Katharine Murphy

Matt Kean says Matt Canavan and George Christensen ‘never worry about rocking the boat, so why should progressive, economically rational Liberals not do likewise?’

NSW minister for energy and the environment Matt Kean wants fellow moderate Liberals to pressure Scott Morrison to take action on climate. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

The New South Wales environment minister Matt Kean has called on fellow Liberal moderates in Canberra to replicate the forceful lobbying of National MPs, and insist that Scott Morrison takes a net zero target to the Cop26 in Glasgow.

Kean has warned in an interview with Guardian Australia’s politics podcast that traditional Liberal voters are prepared to rise up against Liberal governments failing to take ambitious action to reduce emissions and transition to a sustainable economy.

The interview follows NSW this week unveiling a new pledge to halve emissions in the state by 2030. The previous state target was a 35% cut compared with 2005 levels.

Emission pledges by states put extra pressure on Scott Morrison to lift national climate goals.  Read more

The new commitment spearheaded by Kean was backed by Liberals and Nationals in cabinet – while their federal counterparts remain publicly split on climate policy in the lead up to the Glasgow conference.

With the Cop26 bearing down, the NSW minister and prominent Liberal moderate says colleagues in Canberra need to find their voice, and quickly.

“I think sensible Liberals need to make their position very clear to the prime minister just as Matt Canavan, George Christensen and other characters make abundantly clear their views on these issues.”

“They never worry about rocking the boat, so why should progressive, economically rational Liberals not do likewise? We should be standing up for our constituencies, we should be standing up for our country and we should be making our voice known in the Liberal party and in the public domain.”

Kean believes Scott Morrison should adopt the mid-century net zero target, and also commit to a more ambitious medium-term emissions reduction target.

Courtesy of the NSW commitment, and with other states contributing to the heavy lifting on emissions reduction, Morrison would now be in a position to unveil a 34% cut in national greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 based on existing pledges, rather than sticking to the current national 2030 target of a 26 to 28% cut.

There has been sustained speculation that Morrison could update the 2030 pledge as well as committing to net zero, assuming the Nationals can be persuaded. But the scenario considered more likely is Australia will predict overachievement on the existing target rather than adjust the current pledge.

The NSW environment and energy minister said the coming transition should be viewed through the lens of economic opportunity rather than cost. In electoral terms, he says the threat in the Liberal party’s electoral heartland is real, with groups like Climate 200 promoting independent candidates.

“The number one issue in my community is taking action on the environment that also helps our economy, and that should be completely in line with what conservatives, who are meant to be conserving things, should be about: conserving our planet, handing it to the next generation better than we found it, but also seizing the biggest economic opportunity that we will ever see,” Kean said.

“I don’t want to see strong, good Liberal moderates thrown out and replaced with independents.”

“Strong economically rational and socially progressive voices in the Liberal party can bring about change for the better and that’s what we are doing here in New South Wales”.

“I want those people to stand up in the Liberal party and be counted and then they won’t have an issue from independent voices looking to knock them off in a general election”.

Climate pressure on Scott Morrison grows as NSW promises to cut emissions in half by 2030.  Read more

The Morrison government is expected to unveil its commitments for Glasgow by mid-October. Some Queensland Nationals have signalled they are implacably opposed to net zero.

Federal Liberals in metropolitan seats have called publicly for Morrison to adopt the net zero commitment. A number of these MPs would also support a higher medium term emissions reduction target.

Given the opposition from some Nationals, government MPs say the federal minister for energy and emissions reduction Angus Taylor has privately floated the idea that the Coalition could adopt a plan to get to net zero without signing up to the target. But many Liberals regard this idea as completely suboptimal in a policy sense, and politically untenable.

Guardian Australia revealed earlier this week Morrison met on Tuesday with a deputation of Liberals in a teleconference – including Dave Sharma, Fiona Martin, Trent Zimmerman, Julian Leeser, John Alexander, Julian Simmons, Angie Bell, Paul Scarr, Andrew Bragg, Tim Wilson, Katie Allen, Dean Smith, Jason Falinski, Celia Hammond and Bridget Archer.

The prime minister is understood to have told the group it remained his preference to land a roadmap laying out the required technology, actions to get to net zero emissions by mid-century and the 2050 target.

Morrison also acknowledged that climate change was now a vote-changing issue in the Liberal party heartland.

Links

• (AU) The Liberal Minister Forcing Action On Climate Change
• Australians have spoken on climate, so there's no excuse to look backwards
• Matt Kean's journey from PwC accountant to electrifying Liberal
• 'Doing nothing is not a solution': Matt Kean blames climate crisis for bushfires
• NSW environment minister urges end to 'pointless, backward-looking arguments' about climate action\
• Kean's 'radical' thinking is good for climate climate and politics
• Matt Kean: Conservatives should embrace wind and solar, not fight it 
• Launch of the ‘Climate of the Nation’ Report
• It's time to win climate wars, NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean says
• Does Scott Morrison’s climate spin match his government’s record on emissions?
• Australian politics: Matt Kean on climate change, the Coalition and the economic case for net zero

(The Independent, UK) Australian Government ‘Wilfully Negligent’ On Climate Crisis, Says Scientist Studying Impact On Bees

The Independent - Harry Cockburn

Scott Morrison’s administration ‘not taking the environment seriously’, says Dr James Dorey

Fire burns within sight of the suburban fringe of the city of Canberra on January 31, 2020. (Getty)

A scientist studying the impact of worsening wildfires in Australia on the country’s native bees has accused the government of acting in a “wilfully negligent way when it comes to climate”, failing to protect biodiversity, and not caring about the future.

Dr James Dorey, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University, and the lead author of new research led by Flinders University, made the remarks following the publication of research revealing the number of threatened Australian native bee species is on course to increase by almost five times after the devastating “Black Summer” bushfires of 2019-2020.

The extensive fires burnt through 24 million hectares, destroying around 3,000 homes, and killed or displaced an estimated 3 billion animals.

The research team assessed 553 bee species – around one-third of Australia’s known bee species – and found marked population reductions among many.

Nine species were assessed as “vulnerable” and two more “endangered” as a direct result of the multiple fire fronts in the 2019-20 bushfires.

Describing the research as a “call to action”, Dr Dorey told The Independent that it was “no surprise”, the species were suffering due to the lack of ambition to tackle the climate crisis in Australia.

“The Australian government is acting in a wilfully negligent way when it comes to climate and I honestly think that we could be punching above our weight when it comes to climate action. Instead, Australia continues to invest public money into climate-wrecking fossil fuel industries,” he said.

“Of course, climate change is a global challenge and Australia is not alone in failing to act, but truly it feels like our federal and many state governments care not a smidge for the natural world of which we should be active and positive custodians.”

He added: “It is no surprise at all that there are species getting pushed towards extinction by climate change and massive disturbance events, like the Black Summer bushfires.”

The study also warned widespread wildfire and forest fire damage is being repeated all around the world, from North America and Europe to the Congo and Asia, causing catastrophic impacts on biodiversity and sudden and marked reduction in population sizes of many species.

Dr Dorey said it was “incredibly frustrating” that Australian prime minister Scott Morrison had suggested he may not attend the UN’s Cop26 climate summit in the UK – a meeting widely regarded as the last chance for governments to act on the runaway climate emergency.

He said: “It feels like an explicit admission that Scott Morrison, and the federal government, doesn’t care at all about our climate or our future.

“The government is not taking the environment seriously, which is terrible because the Australian environment is incredible and worth saving. As are the ecosystems found around the world. I think that our governments should be thinking ahead and for future generations. Not just their next election.”

Fellow author Dr Stefan Caddy-Retalic, from the University of Adelaide and University of Sydney said the research underlines the importance of studying impacts on less visible species.

“Climate change is increasing the frequency of natural disasters like wildfire, which impacts our wildlife.

“Listing severely-impacted species on the IUCN red list and under Australian law represents our best approach to lobby governments to act,” he said, adding that native bees are very important providers of ecosystem services including pollination, but most are poorly known.

Olivia Davies, a Flinders University researcher and also an author on the paper, said: “Most people aren’t aware of just how vulnerable our native bees are because they are not widely studied.

“The fact that no Australian bees are listed by the IUCN shows just how neglected these important species are.”

The research is published in the journal Global Change Biology.

Links

• Could Climate Change Lead To The Extinction Of Bees?
• Continental risk assessment for understudied taxa post‐catastrophic wildfire indicates severe impacts on the Australian bee fauna
• World’s largest carbon-sucking factory starts operation in Iceland
• ‘The climate crisis is a reality’: Africa’s summer of extremes
• Against the odds: The fight to save sea turtles in Ras Baridi
• UK renewables growth falls to lowest rate in a decade
• Extinction Rebellion protesters blockade Farnborough airport
• ‘We’re disappointed’: Young climate activists call for meeting with PM ahead of Cop26