Page 8 - Climate Change Talks

COP28 summit forced into overtime as fossil fuel talks divide nations

Al Suwaidi said the COP28 presidency aimed for a "historic" result that included mentioning fossil fuels - but that it was up to countries to agree

Global South disappointed over GST draft at COP28; calls for revisions

Developing countries have deplored the latest draft of the global stocktake, the most important document of the ongoing climate conference (COP28) here, calling for major changes, including in the section offering options to slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, negotiators from the Global South said on Tuesday. The latest global stocktake (GST) draft, which will be the centrepiece of the final deal document, does not mention the "phase-out of fossil fuels". However, it includes stronger language on coal usage, which is problematic for heavily coal-dependent countries like India and China. Approximately 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions stem from coal, with oil and gas contributing to the remaining percentage. India, relying on coal for about 70 per cent of its power generation, aims to add 17 gigawatts of coal-based power generation capacity in the next 16 months. India has voiced strong concerns about the specific targeting of coal. Together with other developing ...

Climate talks enter last day with no agreement in sight on fossil fuels

Hopes for finishing a critical climate summit on time were fading early on Tuesday as countries were still far apart on key issues, including an agreement on what to do about the fossil fuels that are causing dangerous global warming. The United Nations-led summit known as COP28 was scheduled to end around midday after nearly two weeks of speeches, demonstrations and negotiations. But the climate talks often run long, and Monday's release of a draft agreement angered countries that insist on a commitment for rapid phase-out of coal, oil and gas. Instead, the draft called for countries to reduce consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner. Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, ridiculed the document as a meaningless wish list that questions the science" and said it doesn't address the Paris agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) to stave off the worst effects of climate change. Earth is on its w

Why climate efforts fail to cut emissions

Technological limitations and policy inconsistencies pose a formidable challenge

UN officials, activists ramp up urgency as COP28 enters final days

Visibly tired and frustrated top United Nations officials urged climate talks to push harder for an end to fossil fuels. Time seems to be running out both in the talks in Dubai and for action that could keep warming at or below the internationally agreed-upon threshold. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres returned to the summit on Monday and said it was time to go into overdrive, to negotiate in good faith, and rise to the challenge. He said negotiators at the COP28 summit in particular must focus on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and climate justice. He said the global stocktake the part of talks that assesses where the world is at with its climate goals and how it can reach them should phase out all fossil fuels in order to reach the goal of limiting the rise of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times. That phase-out was, he said, a central aspect" for the summit to be considered a success. "We can't k

Business booms on sidelines of COP28 as 'startup village' clinch deals

The executive agreed to a demonstration of the company's spray-on surface coating that breaks down air pollutants and repels dirt to treat its solar panel arrays

'COP28 decisions only as strong as what least-ambitious nations accept'

It's the killer detail in international climate talks: Consensus. With nearly 200 nations of different sizes, economies, political systems, resources and needs, they all have to find common ground if they are going to save the one common ground they share planet Earth. Consensus is frequently used to weaken efforts to curb climate change and experts say that's by design, dating back to oil interests and the first United Nations climate negotiations. Some veteran politicians would like to change it, while others embrace it as the only fair way to get things done. Whatever decision is taken can only be as strong as what the least ambitious (nations) are prepared to accept, said climate talks historian Joanna Depledge of Cambridge University. And we've seen that over the years. US Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said the practise of requiring near-unanimity could be fatal: A small, self-interested minority of states cannot be allowed to block the progress ...

Negotiators, activists ramp up urgency as climate talks enter final days

Delegates at the United Nations climate talks have little time left to decide how the world plans to cap planet-warming emissions and keep the worst of warming at bay, ramping up the urgency as new drafts were expected on key outcomes of the summit. Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, told journalists Monday morning that the climate wolves remained at the world's doors as negotiations reach their climax at the summit. We do not have a minute to lose in this crucial final stretch and none of us have had much sleep, Stiell said. He added that the areas where options need to be negotiated have narrowed significantly, in particular how to reduce planet-warming emissions and the transition with the proper means of support to deliver it. When asked directly if it was a possibility that negotiators could leave Dubai without a deal, Stiell did not deny that could happen. One thing is for certain: I win, you lose is a recipe for collecti

Best of BS Opinion: World's climate future, inflation fight and more

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today

COP28 summit: The money food badly needs for climate fight is rolling in

More than $3 billion in climate finance has been pledged for food and agriculture

Work faster, be flexible: 11th-hourr push for fossil fuel deal at COP28

Draft paper lists adaptation targets for 2030 but disagreement lingers

COP 28: Changing the narrative

Targeting coal means shifting the burden of the transition to countries that cannot afford even dirty energy to meet the needs of their people

India opted holistic approach to environment conservation: Bhupendra Yadav

Yadav said, "The mangrove ecosystem in India offers a unique example of existing in harmony with nature. The Sunderbans, lying along eastern India, offers the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the

COP28 summit: Activists plan 'day of action' to press negotiators

Protests aimed at pressuring nations to move decisively to stop climate change were expected to be their most intense yet on Saturday, a Global Day of Action with events at United Nations-led talks in Dubai and around the world. If activists needed any additional energy, they may have gotten it with reports that OPEC's chief had urged its oil-producing members to reject any agreement that targets fossil fuels for a speedy phase-out. It's the central issue as talks head into their final days, as activists and experts have warned that the world must quickly reduce use of the oil, gas and coal that is causing dangerous warming. Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, called the Dec. 6 letter from OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais, reported by several news organizations, shameful and said the writing is on the wall for dirty energy. The reality is if the world is going to save itself, it cannot be held back by a small band of countries that control the world's oil supply, Ad

COP28: New GST draft text gives four options for move towards clean energy

A new draft of the Global Stocktake released on Friday here at the COP28 has four options for the move towards clean energy ranging from phase out of fossil fuels to no mention of the phase out at all. The Global Stocktake is a fundamental component of the Paris Agreement of 2015 which is used to monitor its implementation and evaluate the collective progress made in achieving the agreed goals of restricting emission to keep temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius as compared to the pre-industrial era. At the ongoing climate change negotiations, called the Conference of Parties (COP28), the Global Stocktake (GST) text is the most crucial document set to be finalised by the negotiators by the end of this two-week long annual meet. Several contentious issues, including proposals to phase out fossil fuels, triple renewables capacity, and double energy efficiency improvement are still unresolved as negotiations continue in the second week. The four options for the move towards clean .

COP28 climate summit: Negotiators turn back to future of fossil fuels

The United Nations climate conference on Friday began its final week with negotiators expected to zoom in on the future of fossil fuels on a dangerously warming planet. Thursday was a rest day, a bit of quiet before talks at COP28 grow even more intense. Negotiators will work to finalize a key document called the Global Stocktake. It evaluates the world's climate change progress since the 2015 Paris agreement and what needs to be done now to avoid blowing past its goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared to preindustrial times. You start off very hopeful, euphoria, COP28 CEO Annan Amin said. Things are happening. Then the negotiations get hard and people start spreading rumours and conjecture and a little bit of depression, and then things start to come up again. And the clarity of the negotiations process becomes clearer. Then you have the political engagement, and that's where the real intensity and excitement comes from. A draft of the Global ...

US firm KKR to raise up to $7 bn for first global climate fund: Report

The fund will scout for opportunities across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific for investments of between $300 million and $750 million each, the source added

COP28 secures $83 bn in climate pledges; India skips energy, health pledges

The first week of the COP28 global climate talks concluded with a significant milestone with the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund, pledges of over USD 83 billion and the draft text for Global Stocktake mentioning phasing out of all fossil fuels for the first time in years. However, even as over USD 83 billion was mobilised in pledges questions persist about the voluntary nature of these commitments and the actual fulfilment by the participating nations. Amidst the discussions, the issue of fossil fuels emerged as a focal point, with a new draft text of the Global Stocktake proposing options for the phase-out of unabated coal and an orderly and just transition away from fossil fuels which might be a contentious point for India. India has repeatedly stressed that phasing out or phasing down coal language is something that it can't support. India even skipped signing the pledge to commit to tripling the global renewable energy capacity by 2030 over this. Over the reducti

Whether to phase out or phase down fossil fuels is the question at COP28

After days of shaving off the edges of key warming issues, climate negotiators on Tuesday zeroed in on the tough job of dealing with the main cause of what's overheating the planet: fossil fuels. As scientists, activists and United Nations officials repeatedly detailed how the world needs to phase-out the use of coal, oil and natural gas, the United Arab Emirates-hosted conference opened energy transition day with a session headlined by top officials of two oil companies. Negotiators produced a new draft of what's expected to be the core document of the UN talks, something called the Global Stocktake, but it had so many possibilities in its 24-pages that it didn't give too much of a hint of what will be agreed upon when the session ends next week. Whatever is adopted has to be agreed on by consensus so it has to be near unanimous. The central issue of this COP, the global stocktake, is to reach a conclusion about the phasing out of fossil fuels, said climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO

US joins several nations in backing COP28 pledge to slash cooling emissions

It's a tough task, given the cooling industry is only expected to grow as temperatures continue to climb