Page 67 - Climate Change

COP27 agrees to adopt loss and damage fund but finer details missing

India's call to end all fossil fuels not acknowledged in final draft

Good and bad news

COP27 does not push forward India's agenda significantly

Historic compensation fund for poor nations approved at UN climate talks

The UN published an updated draft of the proposed deal of the climate summit in Egypt on Saturday. It makes no mention of the need to phase down all fossil fuels, one of the key demands this year, and reiterates the Glasgow Pact language on coal. Negotiators, however, said they have reached a tentative deal on the creation of a fund to address loss and damage, a term used for irreparable destruction caused by climate change-fuelled disasters. The success of the talks hinges on a separate loss and damage fund, the primary demand for COP27 from developing nations. The deal, however, is part of the larger agreement and has to be voted on by negotiators from nearly 200 countries. The Presidency consultations on the tentative deal were scheduled for 6:30pm (Egypt time), which means the closing plenary is now likely to take place on Sunday morning. Experts said no reference to oil and natural gas -- on which developed countries depend -- in the text is not in the interest of climate acti

Climate talks poised for disaster fund deal to compensate poor nations

Negotiators say they have struck a potential breakthrough deal on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks, the creation of a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich nations' carbon pollution. There is an agreement on loss and damage, which is what negotiators call the concept, Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shauna told The Associated Press on Saturday. It still needs to be approved unanimously in a vote later today. That means for countries like ours we will have the mosaic of solutions that we have been advocating for. We proposed a text and this actually just has just been accepted, so we now have a fund, Norway Climate and Environment minister Espen Barth Eide told the AP. New Zealand Climate Minister James Shaw said both the poor countries that would get the money and the rich ones that would give it are on board with the proposed deal. If approved, it's a big win for poorer nations which have been calling for

UN climate summit: Parties scramble for consensus on key issues in overtime

The UN climate talks in Egypt dragged on into overtime on Saturday, with no sign of parties arriving at a consensus on several key issues, including loss and damage, mitigation work programme and adaptation. COP27 president Sameh Shoukry said deliberations continued through the night, but did not result in a clear direction towards a consensus. The success of the talks hinges on a fund to address loss and damage, which refers to the consequences of climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to or when options exist, but a community doesn't have the resources to access or utilise them. Financing or a new fund for addressing loss and damage -- for example money needed for relocating people displaced by floods -- has been a long-pending demand of poor and developing countries, including India. Developed nations, particularly the US, have opposed this new fund over fears that it would hold them legally liable for massive damages caused by climate change. "Need more time to ag

BS Views of the week: Twitter layoffs, FTX crisis, climate change, and more

Business Standard's opinion pages this week focused on Twitter layoffs, FTX crisis, climate change, and much more

COP27: Despair, lack of progress at climate talks, yet hope blooms

It's a desert, where little grows. It's a climate conference, where water is scarce inside buildings and out, lines are long, tempers are short, meetings go late and above all progress comes in one-drop drips. Yet hope springs forth in the strangest places. Not in the naive new face, but in the hearts and minds of veteran activists and officials, who have gone through this frustrating sleep-depriving exercise, not once or twice but numerous times. And it blooms in a odd metal tree sculpture in a centre square here at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt. People write their hopes on green paper leaves. Hope is the only meaning (sic) that makes us ALIVE! Mohamed Ageez, an Egyptian youth activist wrote. Former US Vice President Al Gore looks at more than 30 years of climate change efforts and sees hope in progress and change. United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen and The Nature Conservancy Chief Scientist Katharine Hayhoe see it in all the people in the

COP27 climate deal hurtle towards overtime, countries mull EU offer of fund

27-country EU said it would back one of the toughest agenda items financing for countries wracked by climate-fuelled disasters

COP27: To decarbonise by 2050, India needs investments of at least $7 trn

And India's progress towards net zero by 2070 will depend on how successful it is in facilitating an orderly transition to a clean economy

COP27: India opposes efforts to extend scope of mitigation to agriculture

India has opposed the developed world's efforts to extend the scope of mitigation to agriculture at the ongoing UN climate summit in Egypt, saying rich nations do not want to reduce emissions by changing their lifestyles and are "searching for cheaper solutions abroad", sources said on Thursday. Expressing concern over the draft decision text on the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, India said the developed countries are blocking a pro-poor and pro-farmer decision by insisting on expanding the scope for mitigation to agriculture, thereby compromising the very foundation of food security in the world, a source in the Indian delegation said. "At every climate summit, the developed countries wish to change the goalposts of the international climate regime using diversionary means to dilute their responsibilities arising from their historical emissions. "Annex-I countries, it may be recalled, owe the world a carbon debt of 790 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO2), which is worth USD

Global assessment reveals huge potential of peatlands as climate solution

These findings are part of the Global Peatlands Assessment, published on Thursday by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

COP27 summit 2022: Informal draft has little new for poor nations

Sticks to coal phase-down, seeks 'phase out and rationalisation' of fossil fuel subsidies

BASIC Nations criticise developed world for backtracking on climate finance

They say fossil fuel use in Global North has risen, call it "double standards towards climate equity"; note that climate finance from developed nations continues to fall short of $100 bn a year goal

Beyond Bali

India's presidency must make G20 more relevant

COP27: Nations pledge added support to GEF funds to tackle climate crisis

Several welcomed the SCCF's dedicated focus on Small Island Developing States as a key avenue of climate finance that is otherwise lacking

South Korea to provide $2.72 million to international global climate fund

Seoul will contribute 1.2 billion won per annum to the Adaptation Fund over the next three years from 2023, Yonhap news agency reported, citing a statement by the ministry

Focus is to capture, not halt, carbon emissions: Coal min Pralhad Joshi

'Both domestic exploration and buying stake in overseas mineral mines is on the agenda'

India ranks eighth, moving up two spots on Climate Change Performance Index

In 2022 and 2021, India stood at the 10th spot on the CCPI, while in 2020, it ranked ninth

India started intense coal gasification drive to reduce emissions: Joshi

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday said that India is committed towards meeting its obligation on climate change and has already started intense coal gasification drive involving public sector units and plantation to reduce carbon emissions. Climate change is also going to be one of the key agendas at G-20 of which India is assuming presidency from December 1. The minister, in an interview to PTI, said besides meeting its climate change commitment, India will also have to take care of its energy security and has to do a balancing act. "Whatever prime minister has given the commitment to the world that will definitely follow. For that we are going in a huge way for gasification where comparatively there will be less pollution. And also, we are going in a huge way for plantation," the minister said. The process of partially oxidizing coal with air, oxygen, steam or carbon dioxide to form syngas is called coal gasification. He said that to strengthen the technology on coal ...

For states, climate change and energy transition are Centre's concern

The focus of a majority remains on distributing free and subsidised coal-based power