Delegates with ties to the world's biggest polluting oil and gas firms have attended UN climate talks at least 7,200 times over the last 20 years, claims a coalition of civil society organisations. The analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition comes amid a controversy over the appointment of Sultan Al Jaber, the head of the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as the president of the upcoming UN climate talks (COP28) in Dubai. Al Jaber has, however, argued that having the oil and gas industry at the table is essential. Citing data on the attendees, the coalition said it underscores how organisations from countries "that are most responsible for global emissions are dominating the climate talks, attempting to influence progress on climate action". "Since COP9 in 2003, employees of fossil fuel firms have attended negotiations a minimum of 945 times. Staff from the 'Big 5' oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and TotalEnergies have been granted a minimum of 26
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the UN climate talks in Dubai on November 1 and deliver a national statement highlighting India's climate action, sources said on Friday. The prime minister will reach the UAE on November 30, deliver India's national statement during the United Nations' World Climate Action Summit on December 1 and return the same day, a source told PTI. The World Climate Action Summit on December 1-2 will see heads of states and governments, leaders from civil society, business, youth, indigenous peoples' organizations, frontline communities, science and other sectors discussing actions and plans aimed at scaling climate action. Modi has been championing Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE movement), urging countries to adopt planet-friendly living practices and move away from deeply consumerist behaviours. Recognising the criticality of this decade (2021-2030) for climate action, there's a call for rebalancing consumption patterns between the Global North and
France and China should work together to reduce global tensions and address issues such as climate change and biodiversity, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Friday. Colonna was on an official trip to Beijing ahead of a major UN climate conference starting next week in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and an EU-China leaders meeting next month. Her visit coincided with the start of a four-day truce in the Israel-Hamas war. "As big powers, we both share the responsibility to tackle global challenges .... and we can make concerted efforts in alleviating tensions around the world, she said at a meeting with Premier Li Qiang, China's No. 2 leader. Today's tensions range from the wars in Gaza and Ukraine to the competition between China and the YS over trade, technology and security. A delegation of Arab foreign ministers held talks in China and France in recent days as part of a series of meetings with permanent members of the UN Security Council to push for a cease-fire in
With the US unable or unwilling to make any credible commitments, the rest of the world is floundering around trying to compensate for its lack of leadership
As blazing wildfires rage across Southern Europe and North Africa, top UN climate researchers said on Thursday that it was "virtually certain" that July 2023 will be the warmest on record"
The two-week mid-year UN climate talks held in Germany's Bonn ended on Thursday without finding a resolution to the dispute between developed and developing countries over finance. The developed nations emphasised the urgent need for mitigation measures, while the developing countries demanded adequate financial support to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. These mid-year talks set the stage for political discussions at the annual Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change later in the year. Due to a stalemate on the issues of finance and mitigation, the governments could agree on the meeting's agenda only on the second-to-last day (Wednesday) of the conference. The developed countries wanted that the "Mitigation Work Programme", which calls for urgently scaling up emission reduction efforts in this crucial decade to fight climate change, be included in the agenda. The developing countries, however, strongly ...
The Report notes that finance flows from developed to developing countries fall short of the levels needed to meet climate goals across all sectors and regions
India's Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav has expressed hope that the COP15 will put in place the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
Agreement on financing one of the most significant steps in UN climate talks in 30 years
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
The UN climate talks have been extended by a day in an effort to break the deadlock over key issues, including mitigation work programme, loss and damage and climate finance. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said COP27 was supposed to wrap up on Friday but has been "extended by a day to attempt to take the ongoing negotiations to a logical end". Providing an update on the negotiations in a blog post, he said a lot of issues, including the mitigation work program, the global goal on adaptation, loss and damage, and climate finance are being negotiated as they remain contentious. "COP is a party-driven process and hence consensus on key issues is vital to the process. The extension is an attempt towards achieving just that," he said. In an effort to break the deadlock, the European Union's chief negotiator Frans Timmermans proposed a plan that tied loss and damage with emission cuts. The success of the talks hinges on a fund to address loss and damage, a term used for ...
The inaction of many developed countries has potential to stall talks and deal a devastating blow to hopes of the developing world for the establishment of a loss and damage funding facility at COP27
Minister outlines plan for carbon reduction
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The United Nations says it is investigating allegations of misconduct by Egyptian police officers providing security at this year's international climate talks. This follows claims that attendees of events at the German pavilion for the COP27 summit were photographed and filmed after Germany hosted an event there with the sister of a jailed Egyptian pro-democracy activist, Alaa Abdel Fattah, who also holds U.K. citizenship. In a statement provided Sunday to The Associated Press, the U.N. climate office confirmed that some of the security officers working in the part of the venue designated as United Nations territory come from the host country, Egypt. This was due to the scale and complexity of providing security at a large scale event" such as the COP27 climate talks, the global body said. It added that their work takes place under the direction of the operations of the U.N. Department for Safety and Security (UN DSS). The security officers provided for this COP by the host countr
Leena Nandan strongly emphasised the need for information dissemination to strengthen communities for adaptation readiness
The analysis on India and China's electricity sector highlights how renewable energy is slowly replacing fossils
As countries come together at COP27 to take actions on the collective goals under the Paris Agreement and Convention in Egypt, here are the key concepts you must know about
This year's annual UN climate conference, known as COP27, comes as leaders and experts have raised increasing alarm that time is running out to avert catastrophic rises in temperature
Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav will represent India at the session