Australia joins Coalition of High Ambition at COP21 as announced on twitter

On Friday afternoon with the talks drawing to a close I attended a press conference called by the Marshall Islands. It featured Tony DeBrum, the Marshall Islands Foreign Minister, as well as several ministers in the Coalition of Ambition here at the Conference of Parties.

This new grouping is not a negotiating bloc, but a coalition of parties that want to emphasise and push for much higher ambition at these talks.

Tony De Brum said "You've read things in the media. We want you to hear from us directly. The High Ambition Coalition is emerging as a result of collective efforts of developed and developing countries."

Climate red lines in the UN Blue Zone and for Paris

Thursday was a long night with negotiators working on a draft text released at 9pm Thursday evening. Friday has been set aside for bilateral discussions. A new text is due on Saturday morning. There is still much at stake in these negotiations, and we will not know the full final outcome until the gavel goes down sometime over the weekend.

Greenpeace released a statement on Thursday night based on the 9pm draft text. Martin Kaiser, head of international climate politics at Greenpeace, said:

“This thing isn’t over until the conference closes, but what’s on the table just isn’t good enough. It’s a very big problem that the emissions targets on the table will not keep us below 1.5 degrees of warming and this draft deal does absolutely nothing to change that. Right now we’re witnessing a display of international impotence. This text should say that countries have to come back soon with better numbers but instead it kicks that can down the road, saying we’ll sort it in ten or fifteen years. That’s too late, they’re closing the door on our best chance to dodge dangerous warming."

Elements for a global climate agreement on the table. Will Ministers deliver? Day 10 of COP21

Climate Action Network held a press conference at 11am this morning. It is obvious that all the elements for an agreement are on the table, but it is still too early to call the final outcome.

Negotiators worked overnight to get a new version of the draft text ready. But further iterations are likely.

Alix Mazounie from RAC France said, “The French presidency is seeing an unprecedented level of support, and this is important because we’ve seen how process can derail talks. But this process, however good, has not yet succeeded in dealing with all the crunch issues. The Paris ambition mechanism, the loss and damage language, and scaling up commitments by 2018—these issues all need to get sorted.

"There are still too many red lines on the table. Compromises need to be made, but there are two kinds of compromises: the ones we want and the ones we don’t. There are ones that will threaten ambition, and ones that will work to deliver the kind of deal we need.” said Mazounie.

As the final text comes closer we see the form more clearly that this is likely to be a binding agreement.

Fossil of the Day for Julie Bishop's endorsement of coal for Australia

Australia and Argentina shared a first place Fossil of the Day award for Wednesday 9th December at the UN Climate Change conference in Paris, for fostering coal projects when the world is rapidly turning away from coal due to the impact of greenhouse gases in driving climate change.

Leader of the Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale was on hand to receive the award for Australia.

Both Argentina and Australia endorsed inclusion of the 1.5 degree temperature limit, along with the 2 degree C limit, in the operative text of the draft agreement during negotiations. At least 109 countries of the 196 countries attending the conference have stated they want to see this lower limit included, lead by the Climate Vulnerable Forum.

Aviation and shipping emissions shamed by Fossil of the Day at #COP21

There are many intricacies to negotiating a climate agreement covering greenhouse gas emissions. One of the areas easy to overlook is aviation and shipping sector emissions.

Emissions from aviation and shipping are projected to grow, so it is important that they are considered in any climate agreement.

Aviation is responsible for almost 5 percent of all global warming and its emissions are predicted to grow by up to 300 per cent in 2050. Emissions from bunkers is also forecast to grow 270% by 2050. Such growth rates would make the target of keeping the global temperature increase to under 1.5 or 2°C almost impossible to achieve.

Yet international shipping and aircraft also enjoy tax free fuel subsidies to the tune over over 60 billion US dollars.

Corporate Greenwashing and conflict of interest at UN climate conference #COP21

I was surprised at what I found of the extent of conflict of interest between the sponsors of the UN Climate Conference, the French State and the UNFCCC secretariat.

On Thursday evening I left the UN climate conference at the Le Bourget centre straight after the Fossil of the Day ceremony at 6pm to attend the Pinocchio awards which examines and compares the greenwashed credentials of major corporations.

These awards are run by Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth) to highlight corporate mal-practices. The three categories being judged were local impacts, lobbying and greenwashing.

Australia agrees to 1.5 degrees inclusion in #COP21 Draft climate agreement

As Environment Minister Greg Hunt departs after the first week and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop takes over negotiations at the UN climate conference, Australia has supported inclusion of the 1.5 degrees limit in the main draft text along with the 2 degrees limit, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

This is an important goal for many of our Pacific neighbors and nations of the Climate Vulnerable Forum. One hundred and eight nations, so far, have said they want this lower limit included.

Paris City Summit of Mayors commits to 100 per cent #renewables by 2050

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo at Cities Climate Summit Photo: ©Mairie de Paris

A meeting of nearly a 1,000 city mayors from around the world meeting in Paris signed a declaration on Friday that supports a municipal transition to 100 percent Renewable Energy. Read the declaration (PDF)

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said according to a report on Citiscope, "As I told the negotiators when bringing them our contribution, cities are not waiting for them to give us the solution," she said. "We are moving ahead and making a solution possible."

Climate Vulnerable Forum at COP21 shows climate leadership

The statement by the Climate Vulnerable Forum on Monday evening showed the world what climate leadership really is.

The Climate Vulnerable Forum Adopted The Manila-Paris Declaration (PDF) and committed to zero emissions by mid-century and 100 per cent renewable energy decarbonization by 2050. The leaders of 30 nations, some of them the most vulnerable to climate impacts, were determined to keep the world on track for below 1.5 degrees of warming.

"Individually, we are already survivors; collectively, we are a force towards a fairer, more climate-proactive world," said Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III.

"We refuse to be the sacrifice of the international community in Paris. Anything that takes our survival off the table here is a red line. All parties have an obligation to act. Not doing so is a crime. This Declaration is just the beginning of our efforts to step up our voice and collaboration," said Anwar Hossain Manju, Hon. Minister of Environment of Bangladesh, in a statement on the Climate Vulnerable Forum website.

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull at COP21: all style little substance

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull waltzed onto the stage at the UN Climate Conference Loire plenary room on Monday afternoon. He was suave and eloquent. All style, but there was little of substance, or new commitments in his speech.

He announced that Australia was not only going to meet our 5 per cent target by 2020, but we were going to exceed it. "We will meet and beat our 2020 emissions reduction target." he said.

But he gave no commitment to actually setting a new pre-2020 target to aim for.

Our current pre-2020 target puts us at the back of the pack with regard to carbon pollution reduction effort prior to 2020.

If every country took this attitude, then the world would be well on the way to 4 degrees global warming.