GWPF | 20 Nov 2015
Don’t Expect Any Money For Obama’s Climate Promises
The US Senate is sending a clear message to the world’s climate delegates, who are busy prepping for the impending COP21 conference: This legislative body won’t ratify any kind of binding Global Climate Treaty (GCT), so don’t even try. It will not contribute government money to a global climate fund that’s meant to spend $100 billion annually on helping poorer countries mitigate and adapt to a changing climate. This sends yet another powerful message to climate delegates. Even if negotiators stay away from a binding treaty for fear of America’s lack of participation, they won’t be able to entice the developing world to stick to national emissions reductions plans if the carrot in all of this—the climate fund—isn’t being backed by the developed world. —The American Interest, 19 November 2015
1) US Senate Sends The World A Message: Don’t Expect Any Money For Obama’s Climate Promises – The American Interest, 19 November 2015
2) US Senators: Obama’s Climate Deal Will Have ‘No Force Or Effect’ Without US Approval – The Hill, 19 November 2015
3) Paris Climate Summit: India To Stay Firm On Use Of Coal – The India Express, 19 November 2015
4) France Bans Climate Change Protests In All French Cities – Reuters, 19 November 2015
5) Forget Paris: Germany Opens Another New Coal Power Plant – Deutsche Welle, 19 November 2015
6) Most Young Indians Unaware Of Climate Change, Says Study – The Hindu, 20 November 2015
Three US senators introduced a resolution Thursday stating their objection to the United Nations climate talks in Paris. “The international community needs to be aware that the U.S. Congress and the American people do not support President Obama’s international climate agenda,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in statement announcing the resolution. The resolution, from Inhofe and Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), says the Senate believes any climate deal reached in Paris will have “no force or effect” in the U.S. unless lawmakers consider it first. –Timothy Cama and Devin Henry, The Hill, 19 November 2015
India will not agree to any proposal at the climate change negotiations that will seek to restrict the use of coal as a source of energy in the near term, a key member of the country’s negotiating team said on Wednesday. “We cannot agree to any proposal that will restrict our ability to generate energy from coal or inhibit our efforts to ensure energy access to all our people in an accelerated manner,” Ajay Mathur, director general of Bureau of Energy Efficiency, told The Indian Express. “There is no looking away from it. Coal is going to remain India’s primary source of electricity generation for some time. We cannot agree to anything that restrains us from using coal,” he said. –Amitabh Sinha, The India Express, 19 November 2015
The French government has banned two planned marches on climate change, timed to coincide with the upcoming global climate talks, citing the recent terror attacks. Marches planned on November 29 and December 12 during the COP-21 international climate talks in Paris will not be authorised for security reasons, the French government says. —Reuters, 19 November 2015
A new coal-fired power plant has opened in Germany a day after an expert commission told the energy minister the country must triple its annual rate of decarbonization to meet its ambitious 2020 climate policy goals. On Thursday in the Hamburg suburb of Moorburg, Hamburg’s mayor Olaf Scholz, a leading figure in Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), stood alongside Magnus Hall, president of Swedish energy utility Vattenfall, and pushed a big button. The button-pushing symbolized Vattenfall’s ceremonial opening of a 1,600 Megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant that had been under construction for eight years – despite heated opposition from Germany’s greens, who want the country to exit from coal altogether. —Deutsche Welle, 19 November 2015
A survey conducted in four countries has revealed that most young people lack awareness about the challenges posed by climate change. It added that those who knew about it showed a degree of scepticism about a solution. The report titled ‘Climate Action: Youth Voices’, which was released on Thursday, collates the views of about 1,000 people from 18 to 30 years of age in India, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and Italy. Ms. Tomar said that of the about 500 people surveyed in India, “around 75 per cent” lacked awareness about climate change. Prof Hibberd, head of Communications, Media and Culture at Stirling, added that with social media the level of awareness among the youth should have been greater. —The Hindu, 20 November 2015
1) US Senate Sends The World A Message: Don’t Expect Any Money For Obama’s Climate Promises
The American Interest, 19 November 2015
52 U.S. Senators voted to block an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule this week that would curb carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. Passing the resolution without a veto-proof vote (the President has already promised not to sign it) makes this act of defiance symbolic only. But with the Paris climate summit just a week and a half away, it’s powerful symbolism indeed.
The Senate is sending a clear message to the world’s climate delegates, who are busy prepping for the impending COP21 conference: This legislative body won’t ratify any kind of binding Global Climate Treaty (GCT), so don’t even try.
Secretary of State John Kerry tried to side-step this problem last week when he insisted negotiators wouldn’t be working on a treaty in France, a comment that immediately inspired backlash and spurred the French foreign minister to suggest that Mr. Kerry was probably “confused.” But let’s clear any confusion up now: The United States won’t sign on to a binding, enforceable GCT. So what else is there for UN delegates to work towards, if such a treaty is off the table?
Harvard economist Robert Stavins sketched out a scorecard for the talks recently, saying Paris would be successful if the following goals are met: 90 percent of emissions are covered by national commitments; a robust review process is put in place to make sure nations are working towards these pledges; a mechanism is established to review national targets periodically; talks aren’t bogged down by “unproductive disagreements”; and a climate financing system is set up. Those are five big asks, and while Stavins is fairly sanguine about most of them, we don’t share his optimism for what may be the most important topic in that list: the money.
Here, once again, the U.S. Senate is key. That body says it will not contribute government money to a global climate fund that’s meant to spend $100 billion annually on helping poorer countries mitigate and adapt to a changing climate.
Reuters reports:
“This president is going to go (to Paris) with no money,” said Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who chaired a hearing in the Senate environment panel on the international climate negotiations, which begin on Nov. 30.
Capito and other Republican members of the committee said they will ensure any deal the U.S. strikes in Paris will face congressional scrutiny, and warned they will block President Barack Obama’s 2016 budget request for the first tranche of the $3 billion pledged last year to the U.N. Green Climate Fund. “Without Senate approval (of a climate agreement), there will be no money,” added Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, acknowledging that guarantees of climate aid to developing countries is “the linchpin” of the Paris climate conference.
This sends yet another powerful message to climate delegates. Even if negotiators stay away from a binding treaty for fear of America’s lack of participation, they won’t be able to entice the developing world to stick to national emissions reductions plans if the carrot in all of this—the climate fund—isn’t being backed by the developed world.
2) US Senators: Obama’s Climate Deal Will Have ‘No Force Or Effect’ Without US Approval
The Hill, 19 November 2015
Timothy Cama and Devin Henry
Three senators introduced a resolution Thursday stating their objection to the United Nations climate talks in Paris. “The international community needs to be aware that the U.S. Congress and the American people do not support President Obama’s international climate agenda,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in statement announcing the resolution.
The resolution, from Inhofe and Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), says the Senate believes any climate deal reached in Paris will have “no force or effect” in the U.S. unless lawmakers consider it first. The resolution also looks to block U.S. funding for an international climate financing program unless the Senate takes up the deal.
It comes less than two weeks before world leaders meet in Paris to hash out a deal to cut global greenhouse gas levels and combat climate change.
Republicans and opponents of the talks have long said the Senate should get a say in the deal, while the Obama administration has looked to avoid sending a climate accord to a hostile Congress.
The issue of the need for congressional review came up again last week when European officials objected to Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement about the legal status of any final climate deal. Supporters of the talks say the debate is mostly over semantics, and that Congress won’t end up getting a say. But opponents of the talks are looking to publicize their objection to them nonetheless.
“The U.S. Senate must be able to exercise its constitutional role to approve any agreement that emerges from the Paris climate talks,” Manchin said in a statement.
Read more here.
GOP: NO CLIMATE FUNDING, EITHER: Republicans looked to further cement their opposition to the climate talks on Thursday, writing a letter to the White House expressing opposition to President Obama’s $3 billion commitment to an international climate change fund that will be considered during the UN conference.
Thirty-seven Republicans, led by Inhofe and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). said they will look to block Obama budget requests for the climate change fund unless the Senate gets a chance to vote on the overall climate deal.
“We therefore request that you direct [chief U.S. climate negotiator] Todd Stern to be forthcoming with his foreign counterparts representing developing nations in Paris about the views of members of Congress,” the senators wrote.
“He must provide these nations with the full picture of where a co-equal U.S. branch of government stands on these issues. He must explain that Congress will not be forthcoming with these funds in the future without a vote in the Senate on any final agreement as required in the U.S. Constitution.”
Obama said last year that the U.S. would pledge $3 billion for the Green Climate Fund, which looks to provide $100 billion for developing nations to mitigate the impact of climate change by 2020.
3) Paris Climate Summit: India To Stay Firm On Use Of Coal
The India Express, 19 November 2015
Amitabh Sinha
India will not agree to any proposal at the climate change negotiations that will seek to restrict the use of coal as a source of energy in the near term, a key member of the country’s negotiating team said on Wednesday.
More than 190 countries will gather in Paris later this month for a two-week annual climate change conference that is expected to deliver a global agreement this year.
“We cannot agree to any proposal that will restrict our ability to generate energy from coal or inhibit our efforts to ensure energy access to all our people in an accelerated manner,” Ajay Mathur, director general of Bureau of Energy Efficiency, told The Indian Express.
While India has embarked on an ambitious renewable energy pathway, coal is likely to remain its primary source of energy for the next couple of decades at least.
In a recent projection, the government had said it hoped to bring down its dependence on coal for electricity production from the current 61 per cent to 57 per cent by 2031-32. By that year, the contribution of renewable energy — solar, wind and biogas — in total electricity generation was projected to grow to 29 per cent from the current 12 per cent.
“There is no looking away from it. Coal is going to remain India’s primary source of electricity generation for some time. We cannot agree to anything that restrains us from using coal,” he said.
Mathur said that in Paris, India will ask for a more stringent international mechanism to ensure that the developed countries deliver on the commitments they have made to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. In the last few months, countries have submitted their climate action plans — steps that they intend to take to deal with climate change — up to the year 2032. There is debate over the mechanism to be adopted to assess whether all the actions are consistent with the objective of keeping the rise of global average temperatures within 2 degree celsius compared to pre-industrial times.
The climate change negotiations accept a principle of differentiation in the responsibilities of developed and developing countries in dealing with climate change. Mathur said this differentiation must extend to the compliance process as well.
4) France Bans Climate Change Protests In All French Cities
Reuters, 19 November 2015
Paris – The French government has banned two planned marches on climate change, timed to coincide with the upcoming global climate talks, citing the recent terror attacks.
Marches planned on November 29 and December 12 during the COP-21 international climate talks in Paris will not be authorised for security reasons, the French government says.
All demonstrations organised in closed spaces or in places where security can easily be ensured could go ahead, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
“However, in order to avoid additional risks, the government has decided not to authorise climate marches planned in public places in Paris and other French cities on November 29 and December 12,” it said.
Environmental activists have hoped the marches would attract perhaps 200,000 people to put pressure on governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions. They have had to rethink their plans following attacks in Paris last Friday that killed 129 people.
5) Forget Paris: Germany Opens Another New Coal Power Plant
Deutsche Welle, 19 November 2015
A new coal-fired power plant has opened in Germany a day after an expert commission told the energy minister the country must triple its annual rate of decarbonization to meet its ambitious 2020 climate policy goals.
On Thursday in the Hamburg suburb of Moorburg, Hamburg’s mayor Olaf Scholz, a leading figure in Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), stood alongside Magnus Hall, president of Swedish energy utility Vattenfall, and pushed a big button.
The button-pushing symbolized Vattenfall’s ceremonial opening of a 1,600 Megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant that had been under construction for eight years – despite heated opposition from Germany’s greens, who want the country to exit from coal altogether.
One day earlier, in London, the UK government had announced a ten-year plan to close down all remaining coal-fired power stations in Britain. At the very same time as UK politicians were basking in the resulting applause, Scholz’s fellow Social Democrat, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of the SPD and the country’s minister of economy and energy, sat in a Berlin conference room absorbing some bad news.
An independent commission of senior energy experts advising his ministry explained to him on Wednesday that Germany was on track to miss – rather badly – the carbon emissions goals the government had set for the country to meet by 2020.
6) Most Young Indians Unaware Of Climate Change, Says Study
The Hindu, 20 November 2015
A survey conducted in four countries has revealed that most young people lack awareness about the challenges posed by climate change. It added that those who knew about it showed a degree of scepticism about a solution.
The report titled ‘Climate Action: Youth Voices’, which was released on Thursday, collates the views of about 1,000 people from 18 to 30 years of age in India, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and Italy.
Released by Professor Matthew Hibberd of Scotland’s Stirling University and Alka Tomar of the Centre for Environment Communication, the report finds that young people are “hopeful” of a legally binding agreement coming out of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.
Ms. Tomar said that of the about 500 people surveyed in India, “around 75 per cent” lacked awareness about climate change.
Prof Hibberd, head of Communications, Media and Culture at Stirling, added that with social media the level of awareness among the youth should have been greater.
“But, there is still a lack of awareness. Among those who were informed, there was a level of hope but also a degree of scepticism over whether any agreement in Paris will be ratified and implemented,” he said.
