Climate Weekly: The last ship to sink

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National delegations to the International Maritime Organisation are often stacked with shipping industry representatives, making climate progress hard (Photo: Flickr/International Maritime Organization)

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The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has long been a thorn in the side of those who want to control industrial carbon emissions and slow global warming.

This week, in a striking report from Majuro in the Marshall Islands, Margot Gibbs uncovered the perverse relationship between the tiny country and a private shipping registry headquartered in the leafy suburbs outside Washington DC that has undermined a strong pro-climate voice in the UN’s chamber of shipping.

It’s a must read.

Africa files

Our reporter Mantoe Phakathi filed a series of reports that highlighted the positive steps African nations are taking to deal with climate change.

  • A number of the world’s poorest countries have become tired of waiting for climate finance promises to become reality and have started their own national climate funds.
  • A cyclothon around Kenya aims to promote access to renewable energy in regional areas.
  • Universities in ten of the least developed countries on earth are banding together to share knowledge and cut expensive western consultants out of the picture.

Green climate fund splutters into motion

It’s not going to stop climate change, but the $5.2 million released to developing country projects by the Green Climate Fund in recent weeks is significant. It represents the first trickle of what has to become a multi-billion dollar annual flow in order for the Paris agreement to meet its objectives and give poor countries a fighting chance to cope with climate change.

Frank gets frank

The Fijian prime minister Frank Bainimarama took the US to task over its failure to commit to give permanent rights to Marshall Islands climate migrants. That’s even though they held the island as a territory for 40 years, blew up atolls with nuclear weapons tests and are the biggest historical emitters of the carbon that may drown the islands.

Climate conversations

Read more on: UN climate talks