The coronavirus pandemic has put a lot of things on hold. And while an uneven race between variants and vaccines casts considerable uncertainty over events planning, there is an increasing recognition that climate diplomacy cannot wait for Covid to be eliminated.
UN Climate Change is bowing to the inevitable and planning to take negotiations online in June, with the caveat that no decisions will be made until delegates can meet in person.
And John Kerry is all over Asia, laying the groundwork for next week’s climate leaders’ summit. The Biden administration’s early wins are expected to come from Japan, South Korea and Canada.
Big emerging economies are a tougher proposition. China, India, Brazil and South Africa maintain their existing emissions targets are quite ambitious enough and express “deep concern” at the “insufficiency and inadequacy” of financial support from developed countries. (They’re not happy about EU plans for a carbon border levy either.)
The $2.5 billion allocated to international climate finance in Biden’s first budget will not go far to change their minds.
This week’s stories
- Pakistan explores debt-for-nature scheme to accelerate its 10 billion tree tsunami
- Interim UN climate talks move online to address negotiation backlog
- In Amazon protection talks, US demands action from Bolsonaro
- Climate watchers pay tribute to Nicaraguan envoy Paul Oquist, who died on Monday
- Joe Biden’s $1.2bn budget for Green Climate Fund falls short of campaigner demands
- Total signs deal to build East African oil pipeline, despite lack of finance
- Emerging economies share ‘grave concern’ over EU plans for a carbon border tax
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