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By John Parnell
RTCC in Doha
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– Finance: Room for optimism on climate finance at UN talks.
– Blackmail: Venezuela accuses rich states of holding developing world to ransom
– Russia: Russia backsliding on 25% emissions reduction goal.
– Brazil: Absence of acceptable Kyoto deal threatens UN climate process.
Today’s headlines:
Black carbon: Away from the main talks on greenhouse gas emissions, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition announced a deal to cut methane, soot (black carbon) and other short term climate forcers. The group of 25 nations founded by the US, says it could represent a 0.5°C reduction in warming by 2050.
Monckton: As if today’s talks could get any more weird, this evening’s ‘Stocktaking Plenary’ hosted by COP18 President Al Attiyah was gatecrashed by climate sceptic eccentric Lord Monckton, who sat in Myanmar’s empty seat and was allowed time to address the floor. One observer told RTCC: “The President didn’t realise – nobody did for while – that it wasn’t Myanmar so he went on about climate change not happening or something along those lines. Then he walked out himself.” Below is a picture of the British peer meeting the legendary UN Police – pic courtesy of @thomwoodroofe
Watch it again in the UNFCCC webcast – 43.49 in.
Brazil: Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago says he is confident that there will be an agreement on the second period of the Kyoto Protocol and the new Durban Platform, but he is concerned about the LCA and finance adding that the numbers being discussed are disproportionate to the scale of the challenge.
Doha protest: Two members of the Arab Climate Youth Movement have been thrown out of the conference after unfurling a banner reading: “Qatar, why host not lead?”. UN Security detained the pair seconds after the protest started. Their badges have been removed and Youth Groups say they have been told to leave the country.
France: Aside from confirming its climate finance pledges, France has also said it is available to host the 2015 UN climate change talks. The year the universal emissions deal is scheduled to be agreed.
BASIC Press conference: All the talk is on finance. China stresses that any agreement for the mid term must have an actual number attached to it. Minister Xie says the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is like a cake, the bigger the better. India refuses to say whether it would accept money from the GCF.
NGO Pressure: Six of the largest environmental and development NGOs have joined forces to exert pressure on Minister’s and negotiators. The group, which included WWF, Oxfam and Greenpeace, said they would not be complicit in a deal that negatively affected the lives of millions.
Qatari pressure: Pilita Clark at the FT reports the EU have asked the hosts to step in and speed up negotiations – there were many concerns pre COP that Qatar was not ready for a conference of this complexity – now’s the chance to prove those doubters wrong.
Late night: Negotiators in the LCA track of the talks (support for developing nations) faced a late night last night as the wide ranging options on the table were frantically narrowed down. Those working on Kyoto were given a reprieve with the closing session switched to this morning. The KP talks still have a number of differences between nations with (predictably) the issue of ‘hot air’ carbon credits, the length of the next period of cuts and the availability of its various offsetting schemes to nations
ADP or not ADP?: Talks in the negotiations on the Durban Platform, the 2020 globally inclusive agreement to cut emissions, were suspended yesterday at the request of China. They said they felt work needed to be focused on more “urgent meetings”. COP18 is the first time there has been seven different tracks to chew on at the same time. With issues remaining in all of them (sometimes many issues!) even the largest delegations are being stretched.
EU finance: The EU has sent round a summary of the financial commitment from 2013 onwards, of its member states. The EC along with the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and France have put €6.85bn on the table and it says there will be more to come. This tally is greater than the last two years of EU commitments under the Fast Start Finance regime, according to the statement.
COP18 VIDEO: RTCC’s Daniel Schweimler spent Wednesday morning on the city’s streets, and asking what we can learn from COP18’s hosts.
Welcome to Doha, where petrol is cheaper than water from Responding to Climate Change on Vimeo.
RTCC at COP18: