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Will Brazil seize the climate opportunities in the carbon-storing Amazon? | Luís Fernando Guedes Pinto
Fighting climate change is a huge opportunity for Brazil to catalyze the country’s sustainable economic development while also protecting the planet
Science is clear: climate change is unequivocal, and a result of human activity. The planet is already 1.1C warmer than pre-industrial levels and on a route to reach 2.5C or more this century, which could be catastrophic. The poorest and the most vulnerable populations will suffer more and earlier.
Climate change will bring droughts, floods, extreme temperatures and hurricanes that may become more intense and frequent overtime and impact billions of people. The rise of sea levels, lack of water and food, and regions becoming unfeasible to live may generate massive migrations in a planet already closing frontiers.
Luís Fernando Guedes Pinto is the knowledge director of SOS Mata Atlântica
Continue reading...Fossil fuels made our families rich. Now we want this industry to end | Aileen Getty and Rebecca Rockefeller Lambert
Congress must help usher in a new energy age - a clean energy age with the same level of support that fossil fuels companies have received for over a century
Over a century ago, our families were central in unlocking fossil fuels. Government embraced this technological advancement and invested in the infrastructure and production needed for its growth. Our personal histories compel us to publicly acknowledge what we have known for many years: the extraction and burning of fossil fuels is killing life on our planet.
Fossil fuels killed 8.7 million people globally in 2018 – disproportionately impacting Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor communities. Human lives aren’t the only ones being lost. More than 1 billion sea creatures along the Canadian coast were cooked to death during this summer’s record-breaking heatwave in the Pacific Northwest.
Aileen Getty is the founder of the Aileen Getty Foundation and the co-founder of the Climate Emergency Fund
Rebecca Rockefeller Lambert is the co-founder of the Equation Campaign and serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Family Fund and the David Rockefeller Fund
Continue reading...Americans can eat meat while cutting global heating, says agriculture secretary
Thomas Vilsack says US does not ‘have to reduce the amount of meat or livestock produced’ to tackle climate crisis
Americans can carry on eating meat while keeping the world within safe limits on global heating, the US secretary of agriculture has insisted.
Thomas Vilsack said: “I do not think we have to reduce the amount of meat or livestock produced in the US. And a significant percentage is exported. It’s not a question of eating more or less or producing more or less. The question is making production more sustainable.”
Continue reading...Transparency over emissions remains a sticking point at Cop26
Open and fair reporting of progress on targets is crucial for any climate deal to succeed, says an insider
One of the key negotiating issues for Cop26 remains unresolved at this late stage: transparency. Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, nations set targets on their future greenhouse gas emissions, but we don’t yet know how we will ensure that the ways they report and account for those targets and emissions are transparent and fair.
The discussions on transparency to finalise the nuts and bolts of the framework set up in Paris are stalled. Discussions should have been finalised in 2020 but were postponed owing to the pandemic. We are a year behind in the mandate and with most talks happening in a challenging virtual format throughout last year and this one, there is still no clear path toward agreement. If we do not get this right it threatens to undermine any agreement to close the gap between the targets countries set and the emissions cuts needed to keep warming to 1.5C.
Every week we’ll hear from negotiators from a developing country that is involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and is attending the Cop26 climate conference.
Continue reading...Twite – or ‘Pennine finch’ – on brink of extinction in England
Despite rescue efforts to plant ‘twite meadows’ only 12 pairs of seed-eating bird bred this summer
A small bird once so abundant it was called “the Pennine finch” is teetering on the brink of extinction in England after just 12 pairs bred this summer.
The twite, an inconspicuous, seed-eating bird that nests in the uplands and spends winters on coastal marshes, has suffered a precipitous decline this century, with the breeding population falling by 75% between 1999 and 2013.
Continue reading...Cop26 week one: the impression of progress – but not nearly enough
Analysis: the ‘significant outcomes’ came thick and fast but there are question marks about credibility
Long before delegates gathered in Glasgow, the scene for Cop26 was set by the starkest warning yet from the world’s scientists that human activity was unequivocally disrupting the climate, extreme weather was growing more intense, and urgent action was needed to prevent still worse chaos in the future.
“Code red,” declared the UN secretary general, António Guterres, as evidence mounted this summer of ever fiercer heatwaves and increasingly deadly storms and floods. No pressure, then, on the climate diplomats who were told they represented the “last best chance” of holding global heating to 1.5C.
Continue reading...Madagascar paying price for cheap European flights, says climate minister
Politician says droughts and climate-induced famine in the country are a result of the behaviours of rich nations
More than a million people facing the first climate-included famine in Madagascar are paying the price for cheap flights in Europe and appliances such as gas heaters, the country’s environment minister has said.
For several years now, the south of Madagascar has suffered successive droughts of increasing severity, and the situation has deteriorated sharply over the last few months. In August, the UN said the country was facing the world’s first climate change famine. On Tuesday, a World Food Programme representative spoke of a “heartbreaking” visit to the country with more than one million people facing famine.
Continue reading...At Cop26, I’ve found I have more in common with protesters than politicians | The civil servant
Like the activists I believe in action, not words. Global leaders mouth good intentions, but they are woefully insufficient
Say what you like about how dismally difficult it is to get a ticket, but “global Britain” still knows how to put on a show. Cop26 has now finished its first act – the world leaders’ summit – starring more than 120 heads of state, thousands of their aides and hangers-on, and the city of Glasgow.
I’m one of the hundreds from the British civil service working with the UN to stage-manage by far the most ambitious summit in either’s history. There was no shortage of volunteers – thousands of us applied, and for all the reasons you’d expect: idealism, ambition and simply to be present at a critical moment in modern world history.
The civil servant is a serving member of the UK civil service
Continue reading...CP Daily: Friday November 5, 2021
German domestic CO2 price should double because transport emissions going in “wrong direction” -env. agency boss
Boy, 7, takes school reusable bottle campaign to COP26
Activists from across the globe rally for Fridays for Future at Cop26 – video
Youth climate activists appeared sceptical about how genuine the political will to change is when they spoke at the Fridays for Future protest in Glasgow discussing youth empowerment.
Campaigners and pressure groups have been underwhelmed by the commitments made by governments during the Cop26 conference's first week, many of which are voluntary or set deadlines decades away
Continue reading...COP26: US envoy Kerry praises breakthrough deals as “genuine progress”, not distraction
Financials cut, emitters add to California carbon position
Associate Program Officer, Program Team, Verra – Washington DC/Remote
Expansion of California gas plant that leaked methane in 2015 draws criticism
Critics say the decision comes at a high cost to both the climate and human health
California regulators voted Thursday to increase the capacity of a Los Angeles natural gas storage field, where a 2015 blowout caused the nation’s largest-ever methane leak and forced thousands from their homes.
Locals, environmental advocates, and lawmakers have called for the closure of the facility, which has been approved to increase more than 20% in capacity.
Continue reading...COP26: US eyes less than $100/tonne DAC technology to hit net zero
Paris Cop president warns projected 1.8C heating limit is only hypothesis
Laurent Fabius says countries must be open and accountable about how they will deliver pledges in full
Prospects of limiting global heating to 1.8C on the basis of commitments made at the Cop26 climate summit are only “a hypothesis”, the godfather of the Paris climate agreement has warned.
Laurent Fabius, the former French prime minister who was president of the 2015 Paris summit, said he was “very impressed” by the commitments made in the first week of the Cop26 conference, including a deal to reduce the potent greenhouse gas methane, a net zero target from India, plans from China to reduce emissions and commitments on coal.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on climate progress: now for the detail | Editorial
Pledges made during Cop26’s first week were encouraging. But without adequate finance and monitoring they don’t mean much
If week one of the climate conference in Glasgow set out a strong outline, the task for next week is to fill in as many details as possible. The long-term ambition of the global environmental policy now being negotiated would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago. While it is not yet clear exactly where the various pledges will get us to in terms of limiting temperature rises, the new agreement on methane spearheaded by President Joe Biden and a commitment by India to get half of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 are highly significant.
Also encouraging is the more integrated approach to the many environmental challenges humanity faces. Previously, conservation and biodiversity were to some extent viewed as separate issues from the changing atmospheric chemistry that drives global heating. Now, with a promise to reverse deforestation and provide funding directly to indigenous people to help them protect their lands, there is greater recognition of the vital part that nature plays in regulating the climate.
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