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☆ Pacific Islands lash out at COP28 presidency: ‘We weren't in the room’ when deal was announced
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-13 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Anne Rasmussen, the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), told the COP28 Presidency in a closing statement: "We are a little confused about what just happened." "It seems that you gavelled the decisions, and the small island developing states were not in the room. Participants attend a presentation at the Moana Blue Pacific pavilion of Pacific islands prior to the opening ceremony of the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference at Expo City Dubai on November 30, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesFor Pacific Island nations, however, and many other island and low-lying coastal states vulnerable to rising sea levels, the deal falls severely short. For the Pacific Islands, climate change poses an existential threat.

Persons: Michael Runkel, Tina Stege, Anne Rasmussen, Sean Gallup, Brianna Fruean, we've, Fruean, weren't, Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster Organizations: Getty Images, United Arab Emirates — Representatives, Pacific, United Arab, Marshall, Alliance of Small, States, UAE, Expo City, Getty, Big Oil, Pacific Climate Warriors, CNBC, UNITED, Natural Resources, United Arab Emirates Locations: Ouvea, New Caledonia, Getty Images DUBAI, United Arab, United Arab Emirates, Pacific, Expo City Dubai, Dubai, Paris, DUBAI, EMIRATES, Samoa, States

Here are some of the main players and negotiating blocs involved in the COP28 conference starting Nov. 30 in Dubai. In climate negotiations, Beijing argues that wealthy developed countries like the United States, the biggest historical CO2 emitter, should move first and fastest in climate policy and finance. Despite having the world's second largest economy after the United States, China considers itself as a developing nation in the climate talks. But U.S. delegates will face pressure for climate finance after Washington pledged no new climate cash to the United Nations this year. AFRICAN GROUP OF NEGOTIATORSAfrican countries will be pushing at COP28 for climate finance and financial mechanisms to speed up green energy projects.

Persons: Rula, Kate Abnett, Katy Daigle, Josie Kao Organizations: Abu Dhabi Sustainability, REUTERS, UNITED, Washington, United Nations, EU, GROUP, Marshall, European Union, Thomson Locations: UAE, Abu Dhabi, Dubai . CHINA China, China, Beijing, United States, U.S, Union, United, United Kingdom, London, Brazil, South Africa, India, Saudi Arabia, CHINA, Kenya, Ethiopia, Senegal, Mozambique, Vanuatu, Costa Rica

China, the world's biggest fossil fuel consumer, is among those signalling that it intends to keep using them for decades. By inserting "unabated" before fossil fuels, the pledge targeted only fuels burned without emissions-capturing technology. "We cannot use it to green-light fossil fuel expansion," the countries said in a joint statement. We can't say we want to avoid 1.5 C ... and not say anything about phasing out fossil fuels," Cox said. The Alliance of Small Island States, whose members face climate-fuelled storms and land loss to rising seas, wants a fossil fuel phase-out and an end to the $7 trillion governments spend annually on subsidising fossil fuels.

Persons: Eduardo Munoz, General Antonio Guterres, Sultan Al Jaber, John Kerry, Teresa Ribera, Eamon Ryan, Ryan, Peter Cox, Cox, Fatih Birol, Valerie Volcovici, Kate Abnett, Katy Daigle, Emelia Organizations: U.S, REUTERS, United Nations General Assembly, United Arab Emirates, United, European Union, Reuters, Ireland's, American Petroleum Institute, University of Exeter, International Energy Agency, Rockefeller Foundation, Organization of, Petroleum, Small, States, United Nations, D.C, Thomson Locations: New York, New York City , New York, U.S, Dubai, China, United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, France, Kenya, Chile, Colombia, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Japan, Union, Washington, Brussels

WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - With the world on track to break the record for the hottest year in history, world leaders, business leaders, celebrities and activists have converged on midtown Manhattan for Climate Week and the U.N.'s Climate Action Summit, again focusing the world's attention on the climate crisis. As of Monday, the U.N. had not announced which world leaders or officials would get one of the coveted speaking slots at the climate summit. "It is disheartening to witness the lack of ambition on what truly ails us – emissions from fossil fuels," the small islands alliance said in a statement. "We implore the international community to use the platforms of the UNGA and New York Climate Week to signal unequivocal support for Small Island Developing States," it said, using the acronym for the U.N. General Assembly. Meanwhile, at several hotel ballrooms and other venues across Manhattan, around 2,600 people have registered for in-person attendance at Climate Week events featuring over 200 speakers from the private sector, governments and nongovernmentalion (NGOs.

Persons: Antonio Guterres, we're, Selwin Hart, Guterres, Hart, We’ve, Romain Ioualalen, Valerie Volcovici, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Climate, United Nations General Assembly, U.N, Action, United Arab, Alliance of Small, General, Oil Change, Thomson Locations: Manhattan, Paris, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, China, South Africa, India, Russia, New, midtown Manhattan

REUTERS/Stringer/File PhotoSummary Countries at odds over which should pay climate financeEU wants China to contribute to climate fundsChina among countries not currently obliged to payBRUSSELS/BEIJING, July 21 (Reuters) - Record-breaking heat in China. The EU, today the biggest contributor of climate finance, has lobbied to expand the pool of donor countries that provide it. Climate finance refers to money that wealthy countries pay toward helping poorer nations reduce CO2 emissions and adapt to a hotter, harsher world. Advocates for the change argue that an expansion needs to happen before a new - and, likely, far bigger - U.N. target for climate finance kicks in after 2025. "It would earn China diplomatic clout, and pressure Western donors to raise their stakes on climate finance," he said.

Persons: Stringer, John Kerry, Janet Yellen, Kerry, Li Qiang, Pa'olelei Luteru, Luteru, Byford Tsang, Kate Abnett, Valerie Volcovici, Katy Daigle, Stephen Coates Organizations: REUTERS, BRUSSELS, U.S, Union, Reuters, EU, United Arab Emirates, of Small, WHO, United, Climate Cooperation, Initiative, Bridgetown Initiative, Thomson Locations: Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, EU, BEIJING, COP28, Dubai, Beijing, U.S, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, States, United States, South Korea, U.N, Barbados, Bridgetown, Brussels

☆ Analysis: COP27 loss and damage fund heralds 'new dawn for climate justice'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Megan Rowling | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Yeb Saño, head of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said the fund's approval "marks a new dawn for climate justice." While the loss and damage fund would not be enough to deal with growing climate losses, "it is a much-needed political signal to rebuild broken trust" between rich and poor nations, he said in a video statement. Their opposition was rooted in fears of being held financially liable for the impacts of their historically high greenhouse gas emissions. FOSSIL FUELS MISSINGPolitical figures had urged countries at COP27 to set aside geopolitical fights in order to keep climate action on track. Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, global climate and energy lead for environmental group WWF, who presided over COP20 in Peru, said leaders had missed the chance in Egypt to speed up the rapid and deep emissions cuts essential to limit climate damage.

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt CNN —Delegates from nearly 200 counties at the COP27 climate summit have agreed to set up a “loss and damage” fund meant to help vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters, in a landmark deal early Sunday morning in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. And in previous public remarks, US Climate Envoy John Kerry had said loss and damage was not the same thing as climate reparations. “This loss and damage fund will be a lifeline for poor families whose houses are destroyed, farmers whose fields are ruined, and islanders forced from their ancestral homes,” World Resources Institute CEO Ani Dasgupta said. Beyond 1.5 degrees, the risk of extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages will increase dramatically, scientists said in the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. On Saturday, EU officials threatened to walk out of the meeting if the final agreement failed to endorse the goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

☆ EU proposes midway path on climate damage fund to unblock COP27 talks
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Kate Abnett | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The EU proposal would be to set up a special fund for covering loss and damage in the most vulnerable countries - but funded from a "broad donor base". "What we would propose is to establish a loss and damage response fund for the most vulnerable countries," EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans told the COP27 summit. The Alliance of Small Island States and the G77 club of 134 developing countries, who have both pushed for a new fund at COP27, were consulting on their response to the EU proposal. Pakistan's ambassador to South Korea, Nabeel Munir, said Timmermans' proposal was "positive news" but that some divisions remained. The EU offer is at odds with a proposal by developing countries and China that called for all developing countries to have access to the fund.

"It is not a kind of tactic to avoid formal negotiation on loss and damage funding arrangements here," Schulze said. Some research suggests that by 2030, vulnerable countries could face $580 billion per year in climate-linked "loss and damage". Ghana's finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta, who chairs the V20 group of vulnerable countries, called the creation of the Global Shield "long overdue". Yet some vulnerable countries questioned the scheme's focus on insurance, with insurance premiums adding another cost to cash-strapped countries that have low carbon emissions and contributed least to the causes of climate change. It was not immediately clear how much of the Global Shield funding announced so far was in grant form.

Top 10 oil & gas CO2 emittersMore than 40% of the oil and gas sector emissions came from China's two largest oil majors alone - Sinopec (600028.SS) and PetroChina (601857.SS) - while investor staples including Shell (SHEL.L), Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) and Chevron also ranked high in the emissions table. As hefty as their collective discharges have been, however, oil and gas companies have not been the only steady polluters. Top 10 power companies by CO2 emissionsOnce again, China-based companies came out on top, and accounted for over half of the CO2 from the 10 largest global firms in the utilities and power segment last year. However, companies from the United States, Europe, India and Japan also made the top 10 leader board, underscoring the wide scope of polluters on the global emissions stage. STEELY RESOLVEGlobal metals and mining firms also racked up a significant collective emissions tally in 2021, hitting close to 600 million tonnes of CO2 and equivalent gases.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Small island nations suffering the brunt of climate change want Big Oil to pay for mounting damage from ocean storms and sea-level rise, Antigua's prime minister told delegates at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt on Tuesday. "The oil and gas industry continues to earn almost 3 billion United States dollars daily in profits," Browne said, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States. "It is about time that these companies are made to pay a global carbon tax on their profits as a source of funding for loss and damage. Profligate producers of fossil fuels have benefited from extortionate profits at the expense of human civilization. Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Katy Daigle and Janet LawrenceOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Where's the money? COP27 climate summit opens with a rallying call for rich nations to pay up
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The COP27 summit sees delegates from nearly 200 countries gather in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh for talks on how to address the climate crisis. Climate finance, as it has done since the first U.N. climate conference in 1995, will once again play a pivotal role. Climate reparations, sometimes referred to as "loss and damage" payments, are widely expected to dominate the COP27 talks. Indeed, for the first time ever, the topic of loss and damage finance formally made it onto the COP27 agenda. "AOSIS is here to agree to the establishment of a new Loss and Damage Response Fund at COP27 that is operational by 2024.

☆ Explainer: COP27: What is 'Loss and Damage' compensation, and who should pay?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Kate Abnett | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

That has intensified developing country demands for a special "Loss and Damage" fund. But with rich countries resisting such calls, the issue has been stalled for years. Loss and damage funding would be different, in compensating costs that countries can't avoid or "adapt" to. Vulnerable countries and campaigners have argued that rich countries that caused the bulk of climate change with their historical emissions should now pay. Meanwhile, climate-vulnerable countries are seeking contributions for a pilot loss and damage funding facility.

☆ Factbox: COP27: Major players at the U.N. climate talks in Egypt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Rachel Parsons | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Here are some of the main stakeholders and negotiating blocs engaged in the U.N. climate conference (COP27) that starts on Nov. 6 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. A diplomatic row over Taiwan led Beijing to cancel bilateral climate talks with the United States. EUROPEAN UNIONGreenhouse gas emissions from the 27-country European Union comprise about 8% of the global total, and have been trending downward for years. Negotiating as a single group at the U.N. climate talks, the EU intends to push other major emitters to raise their targets. Meanwhile, long-time climate champion King Charles III said he will skip the COP27 conference in Egypt.

☆ Egypt working to prioritize 'loss and damage' at COP27
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Valerie Volcovici | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Aboulmagd said as the incoming COP president, Egypt needs to "navigate" the disparate positions and that it has appointed two ministers to come up with a plan for how to include "loss and damage" on COP27's formal agenda. The two ministers are Germany's special envoy for international climate action, Jennifer Morgan, and Chile's environment minister, Maisa Rojas. But as different countries grapple with extreme weather this year, pressure is growing for "loss and damage" to be prioritized at COP27. After visiting Pakistan in the wake of devastating floods, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged governments to address loss and damage at COP27 "with the seriousness it deserves." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises is hiring Membership Officer
▼ + stars: | 2021-07-06 | by ( Alte Articole | ) www.civic.md time to read: 1 min

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☆ Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises is hiring Project Assistant
▼ + stars: | 2021-06-14 | by ( Alte Articole | ) www.civic.md time to read: 1 min

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☆ Project Assistant at Alliance of Small Enterprises from Moldova
▼ + stars: | 2021-01-11 | by ( Alte Articole | ) www.civic.md time to read: 1 min

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