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☆ Analysis: First U.S. coral insurance marks the rise of the reef brigades
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Clare Baldwin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

On Monday, the global 'Reef Brigades' plan came closer to reality when it bought an insurance policy on behalf of the state of Hawaii, the first U.S. coral insurance contract, which will provide funds for repair work, building on similar policies taken out in the Caribbean. Apart from being a precious nursery for fish, coral reefs that fringe developed coastlines can limit flooding by providing a barrier against ocean storm surges, meaning insurers have every interest in protecting them. For the premium of $110,000 in Hawaii's contract announced on Monday, that state will get up to $2 million of insurance protection for its coral reefs until the end of December 2023. Just offshore from some of the country's most famous Mayan ruins, local tourism businesses and the government bought an insurance policy to cover their share of the Mesoamerican Reef. Willis Towers Watson, which worked on the MAR Fund policy and the Hawaii policy, said it is actively working on a coral reef policy for Fiji, and policies for coral reef bleaching, run-off due to excessive rainfall, and lost fishing days due to climate change-induced storms.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Beyond the headlines from the annual U.N. climate conference, progress in advancing the global climate agenda relies on the behind-the-scenes efforts of technocrats over years. Offsets allow countries or companies to pay others to cut greenhouse gas emissions to make up for their own. But discussions on how to curb those emissions are relatively new within U.N. climate negotiations. The work also deals with food security and the economic impacts of global warming. As the initial mandate expired, countries at COP27 authorised the KJWA work to continue for another four years.

[1/10] Delegates applaud as COP27 President Sameh Shoukry delivers a statement during the closing plenary at the COP27 climate summit in Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 20, 2022. "We had to fight relentlessly to hold the line of Glasgow," a visibly frustrated Alok Sharma, architect of the Glasgow deal, told the summit. He listed off a number of ambition-boosting measures that were stymied in the negotiations for the final COP27 deal in Egypt: "Emissions peaking before 2025 as the science tells us is necessary? Another section of the COP27 deal dropped the idea of annual target renewal in favour of returning to a longer five-year cycle set out in the Paris pact. "I recognise the progress we made in COP27" with the loss and damage fund, Aminath Shauna told the plenary.

☆ Analysis: COP27 does little for next month's global agenda: nature loss
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Many environment ministers and campaigners have said the climate talks should underline the importance of protecting nature to help to limit climate change. The "landmark" target of the draft Montreal deal proposes protecting 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030 - known informally as 30-by-30. The world's wildlife crisis is largely driven by habitat loss, with wild spaces turned into agricultural fields and cities, or degraded by pollution. But climate change poses an increasing threat as temperatures climb, pushing species out of their comfortable ranges. It encouraged parties to "consider, as appropriate, nature-based solutions or ecosystem-based approaches" to climate change.

☆ Adele reminds us how Vegas made artist residencies cool
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Caryn Rose | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

After being abruptly postponed in January, Adele’s Las Vegas residency, “Weekends With Adele,” made its debut at Caesar’s Palace on Friday. But Adele highlights how it’s been transformed into an artistic achievement, why it’s never going away and reminds us how Las Vegas made residencies cool. This isn’t a complete list because a Las Vegas residency is no longer necessarily out of the ordinary. Does this all mean a Vegas residency is the right fit for everyone? In the shifting economic climate and post-pandemic realities, a Vegas residency may be more appealing to artists whowouldn’t normally consider it.

Here's what you need to know about the agreement:WHAT IS 'LOSS AND DAMAGE'? In U.N. climate talks, "loss and damage" refers to costs being incurred from climate-fuelled weather extremes or impacts, like rising sea levels. Loss and damage funding is different, specifically covering the cost of damage that countries cannot avoid or adapt to. A few governments have made relatively small but symbolic funding commitments for loss and damage: Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Scotland, plus the EU. Some existing U.N. and development bank funding does help states facing loss and damage, though it is not officially earmarked for that goal.

☆ Key takeaways from the COP27 climate summit in Egypt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/4] Egyptian Foreign Minister and Egypt's COP27 President Sameh Shoukry attends an informal stocktaking session during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 18, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El GhanySHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 20 (Reuters) - This year's U.N. climate summit featured visits by world leaders, proposals by business leaders, and negotiations by nearly 200 nations about the future of global action on climate change. Natural gas chiefs were billing themselves as climate champions, despite gas companies having faced lawsuits in the United States over such claims. The leftist leader made the Egypt climate summit his first visit abroad since winning Brazil's presidential election last month against right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over mounting destruction of the rainforest and refused to hold the 2019 climate summit originally planned for Brazil. U.S., CHINA RELATIONSHIP REKINDLEDA critical precursor for the climate talks' success happened far away from the Red Sea locale.

☆ Key takeaways from the COP27 climate summit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Megan Rowling | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Countries agreed early Sunday at the COP27 climate summit to set up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters, but delayed approving a wider deal outlining global resolve to fight climate change. The session approved the text's provision to set up a "loss and damage" fund to help developing countries bear the immediate costs of climate-fuelled events such as storms and floods. Those recommendations would cover "identifying and expanding sources of funding" - referring to the vexed question of which countries should pay into the new fund. Calls by developing countries for such a fund have dominated the two-week summit, pushing the talks past their scheduled Friday finish. The document, which forms the overall political deal for COP27, needs approval from the nearly 200 countries at the climate summit in Egypt.

[1/5] A general view of the entrance to the Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre grounds, during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 19, 2022. Kunal Satyarthi, a negotiator for India, said he thought the loss and damage deal would "certainly" pass, and thanked other countries for their flexibility. Norway's climate minister, Espen Barth Eide, meanwhile, said his country was happy with the agreement to create a loss and damage fund. But the possible breakthrough on loss and damage was significant, and "I don't think that should be lost in the mix," he said. For daily comprehensive coverage on COP27 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter here.

☆ Their IVF journeys did not end with children. Here's what they want you to know
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Faith Karimi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

"I stopped to protect my physical, emotional and mental health," says Katy Seppi, 40, of her decision to end her infertility journey. Seppi says she believes Aniston’s openness about her own IVF journey helps validate the experiences of many people who are involuntarily childless. "For someone like myself with ADHD, the decision fatigue was at times overwhelming," Sherrae Lachhu, 45, says about the IVF process. It can help others not feel so alone.”She felt like a failure when her IVF didn’t workApril Barsby, 32, had one cycle of IVF in September of last year. The couple put their IVF journey on pause for now and Barsby says she’s not sure what to do next.

☆ Adam Frisch Concedes to Lauren Boebert in Colorado House Race
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Katy Stech Ferek | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/adam-frisch-concedes-to-lauren-boebert-in-colorado-house-race-11668798633

☆ 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.

[1/3] Egyptian Foreign Minister and Egypt's COP27 President Sameh Shoukry attends an informal stocktaking session during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 18, 2022. But with several other sticking points dogging this year's U.N. climate talks, host country Egypt said a final deal was still not expected before the weekend. But it was unclear Friday if all of those countries would accept the EU's offer of a fund to aid only "the most vulnerable countries", rather than all developing countries as they had requested. On Friday morning, the U.N. climate agency published a first official draft of the final summit deal. Some countries, including the EU and Britain, have pushed for the overall deal in Egypt to lock in country commitments for more ambitious climate action.

☆ What to watch on Friday at COP27
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The official events at the COP27 climate talks are winding down ahead of the scheduled end date on Friday, but the negotiations for a final deal are dragging on. Countries remain deeply divided over many important issues, with the talks threatening to extend into the weekend. On Friday, watch for glimmers of agreement on sticking points, which include funding for countries being ravaged by climate impacts and how much scrutiny countries should face in their domestic actions for delivering on climate targets. Meanwhile, negotiators working on a separate track to nail down details around global carbon offset trading may announce incremental progress made so far. For daily comprehensive coverage on COP27 in your inbox, sign up for the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter hereReporting by Katy Daigle; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"There's now a big push to get nature into sovereign debt markets," said Simon Zadek, executive director at NatureFinance, which advises governments on debt-for-nature swaps and other types of climate-focused finance. At that level, it would be the biggest debt-for-nature swap struck to date. The combined value of swap deals to date is $3.7 billion, according to the data. Securing the buy-in of development banks is usually key for the economics of a deal. The WWF has projects in Central and South America where they are monitoring deforestation by tracking jaguars, said Brenes, who has worked on debt-for-nature swaps for the last 25 years.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The U.N. climate agency published a first draft on Thursday of a hoped-for final agreement from the COP27 climate summit, repeating many of last year's goals while leaving contentious issues still to be resolved. The draft repeats the goal from last year's Glasgow Climate Pact "to accelerate measures towards the phase down of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies." The text does not include details for launching such a fund - a key demand from the most climate vulnerable countries, such as island nations. Climate policy experts said there was deep concern about the talks reaching consensus on many key issues. The document is based on requests that delegates from nearly 200 countries have sought to be included in the final deal.

[1/5] Climate activists take part in a protest during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 16, 2022. "There's still a lot of gaps in the texts," said a spokesperson for Britain's COP26 Presidency, which hosted last year's climate summit in Glasgow. EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said the first draft left a lot to be desired. TEMPERATURE TARGETOn limiting the global temperature rise, the document mirrors language included in last year's COP26 agreement. Temperatures have already increased by 1.1C, and are projected to blow past 1.5C without swift and deep cuts to emissions within this decade.

☆ Senate Vote on Same-Sex Marriage to Test Level of GOP Support
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Katy Stech Ferek | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.), the first openly gay senator, said the legislation aims to ‘create certainty around these fundamental rights.’WASHINGTON—The Senate was set to vote Wednesday on advancing bipartisan legislation that would cement same-sex marriage protections into law, aiming to codify rights established in a 2015 Supreme Court ruling. Democratic and Republican proponents of the legislation said they were confident that they have secured more than the 60 votes required for the measure to advance in the evenly divided Senate. All members of the Democratic caucus are expected to back the bill in a motion to proceed, meaning it also would need the support of at least 10 Republicans.

☆ Senate Votes to Advance Same-Sex Marriage Legislation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Katy Stech Ferek | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.), the first openly gay senator, said the legislation aims to ‘create certainty around these fundamental rights.’WASHINGTON—The Senate voted 62-37 Wednesday to advance legislation that would cement same-sex marriage protections into law, clearing a decisive hurdle as lawmakers aim to get the measure to President Biden’s desk in the lame-duck session. The vote underscored how a once politically divisive issue now draws bipartisan support despite opposition from some social conservatives, less than a decade after same-sex marriage became legal nationwide under a 2015 Supreme Court ruling.

☆ Senate Votes to End Covid-19 Emergency Declaration
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Katy Stech Ferek | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Under federal law, Congress has the power to ask for periodic votes to terminate the emergency status. WASHINGTON—Senate lawmakers voted on Tuesday to end the federal government’s emergency declaration on the Covid-19 pandemic, a status that has given the Biden administration tools to combat the coronavirus. The Senate voted 62-36 to end the emergency declaration nearly three years after it was invoked. It’s unclear if the House will take up the measure.

Brazil's 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro set the stage for all major international environmental agreements since, with the signing of U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is aimed at preventing extreme climate change and was the foundation of the COP meetings. He said Lula would turn around Brazil's environmental policies "180 degrees" from those of Bolsonaro. Lula won office last month over Bolsonaro, who appointed climate skeptics as ministers and saw deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest spike to a 15-year high. On Thursday, Lula will meet with civil society and indigenous groups, as well as United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

A G20 declaration on Wednesday said "we will play our part fully in implementing" last year's Glasgow Climate Pact, under which countries pledged to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial times. "As things stand, the Glasgow Climate Pact is broken, but the G20 have the opportunity to fix it." MISSED OPPORTUNITYThe G20 declaration recognised the need to phase down use of unabated coal and phase out "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies. Avinash Persaud, special envoy on climate finance to Prime Minister Mia Motley of Barbados, meanwhile, told Reuters the G20 declaration missed the mark on finance. "Unfunded ambition gets us nowhere fast," Persaud said, adding he wanted G20 countries to unlock more lending from multilateral development banks they control to help climate-vulnerable countries.

☆ Big pharma not doing enough to improve drug access - analysis
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Natalie Grover | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A doctor tests a child for malaria at the Ithani-Asheri Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania, May 11, 2016. While there has been progress, there remain some gaping holes that need to be prioritised in the coming years, Access to Medicine Foundation CEO Jayasree Iyer told Reuters. The findings mirror a long-established pattern - that the pharmaceutical industry will prioritise countries where there is a market, she said. "If we consistently see that the industry leaves low income countries behind, then we're never going to solve the problem of access at scale," she said. In terms of overall rankings on the Access to Medicine Index, British drugmaker GSK (GSK.L) retained the top spot, closely followed by U.S. pharma major Johnson & Johnson (J&J) (JNJ.N).

Lula's team also worked to secure a jungle conservation alliance announced on Monday between the three largest rainforest nations - Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. That includes pushing for rich nations with high greenhouse gas emissions to pay poor nations for historic damage the climate. Colombia's Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said Lula's election would allow for renewed regional cooperation among Amazon rainforest nations to tackle deforestation, a major contributor to climate change. Lula environmental advisor Izabella Teixeira said she felt the mood about Brazil has shifted at COP27 from previous summits. "When I come to COP and meet people after the election of President Lula, there is hope," she said.

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