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☆ Talks at COP27 enter final stretch — but draft deal slammed for paving the way to ‘climate hell’
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Around 35,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries are expected to convene in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss collective action to tackle the climate emergency. Ahmad Gharabli | Afp | Getty ImagesAs talks at the COP27 climate summit enter the final stretch, government ministers and negotiators from nearly 200 countries are scrambling to build consensus on an array of issues critical to tackling the climate emergency. The U.N. climate agency on Thursday published a 20-page first draft of a hoped-for final agreement. It is highly likely to be reworked in the coming days as climate envoys in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh strive to reach an overarching deal before Friday's deadline. Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during the COP27 climate conference in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

☆ UN Secretary General says Black Sea grain deal extended
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The United Nations Secretary General said on Thursday he welcomed an agreement by all parties to extend the Black Sea grain deal to facilitate Ukraine's agricultural exports from its southern Black Sea ports. "I welcome the agreement by all parties to continue the Black Sea grain initiative to facilitate the safe navigation of export of grain, foodstuffs and fertilisers from Ukraine," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement on Thursday. Gueterres said the UN was also "fully committed to removing the remaining obstacles to exporting food and fertilisers from the Russian Federation" - a part of the deal Moscow sees as critical. Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Guy FaulconbridgeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ "Stand and deliver," UN chief tells faltering COP27 climate summit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( William James | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Negotiators at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt must overcome a "breakdown in trust" between rich and poor nations to deliver a deal to save the world from the worst of global warming, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said on Thursday. "The world is watching and has a simple message: stand and deliver." His speech was intended to rally negotiators that have become stuck on issues from whether a fund should be established to compensate poor nations for climate damage already ocurring, to language around fossil fuels use. "No one can deny the scale of loss and damage we see around the globe," he said. He also urged developed countries to deliver on a past pledge to provide $100 billion per year to help poor nations adapt to climate change and switch to clean energy.

☆ Why the energy transition is so tough for Africa: 600 million people still have no access to power
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jacopo Prisco | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Ahead of COP 27, CNN’s Eleni Giokos discussed this and other topics at Africa Energy Week in Cape Town, with Verner Ayukegba, Senior Vice President of the African Energy Chamber, which works with businesses in the continent and promotes energy growth. At the African Energy Chamber, we have decided to champion making energy poverty history by 2030. We need to make sure that we solve, of course, the climate issues, but also the power issues. What we are saying, however, is that you can’t transition in Limpopo [South Africa] in the same way you transition in New York. For anybody who has a constituency with 600 million people without power, you need to talk differently about these issues.

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.

☆ 'Profoundly disturbing': The PR firm for the COP27 climate summit has a long history with Big Oil
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

"Hill and Knowlton is the main lobbying communications firm for the oil industry," said Duncan Meisel, campaign director at Clean Creatives, a U.S.-based group working to disentangle the PR industry from the fossil fuel sector. "Any PR firm that is actively supporting to promote [a] narrative of continued fossil fuel expansion under any circumstances is a problem," Muffett told CNBC via telephone. watch nowIt comes at a time of growing momentum for calls to end fossil fuel production worldwide. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently called out what he described as the "massive public relations machine raking in billions to shield the fossil fuel industry from scrutiny." "Fossil fuel interests need to spend less time averting a PR disaster — and more time averting a planetary one."

☆ The world's 8 billionth person was just born, UN projection shows — the first time the global population has been so big
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The world population was due to hit 8 billion for the first time on November 15, 2022. That's in spite of the global population growing more slowly in recent years. That means a billion people have been added to the world population in the past 12 years, CNN reported. The world's population is due to grow further: hitting 9 billion around 2037 and 10 billion around 2058, the UN predicted in a statement. The new milestone happened in spite of global population growth slowing down overall, to under 1% a year, per CNN.

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.

An EU official said Lula would also meet on Wednesday with EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans. Last month, Lula defeated right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who oversaw mounting destruction of the Amazon rainforest and refused to host the 2019 climate summit originally planned for Brazil. His team also worked to secure a jungle conservation alliance announced on Monday between the three largest rainforest nations - Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. They said other countries know Brazil will soon have a Lula government that has promised to take the issue more seriously than Bolsonaro, a climate change sceptic. Colombia's Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said Lula's election would allow renewed regional cooperation among Amazon rainforest nations to tackle deforestation, a major contributor to climate change.

☆ Russia's Lavrov went to hospital for 'checkup': Indonesia official
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited and later left a Bali hospital ahead of the Group of 20 summit being held on the island, Indonesian authorities said Monday. Four Indonesian government and medical officials earlier told The Associated Press that Lavrov was treated at the hospital in the provincial capital, Denpasar. Lavrov is Russia’s longest-serving foreign minister since Soviet times, when Andrei Gromyko, nicknamed “Mr Nyet” in the West for his uncompromising approach, held the post for 28 years. Before becoming foreign minister, Lavrov served as Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Lavrov repeatedly dismissed U.S. and British assertions that Putin was preparing to order an invasion.

☆ G20 summit latest: Biden and Xi meet
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BIDEN AND XI* The meeting ahead of the G20 summit, being held on Tuesday and Wednesday on the Indonesian island of Bali, was their first in-person talks since Biden became president. RUSSIA AND UKRAINE* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will address the G20 gathering by videolink on Tuesday. * Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would hold a bilateral meeting with Xi on Tuesday. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will also meet Xi on Tuesday. * Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, the summit host, told Biden he expected the meeting to deliver concrete partnerships that might help global economic recovery.

☆ The shafts of light in a dark, dark world
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The Ukraine conflict has made inflation and debt even worse. The conflict in Ukraine and the early stages of a cold war with China mean it’s hard to get global consensus on anything. The G20, whose members include China, India and Russia, played a big role tackling the 2008 global financial crisis. Meanwhile, the war has strengthened the alliance between America, Europe and like-minded countries across the world. But there is increasing pressure on the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to perform part of this task.

☆ The 'world's largest floating wind farm' produces its first power
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

A facility described as the world's largest floating wind farm produced its first power over the weekend, with more turbines set to come online before the year is out. The use of a floating wind farm to help power the production of fossil fuels is likely to spark some controversy, however. Earlier this year, meanwhile, the White House said it was targeting 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by the year 2035. As well as the 15 GW ambition, a "Floating Offshore Wind Shot" aims to reduce the costs of floating technologies by over 70% by the year 2035. "Bringing floating offshore wind technology to scale will unlock new opportunities for offshore wind power off the coasts of California and Oregon, in the Gulf of Maine, and beyond," the statement added.

☆ Fraying U.S.-China relations could have huge implications for Earth
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Xinhua News Agency | Xinhua News Agency | Getty ImagesSHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Fraying diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and China are a big concern at the COP27 climate summit. However, many fear tensions between Washington and Beijing could make climate cooperation at COP27 extremely difficult. We say it is just on climate change, but we know that climate change is really at the center of everything in society." Biden is expected to join a 16-member delegation of senior officials at COP27 later this week to "advance the global climate fight." "And there is no solution to the problem of climate change without China, without Russia, without India, without … large economies being at the table," Kerry said.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 9 (Reuters) - U.S. climate envoy John Kerry on Wednesday announced the creation of a carbon offset plan meant to help developing countries speed their transition away from fossil fuels. Kerry launched the Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) with the intention of funding renewable energy projects and accelerating clean energy transitions in developing countries. Kerry added that the carbon credits used in the program would be "high quality" and meet "strong safeguards". Kerry said Guterres was supportive of the U.S.-led carbon market initiative provided there were safeguards to it. At the event launch, a protester interrupted Kerry saying: "You’re providing false solutions.”Kerry responded that fossil fuel companies would not participate in the program.

☆ Leaders push for climate action and fossil tax at UN talks
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — World leaders are making the case for tougher action to tackle global warming Tuesday, as this year’s international climate talks in Egypt heard growing calls for fossil fuel companies to help pay for the damage they have helped cause to the planet. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned Monday that humanity was on “a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator,” urging countries to “cooperate or perish.”Leaders gather during the COP27 climate summit in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday. Ludovic Marin / AFP - Getty ImagesHe and leaders such as Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said it was time to make fossil fuel companies contribute to funds which would provide vulnerable countries with financial aid for the climate-related losses they are suffering. The idea of a windfall tax on carbon profits has gained traction in recent months amid sky-high earnings for oil and gas majors even as consumers struggle to pay the cost of heating their homes and filling their cars. The U.S. mid-term elections were hanging over the talks Tuesday, with many environmental campaigners worried that defeat for the Democrats could make it harder for President Joe Biden to pursue his ambitious climate agenda.

☆ UN experts at COP27: Corporate climate pledges rife with greenwashing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and others attend the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 7, 2022. At last year's climate negotiations in Glasgow, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed 17 experts to review the integrity of non-state net zero commitments amid concerns about "a surplus of confusion and deficit of credibility" involving corporate green boasting. "Bogus net zero claims drive up the cost that ultimately everyone will pay," she said. An estimated 80% of global emissions are now covered by pledges that commit to reaching net zero emissions. For example, a company cannot claim to be net zero if it continues to build or invest in new fossil fuel infrastructure or deforestation.

☆ Sinking Pacific island nation issues historic call for treaty to phase out fossil fuels
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — The South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu on Tuesday urged countries at the COP27 climate summit to establish a global treaty to phase out the use of fossil fuels. "We, therefore, unite with a hundred Nobel Peace Prize laureates and thousands of scientists worldwide and urge world leaders to join the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to manage a just transition away from fossil fuels." Tuvalu follows in the footsteps of its Pacific neighbors in making the call for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. The statement Tuesday comes at a time of growing momentum for calls to end fossil fuel production worldwide. Oil and gas giants, meanwhile, have reported record profits at a time of high energy costs and a cost-of-living crisis.

☆ IMF chief says rich countries alone can 'never close' the funding gap for climate change
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Su-Lin Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

watch nowPublic aid and funding from governments of developed countries alone won't be enough to close the funding gap on climate change initiatives in developing countries, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva told CNBC. More private investments are needed to help developing countries to meet their climate change targets, said the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Public aid and funding from governments of developed countries alone would not be enough to close the funding gap on climate change initiatives in developing countries. Stability in developing countries also secures trade between advanced and developing countries, Georgieva said. Disruptions in supply chains caused by climate change events could pose a bigger risk than the one posed by the pandemic, she added.

☆ Reeling from floods, Pakistan seeks climate compensation, debt relief
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Valerie Volcovici | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Pakistan's prime minister said his country would need debt relief and would seek compensation for climate damage as it recovers from catastrophic floods that cost the country some $30 billion. Speaking on Monday at the COP27 climate conference alongside U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan's escalating public debt was hampering its recovery. "Millions of people are going into winter without shelter or livelihood," Sharif said. "Women and children are still looking to us to protect their basics needs." "There should be a way to have a (debt) swap exchanging the payments of the debt to investments in the rehabilitation and recovery and reconstruction from natural disasters," the secretary general said.

"Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told delegates gathered in the seaside resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” he said. Signatories to the 2015 Paris climate agreement pledged to achieve a long-term goal of keeping global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Guterres said that goal will only stay alive if the world can achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, said in a report published on Monday that it should tackle trade barriers for low carbon industries to address the role of global trade in driving climate change.

☆ COP27: What are they saying at the climate summit?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Nov 7 (Reuters) - World leaders, policymakers and delegates from nearly 200 countries are at the COP27 U.N. climate summit in Egypt, where they hope to keep alive a goal to avert the worst impacts of climate change. MIA MOTTLEY, PRIME MINISTER OF BARBADOS[1/4] Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres speaks during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 7, 2022. FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE"We have a credibility problem all of us: We're talking and we're starting to act, but we're not doing enough." MA'RUF AMIN, VICE PRESIDENT OF INDONESIA"One year after Glasgow, there has been no significant global progress. For this reason COP27 must be used not only to enhance ambition, but also implementation, including the fulfilment of support from developed to developing countries."

☆ 'We are on the highway to climate hell': To slow down, countries need to spend more, the head of the UN says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Two leaders called for windfall taxes on oil and gas companies to help fund climate efforts. The world is on a "highway to hell" unless countries step up action, the UN secretary-general said. "We are on the highway to climate hell, with a foot on the accelerator." That wasn't part of the policy agreed on by the EU in September to tax windfall profits made by fossil-fuel companies. This drains budgets and leaves less money for infrastructure projects that make countries more resilient to the climate crisis.

☆ We’re on a ‘highway to climate hell,' UN chief Guterres says, calling for a global phase-out of coal
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaking at the COP27 climate change summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. "We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator," he told attendees. "We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator." "But we cannot … accept that our attention is not focused on climate change." While collaboration was needed to bolster peace efforts and end "tremendous suffering," climate change was "on a different timeline, and a different scale."

☆ Climate woes bad and getting worse faster, UN weather report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Earth's warming weather and rising seas are getting worse and doing so faster than before, the World Meteorological Organization warned Sunday in a somber note as world leaders started gathering for international climate negotiations. "The latest State of the Global Climate report is a chronicle of climate chaos," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. "The melting (of ice) game we have lost and also the sea level rate," WMO chief Petteri Taalas told The Associated Press. The data on sea level and average temperatures are nothing compared to how climate change has hit people in extreme weather. The rate of warming the last 15 years is 67% faster than since 1971, the report said.

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