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☆ 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."

☆ 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.

☆ 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.

☆ Climate Change and the Lancet’s ‘Heat Death’ Deception
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Bjorn Lomborg | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

As the United Nations’ annual global climate summit, COP27, nears, it’s important to look with skepticism at the academic reports many news outlets cite as evidence supporting radical climate policies. Too often, they use highly skewed data that seem to have been carefully selected to support aggressive environmental regulations. The study offers a frightening statistic: Rapidly rising temperatures have increased annual global heat deaths among older people by 68% in less than two decades. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres publicized the report, tweeting a link with a grave statement of his own, “The climate crisis is killing us. #COP27 must deliver a down-payment on climate solutions that match the scale of the problem.”

☆ Iran acknowledges sending drones to Russia for first time
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

“We gave a limited number of drones to Russia months before the Ukraine war,” Amirabdollahian told reporters after a meeting in Tehran. The U.S. and its Western allies on the Security Council have called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to investigate if Russia has used Iranian drones to attack civilians in Ukraine. As he acknowledged the shipment, Amirabdollahian claimed on Saturday that Iran was oblivious to the use of its drones in Ukraine. “If (Ukraine) has any documents in their possession that Russia used Iranian drones in Ukraine, they should provide them to us,” he said. “If it is proven to us that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will not be indifferent to this issue.”

How Putin and Friends Stalled Climate Progress A handful of powerful world leaders rallied around Russia and undercut global cooperation. Mr. Putin has gained from this as the increasingly autocratic Mr. Xi finds common cause with the Kremlin. “Much depends on whether authoritarian leaders perceive climate action to be in their self-interest.”Though their actions help Mr. Putin, their track records on climate are mixed. Mr. Xi called Mr. Putin his “best friend.”He was returning the favor from a year earlier, when Mr. Putin hosted Mr. Xi at the Grand Kremlin Palace and awarded him one of Russia’s highest medals for foreign dignitaries. At a news conference with Mr. Putin, Mr. Bolsonaro thanked his “dear friend,” saying that Mr. Putin had offered him support when other world leaders were criticizing his Amazon policy.

☆ EXCLUSIVE Russia seeks sanctions exemptions for state bank in Ukraine grain deal talks-sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

This would allow the bank, which has not had a major role in the international grain trade so far, to process payments for Russian grain and other foodstuffs, two of the sources added. Before the latest sanctions, such payments were handled by international banks and subsidiaries of other Russian banks in Switzerland. The U.N. has said it "remains committed to removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertilizer". BANK'S ROLE MAY EXPANDMoscow has said its consent to extend the Black Sea grain deal depends on support for its own grain and fertiliser exports. Should Russia's request be granted, Rosselkhozbank's role in Russia's grain trade could expand significantly.

☆ Climate COP-out: Without further action, the world is headed for 'irreversible' climate chaos, the UN Secretary-General warns.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Research shows that countries and businesses are far off track to meet climate goals by 2030. The grim assessments land as world leaders head to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27. At Glasgow, world leaders also agreed to "revisit and strengthen" their goals by the end of 2022 given the insufficient progress. To keep 1.5 alive, countries would, by 2030, have to cut emissions 45% compared with where they're headed under current policies. One bright spot: renewable energyThere is still uncertainty about the effects of the global energy crisis on the climate crisis.

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The world is falling far short at rounding up money to help struggling nations adapt to the increasingly dangerous impacts of climate change, according to a report released Thursday. Current international finance flowing to developing countries is between 5 and 10 times below what is needed, the United Nations Environment Programme report said. "It's time for a global climate adaptation overhaul," said United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres in a media statement, noting he had asked green climate funds to work with public and private financiers to pilot a new accelerator for adaptation investment. The accelerator will help financiers work with developing countries to invest in their adaptation priorities and specific projects. At the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow last year, developed countries agreed to double support for adaptation financing to $40 billion per year by 2025.

☆ Ethiopia: Warring parties agree to a truce in two-year civil war. Here's what to know
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

CNN —When Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, he was lauded as a regional peacemaker. A year later, he launched a conflict that spiraled into a brutal civil war, spawning one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. In November 2020, Abiy ordered a military offensive in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and promised that the clash would be resolved quickly. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Tigray conflict has its roots in tensions that go back generations in Ethiopia. For months at the start of the conflict, Abiy denied that civilians were being harmed or that soldiers from Eritrea had joined the fight.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative eased Russia's naval blockade and saw the reopening of three key Ukrainian ports. The agreement to create the sea corridor was negotiated by representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the U.N. and Turkey in July. Since then, more than 400 ships carrying 10 million metric tons of agricultural products have departed from war-weary Ukraine's ports. Last week, Moscow suspended its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, citing retaliation for what it called Kyiv's "act of terrorism" against Russian warships. And we must all be determined to do whatever is necessary in order to make sure that we have the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative," Guterres told reporters at the United Nations in New York.

[1/3] A destroyed tank is seen in a field in the aftermath of fighting between the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) forces in Kasagita town, in Afar region, Ethiopia, February 25, 2022. Earlier on Wednesday, the AU had invited media to what it described as a briefing by Obasanjo. It was only when the event began, about three hours behind schedule, that it became clear a truce was about to be signed. Implementation of the peace agreement signed today is critical for its success," said Obasanjo, adding that this would be supervised and monitored by a high-level AU panel. Neither Eritrea nor the regional forces participated in the talks in South Africa and there was no mention at Wednesday's ceremony of whether they would abide by the truce.

☆ How U.N. climate conferences have tackled global warming
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Andrea Januta | Kim Harrisberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/File PhotoNov 2 (Reuters) - This year’s U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, marks the 27th time since 1995 that world leaders have gathered to confront global warming. Here are some key moments in the global climate conversation:1800s - Throughout the 1800s, several European scientists study how different gases and vapours can trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. 1990 - At the U.N.’s so-called Second World Climate Conference, scientists highlight the risks of global warming to nature and society. 2015 - Global warming passes 1 degree Celsius. Signatories promise to try to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees C of the preindustrial average.

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