COP24 climate summit – live: UN chief warns failure to agree would be ‘suicidal’ after ‘rogue nations’ block major scientific report
Follow the latest events from event heralded as 'Paris 2.0'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.An old coal mine in Poland is the unlikely setting for the most important international climate change discussions in years.
COP24 comes after a succession of reports in which scientists have made it abundantly clear that current efforts to avoid global warming catastrophe are not sufficient.
Over the next two weeks leaders will try to establish a set of rules to follow as they implement the Paris climate agreement targets. They will also discuss ramping up ambitions, and who is going to pay for these changes.
Leaders are assembling at the International Congress Centre in Katowice, Poland, next door to the city’s Coal History Museum – an unfortunate reminder of the host nation’s continued reliance on this high-polluting fossil fuel.
A warning that carbon pollution is on track to reach unprecedented levels in 2018 has added even greater urgency to the talks, as NGOs warn that wealthy countries are not pulling their weight in the fight against climate change.
Here you can follow the latest news from the event and reactions from around the world.
A full write-up of Attenborough's – very strong, very terrifying – speech
Sir David isn't the only celebrity to be at the talks. So is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was invited along by the Austrian president.
Here's what Arnie has been up to, via the Associated Press:
Arnold Schwarzenegger says the United States is "still in" an international accord to curb global warming despite U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to walk away from the agreement.
The actor and former California governor told delegates gathered for United Nations climate talks in Poland on Monday that "America is more than just Washington or one leader."
Calling Trump "meshugge" - Yiddish for "crazy" - for deciding to withdraw from the landmark climate accord, Schwarzenegger insisted the 2015 agreement has widespread support at the local and state levels in the U.S.
He said local leaders should be invited to next year's annual conference and emphasized the point in trademark fashion by saying: "And if you do that, I promise you: I'll be back."
Poland's President Andrzej Duda says the coal-reliant nation has no plans to totally remove this fossil fuel, which it has in abundance, from its energy mix.
Duda spoke at a news conference at the start of a U.N. climate conference aimed at curbing global warming.
The conference is being held in Katowice, in Poland's coal mining region of Silesia, the source of the fossil fuel that produces some 80 percent of the nation's energy. Duda said there's "no plan today to fully give up on coal" as Poland's supplies can run for another 200 years.
He said coal was Poland's "strategic fossil fuel" guaranteeing its energy security and sovereignty and "it would be hard not to use it."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the world's political will to fight climate change has faded since the 2015 conference in Paris which set ambitious goals for reducing carbon gas emissions.
Guterres told a news conference in Katowice, Poland, on Monday that realities about global climate are "worse than expected, but the political will is relatively faded after Paris."
His words at the start of a U.N. climate conference were amplified by the absence of many prominent world leaders.
The Paris conference set the goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by 2100. But Guterres said climate change is "running faster than expected" with "terrible consequences for the people."
He called for a "huge increase in ambition" at the Katowice conference, which should agree on ways of implementing the Paris accord.
After interventions from both Attenborough and Arnie on the opening day of the summit, day two will likely be light on drama and heavy on technical discussions.
Negotiators will get stuck into the nitty-gritty of the two week meeting, with the goal of finalising a much-discussed “rulebook” for the Paris climate agreement by Saturday.
This will leave decisions on crunch issues to ministers arriving in Poland for week two of the summit.
Meanwhile, five international banks – led by ING of the Netherlands – have pledged to use the billions at their disposal to steer clients away from businesses that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases.
The Katowice Commitment, named after the city hosting the two-week summit, is also backed by BBVA, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale.
↵In a bizarre twist, attendees of COP24 were woken up this morning by a miners brass band playing to honour their patron saint.
Musicians began the “Barboka” Miners Day, dedicated to Catholic Saint Barbara, with a traditional sunrise concert on Tuesday in the streets of Katowice.
Katowice has been a center of coal mining for more than a century, but scientists say the use of this highly polluting fossil fuel needs to be radically reduced by the middle of the century to curb global warming.
15-year-old Greta Thunberg has been skipping school since August in a solo protest against world leaders' inaction on climate change. Here she is addressing attendees at the summit:
"Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility that they should have taken long ago"
It seems weird to already be talking about the next climate event when this one has only just got started, but that is exactly what UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has been doing, according to the Associated Press:
The UN secretary-general on Tuesday urged world leaders to use a climate change summit he will host in 2019 to explain how they plan to ratchet up their efforts to reverse worsening global warming that is leading to a "very dramatic situation".
Antonio Guterres said the gathering at the United Nations in New York in September would be an "essential piece" in raising ambition to cut heat-trapping emissions, and helping countries cope better with wilder weather and rising seas.
The summit also will seek to raise more funding to ensure wealthy governments keep a 2020 promise to deliver $100 billion annually to help poor countries develop cleanly and adapt to a hotter planet, the UN chief added.
"We all know the massive scale of the climate challenge we face," he told reporters at climate talks in Poland. "And we all know we are not on track."
In 2020, countries are due to submit to the United Nations updated national climate action plans that are the lynchpin of the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015.
Under that accord, nearly 200 governments have committed to limit the rise in global temperatures to between 1.5 and 2C above pre-industrial times.
There has already been an increase of about 1C, and current pledges to reduce emissions are still likely to lead to warming of about 3C this century, scientists have said.
In the coming year, U.N. agencies will work with governments to strengthen their climate action plans covering the decade to 2030, as well as their long-term strategies, Guterres said.
Climate experts said on Tuesday they expected countries to issue a political declaration at the end of the Dec. 2-14 climate talks in Katowice that would firmly signal their intention to do more to cut emissions from 2020.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments