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'
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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.
Poland, the host of this year's COP24 summit, was awarded the shameful Fossil of the Day Award by the Climate Action Network International yesterday.
It was given "for promoting coal interests and turning a blind eye to the need to ramp up climate pledges by 2020". So far at the event Polish leaders have shamelessly professed their enthusiasm for coal and president Andrzej Duda said he had not plans to ditch the fuel, which provides 80 per cent of the nation's electricity.
Clouds of smoke over Europe's massive coal power plant Belchatow, which was scaled by Greenpeace activists last week (AP)
A report released by the World Resources Institute at the event this morning examines the question of how we can sustainably feed a global population of 10 billion people by 2050. The food system is one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters, and reforming it is therefore a vital component in strategies to tackle climate change.
The WRI's big conclusions are summarised in the video below:
A World Health Organisation report released at the conference revealed that tackling climate change would save at least a million lives a year just by cleaning up air pollution.
The findings also suggest that the economic benefits of cutting fossil fuels far outweigh the costs.
The latest estimates from health experts indicate that the value of health gains from climate action would be approximately double the cost of mitigation policies at global level, and this benefit-to-cost ratio is even higher in countries like China and India.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, had this to say:
The Paris Agreement is potentially the strongest health agreement of this century.
The evidence is clear that climate change is already having a serious impact on human lives and health. It threatens the basic elements we all need for good health - clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food supply and safe shelter - and will undermine decades of progress in global health.
We can’t afford to delay action any further.
Figures announced at the summit suggest 2018 is going to be a record breaking year for carbon emissions. Sad news for those who hoped we had reached "peak emissions" and all the more reason for some serious action to emerge from COP24.
“Gilets jaunes” and Emmanuel Macron’s fuel tax have been a topic of discussion at the talks.
The French president has decided to scrap the tax following widespread and sometimes violent protests.
Conference attendees on the whole did not welcome the news as many support the principle of taxes on carbon and on fossil fuels to favour the transition to renewable energy.
However, they said the tax was poorly thought-out because it exaggerated the divisions between rich and poor, town and country, as those living in rural communities would be disproportionately affected.
"The situation in France is an example of what happens when the much needed transition to a low-carbon world happens in a disorderly manner," said Christian Aid Head of Policy Alison Doig.
She said governments should ensure carbon taxes were used to "smooth the transition and ensure it does not become a political pawn".
The cracks are beginning to show at the climate meeting – perhaps predictably, the main concerns are about money. Here’s what the Associated Press has to say:
Splits are deepening at the UN climate talks between rich and poor countries, oil exporters and vulnerable island nations, and those governments prepared for radical action on climate change versus those who want to wait and see.
As the meeting in Katowice, Poland, reached its fifth day, negotiators were divided over whether to expect a strong final agreement next week.
Amjad Abdulla, chief negotiating chair for the Alliance of Small Island States, said it was "depressing" that some rich countries are seeking similar leeway as developing nations when it comes to reporting emissions and efforts to curb them.
Diplomats and observers say a key fight in the coming days will be over whether to mention 'policy pathways' proposed by scientists to keeping global warming to 1.5C.
"According to several sources at the UN’s 24th Conference on Climate Change in Poland, Brazil’s new administration is already making progress increasingly difficult on many issues and has embarrassed the Brazilian negotiating team."
Amidst all this talk of saving the planet, the UK's own Met Office issued a reminder last night of how this is playing out close to home...
Interesting - but perhaps not that surprising - news from European Environment Agency data today. It seems that Katowice, where the conference is taking place, was the second most polluted city in the EU in the week leading up to the COP.
Concentrations of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 were twice as high as the WHO guideline for a 24 hour period.
And topping the lists was.... another Polish city, Kędzierzyn-Koźle.
Via Unearthed:
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