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'

Sir David Attenborough at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice: Climate change 'our greatest threat'

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.

Key Points

• Everything you need to know about the Paris climate agreement and the COP24 summit
• David Attenborough says civilisation will collapse if humanity doesn't take action
• WHO says cutting fossil fuels would save at least one million lives every year by cleaning up air
• Arnold Schwarzenegger says US leaders will fight to curb global warming despite Trump's opposition
• Concerns about host nation's continued reliance on dirty coal

[7 December 2018 14:41 · josh.gabbatiss]

A big question hanging over this year’s talks has been about the role that the US, which under Donald Trump has announced its intentions to leave the Paris climate agreement, will play.

Many US leaders have been vocal in their continued support for the fight against climate change, and today they are making their presence felt at the meeting, according to Associated Press:

Hundreds of US states, cities, businesses and churches are establishing a presence at the UN climate talks to show that many Americans remain committed to curbing global warming. 

The opening Friday of the US Climate Action Centre alongside pavilions from Britain, Poland and New Zealand contrasts with the low-key presence of the official US government delegation. 

The administration of President Donald Trump, who has announced the US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, is holed up in a cubicle away from the main concourse. It currently has one public event planned Monday promoting US technological innovations. 

The Climate Action Center is backed by a grouping called We Are Still In that wants to maintain the 2015 Paris agreement aim of keeping global warming well below 2C.

[10 December 2018 13:21 · josh.gabbatiss]

After the technical discussions of the first week came to a close, the big news to emerge over the weekend was an ominous alliance of the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - all fossil-fuel loving states - joining together to essentially cast doubt on the findings of the IPCC's major report from October.

Any weakening of the message contained in that report is bad news. You may remember scientists warning we had 12 years to act, and that "unprecedented" changes were needed in every ​aspect of our lives. Clearly there is no time to dither.

[10 December 2018 13:24 · josh.gabbatiss]

As a follow up to it blocking the IPCC's critical report on Saturday night, Saudi Arabia has issued a statement:

Saudi Arabia issued a statement saying it recognised the efforts of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in producing scientific reports, the latest of which was published in October assessing the feasibility and importance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

However, it said there were gaps and uncertainties in the report which still needed further research.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is hopeful that the IPCC 6th Assessment Report will address these gaps and challenges, and that a consensus to welcome it among all parties can be reached," it said in a statement.

On Saturday, parties failed to reach an agreement on whether to "note" or "welcome" the U.N. IPCC report published in October. Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States and Kuwait were against welcoming the report and reference to the IPCC report was removed.

(from Reuters)

[10 December 2018 13:36 · josh.gabbatiss]

Youth activists have disrupted a controversial session being run at the summit by the US, which is promoting the use of "clean" fossil fuels to tackle climate change.

[10 December 2018 15:00 · josh.gabbatiss]

The president of the UN climate talks has defended himself after Greenpeace criticised his leadership, according to Associated Press:

The president of the UN climate talks taking place in Poland says their success lies with the determination of almost 200 participating nations, not with him. 

Poland's Deputy Environment Minister Michal Kurtyka was criticized Monday by the environmental group Greenpeace International, which said he was not doing enough to ramp up the meeting's ambitions to curb global warming. 

Kurtyka told a news conference at the talks' venue in Katowice, that their success is in the hands the nations. 

He said the role of the presidency is to "make sure that the (negotiating) process is transparent, is inclusive, is taking everybody on board." 

He said the presidency was doing its utmost to build bridges and that his "deepest wish" was for success. 

"It is in the hands of parties and it will be a success of (the) parties or it will be our collective failure," Kurtyka said. 

[10 December 2018 17:45 · josh.gabbatiss]

[10 December 2018 18:30 · josh.gabbatiss]

[11 December 2018 11:37 · josh.gabbatiss]

It is crunch time at COP24, and as we enter the final stages of the talks decisions must be made. According to Reuters:

Ministers and heads of state from around 130 countries have been arriving and will start to give opening speeches this afternoon. Meanwhile, their negotiating teams are working behind closed doors to have a draft text on the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement ready by 1700 GMT.

Yesterday, France's Laurent Fabius, who presided over the 2015 Paris Agreement, said he would be surprised if there was no deal struck on a rulebook by the end of the week but the level of ambition was an issue.

"Taking into context recent (scientific) reports we have had, the numbers are bad and we are not on track ... so we have to be more ambitious. That is where the negotiations will make or break in the final hours," he told reporters.

[11 December 2018 13:20 · josh.gabbatiss]

Several foreign environmental activists who have been detained or deported by Poland's Border Guard since the start of the U.N. climate conference in the Polish city of Katowice are criticizing the actions as violations of their democratic rights and an obstruction of their climate-protection work. 

Border Guards say a temporary measure put in place for the climate conference bars entry to people who potentially pose a security problem. 

But Iryna Stavchuk, the executive director of a Ukrainian group, the Centre for Environmental Initiatives "EcoAction," said in a statement Tuesday that she has been participating in climate talks as a civil society observer since 2006 "without a single violation." She said she was denied entry to Poland along with eight other Ukrainian environmentalists for the period of the two-week conference. 

Maria Kolesnikova, an activist from Kyrgyzstan, said she will be "deprived of the opportunity to voice my concerns" as investments into the development of alternative energy sources in Kyrgystan are decided. 

An activist from Georgia with the group 350.org, Nugzar Kokhreidze, said he has been isolated at Katowice International Airport for four days. He said he has been working on climate issues by internet but will fly home on Tuesday. 

(From AP)

Climate activists shout slogans as they stop in front of the COP24 summit (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz) 

[11 December 2018 18:14 · josh.gabbatiss]

Talks have been marred by absences and delayed progress, according to Reuters:

Ministers and heads of state from around 134 countries started to give opening speeches. At the end of his, Maldives' environment minister Hussain Hassan asked fellow ministers at the plenary to stand.

"There is no time to lose. Stand for a few moments and think about what will happen if we fail to save the planet now," he said.

Brexit turmoil and French riots have kept many government chiefs away from the final and crucial week, with only four national leaders present as of Tuesday.

Negotiating teams have been asked to produce a more concise draft text on the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement today. The draft is not yet available.

Germany's environment minister Svenja Schulze said the importance of the small print cannot be over-estimated and will enable countries' actions to be made transparent.

Mohamed Adow of Christian Aid said: "Delivering a successful outcome in Katowice is like solving a three-dimensional jigsaw. It has three parts, the Paris rulebook, finance for poor countries and renewed emissions reductions".