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Paris climate deal
Topic Started: 14 Feb 2015, 12:20 AM (1,053 Views)
skibboy
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13 February 2015

UN agrees draft text for Paris climate summit

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Work is continuing on text aimed at a new climate change agreement by the end of the year

UN climate talks in Geneva have ended with agreement on a formal draft negotiating text for the summit in Paris in December.

The document, which runs to 86 pages, builds on negotiations in Peru last year.

The Swiss meeting set out to create a draft for consideration at the Paris talks.

The aim is to have a new global climate agreement in place by the end of 2015.

The latest climate talks, which started on Sunday, focussed on finalising a draft negotiating text for the Paris summit.

The six-day conference in the Swiss city was the first formal gathering since the Lima climate summit in December.

"I am extremely encouraged by the constructive spirit and the speed at which negotiators have worked during the past week," said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"We now have a formal negotiating text, which contains the views and concerns of all countries. The Lima Draft has now been transformed into the negotiating text and enjoys the full ownership of all countries," she added.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Analysis: Helen Briggs, BBC environment correspondent

The draft text was agreed before the end of the session, in a mood described as "the spirit of Lima".

But rather than being slimmed down, the document has more than doubled in size, to contain everything to be discussed in the run-up to Paris.

Delegates acknowledge that the hard work is still ahead, with the real conflicts to come when negotiators seek to "streamline" the text and narrow down the options for limiting a damaging rise in temperatures.

The key political test is the period from March to June, when individual countries announce their plans to reduce emissions.

At the next climate talks in June, real progress will have to be made to resolve issues such as financing the Paris agreement and ensuring that poorer countries get the support they need to adapt to impacts such as flooding.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Three special sessions have been added to this year's schedule of climate meetings.

They include talks about "intended nationally determined contributions", the commitments to reduce emissions that are meant to pave the way towards a low-carbon future.

National plans

Governments are expected to submit their national plans by an informal deadline of the period from March to June.

China, the United States and the European Union have already given an indication of their plans.

The UN seeks to limit the increase of the average global surface temperature to no more than 2C (3.6F) compared with pre-industrial levels, to avoid "dangerous" climate change.

But scientists warn the Earth is on track for double that target.

The World Meteorological Organization confirmed this month that 2014 had been the hottest year on record, part of a continuing trend.

Fourteen out of the 15 hottest years have been this century.

The UNFCCC, based in Bonn, Germany, has 196 parties - including virtually all of the world's nations - and grew from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for cutting greenhouse gases.

The next meeting will be held in Bonn in June.

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13 February 2015

Crunch issues for climate negotiators

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© AFP/File | Most nations involved in climate talks agree that overall global warming must be limited to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit)

GENEVA (AFP) - With fewer than 300 days until the long-awaited signing of a global pact to curb climate change, the world's nations remain deeply divided on fundamental issues.

- The goal -

Most parties agree that overall global warming must be limited to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, though small island states at highest risk of climate change-induced sea level rise want a lower ceiling of 1.5 C.

What parties don't agree on at all, is how to get there.

One proposal in the framework text approved in Geneva on Friday is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40-70 percent from 2010 levels by 2050 and near-zero emissions by 2100, as advised the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Other options see deeper cuts, sooner, while some would set no numerical target.

- Who does what? -

The issue that permeates everything, "differentiation" is about how to share responsibility between rich and developing nations for cutting climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions.

Developing nations want rich economies that are bigger polluters to shoulder a bigger burden.

Wealthy countries, in turn, point to the rise of emerging giants like China and India as massive emitters of carbon from burning fossil fuel to drive their explosive growth.

- Money -

Developing nations want the 2015 Paris pact to contain a commitment from rich nations on financing and other assistance for the costly switch to greener energy, and for projects to help threatened communities adapt to unavoidable global warming-induced risk.

But rich countries are loathe to take on binding long-term engagements in an economically unstable world with fast-changing national circumstances.

- The legalities -

Will the pact be a protocol that needs to be ratified by national parliaments, or a mere political declaration?

To what degree will a country's emissions target be binding under international law and failure subject to censure or penalties?

Will there be a mechanism for measuring, reporting and verifying a country's actions?

These crucial questions all await answers, suggesting a bumpy road to a universal agreement in Paris in December.

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15 February 2015

Limited climate change accord likely in Paris: IPCC expert

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© AFP / by Christian Spillmann | A climate change deal this year is unlikely to adequately fight global warming, a top expert says

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Encouraging progress at climate change talks points to the likelihood of an overall accord being reached at the Paris conference in December, but the deal is unlikely to adequately fight global warming, a top IPCC official said Sunday.

UN talks in Geneva ended Friday with a framework pact that scientists said at least identified enough common ground to foster hopes for success in Paris.

It is the first-ever proposal with buy-in from all the world's nations.

Jean-Pascal Van Ypersal, the Belgian deputy vice president of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told AFP: "I am optimistic. We will have an accord in Paris."

But the goal of limiting the global temperature increase to just two degrees Celsius remains elusive, and Van Ypersal said it appeared the world is not ready to do what is needed to deliver that essential target.

"A deal in Paris will at least allow us to continue the work, but I fear time is passing and we have to make decisions by consensus," he said.

"I do not think today that we have the consensus to aim higher."

The Geneva talks produced an 86-page text that listed a variety of alternative approaches on most issues, reflecting conflicting national priorities.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) grouping 195 nations will now take the text through to Paris, hoping to do better after the 2009 Copenhagen conference failed to produce a global accord.

At a minimum, the pact must be in effect by 2020 to hit the UN goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

Scientists warn that current greenhouse gas emission trends put planet Earth on track for double that or more, with the risk of catastrophic drought, storms and floods as well as rising sea levels.

Much depends on the major greenhouse gas emitters such as the United States and China but the developing economies feel their developed world peers should bear most of the burden since they have so far enjoyed a free ride.

The next step is for national governments to submit their plans for greenhouse gas reductions by the end of March.

"Since there is no mechanism forcing states to do more, I think we will just have to be satisfied with what they offer," Van Ypersal said.

"The United States has certain legislative problems -- their Paris negotiators will accept only what they know they can win approval for (at home), which is very honest," he said.

The problem is that "the promises currently on the table are not enough to hit the two degrees Celsius target by 2020. We have to do more."

"We have to hope that the public will put pressure on governments," he added.

by Christian Spillmann

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16 February 2015

Colombia seeks 'environmental corridor' across Andes, Amazon

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© AFP/File | An overhead view of the trees in the Amazon forest on October 14, 2014 in Brazil

BOGOTA (AFP) - Colombia on Monday proposed creating an "environmental corridor" across northern South America to protect a vast, biologically rich swath of mountains and jungle from the impact of climate change.

President Juan Manuel Santos said he hoped to interest Brazil and Venezuela in the idea, so they could offer a joint proposal at a climate summit in Paris at the end of the year.

"It would be the biggest in the world, encompassing 135 million hectares (333.5 million acres), which we would call the Triple A corridor, because it would go from the Andes to the Amazon to the Atlantic," he said on a government television program Agenda Colombia.

"We are going to propose this environmental corridor to preserve it and as a contribution to humanity in the debate on how to arrest climate change," he said.

He said Colombia's Environment Minister Gabriel Vallejo and Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin would begin talks on the idea this week with Brazil and Venezuela.

He provided few details on what establishing such a corridor would involve.

But as Santos envisions it, 62 percent of it would run through Brazilian territory, 34 percent through Colombia and four percent through Venezuela.

He said putting a brake on climate change was in Colombia's interest because of the dangers it poses for the country's rich biodiversity.

The countries of the world are to meet in Paris between November and December to try to reach a global agreement on climate change.

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25 February 2015

France's Hollande heads to Philippines for climate push

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© AFP | Greenpeace members hold a banner near a life size picture of French President Francois Hollande (C) and an electric jeep powered by 100% renewable energy in the middle of a traffic jam in Manila on February 25, 2015

MANILA (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande will on Thursday arrive in the Philippines with actresses Marion Cotillard and Melanie Laurent to promote the fight against climate change.

The two-day trip to the Philippines, the first by a French head of state, is Hollande's latest attempt to drum up support ahead of a United Nations climate change conference being hosted by France in December.

Hollande says he is determined to "leave a mark" on history by fostering a historic agreement to limit global warming that can make up for the failure to reach an accord in Copenhagen in 2009.

The Philippines is seen as a frontline state in the battle against climate change, having been battered by relentless storms in recent years that have emerged from the Pacific Ocean and claimed many thousands of lives.

These included Super Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm ever recorded on land, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing in November 2013.

Hollande will meet with Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Thursday, when they are expected to jointly call on world leaders to ensure that the Paris climate summit is a success.

The goal of the Paris pact, which must enter into force by 2020, is to limit warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

Scientists warn that at current greenhouse gas emission trends, Earth is on track for double that, or more -- a recipe for catastrophic droughts, storms, floods and rising sea levels.

However most followers of the UN climate change diplomatic process are sceptical a pact can be agreed in Paris that will be ambitious enough to achieve the two-degree goal.

In an effort to raise awareness about the climate change fight while in the Philippines, Hollande will bring with him Oscar winner Cotillard and fellow French actress Laurent.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres will also join the delegation.

In what shapes as the most symbolic and emotional leg of Hollande's trip, he will on Friday visit the small town of Guiuan in eastern Philippines that was devastated when Haiyan hit with winds of up to 315 kilometres (195 miles) an hour.

A number of trade agreements on "green" sectors, including in transport, renewable energy and water treatment, are also expected to be signed.

The leaders are also expected to discuss the tense territorial dispute between the Philippines and China over their rival claims to parts of the South China Sea.

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Hollande enlists film stars for climate change push in Manila

Text by FRANCE 24
2015-02-26

French President François Hollande arrived in the Philippines Thursday accompanied by two of France’s leading actresses, Marion Cotillard and Mélanie Laurent, to promote the fight against climate change ahead of a crucial summit later this year.

Hollande is using the two-day trip, the first by a French president to the Philippines, to attempt to build diplomatic momentum for December’s UN summit of world leaders in Paris.

In a joint statement with his Philippine counterpart Benigno Aquino, delivered by Cotillard, the French president called for the international community to reach a “universal, equitable and ambitious climate deal,” at the talks.

“We hope that together we will write history in Paris in December and we will not be content to watch events unfold as simple spectators," said the statement, dubbed a “call from Manila”.

The Philippines, often seen as being on the frontline in the battle against climate change, has been battered by relentless storms in recent years that have emerged from the Pacific Ocean and claimed many thousands of lives.

These included Super Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm ever recorded on land, which left more than 7,350 people dead or missing in November 2013 and which scientists have linked to climate change.

And in what is shaping up to be the most symbolic and emotional leg of Hollande's trip, he will on Friday visit the small town of Guiuan in the eastern Philippines that was devastated when Haiyan hit with winds of up to 315 kilometres (195 miles) an hour.

Star power

Hollande says he is determined to "leave a mark" on history at the Paris talks by brokering an historic agreement to contain climate change that would make up for the failure to reach such an accord in Copenhagen in 2009.

The goal of the planned Paris pact, which must enter into force by 2020, is to limit warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

Scientists warn that on current trends, Earth is on track for double that, or more -- a recipe for catastrophic droughts, fiercer storms like Haiyan, and other extreme weather events.

However, most followers of the UN climate change diplomatic process are sceptical that a pact can be secured that will be ambitious enough to achieve the two-degree goal, with rich and poor nations continuing to fight over who should shoulder more of the burden.

But with the aid of the star power of Cotillard and Laurent, Hollande is hoping to raise awareness about the need for a global solution on climate change while in the Philippines.

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© Alain Jocard / AFP

Both actresses have long been involved in campaigning on environmental issues.

Oscar winner Cotillard is known for her work with Greenpeace while Laurent, star of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, is an ambassador for the Global Humanitarian Forum's "Tck Tck Tck" climate change campaign.

“I'm really happy that France is stepping up to the plate to push things through quickly. And that France is supporting a important country like the Philippines, which has really felt the effects of climate change," Cotillard told reporters as she arrived in Manila.

'Shared democratic values'

The Aquino government is also warmly embracing Hollande's trip, the first by a French head of state since the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1947, as an endorsement of the Philippines' maturing democracy.

"The ties that bind the Philippines and France are underscored by the importance that the two countries give to democracy," Philippine foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose told AFP.

"The affinity between the two peoples and their shared democratic values are deepened on this historic visit by the French president."

France was the first nation to recognise the revolutionary government of Corazon Aquino, the current president's mother, in 1986 when she led a "people power" uprising that overthrew the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

A number of trade agreements on "green" sectors, including in transport, renewable energy and water treatment, are also expected to be signed during Hollande's visit.

The leaders are also expected to discuss the tense territorial dispute between the Philippines and China over their rival claims to parts of the South China Sea.

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06 March 2015

EU adopts climate change targets for Paris conference

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© AFP/File | The EU formally adopted climate change targets for December's Paris conference including a 40 percent cut in emissions by 2030

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The EU formally adopted on Friday climate change targets for December's Paris conference including a 40 percent cut in emissions by 2030, climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said.

The targets were agreed on by leaders of the 28 European Union member states at a summit in October, but the confirmed benchmarks have now been officially sent to the UN, Canete said.

"There is an agreement, but it was not an easy matter," Canete said after a meeting of EU environment ministers in Brussels.

French minister Segolene Royal added: "Europe is the first continent to send its contribution, as was asked by the United Nations."

The offer of the EU, which is responsible for nine percent of global emissions of greenhouse gases, was sent to the UN secretariat, Canete said.

Negotiators told AFP that Ireland fought successfully to have the carbon removed by forests and farmland included in the calculation of greenhouse gas reduction -- which critics said made it easier to reach the 40 percent target by four or five percent.

"By avoiding a decision to treat emissions and removals from the land use sector separately and on top of the EU's 'at least' 40 percent domestic target, the EU wastes important political capital to set incentives for other countries to be transparent on the amount of emission reductions they will achieve," Carbon Market Watch Director Eva Filzmoser said in a statement.

Countries, which are tasked with trying to limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, have until March 31 to announce their commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The EU, which when taken together is the world's biggest economy, says it will cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent compared to 1990 levels.

The United States, which accounts for 12 percent of global emissions, announced its intention to reduce them by 26-28 percent in 2025 compared with their level in 2005.

China, which accounts for 25 percent of global emissions, has set a target date of about 2030 for its emissions to peak.

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13 March 2015

'Long struggle' warning on climate

By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

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Todd Stern says it will take time to solve the climate change problem

America’s chief climate negotiator has warned of the long battle ahead to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Todd Stern told BBC News that by the end of the month, he expects the US to make a “quite ambitious” declaration on climate change.

He praised China’s projected offer to the December climate summit in Paris.

But he said the conference would not itself solve the climate problem.

That, he argued, would need ongoing effort over decades.

Nations are desperate for the Paris meeting to avoid a repeat of the shambolic gathering in Copenhagen in 2009 that failed in its billing as the summit to save the planet.

This time, rich nations have agreed to make their offers well in advance to reduce the chance of last-minute chaos.

Long view

Nations are desperate for the Paris meeting to avoid a repeat of the shambolic gathering in Copenhagen in 2009 that failed in its billing as the summit to save the planet.

This time, rich nations have agreed to make their offers well in advance to reduce the chance of last-minute chaos.

The EU has already offered a 40% cut on 1990 levels by 2030.

The US will soon offer – probably a 26-28% reduction below 2005 levels by 2025. Comparison is hard because of different baselines, but some experts say the two appear roughly comparable in terms of effort.

China is expected to offer to peak emissions by 2030 at the latest, and to produce 20% of its energy from nuclear and renewables by the same date.

Mr Stern said: “You can look at the US, the EU, China - you could say I wish they did a little more than that, but that is a significant target the Chinese have announced. It’s not perfect - but then nobody’s is.”

He warned against expectations that the Paris summit would produce an agreement to keep global temperature rise within 2C.

“The two-degree goal will be reached if countries execute a deep decarbonisation of their economies over a significant period of time," he said.

“So what will we see from this agreement, if we get what I would like? We’ll get strong initial targets. They are not going to be everything everybody wants but I want to caution people against looking at this agreement from a 2015 snapshot.”

China’s commitment to add 800 gigawatts of renewables or nuclear was “really impressive,” he said. “This is an enormous amount – more than all the coal used in China now. To put it in perspective, the entire US energy system is about 1,100 gigawatts.”

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The US and China - like Europe - are making commitments ahead ahead of Paris

I first met Mr Stern when he was advising President Clinton on climate policy.

I asked if he felt positive about progress since then.

He replied: “I think we have come quite far but there is quite far to go. In the US, more has happened to developing technologies and putting in place regulations that will drive the energy transformation. That has never happened before.

“On the international agreement, there has been a lot of movement and we have a historic opportunity to deliver an important agreement in which all countries are genuinely part of the regime and taking action that’s ambitious and rules-based, fair and durable. If we do this right, it will send a message to markets that we are on a path to action and there’s no going back.”

The US has recently begun to turn the screw on the other great power, India, which has declined to offer climate targets because it says India is too under-developed to make promises to cut emissions.

Pressure from the other powers is unwelcome in Delhi.

“This is the pot calling the kettle black”, Kirit Parikh, a former member of India’s planning commission, told BBC News.

“China is saying it will peak in 2030 but not what level it will peak, and not when it will reduce emissions away from that peak,” he said. "They could hit a peak and stay there. This is just an illusion of progress.”

His comments sound an alarm bell for Paris.

The great economic blocs may be back-patting at their mutual efforts – but the summit is supposed to embrace all nations.

Mohamed Adow, a Kenyan working for Christian Aid, said: “The initial commitments from the big polluters are inadequate – they won’t put the world on the path to two degrees. Anyway, two degrees is too much for Africa – we are already seeing terrifying impacts after only 0.8 degree level of warming; that means adapt or die for parts of Africa and we can’t accept that.”

The great powers are likely to keep their promise to put their targets up for scrutiny this month - but when that happens it's them who will become the targets.

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28 March 2015

Mexico sets greenhouse gas target for UN climate talks

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© AFP/File | A view of smog covering the Mexico City skyline on March 30, 2014

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Mexico became Friday the first developing nation to submit targets for UN climate change talks in December, pledging that its greenhouse gas emissions will peak in 2026 before falling.

Mexico follows the European Union, Norway and Switzerland in presenting commitments that nations must make public by March 31, providing the backbone for a global climate deal in Paris.

The Mexican government's plan foresees emissions peaking in 2026, with greenhouse gases falling 22 percent and black carbon dropping 51 percent by 2030.

"It's a very ambitious target, but joining our efforts... we are convinced that we can reach it," Environment Minister Juan Jose Guerra Abud told a news conference.

The global talks will seek a pact that will enter into force by 2020 to further the UN goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

The United States applauded Mexico for being the first major emerging economy to submit its so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, with the White House saying it was "setting an example for the rest of the world."

"Mexico's target to peak its emissions by 2026 and drive them down thereafter is a landmark step in the global transition to a low-carbon economy," the White House statement said.

US President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto also announced a high-level bilateral task force to "further deepen policy and regulatory coordination in specific areas," including clean electricity and promoting more fuel-efficient automobile fleets in both countries.

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US makes climate pledge to UN

By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

8 hours ago

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Mr Obama made an informal pledge on climate change when he met his Chinese counterpart

The US has pledged to tackle climate change by cutting its carbon emissions 26-28% by 2025.

It made the formal offer to the UN as a step towards a global deal in Paris in December.

The EU has already promised to cut its emissions by a roughly similar proportion.

Tuesday was the deadline for wealthy nations to make their offers – but some, such as Canada, have failed to submit in time.

The announcement was made on Twitter with the words: "America is taking steps to #ActOnClimate, and the world is joining us" - accompanied by a picture of the President in China.

The US announcement said: "The target is fair and ambitious. The United States has already undertaken substantial policy action to reduce its emissions. Additional action to achieve the 2025 target represents a substantial acceleration of the current pace of greenhouse gas emission reductions.

"Achieving the 2025 target will require a further emission reduction of 9-11% beyond our 2020 target compared to the 2005 baseline and a substantial acceleration of the 2005-2020 annual pace of reduction, to 2.3-2.8 percent per year, or an approximate doubling."

Analysts examining the promises made by the first few nations to commit say they are not strong enough to hold global temperature rise to the internationally agreed maximum of 2C.

The early deadline was set for rich nation submissions because the UN is desperate for the Paris meeting to avoid a repeat of the shambolic gathering in Copenhagen in 2009 that failed in its aim of protecting the climate.

Todd Stern, the US chief climate negotiator, previously told BBC News that America’s contribution would be “quite ambitious”.

But he warned that the Paris process would not itself solve the climate problem.

That, he argued, would need ongoing effort over decades.

Road ahead

The US has a climate action plan announced in 2013 with new restrictions on power plant emissions and tougher standards on vehicles.

But President Obama's policies are being strongly resisted by Republicans in Congress and the law courts, and other nations have been watching keenly to see if he would formally submit the offer to the UN.

The EU has offered to cut emissions 40% on 1990 levels by 2030 (the US offer is based on a 2005 baseline). Switzerland and Mexico also unveiled pledges.

China is expected to offer to peak emissions by 2030 at the latest, and to produce 20% of its energy from nuclear and renewables by the same date.

Dr Jeremy Woods, who runs the Global Calculator project at Imperial College London said: “The declarations are an important first step. However, since most experts agree that all of the intended pledges will not be enough to limit global warming to 2C, it’s vital that the international community has a clear view well now of the scale of the challenge ahead.

“Over the last decade, the EU’s emissions have shrunk, the US’s have remained more-or-less stable but China’s have risen dramatically from just over 10% of global emissions in 2000 to just under 30% in 2013. The world has been going in the opposite direction to that needed to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

"Unless major emitters (governments and businesses alike) can find ways and reasons to dramatically change course we will move into uncharted and dangerous waters very soon.”

Mr Stern said: “You can look at the US, the EU, China - you could say I wish they did a little more than that. It’s not perfect - but then nobody’s is.”

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Climate change: Paris 'last chance' for action

By Helen Briggs
BBC Environment Correspondent
22 April 2015

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The Earth Statement warns of tipping points in the Earth's systems

Scientists are calling on world leaders to sign up to an eight-point plan of action at landmark talks in Paris.

The key element is the goal to limit global warming to below 2C by moving to zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The UN meeting in December is "the last chance" to avert dangerous climate change, according to the Earth League.

Scientific evidence shows this can be achieved, but only with bold action now, says an alliance of climate researchers from 17 institutions.

The statement involves eight calls for action:

-Limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius

-Keeping future CO2 emissions below 1,000 gigatonnes (billion tonnes)

-Creating a zero-carbon society by 2050

-Equity of approach - with richer countries helping poorer ones

-Technological research and innovation

-A global strategy to address loss and damage from climate change

-Safeguarding ecosystems such as forests and oceans that absorb CO2

-Providing climate finance for developing countries.

Chair of the Earth League, Johan Rockstrom, of the Stockholm Resilience Centre in Sweden, said the statement set out the scientific stance on what needed to happen at the Paris talks.

"Six years after the failure at Copenhagen, the world now has a second chance to agree upon a safe pathway towards a future that does not undermine human well-being in the world."

He said the statement summarised what the group of scientists believe has to happen at the Paris talks to avoid the risk of severe climate change linked with sea-level rise, heat waves, droughts and floods.

"The window is still open but just barely," he said. "There is still an opportunity to transition into a safe, reasonably stable climate future."

He added: "The statement says very clearly that 2 degrees is the absolute upper limit that the world should aim for."

'In this together'

The Earth League includes 17 scientific research institutions around the world, including two in the UK.

Professor Sir Brian Hoskins of the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College, London, said to achieve the goal, global carbon emissions would need to peak around 2020 and fall very rapidly to near zero by around 2050.

He said rich countries would have to take the lead on this and help the less developed world.

"We're all in this together - we share one planet, we share one atmosphere, we share one climate system."

The statement was released to coincide with Earth Day, an annual event to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

WWF-UK said governments around the world must agree a fair deal at Paris, but should take action beyond this.

Head of climate and energy policy, Emma Pinchbeck, said: "The next UK Government must reaffirm our leadership on this key international issue, and commit to decarbonising policy in line with the science.

"When it comes to government action on climate change, we will benefit from ambition and will regret inaction."

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07 June 2015

Global citizens 'very concerned' about climate: poll

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© DPA/AFP/File | Over 63 percent of those questioned said the Paris agreement should "do whatever it takes" to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, according to a global opinion poll

PARIS (AFP) - The widest global effort yet to gauge citizens' views on climate change showed 79 percent to be "very concerned" about its effects, but less than half support a carbon tax to curb emissions, organisers said Sunday.

Results of the day-long consultation held in 79 countries on Saturday were posted on the website of the initiative dubbed World Wide Views on Climate and Energy.

Next week, they will be put to climate negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany ahead of a year-end United Nations conference in Paris, where nations have undertaken to sign a new world pact to curb global warming.

Responses to a multiple-choice questionnaire showed that 71 percent of the 10,000-odd participants believe the UN negotiations process has not done enough to tackle climate change.

Nineteen percent of people said they were "moderately concerned" about the effects of climate change, and fewer than two percent were not at all concerned.

A large 63 percent believes the Paris agreement should "do whatever it takes" to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels -- the UN goal.

When it comes to practical measures, however, the responses are more nuanced.

Only 16 percent support the introduction of a tax on carbon for all countries, 42 percent for all countries but with rising costs for those not reducing emissions, and 30 percent a tax linked to a country's level of development.

One in ten was against a tax, which many green groups consider as the best way to turn the tide against the burning of fossil fuels.

Forty-five percent of respondents said the world should stop exploring for fossil fuel reserves, but nearly a quarter believed it should continue.

From Senegal to China, Madagascar, Brazil and Japan, 100 debates were held with people from a cross-section of society in 79 countries.

Organisers included the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which comprises 195 nations in negotiations for the new, global pact, and France, the host of December's Conference of Parties.

Scientists warn that on current trends, Earth is on track for double the targeted 2 C limit, or more -- a recipe for catastrophic droughts, fiercer storms and other extreme weather events.

"I hope that decision-makers will find this initiative an important echo chamber of citizens' concerns, hopes and aspirations for the kind of world they want for themselves and their children," Christiana Figueres, executive director of the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change, one of the organisers of the event, said Saturday.

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11 June 2015

Hollande appeals for action to make Paris climate pact a success

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© AFP | French President Francois Hollande listens to a speech at the Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 11, 2015, during the 104th World of Work summit on "Climate Change and the World of Work"

GENEVA (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande on Thursday made a passionate call for action to seal a world climate pact in Paris at the end of the year.

Hollande's plea in Geneva came as a UN conference in Bonn wound up with little headway to try and get a carbon-curbing agreement in place for the Paris conference in November.

"I am here to launch an appeal," the French leader told an International Labour Organization summit in Geneva on climate change and its implications for labour, businesses and communities.

"We need the full engagement of our social partners," he said.

"It's in the interest of the planet, of companies, of economic development and of social progress."

The Paris accord is meant to save future generations from disastrous climate change by limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

That figure, scientists say, offers a good chance of avoiding climate damage that would inflict ever-worsening drought, flood, storms and rising seas.

"Fighting climate change does not in any way impact on jobs," said Hollande, adding that fears expressed by both developing and developed countries were groundless and actually such action would create more employment.

"It is because we are creating new rules on behaviour, production, transport and consumption... that we will create more activity, investment and have higher growth," he said.

He said 60 million new jobs could be created in the next two decades due to "green growth".

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29 June 2015

Pace of climate talks far too slow: UN chief

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© AFP/File | The cracked riverbed of the Amadorio reservoir is seen in Villajoyosa near Alicante where the water is far below usual levels due to drought, on June 25, 2015

UNITED NATIONS (UNITED STATES) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that negotiations on climate change were moving too slowly and urged governments to quicken the pace ahead of the December conference on reaching a new global deal.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius echoed Ban's call, saying a fresh effort was needed to avoid a repeat of the 2009 Copenhagen conference, which ended in failure.

"The pace of the UNFCCC negotiations is far too slow," Ban told a UN meeting on climate. "It's like snails, moving (at a) snail's pace."

"The key political issues are still on the table," he said.

World governments will try to forge a new global accord to address climate change at a UN climate conference in Paris in December, with both developed and developing countries committing to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Financing to help developing nations cut emissions and adapt to climate change remains a key issue.

Ban said "credible climate financing is essential" for the Paris climate deal to be a success.

He urged rich countries to follow up on their pledge to mobilize $100 billion per year by 2020 to support developing countries as they work to curb emissions and adapt to new clean-energy requirements.

"An agreement must also acknowledge the need for long term, very significant financing beyond 2020," said Ban.

Fabius agreed that "rich countries must recognize that they must make an extra effort" to finance the battle against climate change.

"We need political will so that we will not find ourselves in November in that situation that we were for Copenhagen," he warned.

China, Brazil, India and South Africa on Sunday ended a meeting with a call to developed countries to deliver on their promises of billions of dollars for climate financing.

The meeting at the United Nations, where US actor-producer Robert Redford will speak, was aimed at building political momentum ahead of a string of meetings across the globe meant to prepare the Paris conference in December.

Ban called on countries to submit "as soon as possible" their national action plans for cutting emissions amid expectations that China, the world's number one emitter, is soon to unveil its long-awaited pledges.

All countries are to present their targets to contribute to the deal that would limit global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial revolution levels, from 2020.

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29 June 2015

China to unveil UN climate pledges imminently: Li

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© Belga/AFP/File | China's Prime minister Li Keqiang gives a joint press conference at the EU Council headquarters in Brussels on June 29, 2015

BEIJING (AFP) - China is about to submit its long-awaited national pledges to reduce carbon emissions beyond 2020, ahead of the Paris climate summit, Premier Li Keqiang said Monday.

"By the end of this month, the Chinese side will submit to the UN secretariat on climate change our intended nationally determined contribution," Li told a press conference after a summit in Brussels with EU leaders Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker.

There has been speculation that the announcement would be made during Li's visit this week to Brussels and Paris, where December's climate talks will be held.

Li starts an official visit to France on Tuesday, the last day of the month.

The world's number one carbon emitter has yet to put forward its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), as the pledges are called by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Li added after signing an agreement with the EU on the issue: "We are willing to work together with the EU side to jointly tackle the challenges of climate change."

All countries are meant to propose their targets for cutting emissions ahead of the UN-led talks which are aimed at forging a pact to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial revolution levels, to take effect from 2020.

At a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama in November, Beijing committed for the first time to limiting its greenhouse gas output -- setting a target date of about 2030 for its emissions to peak.

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China climate change plan unveiled

By Helen Briggs
BBC Environment correspondent

9 hours ago

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China - the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases - has announced details of its climate action plan.

The office of Prime Minister Li Kegiang said that emissions "will peak by around 2030" and China would work hard to achieve the target even earlier.

The statement echoes China's declaration last November following a US-China summit.

China's pledge comes ahead of talks late this year in Paris to seek a new global deal on climate change.

The statement, released following a meeting in Paris between Li and French President Francois Hollande, said China aimed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65% by 2030, from 2005 levels.

The carbon intensity target builds on a previous plan to cut carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020.

China also aimed to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy consumption to about 20% by 2030, the statement added.

Beijing previously set a goal of getting around 15% of its energy from clean sources by 2020.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Analysis by the BBC's science editor, David Shukman

This is a significant moment in international climate negotiations.

For years China argued that it was too poor and underdeveloped to even consider accepting any obligations to curb its greenhouse gases.

Now we're witnessing the world's largest emitter playing by the UN's rules and promising even deeper cuts that those suggested some months back.

For diplomats and ministers hoping to see a meaningful deal at the climate summit in Paris at the end of the year, this will be a welcome step.

The size of cuts, and the timescale, will of course be judged by many as too little and too late. But for anyone who endured the collapse of talks at the Copenhagen summit six years ago, China is playing a very different and far more constructive game.

Will it actually make any difference to global warming?

Scientists always say it does not matter to the atmosphere where the emissions come from and China's will continue to rise for the next 15 years or so, and on their already gargantuan scale.

And today's announcement does not mean that Chinese use of fossil fuels is coming to an end any time soon.

On the same day that China has announced this climate plan it also began construction of a massive pipeline that will bring it a lot of gas from Russia.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


National plans

All countries involved in UN climate talks must submit national plans for cutting emissions ahead of the key Paris talks.

China joins several other countries, including the EU, US and Mexico, that have already committed their plans for tackling climate change, formally known by the UN as INDCs (intended nationally determined contribution).

With China's announcement, the world's biggest polluters - China, the US and the EU - have now all detailed their climate plans ahead of the global climate conference.

Commenting on the statement, Li Shuo, climate analyst for Greenpeace China, said for success in Paris, all players - including China and the EU - needed to up their game.

"Today's pledge must be seen as only the starting point for much more ambitious actions.

"It does not fully reflect the significant energy transition that is already taking place in China.

"Given the dramatic fall in coal consumption, robust renewable energy uptake, and the urgent need to address air pollution, we believe the country can go well beyond what it has proposed today."

Energy transition

China's new climate plan sends a strong message to other countries to do more on climate ahead of this year's negotiations for a new global climate deal, said WWF.

Samantha Smith, global climate leader at WWF, said China was the first major developing country emitter to set a total emissions peak target.

"In doing so, China has committed to both global climate security and to a transformational energy transition at home," she said.

"We emphasise the importance of the fact that China has made commitments beyond its responsibility as a developing country. But we hope that China will continue to find ways to reduce its emissions, which will in turn drive global markets for renewable energy and energy efficiency."

On Monday, at talks in Brussels with EU leaders, the Chinese Premier said the country was seeking a fair, global system to tackle climate change.

China will work with the international community to seek a "fair, reasonable, win-win" global climate governance system, Li said.

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18 July 2015

Ministers in Paris to boost flagging climate talks

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© AFP/File / by Marlowe Hood | A climate protester holds up a placard in Cairns on September 21, 2014

PARIS (AFP) - Foreign and environment ministers and other high-level officials from 45 countries are set to gather in Paris Monday seeking to re-energise climate talks mired in technical details and political squabbling.

Just four months ahead of a UN conference in the French capital tasked with producing a historic climate pact, US scientists this week said 2014 was a record year for sea level rise, land temperatures, and the greenhouse gases that drive dangerous global warming.

But overwhelming consensus on the urgency of the problem has not translated into significant progress on united action to prevent the planet from overheating.

"The negotiations have not, strictly speaking, begun yet," Laurence Tubiana, France's chief climate negotiator, told journalists this week.

Ministers meeting on Monday and Tuesday "have to take ownership of the content of the negotiation, otherwise their negotiators will not really be able to engage on the key political issues," she said.

The political discussions will be followed in Bonn at the end of August with technical negotiations on the content of a draft agreement, with another ministers' gathering slated for September.

The 32 foreign and environment ministers and 13 senior negotiators in Paris, working under the guidance of France's chief diplomat Laurent Fabius, have their work cut out for them.

A draft agreement emerging from earlier rounds is little more than an exhaustive laundry list of problems and options, and is too unwieldy, Tubiana said.

The 195-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has embraced a goal of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

Scientists say disastrous climate change can be avoided at this threshold, but warn the planet is on target for double that, or more.

Small island nations and poor countries in Africa and Asia, which will be hardest hit by climate-change effects, say 2C is not ambitious enough, and favour a 1.5 C target.

"As a people and a nation, our very survival is absolutely threatened by the effects of climate change," Tony De Brum, foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, told AFP ahead of the meeting.

Projected sea-level rise and enhanced storm surges, even under optimistic emissions scenarios, may force the inhabitants of some island nations to relocate before the end of the century.

- 'No guarantee' -

The Paris agreement will be supported by a roster of national emissions-curbing pledges.

Many parties -- including China, the United States and the European Union -- have already submitted their plans.

"But there is no guarantee that when you combine the pledges they will collectively be consistent with the 2 C objective," Tubiana pointed out.

Hence the need for a mechanism to ensure pledges add up, and a review process to monitor adherence, she said.

Both issues remain highly contentious.

An internal briefing document identifies seven major sticking points, and urges diplomats to focus on two in particular, "ambition" and "differentiation" .

In the jargon of the climate talks, ambition refers to the level of emissions cuts needed, and differentiation is about sharing out responsibility for action.

Poor nations say the West, which has polluted more for longer, should carry more of the burden for emissions cuts, but the US and other rich countries insist on equal treatment and point the finger to emerging economies like China and India now among the top emitters.

The question of money is another Gordian Knot.

Poor countries insist that rich nations must show how they intend to keep a promise of boosting climate finance to $100 billion (92 billion euros) per year from 2020.

by Marlowe Hood

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20 July 2015

Time to compromise for climate: French FM

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© AFP/File | French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius speaks to the press outside the Palais Coburg Hotel in Vienna, Austria on July 13, 2015

PARIS (AFP) - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged top diplomats from 45 nations Monday to "start looking now for compromise" in forging a global climate rescue pact.

"Our negotiators are being stymied by political questions they can't always resolve at their level" of authority, he told foreign and environment ministers gathered in Paris to give a boost to the flagging process.

"We ministers have to start looking now for compromise on the big political issues," he added.

"That's how the negotiations are going to move forward."

Paris will host a 195-nation UN climate conference from November 30 to December 11 which will be tasked with hammering out a worldwide deal to hold dangerous global warming in check.

The current draft of the accord is an unwieldy, 80-page laundry list of sticking points and options, France's top negotiator, Laurence Tubiana, told journalists last week.

Underscoring the urgency of the task, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported Monday that the first half of 2015 was the hottest on record.

Fabius urged ministers and senior officials to narrow the gap on two issues in particular, starting with the level of ambition -- a term meaning the scale of curbs in carbon emissions.

The UN has enshrined a goal of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

Scientists say disastrous climate impacts can be avoided at this threshold.

But many countries, especially poorer ones, say this is not ambitious enough.

Another issue that has bedevilled the UN climate talks almost since they started more than 20 years ago, is how to share responsibility for curbing carbon emissions.

Developing countries want rich nations, which have polluted for longer, to bear more of the burden.

But the United States and others point the finger to developing states like China and India burning through vast carbon stocks to fuel their fast-growing populations and economies.

The two Asian giants now account for more emissions than the United States and European Union together.

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France’s Hollande, Pope Francis plead for climate action

Text by FRANCE 24
2015-07-21

French President François Hollande and Pope Francis made separate appeals Tuesday for urgent action to tackle climate change ahead of a key UN summit in Paris later this year.

Hollande hosted campaigners, scholars and religious leaders from around the world at a "Summit of Conscience for the Climate" in the French capital.

“An agreement must be found”, he told participants, among them UN chief Kofi Annan and Hollywood star turned “Guvernator” Arnold Schwarzenegger.

As some 40 foreign and environment ministers met elsewhere in the French capital to accelerate flagging UN negotiations, Hollande underlined the urgency -- and difficulty -- of their task.

"Today, with the agreement we see taking shape, we are still above two degrees Celsius, and probably three," said the French president, stressing the urgency of the task ahead of negotiators.

The United Nations has embraced a goal of limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

Scientists say disastrous climate impacts can be avoided at this threshold, but warn that the world is on course for double the target, or more.

Any global accord reached at the November 30-December 11 talks in Paris will be supported by a roster of voluntary national pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 to 15 years.

Hollande added that the global economy would have to take a sharp turn towards renewable energy.

Reaching a viable deal, he said, would require "forsaking the use of 80 percent of fossil-based energy resources to which we still have easy access".

Mayors at forefront of climate battle

Also on Tuesday, dozens of mayors from around the world wrapped up a two-day conference at the Vatican, urging their national leaders to take bold steps at the Paris climate talks later this year.

One by one, some of the 60 mayors invited to the Holy See lined up to sign a final declaration stating that "human-induced climate change is a scientific reality and its effective control is a moral imperative for humanity."

Experts have long said that cities are key to reducing global warming since urban areas account for nearly three-quarters of human emissions.

Drawing rousing applause, California Gov. Jerry Brown denounced global warming deniers who he said are "bamboozling" the public and politicians with false information to persuade them that the world isn't getting warmer.

"We have a very powerful opposition that, at least in my country, spends billions on trying to keep from office people such as yourselves and elect troglodytes and other deniers of the obvious science," he told mayors at the gathering.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced new greenhouse gas emissions targets for the Big Apple - committing the city to reducing its emissions 40 percent by 2030 - and urged other cities to follow suit.

"The Paris summit is just months away," De Blasio said. "We need to see it as the finish line of a sprint, and take every local action we can in the coming months to maximise the chance that our national governments will act boldly."

De Blasio is a founding member of an alliance of world cities that have committed to reducing emissions by 80 percent by 2050 or sooner.

‘Conscience of humanity’

Stockholm Mayor Karin Wanngard said the Paris climate talks must take fossil fuels off the table and focus instead on renewable energy sources.

"Climate negotiators must dare to push boundaries and exclude fossil fuels as an option and reward solutions that are long-term sustainable and renewable," she said.

Stockholm is one of the world's leaders in using renewable energy sources, with 75 percent of the city's public transport network running on renewable energy. Wanngard's goal is to make the Swedish capital fossil fuel-free by 2040.

The climax of Tuesday's inaugural session was the afternoon audience with Pope Francis, who has become a hero to the environmental movement and has used his moral authority and enormous popularity to focus world attention on climate change and its effects on the poor.

Francis last month released an environmental encyclical that denounced what he calls a fossil fuel-based world economy that exploits the poor and destroys the Earth.

The pope told the gathering Tuesday that he had "a lot of hope" that the Paris negotiations would succeed, but also told the mayors: "You are the conscience of humanity."

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22 July 2015

France law to halve energy use, slash nuclear dependence

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© AFP/File / by Eric Randolph and Isabelle Cortes | France is the most nuclear-dependent country in the world, and the second-biggest producer of nuclear energy with 58 reactors located in 19 power stations

PARIS (AFP) - French lawmakers were set to adopt a new law on Wednesday that will halve the country's energy consumption by 2050 and slash its reliance on nuclear energy.

Under the new law, which was to be put to a final vote in the National Assembly later Wednesday, nuclear energy will provide only 50 percent of France's electricity by 2025, down from 75 percent currently.

Six months ahead of the global climate conference in Paris, the legislation also calls for a 30-percent drop in the use of fossil fuels by 2030 (compared with 2012 levels), and 40-percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions, compared with 1990.

Renewable energy will increasingly take up the slack -- accounting for 32 percent of France's energy mix by 2030, compared with 13.7 percent three years ago.

In a bid to meet the tough new targets, parliament must produce "carbon budgets" every five years, setting emission limits for each sector of the economy.

Polluters will also face major hikes in the "carbon tax", first introduced last year, which will go up in stages from 22 euros per tonne of CO2 in 2016 to 100 euros in 2030.

Slashing the use of nuclear energy was a key campaign promise of President Francois Hollande ahead of the 2012 election.

"The extravagant use of nuclear energy is over," said Green MP Denis Baupin. "Now we must organise an orderly transition."

France is the most nuclear-dependent country in the world, and the second-biggest producer of nuclear energy with 58 reactors located in 19 power stations.

"It's a long-awaited change, since no one, including the opposition, at any time denied the need to break the total dependence on nuclear," said Socialist MP Francois Brottes who headed the parliamentary group reviewing the law.

- Struggling nuclear industry -

That did not stop widespread concerns, particularly among the conservative opposition, about the impact on France's already struggling nuclear industry.

Only a month ago, Hollande's office said the government would spend "as much as necessary" to save troubled nuclear group Areva, which recorded a record net loss of 4.8 billion euros ($5.2 billion) last year.

Areva has faced reduced global demand since the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan and been hit by cost over-runs and construction difficulties at sites in Flamanville in northwestern France and Finland.

By setting a production limit of 63.2 gigawatts on nuclear parks, the government has effectively forced power companies to shut down older reactors as new ones come online.

That is likely to seal the fate of France's oldest power plant at Fessenheim in the northeast, which Hollande had vowed to shut by 2016 and which has drawn protests from Greenpeace and other environmental activists, who say its ageing reactors are dangerous.

The head of electricity utility company EDF, Jean-Bernard Levy, said last week that Fessenheim would probably be shuttered "in the second half of 2017".

To meet its ambitious goal of halving overall energy consumption by 2050, the government is using a mix of tax breaks and strict new guidelines to ensure builders meet energy efficiency standards, and ordering public companies to use more fuel-efficient cars.

Environment Minister Segolene Royal has said she wants France to become "a nation of environmental excellence" and said the reforms would create 100,000 new jobs in the green sector over the next three years.

Paris will host the UN climate conference at the end of the year, where the organisers hope to conclude an agreement capping global warming at two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

by Eric Randolph and Isabelle Cortes

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24 July 2015

Light trim for rough draft of climate pact

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© AFP/File / by Marlowe Hood | In 2011, the UNFCCC's 195 member nations gave themselves until December this year to conclude a deal to protect Earth from the ravages of extreme global warming

PARIS (AFP) - Senior diplomats charged with condensing an unwieldy draft for a global climate rescue pact, due to be inked in December, handed in their much-anticipated homework on Friday.

A near 90-page draft accord that has emerged from the 195-nation talks so far, was a laundry list of unresolved issues and a myriad of options, often clashing, for averting climate disaster.

Negotiators agreed at the last UN climate meeting in June to let the body's joint chairmen take a machete -- or at least a scalpel -- to the text.

With only 10 official negotiating days ahead of a crucial November 30-December 11 conference in Paris to seal the deal, the pair produced a slightly shorter version Friday, though still nearly 80 pages long.

The document "presents a clearer picture of the possible final outcome, while not omitting any of the options put forward by the parties," said a statement by the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, under whose auspices the negotiations take place.

"The Co-Chairs' intention... is to offer the document as a tool that can allow (negotiators) more effectively to negotiate when they reconvene" in Bonn from August 31 to September 4."

The chairmen's brief had been limited to "streamlining and consolidating" the working document -- no substantive changes allowed.

In 2011, the UNFCCC's 195 member nations gave themselves until December this year to conclude a deal to protect Earth from the ravages of extreme global warming.

The target is to prevent mean global temperatures from rising more than two degree Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, dating from about 1850.

Scientists note that at current greenhouse gas-emission rates the thermostat will rise by twice than much before century's end.

The parties remain far removed on politically-divisive issues which have bedevilled the talks for years.

They include opposing country views on how to review and hike pledges -- if at all -- to ensure the 2 C target remains on track.

Also unclear is how rich countries will meet a promise to muster $100 billion (88 billion euros) annually in climate aid from 2020.

- Cut through the clutter -

The thorniest issues will ultimately be left to ministers or government leaders to settle.

Last week, ministers and top-level diplomats from 46 countries met informally in Paris to push things along.

While their talks were not part of the formal negotiating process, participants from both rich and developing countries said they made significant headway in talking through some of the core issues.

"The progress we've made, both with the text and in informal talks, has put an agreement within reach," said Thoriq Ibrahim, Environment and Energy Minister for the Maldives, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States at high risk of climate change-induced sea level rise.

Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute thinktank said the streamlined text was a "strong foundation" for advancing negotiations.

"The co-chairs have cut through the clutter to make the text more coherent, clarifying the key choices to be made," she commented.

Added Greenpeace climate expert Martin Kaiser, "the text has a long way to go to being the unquestionable, concise document it needs to be.

"It cannot be a circus-tent for the Paris performers but rather an airtight mandate which forces politicians to produce the necessary policies needed for a just energy transformation for a healthy population and a healthy planet."

by Marlowe Hood

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Obama plan gives 'hope' for Paris deal

By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

4 August 2015

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Some experts say the US now matches Europe in its ambition on clean energy

The UK government has welcomed President Obama's plan to cut greenhouse gases and boost clean power.

A spokeswoman for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) said it would lift chances of a global deal at a Paris climate summit in December.

When asked if the US had now overtaken Europe in its ambition on climate she declined to comment.

And she declined to say why renewables were deemed affordable by the US but apparently unaffordable in the UK.

President Obama's Clean Power Plan is his strongest action so far on climate change.

It increases a previous offer of a 30% reduction in emissions by 2030 to a 32% drop.

The tone of his statements is at odds with the recent slew of cuts to energy efficiency and renewable energy from the UK government.

British ministers recently insisted the UK will play its part in tackling climate change - but will no longer lead whilst other nations are refusing to follow.

This statement puzzled leading academics like Prof Jim Skea from Imperial College London, who judged the previous US offer of a 30% emissions cut to be roughly comparable to efforts made in Europe, including the UK.

EU officials also told BBC News they believed the US was approximately matching Europe in terms of effort.

A Decc spokeswoman declined to draw that comparison.

She said: "The US' Clean Power Plan will add more momentum ahead of agreeing a new global, ambitious, and legally binding climate deal in Paris in December.

"It's difficult to do a crude comparison between the US and EU targets - there are different parameters. The US uses 2005 emissions levels as a base, and EU uses 1990 levels, but both are ambitious."

Expanding incentives

We asked Decc why President Obama was expanding incentives for renewable energy whilst the Chancellor was cutting support for renewables and even imposing a pollution tax on wind and solar.

The spokeswoman declined to comment.

But analysts warn that the UK will have future problems of affordability because the clean energy levy on bills disproportionately loads costs on to the poorest households.

Lord Stern, the former UK government chief economist, told BBC News it was impossible yet to be sure whether the government was watering down its previous commitments on climate change.

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The new rules require every US state to have a plan for reducing CO2 emissions

This would not be clear, he said, until ministers revealed their new renewable subsidy regime in the Autumn to replace what he admitted was the "messy" current system of clean energy support.

But he said it was a "worrying sign" that the Chancellor has already obliged renewable industries to pay the Climate Change Levy - a carbon tax designed originally to promote those industries.

This change provoked a furious response from firms like Veolia which invested in renewables believing they would be exempt from the tax until 2023.

Counting costs

The campaign group Global Warming Policy Forum - influential in the Conservative media - has welcomed the government's changes in energy policy.

It says the UK has led the world in cutting emissions for too long, and that energy bills are too high.

The industrial giant Siemens has urged the government to take party politics out of energy policy.

Comparing costs of renewables internationally is difficult.

The World Energy Council cites Bloomberg research suggesting an indicative range of costs for onshore wind in the USA as $61-$136 per MWh.

Wind power is especially cheap in Texas and the Midwest, where wind is regular and population densities are low.

The UK range was $72-$74, making it the cheapest form of readily available clean energy in the UK.

The government has stopped supporting onshore wind, though, because it said wind turbines were spoiling the countryside.

Commenting on President Obama's Clean Power Plan, which sets out tighter curbs on dirty coal and bigger investments in renewable energy, Greenpeace UK's Executive Director John Sauven said:

"President Obama's bold vision for a low-carbon future is leaving David Cameron's U-turn on clean energy looking even more parochial and small-minded.

"Whilst Obama is ready to defy internal opposition to push through a plan that's good for jobs, the economy, and the climate, Cameron is ready to sacrifice all these gains just to appease a few wind farm-hating backbenchers."

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22 August 2015

Pacific isles say climate talks failure not an option

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© The Secretariat of the Pacific Community/AFP / by Annie Banerji | Inhabitants of Kiritimati coral atoll in Kiribati build a stone seawall to battle the rise in sea level caused by global warming

JAIPUR (INDIA) (AFP) - Two of the world's most vulnerable low-lying island nations, Kiribati and Tuvalu, have said failure at upcoming climate talks in Paris is not an option as rising sea levels threaten their very existence.

The Pacific island nations say they have been forced to consider such nuclear options as buying land abroad to grow food and preparing their people to migrate as the seas slowly claim their homelands.

But as representatives of Pacific island nations met in Jaipur in the western Indian desert state of Rajasthan this week, the message was clear -- world leaders meeting in Paris in December must deliver on expectations of a historic deal to combat global warming.

"Failure is not a fallback position, it is not an option, we cannot have it as an option. We must get success," Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga told AFP in an interview.

"We may be able to run away, we may be able to purchase land in other places, maybe Australia, New Zealand.

"But that won't stop climate change, it will not stop the cause of climate change. It will not assure the people of Tuvalu that they will be safe there."

Sopoaga said climate change was now "enemy number one for Tuvalu", nine coral atolls that are home to about 11,000 residents.

Scientists predict Tuvalu and Kiribati, which are little more than a metre (three feet) above sea level, could disappear in the coming decades.

Both nations already suffer from a range of problems linked to climate change, including more intense storms like the one that devastated Vanuatu earlier this year and salination of ground water, which makes it impossible to grow crops.

- 'It's too late' -

The situation is so dire that Kiribati is considering relocating the entire population, or building man-made islands to rehouse them.

"For us we think that things have progressed, have advanced too much, it's too late for us," Kiribati's special envoy Teekoa Luta told AFP in Jaipur, where representatives of 14 Pacific nations held talks on Friday.

"Paris we hope will buy us some time, but we are not positive that anything that is achieved in Paris, the outcomes would be in time for us."

The UN conference in Paris will seek to crown a six-year effort by 195 nations with a post-2020 pact on curbing greenhouse gases.

But Luta said her tiny nation of 100,000 people was already struggling to cope with the fall-out from climate change.

"Our resources are constrained, our institutional capacity to cope with our health problems are constrained," she said.

"We spend most of our budget fixing the (natural) damages month after month and then we don't have money to spend on health, education and (other) social services."

Kiribati recently called for a global moratorium on building new coal mines and expanding existing ones -- a move Luta said she hoped that major economies including India would eventually support.

New Delhi has courted the Pacific island nations as it seeks to win back influence in an area of the world increasingly dominated by regional rival China.

In a speech to delegates on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to illuminate thousands of Pacific island homes with solar power and highlighted India's own plans to ramp up its renewable energy output to 175,000 megawatts by 2022.

But India, the world's third-largest contributor of greenhouse gases, has so far resisted committing itself to any major emissions cuts and Modi has bet big on coal, a key source of emissions.

Nonetheless, Luta welcomed India's "positive" comments and said the country of 1.2 billion people had shown it was "committed to take up the action, to walk the talk as they say".

- 'Crazy options' -

Luta said Kiribati is already beginning to train its people with skills so that "in the event that they have to migrate, that they migrate with dignity and do not become a liability to the receiving country".

The former British colony has also bought 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of land in Fiji to farm if salt-water pollution means it can no longer produce crops.

"We're talking about relocation and there are ideas that maybe we should try making floating islands... People will sometimes think that we're crazy but I think we become desperate at times, and therefore have all these crazy options," Luta said.

Both nations said they were working to counter rising water levels by building sea walls and planting mangroves, but that only global cooperation in Paris could save them.

"We need to have this Paris agreement because otherwise there won't be any survival processes to save the people on these islands," Sopoaga said.

"We do it now together or we all fall."

by Annie Banerji

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26 August 2015

World leaders must 'accelerate' climate talks: UN chief

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© AFP | Secretary General of United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon (L) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius expressed "prudent optimism" that the climate conference would achieve its goal of an agreement capping warming at 2 degrees over pre-industrial average

PARIS (AFP) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that countries must "accelerate the rhythm of negotiations" on capping global warming ahead of an international climate conference in Paris in December.

"We don't have much time. There remain less than 100 days before the final negotiations," he said, following a meeting with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in the French capital.

Both men expressed their "prudent optimism" that the climate conference in Paris would achieve its goal of an agreement capping warming at 2 degrees over the pre-industrial average.

"The countries have been negotiating for more than 20 years. The Paris conference is the final step during which they have promised to agree on an ambitious climate accord. There is no time to lose," said Ban.

Fabius said the talks were "different to the others".

"It's a race against the clock. Last year was the hottest on record. It seems that this year will be even hotter. There is no plan B, there is no planet B."

The UN's COP21 conference runs from November 30 to December 11 in Paris, bringing together leaders from around the world as they try to improve on failed negotiations at the last UN climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009.

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Paris climate summit faces funding shortfall, says UN

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A key round of climate negotiations opened in Bonn on Monday with a top UN official warning there was not enough money to host the December Paris conference tasked with sealing a global carbon-curbing pact.

Addressing delegates, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said there was insufficent "funding for participation for either the October session, which is already planned, or for the COP."

She was referring to the next scheduled negotiating round, and to the Conference of Parties, which takes place between November 30 and December 11.

"I regret to inform you that we have a deficit now of 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million) just to cover the sessions you have in your calendar," she said, urging "parties in a position to do so, to contribute."

The hotly-anticipated Paris conference has been charged with concluding a historic pact that will, for the first time, commit all nations to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The UN-adopted goal is to limit average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

Diplomats were scheduled to meet in Bonn twice before the year-end UN conference -- on August 31-September 5 and October 19-23 -- to create a workable draft for what will become the Paris pact.

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