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TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 09.11.2021
Obama implores world leaders to ‘step up now’ to avert climate disaster

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News.

Obama implores world leaders to ‘step up now’ to avert climate disaster
The Guardian Read Article

There is extensive media coverage of the speech given by former US president Barack Obama at COP26 yesterday. The Guardian says that Obama called on world leaders to “step up now”, saying that “we are nowhere near where we need to be at” and that “most nations have failed to be as ambitious as they need to”. The newspaper adds that Obama criticised Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, saying: “It was particularly discouraging to see the leaders of two of the world’s largest emitters, China and Russia, decline to even attend the proceedings.” According to the newspaper, Obama added of China and Russia: “Their national plans seem to reflect a dangerous lack of urgency and willingness to maintain the status quo, and that’s a shame.” The Daily Telegraph, the Los Angeles Times, the Press Association and the Times also lead their coverage of Obama’s speech with his criticisms of China and Russia. Reuters adds that Obama levelled criticism at US Republican politicians, saying that both he and Joe Biden had been “constrained in large part by the fact that one of our two major parties has decided not only to sit on the sidelines but express active hostility toward climate science and make climate change a partisan issue”. CNN adds that Obama “expressed regret for former President Donald Trump’s ‘four years of active hostility towards climate science’,” and Forbes says that Obama criticised the GOP for making climate change into a partisan issue. Meanwhile, the Times reports that unionists in Scotland have told the SNP to listen to Obama’s advice and “drop divisive nationalism” in their plans for a new independence referendum. And outlets including Reuters and the Hill have led their coverage of Obama’s speech with his quote “We’re nowhere near where we need to be.”

Obama also used his speech to deliver a message to young people to”vote like your life depends on it, because it does”, the Financial Times reports. The newspaper adds that Obama advised young people to put pressure on companies and educate their elders. BusinessGreen also quotes Obama’s message to young people: “You are right to be frustrated…Folks in my generation have not done enough to deal with a potentially cataclysmic problem that you now stand to inherit. But I want share some advice from my mother used to give me if I was feeling anxious, depressed or scared. She’d look at me and she’d say: Don’t sulk. Get busy. Get to work. Change what needs to be changed. And, luckily, that is exactly what young people around the world are doing right now.” Meanwhile, the Evening Standard says that Obama has urged climate activists to “do a little more listening” to those reluctant to take action, and Reuters adds that he urged young people to “stay angry” and demand change from world leaders. Obama’s message to young people is also highlighted in the Washington Post and New York Times.

Meanwhile, New Scientist says that Obama has encouraged negotiators to “take partial victories”. The Washington Post says that Obama is “playing ‘hype man’” and separately the paper runs a piece entitled: “Joe who? Obama’s star power still dominates the world stage.” Elsewhere, the Independent runs a piece entitled, “Obama’s beautiful, pointless speech showed up COP26 for the farce it really is” and the Scotsman says the speech “may have given COP26 the inspirational jolt it needs”. Meanwhile, making reference to Greta Thunberg, the Press Association says: “As one climate warrior departs, another appears.”

Elsewhere, the Guardian says that in a private gathering of High Ambition Coalition (HAC) ministers, Obama told attendees: “What you are doing – what the HAC is attempting to accomplish – is vital…You’ve come together once again to speak to not only the need to get to 1.5C, but also to provide the adaptation funding that’s necessary for those who may end up paying the steepest price for actions that they themselves did not take.” This has given a “boost” to the developing countries pushing for a climate deal that limits warming to 1.5C, according to the paper. However, it also notes that the HAC has expressed “deep concern” over gaps between current commitments and the action needed to limit warming to 1.5C. The Press Association says that the coalition has 41 supporters, including “the chairs of three country groupings that represent dozens of the poorest countries and those at-risk from climate impacts such as small island states”.

COP26: African nations seek talks on $700bn climate finance deal
The Guardian Read Article

African nations want to open discussions on a”mega-financing deal”, which would give £520bn to developing nations every year from 2025 to help them adapt to climate change, the Guardian reports. According to the paper, Tanguy Gahouma-Bekale, the chair of the African Group of Negotiators on climate change, said that the money would be “essential” to cope with the impacts of climate change. It continues: “The money is needed immediately, say negotiators. According to a recent study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Cameroon devotes close to 9% of its GDP on climate adaptation, Ethiopia 8%, Zimbabwe 9%, while Sierra Leone, Senegal and Ghana are all more than 7%. Even with these high shares of domestic funding, the study found a gap of about 80% between need and expenditure.” The Conversation also highlights that countries are not spending enough on climate change, noting that although 79% of countries have adopted a national adaptation plan, “no country is adapting fast enough”.

Meanwhile, Climate Change News says: “The African Group of Negotiators and a group of 24 ‘like-minded’ developing nations, which includes China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam, have called on donor nations to mobilise at least $1.3tn per year by 2030, with an equal 50/50 split between money for carbon-cutting and adaptation efforts and at least $100bn delivered as grants.” The Press Association also highlights the $1.3tn request. Meanwhile, BBC News reports that, according to poor countries, rich nations are “pushing back against their attempts to secure compensation for the damage caused by climate change”. Reuters reports that poor nations are “pressuring their wealthy counterparts at the UN climate summit to pay up for the mounting damage being caused by global warming, pointing to increasing powerful storms, cyclones, droughts and floods afflicting their people”. Separately, the Guardian has published quotes from an interview with Gambian minister of environment, who has warned that “rich countries must hit their $100bn climate finance target in the last week of COP26 or it will be catastrophic for the poorest nations suffering the most from the climate crisis”.

Elsewhere, the Guardian says that the legitimacy of COP is in question, as some groups and communities have been been shut out of key negotiations. It continues: “Observers act as informal watchdogs of the summit – the eyes and ears of the public during negotiations to ensure proceedings are transparent and reflect the concerns of communities and groups most likely to be affected by decisions. But their ability to observe, interact and intervene in negotiations on carbon markets, loss and damage and climate financing has been obstructed during the first week, the Guardian has been told.” Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the Netherlands will join the coalition of countries who have committed to end the financing new overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of next year. Politico adds that 23 other countries joined the declaration last week. In other COP26 news, Reuters has published comments from the EU’s climate policy chief Frans Timmermans, who has said that countries should be able to finish the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement by the end of this week. And, according to a document seen by Reuters, the EU wants the final document to “denounce insufficient ambition in the fight to reduce greenhouse gases”.

Separately, BBC News reports that gender inequalities are due to take centre stage today. Elsewhere, the Financial Times has published a list of “five things to watch out for at COP this week”, including talks on carbon offsets, carbon pricing and government decarbonisation commitments. Meanwhile, the New York Times carries a piece entitled, “Can Glasgow deliver on a global climate deal?” and Reuters carries an analysis on progress towards the 1.5C warming target.

China calls for concrete action not distant targets in last week of COP26
The Guardian Read Article

Chinese officials are “sceptical” of claims that COP26 commitments will keep global heating below 2C and want other countries to “focus on concrete actions rather than distant targets”, the Guardian reports. The newspaper interviewed Wang Yi, a senior adviser to the Chinese delegation. Wang said: “There has been a lot of criticism of China’s attitude in the media, but many of them are based on incomprehension or misunderstanding.” He “expressed frustration” that China’s climate actions “were not appreciated”, the publication wrote. The South China Morning Post’s China correspondent, Mimi Lau, describes the “dispute” between China and the US at COP26 as “last week’s biggest news”. She writes: “President Joe Biden lashed out at Chinese and Russian leaders for their absence while China hit back by drawing attention to the US record, including its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and back-pedalling on climate policies.” The Hill carries a piece titled” US, China power struggle on display at climate summit”. Meanwhile, Politico reports that former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed criticised China for not sending high-level leadership to COP26 or significantly raising its climate goals ahead of the conference. Nasheed is quoted saying: “They’ve very much ignored the COP. They’ve ignored the planet. They’ve ignored climate.”

In China’s state media, Xinhua runs an interview with Antony Froggatt, deputy director of the environment and society programme at Chatham House, a London-based thinktank. The state news agency reports that Froggatt praises China’s green Belt and Road Initiatives for contributing to the tackling of climate change. In a separate report, Xinhua says that China will use “the shortest time in the world” to achieve carbon neutrality from peak-level emissions. It says that “China’s target represents the highest ambition”. Furthermore, in a lengthy piece applauding president Xi’s leadership, Xinhua quotes former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd as saying: “The world should thank China for its contribution to climate change responses.” Global Times, a state-run tabloid, uses an “infographic” to illustrate “China’s roadmap in tackling climate change, its achievements so far, and its contribution to the world in the area”.

Elsewhere, Reuters reports that China’s state grid warned of a “tight balance” between power supply and demand through winter until spring. It adds that power shortages have eased due to measures “to boost coal supplies and get large users to cut back on electricity”. Meanwhile, the Times says that the power crisis in China will cause “further supply chain disruption, delays and higher prices for British businesses”. The South China Morning Post says that La Niña brought early snow across northern China over the weekend “as the country struggles with the worst energy crisis in a decade”. State-run Global Times reports that “China will accelerate the pace of coal reduction during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) and raise the share of non-fossil energy consumption to about 20 per cent”, according to new directives from the State Council. The document proposes an 18% cut of CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 2025 compared to 2020, China’s Security Times reports. Covering the same set of orders, Reuters says China has a “long way to go” on environmental protection, citing the State Council.

1bn people will suffer extreme heat at just 2C heating, say scientists
The Guardian Read Article

One billion people will be affected by “extreme heat stress” if warming reaches 2C, while half of the world’s population will be affected at 4C heating, the Guardian reports. This is according to a Met Office study of “wet bulb” temperature – a measure which combines both temperature and humidity – according to the newspaper. It says: “Once [wet bulb temperature] reaches 35C, the human body cannot cool itself by sweating and even healthy people sitting in the shade will die within six hours. The Met Office analysis used a wet-bulb temperature limit of 32C, at which workers must rest regularly to avoid heat exhaustion, for at least 10 days a year.” MailOnline also reports on the research, adding: “The Met Office’s analysis looking specifically at where the more severe impacts might overlap with each other and areas today most vulnerable to food insecurity. The experts found that areas in the tropics will be the worst affected — with impacts from four or more of the hazards striking in countries like Brazil and Ethiopia.”

Elsewhere, the Scotsman covers a report from the Christian humanitarian organisation World Vision, which finds that 320 million people could face starvation this decade due to climate impacts. Meanwhile, MailOnline covers new research on lake heatwaves and the Times discusses research which finds that a diet of seaweed reduces the gas produced by cattle. Elsewhere, BusinessGreen outlines a study which finds that climate change could “wipe £525bn from the value of UK homes by 2100”. New Scientist outlines a study that has used satellites to find methane leaks – and has uncovered close to 800 leaks from just four countries since November 2017. And the South China Morning Post covers a warning from the Lancet Public Health reports that climate change poses a bigger global public health thread in China than Covid-19.

Comment.

COP26 will be the whitest and most privileged ever – it should be a source of great shame to everyone
Diane Abbott, The Independent Read Article

Writing for the Independent, Labour’s MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott says that “is a source of great shame that COP26 will be the whitest and most privileged ever, with thousands who intended to travel from poorer countries excluded”. She continues: “Our best guarantee against a climate apartheid world is for richer countries in the global north to take radical action now to avoid disaster. Now is the time to demand climate justice for the global south…Compare the plight of the global south with the culpability of rich white countries such as America, Germany, Japan, Britain, Canada, France and Australia. These are collectively responsible for 48.3% of historic emissions. America alone is responsible for 30% of historic greenhouse emissions. These countries have built their vast wealth by burning an incredible amount of fossil fuels and in the process, they have brought the world to the brink of disaster.”

Meanwhile, the Times carries an opinion piece jointly written by the actor and ActionAid UK ambassador Emma Thompson and Diaka Salena Koroma, a climate activist and CEO of Sènekela Ltd, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable agricultural practices. They write: “Today, on COP26’s Gender Day, we are calling for world leaders – whose countries have done the most to cause the climate crisis – to step up their commitments on climate change, and to ensure women and girls are placed at the heart of the climate solutions. We need climate action that is designed by women and girls, for women and girls. It is a matter of life or death.” In the Financial Times, Daniela Gabor, professor of economics and macrofinance at UWE Bristol, and Isabella Weber, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy, argue that “decarbonisation requires a return to strategic planning not market-led shock therapy”. They add: “It is tempting to dismiss the growing calls for carbon pricing as empty posturing from entrenched interests that bet on the continuous absence of political will. But poor and middle-income countries look set to be forced, yet again, into subjecting their economies to chaotic structural transformation. What they really need are carefully designed macrofinancial policies to adjust their productive structures.”

Separately, the Boston Globe has a co-authored comment piece by US climate envoy John Kerry and Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn. They write: “We don’t need to accept a false choice between jobs and solving climate change. Solving climate change means jobs, and new data prove that those jobs aren’t even what you might think of as green jobs – including fleet managers, data scientists, and health workers. Green skills are in demand globally. Everything we see from our different perspectives – one a diplomat, the other an entrepreneur and CEO – tells us that green is growth, if we reach for it together.” In the Daily Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says that “China has failed to revive the stale North-South conflict at COP26”, adding: “Beijing’s efforts to weaponise developed countries’ legacy of carbon emissions are undone by its own toxic history of polluting.” He references recent Carbon Brief analysis showing historic cumulative emissions of nations since 1850. In other comment, the New York Times has a comment piece by Paul Bledsoe, Durwood Zaelke and Gabrielle Dreyfus under the headline: “How to limit temperature increases in the very near term.” And the Scotsman has published the views of Jamie Livingstone, head of Oxfam Scotland who writes on behalf of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland: “Before the climate summit ends, Nicola Sturgeon should declare her opposition to the new Cambo oil field.”

Science.

Climate change literacy and migration potential: micro-level evidence from Africa
Climatic Change Read Article

Knowledge about climate change is a “major determinant” of why some people consider migrating to other countries in response to its impacts, a new study says. The authors argue that “climate change literacy helps individuals translate their perceptions of temperature changes into an understanding of these changes’ irreversible long-term consequences”. The researchers confirm their theory using geo-coded data for 37,000 people across 30 African countries. They add: “Further analyses show that climate literates are more likely to live in urban areas, have a higher news consumption, are highly educated, and have demanding occupations. Consequently, climate change may further deprive affected countries of valuable talent.”

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