Huge Paris security operation as world leaders arrive for COP21 & rallies call for Paris climate change action

30.11.15

News

COP21: Huge Paris security operation as world leaders arrive for climate change conference

Security has been gearing up for the start of the much-anticipated climate summit in Paris. David Cameron, Prince Charles and President Obama are among nearly 150 world leaders due in the French capital in the opening days of the talks. Major roads around Paris will be closed on Sunday and Monday with about 2,800 police and soldiers guarding the “hermetically sealed” conference venue near Le Bourget airport. With the talks about to get underway, the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, has told negotiators to iron out their differences by Saturday – six days before the end of the summit, reports the Guardian. “I will ask that by [next] Saturday midday the text will be transmitted to me, the president of the COP, and at that moment everyone will know where we are and the procedure to follow,” Fabius said in an interview. Negotiators seem to be taking the hint as they got started on Sunday rather than after Monday’s high-level speeches, as originally planned, says Reuters. As the talks get underway, Canada’s Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna, says that because of the “political realities in the US”, she doesn’t “expect that the [emissions] targets will be internationally legally binding.” While the Times has spoken to a “a source at the Department of Energy and Climate Change”, who says although they want a emissions targets to be legally enforced, “it is clear this is extremely challenging to achieve.” Instead, energy and climate change secretary, Amber Rudd, will focus on securing a five-yearly review mechanism to ensure there is “no backsliding”. Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) negotiating bloc, which includes the Philippines, Bangladesh and Costa Rica, will break ranks with the G77 group that traditionally represents the views of most developing countries and sign a declaration urging the UN to adopt a more ambitious limit of 1.5C. Elsewhere, the Financial Times takes a look at what China will have learnt from previous climate talks, and how it is better prepared in the lead up to Paris: “Chinese negotiators are on solid ground domestically, with support from both state-owned enterprises and a public fed up with pollution.” The FT also reports that the summit’s corporate sponsors, such as French utility companies Engie and EDF, have come in for criticised for using the event to help them look more environmentally friendly than they really are. Also, the Independent has asked different interest groups what they want from Paris, while the Guardian has put together a 60-second guide to why the Paris climate summit will succeed.

COP21: Obama heads to Paris with hope for climate change deal

AFP via Mail Online

Flying in on Air Force One, President Obama has arrived in Paris for the international climate summit. Before heading off, Obama posted a message on his Facebook page, saying “What makes this gathering different is that more than 180 nations have already submitted plans to reduce the harmful emissions that help cause climate change, and America’s leadership is helping to drive this progress.” The New York Times discusses why Obama’s legacy is at stake in Paris. The Guardiancaptured his arrival on video. The US President wasn’t the only person to share a few words over the weekend. India’s prime minister has issued a blunt warning that rich nations still have a moral imperative to lead the fight against global warming. Writing in the Financial Times, Modi says advanced countries that “powered their way to prosperity on fossil fuel” must continue to shoulder the greatest burden. “Anything else would be morally wrong.” Speaking at the start of the talks, David Cameron is expected to pressure on other countries to match Britain’s commitment to international aid spending, reports the Telegraph, saying “A deal in Paris must include clear support to the poorest nations.” Elsewhere, the Times speaks to economist Lord Stern, who says an agreement in Paris could commit countries to submit more emissions targets in five years’ time but would not require them to meet any current or future targets. “It’s not easy for [countries] to say exactly what position they will be in 2030. They do not want to put themselves in a position of being sanctioned by others,” he said. Also in the Guardian, Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has encouraged other Commonwealth leaders to send a powerful signal to other nations that strong climate change action is needed.

COP21: Rallies call for Paris climate change action

BBC News

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people took a part in marches worldwide to demand action on climate change. More than 2,000 events were held around the world, including in London, Madrid and Rome. Despite hot and humid weather, 15,000 demonstrators marched in Auckland and 5,000 in Brisbane, following a protest involving 40,0000 people in Melbourne on Friday, reports the Guardian. With demonstrations cancelled in Paris amid security fears, thousands of shoes were laid out in Paris’ Place de la République, reports the Telegraph. Pope Francis and UN Secretary-General were among those to donate their shoes, says the Guardian in their live blog, while theBBC reports that the Pope’s closest adviser on ecology, Cardinal Peter Turkson, urged Catholics to join the marches. The “day of celebration and hope” was marred by some violence, reports theGuardian. “A small group, some masked, took part in the violence,” says the Telegraph. The BBCalso live-blogged the day of demonstrations. Elsewhere, protestors occupied part of Tate Britain, where they proceeded to tattoo each other in protest at BP’s sponsorship of the gallery, reports theGuardian.

David Cameron comes under fire over green cuts

The Financial Times

Some of the biggest companies operating in the UK have urged David Cameron to rethink his government’s plans to slash green energy subsidies. In a letter to Mr Cameron, Tesco, Ikea, Vodafone, Nestlé, Unilever, Panasonic, BT and Marks & Spencer warn that the recent cutbacks to renewable energy pose a threat to UK businesses. The move “risks embarrassing the prime minister on the eve of next week’s Paris climate summit,” says the FT. Elsewhere, Professor Stuart Haszeldine of Edinburgh University says George Osborne’s decision to axe the government’s £1bn support for carbon capture and storage was a final act that undermined British negotiators’ status in Paris, reports the Guardian. “Among the lessons from this disastrous reputation failure, and time-wasting and money-wasting failure, must be that energy policy and infrastructure delivery is too important to be left to short-term politicians,” said Haszeldine, a geologist and an expert on carbon storage.

Major powers pledge $20bn for green energy research

The Guardian

18 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, China, Brazil, India and South Africa, have pledged to double funds for clean energy research to a total of $20bn over five years. In a separate initiative, business leaders, including Bill Gates, George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg, will also pledge today to take on additional investment risks to bring environmental technologies coming out of scientific research to the marketplace. The announcement should send a strong signal that “the world is committed to helping to mobilise the resources necessary to ensure countries around world can deploy clean energy solutions” said Brian Deese, a senior White House advisor. The Financial Times and Washington Post also have the story.

Government ‘hypocritical’ over fracking

The Times

The government has been accused of hypocrisy after announcing that Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Greg Clark, would decide whether to allow fracking in Lancashire – rather than an independent planning inspector. Lisa Nandy, the shadow energy secretary, said: “It’s hypocritical for ministers to support devolution and local democracy for decision-making over wind farms, only to then trample over the views of local communities when it comes to fracking.” Residents against fracking knew that the government could use the “recovery” procedure to make the final decision, but they hoped it wouldn’t, says Judy Hobson, the Environment Correspondent for BBC News in the North West. The Guardian also reaction to the announcement last week.

France, India to launch global solar alliance

Reuters

French President Francois Hollande and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today launch an international solar alliance aimed at bringing clean and affordable solar energy within the reach of all. An Indian government statement said there were well over 100 solar-rich countries in the tropics that could be members of the International Solar Alliance to develop solar energy.

Comment

Climate Control

Editorial, The Times

Some of the comment pieces this weekend have been less optimistic. The Times editorial says that while there is an agreed goal – limiting temperature rise to 2C – “there is no agreement about how to achieve it and little chance of doing so without a change of focus.” Concentrating on technology could make the talks a success, it argues. Writing in the Telegraph, Charles Moore says a “genuinely enforceable” agreement in Paris is unlikely because of “the growth of something which the Left has always called for, but doesn’t quite like when it gets it – the power of the developing world.”A business leader in the Guardian argues that perhaps it’s time for governments to stand aside and allow “privately developed technologies” to do their bit instead. Less optimistic still is sceptic columnist Christopher Booker. Writing in the Telegraph, Booker discusses why the summit to prevent temperatures rising more than 2C higher “than they were when the climate began naturally warming again two centuries ago” will be “a flop”. And in his column in the Times, Matt Ridley, a climate skeptic with coal-mining interests on his land, argues that “the real success of Paris is already in the bag: to ensure that the meetings, with their tens of thousands of participants on expense accounts, continue ad infinitum.”

COP21: Last chance salon in Paris: there is no planet B

Editorial, The Guardian

Unsurprisingly, on the eve of the Paris summit, lots of people have something to say on what the next two weeks could – or should – hold. In its editorial, the Guardian says now is the time “to lay the cornerstone for a global strategy to cut and ultimately end carbon emissions.” Also in theGuardian, Ricken Patel, founding president of the global civic group Avaaz asks if we are “wise enough, skilled enough, brave enough, to answer the call of our people, of our children and their children?” And writer and commentator Roberto Lovato says negotiators mustn’t forget people displaced by climate change, and should treat them as “victims not threats”. Elsewhere, Mark Lynas in the Times writes that science should not be used as a political football: “it is distressing to see science so relentlessly under attack from both ends of the political spectrum.” In a letter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu says a narrow window of opportunity opens in Paris this week: “No longer must our future be directed and dictated by financial interests.” Finally, in the Mirror, John Prescott writes that the Paris talks are “a once in a generation opportunity” and that while a deal is still not assured, “the signs are increasingly positive.”

Is climate change really to blame for Syria’s civil war?

Jan Selby & Mike Hulme, The Guardian

When Prince Charles made his recent comments that the Syrian civil war was partly caused by climate change, he wasn’t the first to say so. But, writing in the Guardian, researchers Prof Jan Selby and Prof Mike Hulme, question the strength of the evidence behind the link and say there “is good reason” to doubt it. “The case for international action on climate change is strong enough without relying on dubious evidence of its impacts on civil wars,” they say.

Science

Environmental Research Letters

Clearing land to graze animals is responsible for driving more than 70% of deforestation in South America, according to a new study, with commercial cropland driving a further 14%. The expansion of roads and infrastructure drives a smaller fraction – less than 2%, say the authors. Understanding the underlying drivers of deforestation and where the hotspots are is crucial for developing national climate change plans and inputing into global mitigation policy, the paper concludes.

UNFCCC before and after Paris – what’s necessary for an effective climate regime?

Climate Policy

A new study investigates what can reasonably be expected from the climate conference in Paris 2015, which officially begins today. Among other limitations, the UNFCCC’s tight focus on emissions targets has proven ineffective, say the authors. They suggest going beyond emission targets would improve countries’ abilities to tailor their contributions around political discourse as well as the formation of an “alliance of the ambitious” – a second treaty outside the main agreement for pioneers of climate action to forge ahead and encourage greater commitment from others.