By AFP
November 11, 2024
Carbon credits are generated by activities that reduce or avoid planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, like planting trees or replacing polluting coal with clean-energy alternatives - Copyright AFP Tony KARUMBA
Governments at the COP29 talks approved Monday new UN standards for international carbon markets in a key step toward allowing countries to trade credits to meet their climate targets.
On the opening day of the UN climate talks in Azerbaijan, nearly 200 nations agreed a number of crucial ground rules for setting a market in motion after nearly a decade of complex discussions.
Other key aspects of the overall framework still need to be negotiated, experts said, but the decision brings closer a long-sought UN-backed market trading in high-quality credits.
“It’s hugely significant,” Erika Lennon, from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), told AFP in Baku, saying it would “open the door” for a fully-fledged market.
Carbon credits are generated by activities that reduce or avoid planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, like planting trees, protecting carbon sinks or replacing polluting coal with clean-energy alternatives.
One credit equals a tonne of prevented or removed heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
Since the Paris climate agreement in 2015, the UN has been crafting rules to allow countries and businesses to exchange credits in a transparent and credible market.
The benchmarks adopted in Baku will allow for the development of rules including calculating how many credits a given project can receive.
Once up and running, a carbon market would allow countries — mainly wealthy polluters — to offset emissions by purchasing credits from nations that have cut greenhouse gases above what they promised.
Purchasing countries could then put carbon credits toward achieving the climate goals promised in their national plans.
– ‘Big step closer’ –
“It gets the system a big step closer to actually existing in the real world,” said Gilles Dufrasne from Carbon Market Watch, a think tank.
“But even with this, it doesn’t mean the market actually exists,” he added, saying further safeguards and questions around governance still remain unanswered.
An earlier UN attempt to regulate carbon markets under the Paris accord were rejected in Dubai in 2023 by the European Union and developing nations for being too lax.
Some observers were unhappy that the decision in Baku left unresolved other long-standing and crucial aspects of the broader crediting mechanism, known in UN terms as Article 6.
“It’s not possible to declare victory,” said a European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
There are hopes that a robust and credible UN carbon market could eventually indirectly raise the standards of the scandal-hit voluntary trade in credits.
Corporations wanting to offset their emissions and make claims of carbon neutrality have been major buyers of these credits, which are bought and exchanged but lack common standards.
But the voluntary market has been rocked by scandals in recent years amid accusations that some credits sold did not reduce emissions as promised, or that projects exploited local communities.
And the idea of offsetting as a whole faces deep scepticism from many.
“No matter how much integrity there is in the sort of the carbon markets, if what you are doing is offsetting ongoing fossil fuels with some sort of credit, you’re not actually reducing anything,” said Lennon.
Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’, warns UN
By AFP
November 11, 2024
'Wake-up call': The last decade has been the hottest, deepening climate choas including floods in Valencia, Spain this month - Copyright AFP JOSE JORDAN
The Paris climate agreement’s goals “are in great peril” and 2024 is on track to break new temperature records, the United Nations warned Monday as COP29 talks opened in Baku.
The period from 2015 to 2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new report based on six international datasets.
WMO chief Celeste Saulo said she was sounding the “red alert”.
“It’s another SOS for the planet,” she told reporters in Baku.
The warming trend is accelerating the shrinking of glaciers and sea-level rise, and unleashing extreme weather that has wrought havoc on communities and economies around the world.
“The ambitions of the Paris Agreement are in great peril,” the WMO climate and weather agency said as global leaders gathered for high-stakes climate talks in Azerbaijan.
Under the Paris agreement, nearly every nation on Earth committed to work to limit warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably to below 1.5C.
But the EU climate monitor Copernicus has already said that 2024 will exceed 1.5C.
This does not amount to an immediate breach of the Paris deal, which measures temperatures over decades, but it suggests the world is far off track on its goals.
The WMO, which relies on a broader dataset, also said 2024 would likely breach the 1.5C limit, and break the record set just last year.
– ‘New reality’ –
“Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace. The vulnerable are hardest hit,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
Analysis by a team of international experts established by the WMO found that long-term global warming was currently likely to be around 1.3C, compared to the 1850-1900 baseline, the agency said.
“We need to act as soon as possible,” Saulo said, insisting that the world must “not give up on the 1.5 (ambition)”.
Monday’s report cautioned that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, which lock in future temperature increases even if emissions fall, hit new highs in 2023 and appeared to have climbed further this year.
Ocean heat is also likely to be comparable to the record highs seen last year, it added.
Saulo insisted that “every fraction of a degree of warming matters, and increases climate extremes, impacts and risks.
“Temperatures are only part of the picture. Climate change plays out before our eyes on an almost daily basis in the form of extreme weather,” she said.
Saulo pointed to how “this year’s record-breaking rainfall and flooding events and terrible loss of life… (had caused) heartbreak to communities on every continent.
“The incredible amount of rain in Spain was a wake-up call about how much more water a warmer atmosphere can hold,” she added.
She warned that the string of devastating extreme weather events across the world this year “are unfortunately our new reality”.
They are, she said, “a foretaste of our future”.
Carbon credits are generated by activities that reduce or avoid planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, like planting trees or replacing polluting coal with clean-energy alternatives - Copyright AFP Tony KARUMBA
Governments at the COP29 talks approved Monday new UN standards for international carbon markets in a key step toward allowing countries to trade credits to meet their climate targets.
On the opening day of the UN climate talks in Azerbaijan, nearly 200 nations agreed a number of crucial ground rules for setting a market in motion after nearly a decade of complex discussions.
Other key aspects of the overall framework still need to be negotiated, experts said, but the decision brings closer a long-sought UN-backed market trading in high-quality credits.
“It’s hugely significant,” Erika Lennon, from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), told AFP in Baku, saying it would “open the door” for a fully-fledged market.
Carbon credits are generated by activities that reduce or avoid planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, like planting trees, protecting carbon sinks or replacing polluting coal with clean-energy alternatives.
One credit equals a tonne of prevented or removed heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
Since the Paris climate agreement in 2015, the UN has been crafting rules to allow countries and businesses to exchange credits in a transparent and credible market.
The benchmarks adopted in Baku will allow for the development of rules including calculating how many credits a given project can receive.
Once up and running, a carbon market would allow countries — mainly wealthy polluters — to offset emissions by purchasing credits from nations that have cut greenhouse gases above what they promised.
Purchasing countries could then put carbon credits toward achieving the climate goals promised in their national plans.
– ‘Big step closer’ –
“It gets the system a big step closer to actually existing in the real world,” said Gilles Dufrasne from Carbon Market Watch, a think tank.
“But even with this, it doesn’t mean the market actually exists,” he added, saying further safeguards and questions around governance still remain unanswered.
An earlier UN attempt to regulate carbon markets under the Paris accord were rejected in Dubai in 2023 by the European Union and developing nations for being too lax.
Some observers were unhappy that the decision in Baku left unresolved other long-standing and crucial aspects of the broader crediting mechanism, known in UN terms as Article 6.
“It’s not possible to declare victory,” said a European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
There are hopes that a robust and credible UN carbon market could eventually indirectly raise the standards of the scandal-hit voluntary trade in credits.
Corporations wanting to offset their emissions and make claims of carbon neutrality have been major buyers of these credits, which are bought and exchanged but lack common standards.
But the voluntary market has been rocked by scandals in recent years amid accusations that some credits sold did not reduce emissions as promised, or that projects exploited local communities.
And the idea of offsetting as a whole faces deep scepticism from many.
“No matter how much integrity there is in the sort of the carbon markets, if what you are doing is offsetting ongoing fossil fuels with some sort of credit, you’re not actually reducing anything,” said Lennon.
Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’, warns UN
By AFP
November 11, 2024
'Wake-up call': The last decade has been the hottest, deepening climate choas including floods in Valencia, Spain this month - Copyright AFP JOSE JORDAN
The Paris climate agreement’s goals “are in great peril” and 2024 is on track to break new temperature records, the United Nations warned Monday as COP29 talks opened in Baku.
The period from 2015 to 2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new report based on six international datasets.
WMO chief Celeste Saulo said she was sounding the “red alert”.
“It’s another SOS for the planet,” she told reporters in Baku.
The warming trend is accelerating the shrinking of glaciers and sea-level rise, and unleashing extreme weather that has wrought havoc on communities and economies around the world.
“The ambitions of the Paris Agreement are in great peril,” the WMO climate and weather agency said as global leaders gathered for high-stakes climate talks in Azerbaijan.
Under the Paris agreement, nearly every nation on Earth committed to work to limit warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably to below 1.5C.
But the EU climate monitor Copernicus has already said that 2024 will exceed 1.5C.
This does not amount to an immediate breach of the Paris deal, which measures temperatures over decades, but it suggests the world is far off track on its goals.
The WMO, which relies on a broader dataset, also said 2024 would likely breach the 1.5C limit, and break the record set just last year.
– ‘New reality’ –
“Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace. The vulnerable are hardest hit,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
Analysis by a team of international experts established by the WMO found that long-term global warming was currently likely to be around 1.3C, compared to the 1850-1900 baseline, the agency said.
“We need to act as soon as possible,” Saulo said, insisting that the world must “not give up on the 1.5 (ambition)”.
Monday’s report cautioned that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, which lock in future temperature increases even if emissions fall, hit new highs in 2023 and appeared to have climbed further this year.
Ocean heat is also likely to be comparable to the record highs seen last year, it added.
Saulo insisted that “every fraction of a degree of warming matters, and increases climate extremes, impacts and risks.
“Temperatures are only part of the picture. Climate change plays out before our eyes on an almost daily basis in the form of extreme weather,” she said.
Saulo pointed to how “this year’s record-breaking rainfall and flooding events and terrible loss of life… (had caused) heartbreak to communities on every continent.
“The incredible amount of rain in Spain was a wake-up call about how much more water a warmer atmosphere can hold,” she added.
She warned that the string of devastating extreme weather events across the world this year “are unfortunately our new reality”.
They are, she said, “a foretaste of our future”.
Climate crisis worsening already ‘hellish’ refugee situation: UN
By AFP
World leaders meet for climate talks, but big names missing
ByAFP
November 11, 2024
Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi and Emmanuel Macron are among G20 leaders missing the event - Copyright AFP Alexander NEMENOV
Nick Perry
Dozens of world leaders convene in Azerbaijan on Tuesday for COP29 but many big names are skipping the UN climate talks where the impact of Donald Trump’s election victory is keenly felt.
More than 75 leaders are expected in Baku over two days but the heads of some of the most powerful and polluting economies are not attending this year’s summit.
Just a handful of leaders from the G20 — which accounts for nearly 80 percent of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions — are expected in Baku, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“This government believes that climate security is national security,” his Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said on X on Monday.
Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi and Emmanuel Macron are among G20 leaders missing the event, where uncertainty over future US unity on climate action hung over the opening day.
Washington’s top climate envoy sought to reassure countries in Baku that Trump’s re-election would not end US efforts on global warming, even if it would be “on the back burner”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell also appealed to solidarity, kicking talks off on Monday by urging countries to “show that global cooperation is not down for the count”.
But the opening day got off to a rocky start, with feuds over the official agenda delaying by hours the start of formal proceedings in the stadium venue near the Caspian Sea.
Later in the evening, governments approved new UN standards for a global carbon market in a key step toward allowing countries to trade credits to meet their climate targets.
COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev hailed a “breakthrough” after years of complex discussions, but more work is needed before a long-sought UN-backed market can be fully realised.
– Difficult negotiations –
The top priority at COP29 however is landing a hard-fought deal to boost funding for climate action in developing countries.
These nations — from low-lying islands to fractured states at war — are least responsible for climate change but most at risk from rising seas, extreme weather and economic shocks.
Some are pushing for the existing pledge of $100 billion a year to be raised ten-fold at COP29 to cover the future cost of their nations shifting to clean energy and adapting to climate shocks.
Babayev, a former oil executive, told negotiators that trillions may be needed, but a figure in the hundreds of billions was more “realistic”.
Nations have haggled over this for years, with disagreements over how much should be paid, and who should pay it, making meaningful progress next to impossible ahead of COP29.
“These will not be easy negotiations, perhaps the most challenging since Paris,” said Germany’s climate negotiator Jennifer Morgan.
Developing countries warn that without adequate finance, they will struggle to offer ambitious updates to their climate goals, which countries are required to submit by early next year.
The small group of developed countries that currently contributes the money wants the donor pool expanded to include other rich nations and top emitters, including China and the Gulf states, something firmly rejected by Beijing.
Stiell warned rich countries to “dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity”.
Around 50,000 people are attending summit in Azerbaijan, a petrostate wedged between Russia and Iran, including the leaders of many African, Asian and Latin American countries beset by climate disasters.
By AFP
November 12, 2024
weather-related disasters have displaced some 220 million people inside their countries over the past decade alone - Copyright AFP/File Daniel Beloumou Olomo
Nina LARSON
Climate change is contributing to record numbers of people being uprooted from their homes globally, while worsening the often already “hellish” conditions of displacement, the United Nations said Tuesday.
With international climate talks under way in Baku, the UN refugee agency highlighted how soaring global temperatures and extreme weather events are impacting displacement numbers and conditions, as it called for more and better investment in mitigating the risks.
In a fresh report, UNHCR pointed to how climate shocks in places like Sudan, Somalia and Myanmar were interacting with conflict to push those already in danger into even more dire situations.
“Across our warming world, drought, floods, life-threatening heat and other extreme weather events are creating emergencies with alarming frequency,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in the foreword to the report.
“People forced to flee their homes are on the front lines of this crisis,” he said, pointing out that 75 percent of displaced people live in countries with high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards.
“As the speed and scale of climate change increase, this figure will only continue to rise.”
– 120 million displaced –
A record 120 million people already live forcibly displaced by war, violence and persecution — most of them inside their own countries, UNHCR figures from June showed.
“Globally, the number of people that have been displaced by conflict has doubled over the last 10 years,” Andrew Harper, UNHCR’s special advisor on climate action, pointed out to AFP.
At the same time, UNHCR pointed to recent data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre indicating that weather-related disasters have displaced some 220 million people inside their countries over the past decade alone — equivalent to approximately 60,000 displacements per day.
“We’re just seeing more and more and more people being displaced,” Harper said, lamenting a dire lack of the funds needed to support those who flee and the communities that host them.
“We are seeing across the board, a hellish situation become even tougher.”
Most refugee settlement areas, he pointed out, are found in lower-income countries, frequently “in the desert, in areas which are prone to flooding, in places without necessary infrastructure to deal with the increasing impacts of climate change”.
This is set to get worse. By 2040, the number of countries in the world facing extreme climate-related hazards is expected to rise from three to 65, UNHCR said, with the vast majority of them hosting displaced populations.
– Dangerous heat –
And by 2050, most refugee settlements and camps are projected to experience twice as many days of dangerous heat as they do today, the report cautioned.
That could not only be uncomfortable and a health hazard to the people living there, but could also lead to crop failures and livestock dying off, Harper warned.
“We’re seeing increasing loss of arable land in places exposed to climate extremes, like Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Afghanistan, but at the same time we’ve got the massive increase in populations,” he said.
UNHCR is urging decision-makers gathered for the COP29 in Baku to ensure that far more of international climate financing reaches refugees and host communities most in need.
Currently, UNHCR pointed out, extremely fragile states receive only around $2 per person in annual adaptation funding, compared to $161 per person in non-fragile states.
Without more investment in building climate resilience and adaptation in such communities, more displacement towards countries less impacted by climate change will be inevitable, Harper said.
“If we don’t invest in peace, if we don’t invest in climate adaptation in these areas, then people will move,” he said.
“It’s illogical to expect them to do anything different.”
weather-related disasters have displaced some 220 million people inside their countries over the past decade alone - Copyright AFP/File Daniel Beloumou Olomo
Nina LARSON
Climate change is contributing to record numbers of people being uprooted from their homes globally, while worsening the often already “hellish” conditions of displacement, the United Nations said Tuesday.
With international climate talks under way in Baku, the UN refugee agency highlighted how soaring global temperatures and extreme weather events are impacting displacement numbers and conditions, as it called for more and better investment in mitigating the risks.
In a fresh report, UNHCR pointed to how climate shocks in places like Sudan, Somalia and Myanmar were interacting with conflict to push those already in danger into even more dire situations.
“Across our warming world, drought, floods, life-threatening heat and other extreme weather events are creating emergencies with alarming frequency,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in the foreword to the report.
“People forced to flee their homes are on the front lines of this crisis,” he said, pointing out that 75 percent of displaced people live in countries with high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards.
“As the speed and scale of climate change increase, this figure will only continue to rise.”
– 120 million displaced –
A record 120 million people already live forcibly displaced by war, violence and persecution — most of them inside their own countries, UNHCR figures from June showed.
“Globally, the number of people that have been displaced by conflict has doubled over the last 10 years,” Andrew Harper, UNHCR’s special advisor on climate action, pointed out to AFP.
At the same time, UNHCR pointed to recent data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre indicating that weather-related disasters have displaced some 220 million people inside their countries over the past decade alone — equivalent to approximately 60,000 displacements per day.
“We’re just seeing more and more and more people being displaced,” Harper said, lamenting a dire lack of the funds needed to support those who flee and the communities that host them.
“We are seeing across the board, a hellish situation become even tougher.”
Most refugee settlement areas, he pointed out, are found in lower-income countries, frequently “in the desert, in areas which are prone to flooding, in places without necessary infrastructure to deal with the increasing impacts of climate change”.
This is set to get worse. By 2040, the number of countries in the world facing extreme climate-related hazards is expected to rise from three to 65, UNHCR said, with the vast majority of them hosting displaced populations.
– Dangerous heat –
And by 2050, most refugee settlements and camps are projected to experience twice as many days of dangerous heat as they do today, the report cautioned.
That could not only be uncomfortable and a health hazard to the people living there, but could also lead to crop failures and livestock dying off, Harper warned.
“We’re seeing increasing loss of arable land in places exposed to climate extremes, like Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Afghanistan, but at the same time we’ve got the massive increase in populations,” he said.
UNHCR is urging decision-makers gathered for the COP29 in Baku to ensure that far more of international climate financing reaches refugees and host communities most in need.
Currently, UNHCR pointed out, extremely fragile states receive only around $2 per person in annual adaptation funding, compared to $161 per person in non-fragile states.
Without more investment in building climate resilience and adaptation in such communities, more displacement towards countries less impacted by climate change will be inevitable, Harper said.
“If we don’t invest in peace, if we don’t invest in climate adaptation in these areas, then people will move,” he said.
“It’s illogical to expect them to do anything different.”
World leaders meet for climate talks, but big names missing
ByAFP
November 11, 2024
Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi and Emmanuel Macron are among G20 leaders missing the event - Copyright AFP Alexander NEMENOV
Nick Perry
Dozens of world leaders convene in Azerbaijan on Tuesday for COP29 but many big names are skipping the UN climate talks where the impact of Donald Trump’s election victory is keenly felt.
More than 75 leaders are expected in Baku over two days but the heads of some of the most powerful and polluting economies are not attending this year’s summit.
Just a handful of leaders from the G20 — which accounts for nearly 80 percent of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions — are expected in Baku, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“This government believes that climate security is national security,” his Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said on X on Monday.
Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi and Emmanuel Macron are among G20 leaders missing the event, where uncertainty over future US unity on climate action hung over the opening day.
Washington’s top climate envoy sought to reassure countries in Baku that Trump’s re-election would not end US efforts on global warming, even if it would be “on the back burner”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell also appealed to solidarity, kicking talks off on Monday by urging countries to “show that global cooperation is not down for the count”.
But the opening day got off to a rocky start, with feuds over the official agenda delaying by hours the start of formal proceedings in the stadium venue near the Caspian Sea.
Later in the evening, governments approved new UN standards for a global carbon market in a key step toward allowing countries to trade credits to meet their climate targets.
COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev hailed a “breakthrough” after years of complex discussions, but more work is needed before a long-sought UN-backed market can be fully realised.
– Difficult negotiations –
The top priority at COP29 however is landing a hard-fought deal to boost funding for climate action in developing countries.
These nations — from low-lying islands to fractured states at war — are least responsible for climate change but most at risk from rising seas, extreme weather and economic shocks.
Some are pushing for the existing pledge of $100 billion a year to be raised ten-fold at COP29 to cover the future cost of their nations shifting to clean energy and adapting to climate shocks.
Babayev, a former oil executive, told negotiators that trillions may be needed, but a figure in the hundreds of billions was more “realistic”.
Nations have haggled over this for years, with disagreements over how much should be paid, and who should pay it, making meaningful progress next to impossible ahead of COP29.
“These will not be easy negotiations, perhaps the most challenging since Paris,” said Germany’s climate negotiator Jennifer Morgan.
Developing countries warn that without adequate finance, they will struggle to offer ambitious updates to their climate goals, which countries are required to submit by early next year.
The small group of developed countries that currently contributes the money wants the donor pool expanded to include other rich nations and top emitters, including China and the Gulf states, something firmly rejected by Beijing.
Stiell warned rich countries to “dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity”.
Around 50,000 people are attending summit in Azerbaijan, a petrostate wedged between Russia and Iran, including the leaders of many African, Asian and Latin American countries beset by climate disasters.
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