Daily Tck: Day 1 of the UN climate talks in Lima

Government negotiators and a number of our partners made their way through Lima’s streets to the Cuartel General del Ejército where COP20 kicked off on Monday morning. After the customary opening ceremony, negotiators moved through the plenary sessions at a workman’s pace, seemingly energized and eager to build a foundation for a new global climate agreement. If this pace continues, the UNFCCC’s subsidiary bodies could get through much of their technical work by week’s end, leaving the bulk of the second week of talks for tougher political issues.

The energy this year was markedly different from one year ago. Last year opened amidst the Philippines reeling in the wake of super typhoon Haiyan’s deadly destruction, inspiring hundreds of people to join a fast in solidarity with those suffering from increasing climate impacts. With 2014 on track to become the hottest year on record, those impacts haven’t slowed. Meanwhile #FastfortheClimate grew into a global movement, turning day one of the Lima climate talks into the largest climate fast on record. Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga spent the day without food, along with the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Governor General, and the majority of the country’s population - called on to do so by the Christian Church of Tuvalu.

Lima started with nearly $9.6 billion in pledges to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), helping drive the workman-like pace of Monday’s negotiations. But the fund remains $300 million short of the GCF’s minimum capitalization goal, which also shaped the day’s pace and direction. The majority of developed country pledges fell short of their estimated fair share, and a few developed countries were conspicuously absent from contributing to the fund altogether. The first Fossil of the Day of COP20 went to Australia, Belgium, Ireland and Austria for their failure to deliver - making them even more conspicuous

On Tuesday, negotiators start in on Lima’s highest-profile issues as the so-called ADP (or Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action) reconvenes. This is where our partners can influence the picture and shape of the 2015 agreement - fighting for the essential details of countries’ national contributions; a clear long-term goal to phase emissions down to zero; and ensuring the global climate agreement, to be agreed in just 12 months time, sends a clear signal that the fossil fuel era is over.

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From our partners

Friends of the Earth Europe today published new research showing how fracking is likely to further accelerate climate change, destroy water sources and infringe on communities’ rights worldwide unless urgent action is taken to stop the ‘dash-for-gas’. The report maps the expansion of the shale gas industry outside Europe and North America with examples of 11 key countries on three continents.

In a new report, “Breaking the Standoff,” Oxfam details how current pledges are out of step with the magnitude of need in developing countries and calls on world leaders to outline a robust new strategy to boost climate finance. Developed countries promised to mobilize $100 billion annually in climate finance by 2020, but headway in mobilizing that funding has been slow.

Sierra club has an online campaign targeting Todd Stern, leader of the US Delegation in Lima, asking him to reaffirm the US’ commitment to cut carbon emissions and to seek strong and equitable commitments from the leaders of other countries.

In its opening press conference, CAN International called on countries to build on recent momentum and flesh out the international climate action plan due to be signed in just 12 months time in Paris.

Yeb Sano joined today’s #FastfortheClimate press conference via a video message.

CAN International’s first ECO focused on the big picture of the negotiations and fossil fuel subsidies.

In the news

Many news outlets, including the BBC, are highlighting the stark reality facing negotiators. NOAA data shows global average temperature over land and ocean from January to October was the hottest since records began in 1880.

Meanwhile the Daily Climate focused on the links between climate change and social justice and the major challenges facing negotiators over the coming days.

RTCC live-blogged the opening day of the conference, while also producing a handy map of countries climate pledges to date.

RTCC also focused on Figueres comments in the opening plenary highlighting the risks of investing in oil. “The fact that oil prices are so unpredictable is precisely one of the reasons we need to move to fuels which has a completed predictable cost of zero for fuel,” she said.

The warning comes as German utility Eon announced it would split in two, spinning off power plants to focus on renewable energy and power grids.

Canada and Australia have both come under fire in the media today for their climate inaction. In Canada reports are focused on the role provinces are playing in filling the policy vacuum left by the national government, while focus in Australia was on the government’s latest move in cutting funding from the UN Environment Programme by 80% ahead of the talks.

Tools and resources

The GCCA’s Tree team pulled together a ‘COP20 Briefer: All eyes on Lima as critical period for negotiations begins,’ a list of events taking place in and around the conference, and a briefing discussion with the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Alden Meyer and CAN’s Ria Voorhaar on what to expect from the COP.

You can follow the TckTckTck team on the ground in Lima via our Live-blog or on our Twitter and Facebook pages. If you want to suggest something for the Daily Tck please email [email protected].

From the Negotiator Trackers

Negotiator Tracker, Denise Fontanilla writes for GMA News in the Philippines about “the silencing of Sano and the furor of storms to come.”

For all our Spanish speaking readers, Santiago Ortega gives some insight into the role Peru could play at COP host in bridging the divides between Latin American countries.

Ahead of the first day of the negotiations Asha Sitati takes a look at how prepared Kenya is for the negotiations.

Meanwhile Anna-Perez-Catala examines the decision by the Spanish government to allow offshore oil exploration.

See more from our global team of ‘Negotiator Trackers’ here.

Tools and resources

Great interactive guide to global emissions past, present and future from the Guardian and Kiln.

The Adopt a Negotiator flickr site has some great photos from the first day of the conference.

Cicero have pulled together a great video explaining the history of the climate change negotiations in just 83 seconds.

Track the talks on TckTckTck’s daily liveblog

For the full duration of the talks, we’re liveblogging on the TckTckTck website. Check out our embeddable Storify-powered feed for up-to-the-hour news on negotiation progress, NGO efforts and the COP19 experience. SEE IT HERE >>

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