1000 kilometer Climate Walk reaches inspiring end in Tacloban, but the journey continues
Having stirred the conscious of a nation, more than 5,000 people holding white balloons and candles mournfully walked around the Philippines regional capital Tacloban City Saturday, joining the last stretch of a 38-day 1000 kilometer journey from Manilla to the place where Super Typhoon Yolanda (also known as Haiyan) first struck landfall. The Climate Walk, led by Philippines Climate Commissioner Yeb Saño, marked the one year anniversary of the devastating typhoon; and served as an homage to people confronting the realities of climate change in the Philippines and around the world.
Saño estimated that more than 20,000 people took part in the walk from start to finish. Participants raised awareness about climate issues and empowered communities to be resilient to disasters and the impacts of climate change. They also met local government units, distributed climate resiliency toolkits and interacted with frontline communities hit hardest by extreme weather events, including those living in the shadow of coal-fired power plants. On the Climate Walk’s final day Saño told Rappler News that “This is a continuing journey. Our destination was never Tacloban; our destination is the hearts and minds of our people and everyone else around the world.”
With Australia hosting G20 leaders next week, uncertainty over climate’s role on the agenda remain
With leaders of some of the world’s largest economies meeting at the Australia-hosted G20 next week, big questions remain over whether and to what extent climate issues will be part of the agenda. A number of our partners are mobilizing their membership and networks across G20 countries through a joint social media campaign to change that. We also organized a call with representatives of WWF, the European Climate Foundation and WRI to learn more about how climate issues could fit, the influence of the coal industry, and the Australian Government’s efforts to keep climate change solutions off of this key economic forum’s agenda.
In related news, a new report from The Australia Institute offers up evidence undermining Australia PM Tony Abbot’s insistence that coal is the “foundation of prosperity;” finding that on the few occasions coal companies have spent money to help the energy-poor, they ironically tended to use distributed, off-grid renewables or hydro power. More in our latest Tree Alert from ‘Down Under’.
Civil society takes on unprecedented role in annual pre-COP meeting
A number of our partners traveled to Venezuela earlier this week to take part in the Social Pre-COP. The invite-only meeting hosted by the Venezuelan Government, which brought together a number of civil society groups from around the world, bolstered social participation alongside the annual Pre-COP Ministerial meeting which is typically primarily limited to governments. While civil society groups’ inputs were limited to what their government host agreed to, the meeting culminated in a series of shared recommendations for different strategies to confront the threat of climate change; which Venezuela is likely to help champion in Lima this coming December.David Tong, writing for our Adopt a Negotiator project, covered the event in-depth from inside. RTCC and VenezuelaAnalysis also have good overviews.
Asia
- A new report from Oxfam says that climate-related disasters and food crises are devastating thousands of lives and holding back development across Asia.
- Responding to the latest IPCC synthesis report, civil society groups in India asked their government to take a leadership role in global climate negotiations, saying “the rich nations have failed to take the lead” in solving the problem. India is allegedly mulling a shift, delinking its position from China.
- China’s largely unregulated ports and shipping system play a more significant role in its pollution problems than previously thought, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council.
- A new report from Oil Change International says that anti-tar sands campaigns have cost the industry a staggering $17bn in lost revenues.
- A new report by the UK-based Carbon Tracker Initiative warns that staking Canada’s future on continued tar sands development is a risky bet with some 90% of future oil sands projects are at risk from eroding oil prices.
- US pipeline company Kinder Morgan launched a legal attack on a number of Canadian climate activists whose efforts to stop its proposed Edmonton-to-Burnaby bitumen oil pipeline are allegedly costing the company $80 million in lost revenues each month.
- Colombia-based Fundacion Natura announced plans to launch a voluntary national carbon trading platform in mid-2015 to encourage companies to buy emissions offsets.
- Earlier this week, Chatham House held its prestigious annual climate change conference. Reporting on the issues discussed, The Carbon Brief digs into how climate negotiators can avoid Paris 2015 being a rerun of Copenhagen 2009. And CDKN reports on increasing calls for net-zero carbon world.
- Spain announced a €27 billion investment in 43 greenhouse gas reduction measures designed to meet its EU burden sharing obligations while creating jobs. Environmental groups say the proposals do not go far enough.
- Transport & Environment issued a response to the EU’s revised Fuel Quality Directive proposal - significantly weakened by Canadian and US lobbying efforts - warning that the proposed rules will fail to discourage oil companies from using and investing in higher-polluting oil such as tar sands and coal-to-liquid.
- Marking the one-year anniversary of Haiyan, 350.org is calling on its supporters to help fund recovery efforts for the more than 15,000 people still living in tent cities after their homes were lost in the storm.
- Australia’s Climate Council just released a report on the bushfire threat in South Australia, warning that the number of paid firefighters in Australia will have to double by the year 2030 to cope with an increased risk of blazes.
- 350.org‘s November Divest Digest looks back on an incredible month of wins and firsts for the Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement flourishing around the world.
- A new paper from Christian Aid reflects the views of theologians from the global south where climate change is having its greatest impact.
- Past Executive Director of the GCCA Kelly Rigg writes about some of the emerging civil society efforts to deliver on IPCC’s most important finding - a total phase-out of fossil fuels.
- Climate movement leader Bill McKibben told RTCC that the movement needs to get confrontational and challenge the financial might of fossil fuel companies.
- A team from Overseas Development Institute and CDKN published their response to the Zero Draft of the Post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Additional recent and relevant news showing up in blogs and headlines
Climate solutions feature high on the agenda of the world’s two largest polluters meeting this week
Before leaders gather in Australia for the G20, Beijing is hosting this year’s round of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit as well as bilateral meetings between China with the US - in both cases climate change is expected to feature prominently. According to WRI’s Jennifer Morgan “The US wants to convey that they are serious about climate change… China is watching very closely how the US will implement its own climate policy in the coming years.” Meanwhile, China-watchers in the US are skeptical of Beijing’s ability to execute its own increasingly lofty climate action plans. Those tracking international climate negotiations will look out for announcements indicating new levels of action - such as funding commitments for developing countries, new R&D for clean energy, or joint pledges on how to monitor and enforce commitments. Along those lines, there’s talk of the US and China partnering in a US $5-7 billion commitment to improve electricity generation and transmission in several African countries. Regardless of any public announcements made next week, meetings between the world’s two largest polluters will advance critical long-term discussions about energy and climate at the heads of state level. Think Progress has more.
Also on our radar:
Policies and politics
- The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) gathered representatives from over 90 countries in Abu Dhabi earlier this week to review and recommend actions to scale-up renewable energyaround the world.
- Speaking at Chatham House’ annual climate change conference, the UK’s Climate and Energy Minister said her government plans to make a significant contribution to the Green Climate Fundat the pledging conference planned in Berlin later this month.
- Germany published a paper showing that its government is working on plans to reinforce its commitment to reduce fossil-fuel emissions and limit coal use. More here.
- Moving in the opposite direction, Poland is leading a push by Eastern EU countries to reject the IPCC target of zero emissions by 2100.
- Chile’s government released the second phase of the multi-ministerial Mitigation, Action Plans, and Scenarios report, which outlines around 100 measures and a range of possible impacts they could have on cutting the country’s emissions by 2030.
- In related news, Chile’s Environment Minister published a separate government plan focused on climate change adaptation and biodiversity protection.
- A top US government environmental job is expected to go to the country’s most prominent climate denier, Senator Jim Inhofe, after conservatives won a government majority in elections earlier this last week. More on how the election results could shape the US role in addressing climate change nationally and internationally here and here.
- The Wall Street Journal decided to cover the Ministerial-level portion of this week’s preCOP meeting in Venezuela through the eyes of Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister, who attended on behalf of the Kingdom.
- Saudi Arabia hosted the first session of the Arab Joint Ministerial Committee meeting for environment and sustainable development, where high-level official Abdul Bassette Al-Sairafi urged all Arab countries to take a unified stance against growing levels of pollution.
- Brazil’s environment minister, Izabella Teixeira, says her nation will be a protagonist at an upcoming climate change conference in Peru, and will hold developed nations accountable for strong commitments to reduce carbon emissions.
- Japan’s government just adopted a plan to offer Indonesia energy-saving technology in a exchange for greenhouse-gas emission rights.
- India’s PM Naredra Modi reconstituted the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change, signalling climate’s move higher up the country’s political agenda.
- Norway is the best prepared country for climate change, and has been so for almost 20 years, according to rankings compiled by the University of Notre Dame. New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark rounded out the top five, while Chad, Burundi, Eritrea, Central African Republic, and Congo make up the bottom of the Global Adaptation Index.
- In the most comprehensive, authoritative and scrutinised assessment of climate change ever produced, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offered its starkest warning yet about the challenges facing humanity over the weekend. Check our our updated special Tree Alertfor the details.
- Climate change is causing toxic metals trapped in the sediment beds of the Hooghly estuary in the Indian Sunderbans to leach out into the water system due to changes in ocean chemistry, say scientists, warning of potential human health hazards.
- According to a recent report by China’s National Disaster Reduction Office and Ministry of Civil Affairs, floods have affected over 77 million people in the country so far this year.
- A new study shows that climate change will have set back China’s attempts to prevent waterborne illnesses seven years by 2030, creating a serious risk for the world’s largest population.
- And a new study has revealed the staggering cost of China’s dependence on coal to power its economy: 670,000 deaths in one year alone.
- Desdemona Despair pulled together some of the latest articles on São Paulo’s dire drought situation and its connection to deforestation in the Amazon.
- A report by Vietnam’s Committee of Science, Technology and Environment - presented to the country’s National Assembly - shows that Vietnam is among the countries to be hit hardest by climate change in the coming years.
- Air pollution in India has become so severe that yields of crops are being cut by almost half, scientists have found.
- The man responsible for maintaining India’s power supply, Piyush Goyal, says he wants the country’s coal production to double within the next five years. Those efforts could be helped along by India’s upcoming coal block auctions.
- New research warns that Brazil’s globally significant ecosystems could be exposed to mining and dams if proposals currently being debated by the Brazilian Congress go ahead.
- The birthplace of fracking - the US city of Denton, Texas - voted to ban fracking in elections that took place earlier this week. Other efforts to ban the practice in municipalities across the US showed mixed results.
- Meanwhile, China is now fining energy companies for not fracking fast enough, and has committed to greater oil and gas cooperation with the gulf state of Qatar.
- Czech power utility ČEZ has said it will next year temporarily halt operations of its coal-burning plant in Bulgaria after a failure to agree a way to bring it up to EU environmental rules.
- A covert campaign funded by oil and gas companies to go on the “offense” against environmental groups, destroy their credibility by airing the personal histories of “every single activist,” diminish their moral authority and use humor to “minimize or marginalize” them was leaked to the New York Timesand Bloomberg News last week.
- Ignoring the increase in calls to curb oil use, OPEC is forecasting that the world will need to find an additional 21m barrels per day of crude over the next 25 years to meet demand.
- Solar energy generation is set to pick up speed in Chile with a 686% increase in contributions to the electric grids from solar sources in 2014.
- Scotland’s renewable energy sector is booming, generating 100% of the region’s residential electricity needs in October.
- Brazil’s recent energy auction attracted the world’s cheapest unsubsidised solar prices at $US87/MWh. Among the contracts awarded, Italy-based Enel Green Power will invest US $600 million in new renewable energy projects in Brazil over the next 20 years.
- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development launched it’s second clean energy facility in Poland, with a €200 million fund aimed at decreasing carbon emissions through targeted investments and lowering energy bills.
- The Hyundai and Kia automobile company are being fined US $100 million for violating emissions agreements made with the US Environmental Protection Agency. The fine is the largest civil penalty in the US Clean Air Act’s history.
- A new lithium battery that triples the driving range of an electric vehicle while significantly lowering maintenance costs is all set for mass production within a year.
In this section we share resources and tips for opportunities and events that we think you’ll find useful
Upcoming events:
Now through 11 Nov - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (CHINA)
- The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) facilitates economic growth and prosperity in regions in the hope of creating an effective regional economy.
- This event is an opportunity for regional business leaders to interact with APEC and address key issues affecting business in the region.
- For more information, click here.
12 Nov - Webinar: Looking forward from the People’s Climate Summit (Global)
- On Wednesday Nov. 12 from 10-11am PST, Climate Access executive director, Cara Pike, will facilitate a roundtable discussion on how to apply the lessons learned from the People’s Climate March to grow and diversify the climate movement. More here.
12 Nov - Webinar: There is no Paris without Lima (Global)
- Climate Action, in partnership with Peru2021, UNFCCC and Ministerio del Ambiente Peru is hosting a live webinar to discuss what to expect from COP20, potential pathways to success and how this will affect COP21 in Paris next year.
- Climate Action Director, Claire Poole, will curate the discussion with guest speakers Richard Kinley, Deputy Executive Secretary, UNFCCC and Henri Le Bienvenu, General Manager, Peru 2021.
- To register for this webinar by clicking here, you can also follow it on twitter via #SIFCOP20.
12-14 Nov - L20 Summit (AUSTRALIA)
- The L20 unites trade unions from G20 countries and Global Unions, convened by International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to OECD.
- This summit will see the members of the L20 devise key messages in a broad consultative process and confirm policy goals for each G20 presidency.
- For more information, click here.
15-16 Nov - The G20 kicks off in Brisbane (AUSTRALIA)
- The Group of Twenty (G20) is a forum that assembles 19 members plus the EU, representing the world’s major economies. General themes include global economy, financial regulation, poverty reduction and sustainable development.
- The G20 members are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the US, as well as the EU.
- Learn more by clicking here.
1-12 Dec - UNFCCC COP 20/CMP 10 (PERU)
- The twentieth session of the Conference of the Parties and the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.
- More information here.j
6 Dec - 2014 Climate and Health Summit (PERU)
- Co-hosted by the Global Climate and Health Alliance in collaboration with the WHO, PAHO andGIZ, and the Faculty of Public Health at UPCH, this free one -day event will take place alongside the next UN climate summit (COP20).
- The health impacts of climate change are many and varied, and already influencing the lives of individuals and communities across the globe. As the international community works toward a post-2020 agreement on climate action, human health considerations need to be central to these discussions. The Summit is an occasion to showcase successes and clarify the role which health can play in responding to climate change.
- Support the Thunderclap here.