The G77 and China, the largest bloc at UN climate talks representing around 130 countries, which includes India, rejected the framework for a draft text on a new climate finance goal – the central objective of the negotiations at COP29, reported PTI. The substantive framework for a draft negotiating text, prepared by the co-chairs of the ad hoc work programme on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) and published in October was rejected arguing it does not accurately reflect the suggestions that developing countries have made. Other groups of developing countries, including the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs), Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC), backed G77 and China in this rejection. An international coalition of climate researchers and activists, G77 and China have requested that the co-chairs prepare a new draft text before the next negotiating session. The G77 said it demands at least $1.3tn per year from developed countries for all developing countries in climate finance, adding that the NCQG must specify what does not count as climate finance, from an accounting perspective; non-concessional loans and export credits cannot be considered climate finance.
COP 29: China pushes developed countries to do more, says it contributed $24.5 Bn for developing countries since 2016
China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang at COP 29 said: since 2016, China has provided and mobilized project funds of more than 177bn RMB ($24.5bn), strongly supporting other developing countries in addressing climate change. China called upon developed countries to increase financial support and technology transfer for developing countries. China said it expects more ambitious funding targets to be set at COP29, so that confidence and guarantees can be provided for global climate response in the next stage. Asia Society Policy Institute reported that this is the first time China referred to climate finance for developing countries as provision and mobilization. The outlet said Ding’s figure presumably includes a range of investments by China’s development banks and other actors, rather than just earmarked for South-South cooperation. KAte Logan of ASPI said the figure of 177bn RMB roughly equates to $24.5bn, or approx $3.1bn/yr which is “hugely significant though slightly lower than estimates by @WRIClimate ($4.5bn/yr) and @CGDev ($3.8bn/yr).” Ding’s statement reflects China’s ability & willingness to calculate its climate finance contribution to developing countries in the context of provision and mobilization, placing it on the same order – if not higher than – many developed countries’ efforts. This gives China teeth in pushing developed countries to do more.
Liu Zhenmin, China’s climate envoy, called for the US to engage in “constructive dialogue” to tackle climate change in future, “a thinly veiled swipe at the incoming Donald Trump administration”, reported the Financial Times.
‘Climate credits’ rules on day one of COP29 was rushed?
An agreement on Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, governing international carbon markets, was reached on the first day of COP29, “breaking a years-long deadlock and paving the way for rich countries to pay for cheap climate action abroad while delaying expensive emission cuts at home”, the Guardian reported, adding that “critics have warned the rules were rushed through without following proper process”. The outlet said “The agreement is expected to provide the clarity needed to trade emissions within a global carbon market, supervised by the UN, that would be open to companies as well as countries. A separate Article [6.2] on the trade of carbon credits between individual nations will be addressed later in the COP29 negotiations.” Climate Home News says that after two successive COPs failed to agree on guidance for developing the carbon-credit methodologies, the Article 6.4 supervisory body has “taken matters into its own hands”. Instead of sending the documents for recommendations, the committee gave countries “one binary decision to make: approve or reject the whole approach”. The Financial Times quotes a COP29 delegate who called the decision a “backdoor deal”. The Associated Press says the decision could free up to $250bn in spending a year to help poor nations, according to COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev. Reuters reports that according to one negotiator, Monday’s deal “could allow a UN-backed global carbon market, which has been years in the making, to start up as soon as next year”.
Argentina withdraws from COP29 summit, president Milei follows in Trump’s footsteps
Three days into the COP 29 conference, Argentinian negotiators representing the government of the climate science denier Javier Milei have been ordered to withdraw from the climate summit, the Guardian reported.
More than 80 representatives from the South American country are in Baku, Azerbaijan, for two weeks of negotiations about climate finance for the energy transition. Argentina’s far-right leader has previously called the climate crisis a “socialist lie”, and during his election campaign last year he threatened to withdraw from the Paris agreement, although he has since backed down, the report said.
On Tuesday, Milei spoke with Trump, after which Milei’s spokesperson said Trump had told his Argentinian counterpart he was his “favourite president”, the newspaper said. Milei sought to roll back environmental rules to drive economic growth since he became president last year, including relaxing rules about protections for forests and glaciers. Julieta Zelicovich, a professor of international relations at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario in Argentina, said it was a bad sign for a trade pact between the EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc. “Without environmental commitments, any possibility of announcing an agreement at the G20 collapses. If the government wanted to move forward on trade agreements, this is a very wrong step,” she said.
Forest clearance for Hasdeo coal mine was fabricated: ST panel report
A three-year investigation by the Chhattisgarh Scheduled Tribe Commission found that the process to obtain clearance for the Parsa coal block in the Hasdeo forest region of Surguja district was “fabricated,” reported the Times of India. It asked Surguja Collector Vilas Bhoskar to halt the tree felling that began on October 18. Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL), which was allotted the Parsa coal block in 2015, called it a “malicious, biased decision” by the commission. Hasdeo, in north Chhattisgarh, has been the site of near-ceaseless protests to stop mining and deforestation.
US: Trump chooses Lee Zeldin to run EPA as he plans to gut climate rules
Donald Trump will nominate former Republican congressman Lee Zeldin to head up the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the New York Times reported, adding that Trump campaigned on promises to “kill” and “cancel” EPA rules, and says that Zeldin’s position is expected to be “central to Trump’s plans to dismantle landmark climate regulations”. “Some people on Trump’s transition team say the agency needs a wholesale makeover and are even discussing moving the EPA headquarters and its 7,000 workers out of Washington, DC”, the newspaper said. The Hill reported that Zeldin said that in the first 100 days, the Trump administration would ‘roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to be able to struggle. The Guardian reported that Zeldin was looking forward to cutting red tape, adding that the EPA nominee, who will have to be confirmed by the US Senate, had said in 2014 he was ‘not sold yet on the whole argument that we have as serious a problem as other people are’ with global heating, and added in 2018 that he did not support the Paris climate agreement, which Trump is again expected to withdraw the US from.” The newspaper said that Zeldin is “expected to oversee an overhaul of the EPA that will rival anything seen since its foundation in 1970”.
COP 29: Barbados PM asks Donald Trump for face-to-face meeting on climate
Barbados prime minister and climate champion for developing countries Mia Mottley has invited Donald Trump to a face-to-face meeting where she would seek “common ground” and persuade him that climate action was in his own interests, the Guardian reported. She also believes she could show Trump that the US would benefit economically from tackling the climate crisis. Mottley argued Trump would also find it hard to fully reverse the Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivises clean energy, because many formerly depressed areas around the US, including traditionally Republican-voting ones, had seen new jobs and industries spring up because of it.
Biodiversity COP16: India releases plan to generate fund to tackle issues of biodiversity loss
The Indian delegation to the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) of the Convention on Biological Diversity released its updated National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan (NBSAP). This NBSAP is the third that India developed since 2000. At COP15, parties were asked to submit updated NBSAPs, which are aligned with the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), reported Down to Earth.
The average annual attributable biodiversity expenditure for the period FY 2017-2018 to 2021-2022 was estimated to the tune of Rs 32,20,713 crore and expenditure for the period FY 2024-2025 to FY 2029-2030. The estimation suggests that implementation would require an estimated annual average financial requirement of Rs 81,664.88 crore at the central government level, the outlet said.
Tariff war: EU imposes up to 35.3% duty on Chinese EVs, China moves WTO
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said it has filed a complaint at the WTO against the EU’s imposition of duties, while a Chinese carmaker said it plans to file suit at the Court of Justice of the EU, reported the Global Times adding that “consultations continued” between the two sides. The Chinese government said it “does not agree nor accept” the definitive ruling calling it “pure protectionism detrimental to China-EU industrial and supply chain cooperation, to European consumers, and to EU’s green transition and global climate response.”
The European Commission (EC) imposed duties on imports of EVs from China for a period of five years. The “countervailing duties” on Chinese EVs, ranged from 17% to 35.3%. The China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME), which is representing the Chinese EV industry in the case, said the EC’s definitive ruling is unfair, unreasonable and unobjective, and seriously violates the relevant anti-subsidy regulations of the WTO as well as the EU itself, the outlet added.
Missed opportunity: Fossil fuel transition pledge left out of COP16 draft agreement
The talks at the COP16 nature summit have weakened a draft decision on climate change and biodiversity, after removing a mention of the global commitment to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels agreed at last year’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai, reported Climate Home News. The outlet said that at the nature COP [in Cali, Colombia], countries are expected to produce a text that aligns the priorities of the UN conventions on climate change and biodiversity. Campaigners told Climate Home News that leaving out a stronger mention to fossil fuels was a ‘missed opportunity’.” The draft also includes a call for countries to prevent adverse impacts on biodiversity from responses to climate change such as the expansion of renewable energy. Additionally, it calls on countries to prevent double-counting of biodiversity and climate finance.
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