Climate: Four lessons for biodiversity + EU: China and India should pay share + Climate club for all
From COP to COP: Four climate lessons for biodiversity
EU: China and India should also pay for loss and damage
Scholz’s climate club to be all-inclusive
30 times more on military spending than on climate aid
West Africa: Climate change increases risk of heavy rainfall
Overfishing harms the climate
Heads: Maisa Rojas – mediator with a clear compass
Dear reader,
Loud cheering at COP: Brazil’s president-elect Lula da Silva was greeted with chants by an enthusiastic crowd in Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday. At the summit, Lula announced that his government would prioritize climate protection and the fight against deforestation. To support Brazil in this endeavor, Germany and Norway plan to revive the Amazon Fund, which had been frozen under former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Nature conservation and climate protection go hand in hand, this could be heard at many of the summit’s events on yesterday’s Biodiversity Day. Forests store carbon dioxide. Species-rich ecosystems can better resist global warming. To ensure that they will be even more capable of doing so, a global nature conservation agreement is to be adopted in Montreal, Canada, in December. Lukas Scheid analyzes what lessons its negotiators should learn from the Paris climate agreement.
Meanwhile, the pressure on the official COP negotiations is mounting noticeably. One of the most controversial issues to be negotiated in the remaining days is how financial compensation for loss and damage is supposed to look. Should India and China also pay a share? Which form should the financing mechanism have?
Together with German State Secretary Jennifer Morgan, Chilean Environment Minister Maisa Rojas is coordinating the loss and damage talks. While she is still new on the political stage, she is all the more experienced as a climate scientist. She knows what these negotiations are about and has a clear understanding of how Chile needs to change. We introduce you to the pioneer of a new development model.
Your Alexandra Endres
Feature
Biodiversity COP in Montreal: four lessons from Paris
An entire day devoted to biodiversity is a first in the history of UN climate conferences. Nature conservation and species protection have their own COP, separate from the climate conferences, which has so far mostly flown under the radar and will be held this year in Montreal. However, with the findings of the IPCC’s sixth Assessment Report (AR6) at the latest, it is clear that climate protection and nature conservation are two sides of the same coin.
On Wednesday, the bridge to this “small” COP15 was laid with the thematic day in Sharm el-Sheikh. This an important sign, because something historic is to be created in Montreal: A global framework for protecting ecosystems and biodiversity. Even though there will be no binding treaty under international law in Canada, this global framework should have the same political weight for biodiversity as the Paris Agreement has for climate protection.
The comparison raises expectations, but the climate conferences also provide a model from which to learn for four reasons:
1. Formulate a goal
Before 2015, political debates were uncertain about the acceptable level of warming for the planet. Since Paris, it is undisputed and confirmed by all UN countries that 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels is the ultimate goal. Such a target is also needed for biodiversity. And it is in sight.
The 30×30 goal – 30 percent of land and marine areas under conservation by 2030 – is already supported by more than 100 countries. “30×30 is the 1.5-degree target,” German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) said on Wednesday at COP27. Even though the 1.5-degree target is once again under fire in Sharm el-Sheikh, the formulation of the target certainly contributed to a new dynamic in international climate policy.
The minister is well aware that 30 percent of protected land is not enough to prevent species extinction and deforestation. But it is a target that would be most likely to achieve consensus, she explained.
2. Formulate measures
Alongside a target, defining concrete measures as early as possible is essential. How the Paris target is to be achieved is still one of the defining issues at climate conferences even seven years later. This is to be different for nature conservation, Lemke demands: “We have to start with implementation now.”
It will not be enough to give countries five years to formulate their own goals like the NDCs and another two to implement them. The EU already has forest, restoration and water strategies. Such concrete measures could be a template for the global framework.
Also, implementation needs to be monitored right from the start. How should progress be measured? How will it be ensured that the measures undertaken actually contribute to nature conservation and do not protect areas that are not endangered anyway? Concrete steps already need to be taken in Montreal to review the targets.
3. Organize funding as early as possible
Just like in the Paris Agreement, all financial flows must be compatible with the global nature conservation goal in the long term. Just how difficult this is evident at COP27. The implementation of Article 2.1C, which is supposed to achieve the same effect for the climate, is an issue where many nations see red in Sharm el-Sheikh. The impact on the financial sector of such a step is immense. For this reason, the financial sector must be involved at an early stage. How this is to be done would have to be agreed upon in a global framework.
Where the money for the measures will ultimately come from will probably be one of the negotiators’ trickiest tasks. We know from experience with climate protection that this is where the kid gloves come off. Disputes between recipient and donor countries are inevitable. Supporter countries should look for ways to involve opponents of the global framework early on.
4. Involve people
Indigenous peoples and local communities are currently responsible for protecting 80 percent of the planet’s nature. In contrast to the climate, the influence of indigenous peoples on nature conservation is huge – in a positive sense. In many cases, their survival is also crucial for the survival of the protected countries. Thus, human rights play a crucial role here.
That is why it is imperative to acknowledge the perspective of those who already do much of this work already and include it in the global framework for conservation.
But not only indigenous peoples must be involved, other people also need to be brought on board. How this can go wrong is also shown in Germany: Whenever wind farms are built, resistance often stems from a feeling of being ignored in the decision-making process. Participation ensures greater acceptance.
Biodiversity
News
Loss and damage: India and China under pressure
Frans Timmermans urged China to help finance a loss and damage mechanism. The EU climate czar (Profile) said at COP on Wednesday, “China is one of the largest economies in the world. Why shouldn’t they share responsibility for financing loss and damage?” Regarding a proposal by the G77 group and China, he said, “According to the G77 proposal, all developing countries should be supported. We believe that we need to focus on the most vulnerable countries.”
Furthermore, he said the EU was ready to come to an agreement on losses and damages more quickly. Instead of two years from now, Timmermans said, it would be possible to agree on a funding arrangement as early as next year. Funding must be started quickly and therefore should not wait for a facility. Timmermans announced an alternative to the G77 proposal. In addition, the EU has announced plans to provide 60 million euros for loss and damage under the EU-Africa Global Gateway Initiative.
Mauritius, Jamaica and Ghana are also demanding that not only Western industrialized countries pay into a fund to finance reconstruction after climate disasters. “Those that emit carbon should contribute,” said Matthew Samuda, head of Jamaica’s COP27 delegation. Mauritian Environment Minister Kavydass Ramano wants “all major emitters” to provide funding, Bloomberg reports. Representatives of South Africa and Mali at COP reportedly said China and India should participate voluntarily. A spokesman for the Indian delegation rejected a mandatory contribution.
No free pass
Early at COP, Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, speaking on behalf of the Island States (AOSIS), said China and India, as the largest and third-largest emitters of carbon, had an obligation to pay into a loss and damage fund. “I don’t think there is a free pass for any country, and I don’t say that with bitterness,” Browne said.
China’s chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua expressed support for such a fund and announced participation in a loss-and-damage mechanism. However, he ruled out a financial contribution for the time being. nib/luk
China
Climate Finance
EU
India
Loss and Damage
Olaf Scholz’s climate club open for all
The “climate club” of climate pioneer states, with which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz intended to advance international negotiations in an exclusive setting, will become an inclusive group. The main aim of the project is to advance the decarbonization of the industry in as many countries as possible, explained Stefan Wenzel, parliamentary state secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action at COP27 on Wednesday.
This has changed the original idea of the climate club. With the new concept, the German government is also countering criticism that it would exclude important potential partners.
“The response has been very positive,” Wenzel said. A “dynamic has been created that can be very good,” he said. So far, many countries have already expressed interest in the German G7 initiative presented in June. Besides the G7 industry, these include industry heavyweights such as India, Indonesia, South Africa and South Korea.
2022: Alliance for the decarbonization of industry
Accordingly, countries can now join the “Climate Club” if they:
Pursue an ambitious climate protection policy
drive forward the decarbonization of their economy
and want to use international partnerships to do so.
With this direction, “the idea of the club has evolved,” it said. Originally, Scholz had spoken of a “climate club” to shield pioneering countries in climate protection from disadvantages in global competition due to climate protection measures. Another aim was to prevent the migration of carbon-heavy sectors to other countries with lower standards (“carbon leakage”).
2021: Net zero pioneers with carbon pricing
To achieve this, the concept that Scholz had presented as a candidate for the chancellorship in 2021 envisaged, among other things, far-reaching measures for decarbonizing industry and politics. The concept had drawn criticism because it would also have affected the planned carbon tax at the EU’s external borders (CBAM). At the time, club membership would have been tied to high hurdles.
participants commit to carbon neutrality by 2050 and set ambitious reduction targets for 2030.
participants work on joint strategies to transform energy-intensive industries and build green hydrogen technology
participants uniformly record their carbon emissions, especially in energy-intensive industries, and
give carbon emissions in these sectors “auniform (minimum) price in themedium term, at least in the energy and industrial sectors. Members commit to no longer falling below a jointly determined minimum price and agree on a path for the carbon minimum price over time.”
By now, the “climate club” abandoned most of these demands. bpo
Climate Club
COP27
Olaf Scholz
30 times more for military than for climate
The wealthiest countries spend 30 times more on their military than they pay on climate change funding to the most vulnerable countries. This is the result of a study by the NGO Transnational Institute (TNI).
Many military leaders would emphasize that they want to become greener. But according to TNI, that would be very difficult:
The military has not yet found suitable fuel alternatives, particularly alternatives for aircraft and fighter jets are too expensive
According to TNI, most declared net zero targets are based on incorrect assumptions that carbon capture technologies will be available in the future
New weapon systems consume more fuel than older versions.
The authors predict that the annual military spending of the ten largest-spending nations could fund the promised international climate finance for 15 years with 100 billion dollars per year.
Military accounts for 5.5 percent of global emissions
The military is responsible for an estimated 5.5 percent of global carbon emissions. Approximately one-fifth comes from “operational emissions,” for example from military bases. The majority come from supply chains (Scope 3 emissions), according to a new study by Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory. If the global military were a country, it would have the fourth-largest carbon footprint in the world.
The authors were only able to access a small sample of official data. Emissions data for the military are often incomplete, buried in civilian categories or not gathered at all, the study found. The Paris climate agreement does not mandate reporting military emissions, leaving it up to countries to voluntarily publish data. “The fact that countries are not required to disclose the emissions of their military and arms industries is unacceptable,” stresses Angelika Claußen, chair of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. nib
Military
West Africa: Climate change increases risk of heavy rain
Heavy rainfall that led to flooding in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and neighboring countries between June and October this year, with more than 800 fatalities, has become 80 times more likely due to climate change: This is the result of an analysis by the World Weather Attribution Group. For the study, an international team of climate scientists researched the recent extreme events in West Africa.
Floods in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and neighboring countries ranked among the deadliest ever recorded in the region. In Nigeria alone, 612 people were killed, 1.5 million people lost their homes and some 570,000 hectares of farmland were damaged. Cameroon and Benin were also affected. The floods followed a rainy season that was wetter than usual and included short periods of very heavy rain.
The international team also analyzed the drought of 2021, which reduced crop yields in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Chad and led to a food crisis the following year. Here, scientists were unable to estimate the impact of climate change due to the lack of reliable data from weather stations.
Heavy rainfall no longer rare event
To quantify the effects of human-induced climate change, researchers used weather data and computer simulations from the countries and compared today’s climate, which has warmed by about 1.2 degrees since the end of the 19th century, to the climate of the past. The analysis focused on two regions: the Lake Chad Basin, which experienced above-average rainfall during the rainy season, and the Lower Niger Basin, which experienced shorter, intense rains.
The scientists found that:
human-induced climate change increased the likelihood of the wet season in the Lake Chad Basin being as wet as it is this year by a factor of 80.
this year’s wet season was 20 percent wetter than it would have been without the influence of climate change.
shorter periods of intense rainfall in the lower Niger Basin that exacerbated flooding are now about twice as likely.
The scientists point out that the exact extent of the impact of climate change is uncertain because precipitation varies widely across the region.
The study explains that the influence of climate change means the prolonged rainfall that led to the floods is no longer a rare event. The probability of above-average rainfall occurring during the wet season is now about one in ten per year; without human activity, this would have been an extremely rare event.
The impact of the floods was exacerbated by the proximity of homes, infrastructure, and agricultural land to the floodplains combined with poverty, conflict, and political instability.
The researchers criticize the lack of important weather stations and call for greater investment in better infrastructure to help people in the region better understand weather variability and prepare for the effects of climate change. nik
Drought
Extreme weather
Heavy rain
Overfishing harms climate
Intensive fishing has a massive impact on the climate. One reason is bottom trawling. “Most bottom trawls consist of a funnel-shaped net pulled by one or more vessels. Shear boards, the size of barn doors, are pulled across the ground to keep the net open,” explains marine biologist Rainer Froese of the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel. The chain stretched between these shear boards is dragged across the seafloor. In the process, the deposited carbon dioxide is stirred up – and the sea can absorb less additional carbon.
According to a US study from 2021, the use of bottom trawls releases around 1.5 billion metric tons of underwater carbon annually worldwide. That is more than twice the amount of greenhouse emissions emitted by Germany in 2021. However, it is not yet known what percentage of the carbon stirred up in the water is actually released into the atmosphere. But the increase in carbon dioxide in the water can have far-reaching and complex effects on the carbon cycle, the researchers write.
A healthy Baltic Sea absorbs three times more carbon
Another problem is the overfishing of the oceans. The sinking of organic substances, for example, dead fish, transports large quantities of carbon dioxide into the depths and removes it from the cycle for several centuries. Intensive fishing releases the carbon dioxide content of fish on land rather than storing it on the seafloor. This was the conclusion of a team from the University of California in Los Angeles. “It is estimated that the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere would be 150 to 200 ppm higher than it actually is without this biological pump,” Science Media Center Germany said about the study.
In a paper recently published at COP27, the NGO “Our Fish” draws attention to the link between fishing and climate protection. Significant amounts of carbon dioxide have already been removed from the ocean and released into the atmosphere through the annual removal of around 80 million tons of fish worldwide. This would have reduced the positive impact of fish on the climate by almost half in the last century. Added to this are emissions from ships and boats: The EU fishing fleet alone causes almost 7.3 million tons of carbon per year. That is why the NGO calls for the abolition of subsidies for marine diesel in fisheries.
Climate activists have long advocated banning bottom trawl fishing in EU marine protected areas and instead allowing only sustainable, low-impact fishing methods – such as pots, traps or purse seines. Admittedly, these are less efficient. “But to build up healthy stocks, fewer fish need to be temporarily caught,” says Rainer Froese. “Then the stocks grow again and we have significantly higher catches in three to five years.” According to the Geomar Helmholtz Center study published in October, a healthy western Baltic Sea with higher fish stocks could absorb three times more carbon from the atmosphere than it does today. Sarah Kroeger
Biodiversity
CO2 sinks
COP27
Economy
Heads
Maisa Rojas – mediator with a clear compass
Chile’s Environment Minister Maisa Rojas
She has taken on one of the most difficult tasks of this COP: Chile’s Environment Minister Maisa Rojas, together with German State Secretary Jennifer Morgan, mediates in the negotiations on loss and damage, perhaps the fiercest-fought issue of this summit. Even though Rojas does not yet have much experience in politics, as she has only been in the ministerial post since March 2022.
50-year-old Rojas has a background as a climate scientist – and a renowned one at that. Last year, she was an author on IPCC Working Group 1 for the Sixth Assessment Report on the physical basis of climate change. She also contributed to the Fifth Assessment Report and the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 degrees. Before taking up her ministerial post, she taught at the Universidad de Chile and headed a climate research center based in the capital, Santiago. The IPCC congratulated her on her appointment as minister on Twitter.
Persistent and global thinking
As a scientist, Rojas knows very well what it means when emissions reduction, adaptation or loss and damage are negotiated at the summit. Her scientific background gives her a compass on which she focuses, she told Climate.Table in Sharm el-Sheikh. That lends a form of tenacity to her efforts to “get countries to rise to the challenge,” she said.
Rojas keeps an eye on the big questions, says climate scientist Friederike Otto. The two have been friends since they spent a lot of time together in Oxford one summer three years ago. “She doesn’t forget what it’s all about and doesn’t get lost in the technical minutiae. That describes her nature and all her work.”
It’s not just her scientific expertise that makes Rojas the perfect person to lead the loss and damage negotiations at the summit, Otto says. “She knows the reality of people in the Global South. By growing up in Germany and earning her Ph.D. at Oxford, she also has a global perspective. That helps her understand where the negotiating parties come from, not just intellectually, but from experience.”
A natural authority
María Heolísa (Maisa) Juana Rojas Corradi was born on August 10, 1972, in the city of Temuco in southern Chile, but she grew up in Germany. Apparently, that had an impact on her commitment to the environment. Rojas told the Chilean magazine Ya that ecology and the decline of the environment have been with her since I can remember, since the cradle. Culturally, she considers herself “pretty German: I don’t have much of a sense of humor, I can be stubborn, I’m punctual and schematic.”
Otto describes Rojas as “one of the coolest people I know. She’s very warm, smart, and she has a natural authority simply because of her personality.” In personal conversation, the minister is approachable, unpretentious and clear.
Via climate into politics
When COP25 was supposed to be held in Santiago de Chile – it was then moved to Madrid due to unrest in the Chilean capital – Rojas coordinated the summit’s scientific monitoring panel. She told the British Guardian that the work was like “a wake-up call” that helped her understand the dynamics of top-level politics.
She received another wake-up call in the Chilean presidential election of 2021, when right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast was ahead of his opponent Gabriel Boric by two percentage points in the first round. Kast had downplayed the dangers of the climate crisis. Rojas was shocked.
She decided to leave her academic comfort zone and get involved. Together with other researchers, she wrote a letter to the journal Naturewarning of Kast’s election victory. Soon after, Boric recruited her to his campaign team – and appointed her as a minister shortly after he handily won the December runoff election.
Her goal is a robust society
As a researcher, it has always been important for Rojas to connect the natural sciences with other disciplines. This is something she shares with Friederike Otto, who also finds “the one-sided focus on (natural science) models” to be wrong. The Science Center for Climate and Resilience (Centro de Ciencia del Clima y la Resiliencia), which Rojas chaired as director until recently, therefore researches climate change and ways to counter it from the perspectives of both the natural and social sciences.
As a politician, Rojas also aims to bring together ecological and social issues. She envisions the Chile of the future as a carbon-neutral country in which past climate damage has been contained as far as possible, and where society is robust enough to confront the inevitable climate change. She believes Chile must change, from a country in climate crisis, with many environmental problems and social inequalities, to one of sustainable development. “The change must be environmental, but it must also be social. It must bear the seal of justice,” she tells Climate.Table.
A new development path for Chile
First decisions and new laws show how the government envisages this. Since June, the country has had a climate protection law. It stipulates that Chile is to become carbon-neutral by 2050. Also in June, President Boric ordered the closure of a copper smelter that had been linked to cases of poisoning among the local population. The Spanish newspaper El País assessed this as an environmental policy shift. After all, Chile lives off its natural resources, especially copper.
According to El País, Rojas commented on the decision: “The political message is very clear: that Chile is embarking on a path of development that cannot function as it has in the past at the expense of nature, which we need for our well-being.” No development can succeed at the expense of nature: In Sharm el-Sheikh, Maisa Rojas is now trying to make that even more clear to all delegations. Alexandra Endres
From COP to COP: Four climate lessons for biodiversity
EU: China and India should also pay for loss and damage
Scholz’s climate club to be all-inclusive
30 times more on military spending than on climate aid
West Africa: Climate change increases risk of heavy rainfall
Overfishing harms the climate
Heads: Maisa Rojas – mediator with a clear compass
Dear reader,
Loud cheering at COP: Brazil’s president-elect Lula da Silva was greeted with chants by an enthusiastic crowd in Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday. At the summit, Lula announced that his government would prioritize climate protection and the fight against deforestation. To support Brazil in this endeavor, Germany and Norway plan to revive the Amazon Fund, which had been frozen under former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Nature conservation and climate protection go hand in hand, this could be heard at many of the summit’s events on yesterday’s Biodiversity Day. Forests store carbon dioxide. Species-rich ecosystems can better resist global warming. To ensure that they will be even more capable of doing so, a global nature conservation agreement is to be adopted in Montreal, Canada, in December. Lukas Scheid analyzes what lessons its negotiators should learn from the Paris climate agreement.
Meanwhile, the pressure on the official COP negotiations is mounting noticeably. One of the most controversial issues to be negotiated in the remaining days is how financial compensation for loss and damage is supposed to look. Should India and China also pay a share? Which form should the financing mechanism have?
Together with German State Secretary Jennifer Morgan, Chilean Environment Minister Maisa Rojas is coordinating the loss and damage talks. While she is still new on the political stage, she is all the more experienced as a climate scientist. She knows what these negotiations are about and has a clear understanding of how Chile needs to change. We introduce you to the pioneer of a new development model.
Your Alexandra Endres
Feature
Biodiversity COP in Montreal: four lessons from Paris
An entire day devoted to biodiversity is a first in the history of UN climate conferences. Nature conservation and species protection have their own COP, separate from the climate conferences, which has so far mostly flown under the radar and will be held this year in Montreal. However, with the findings of the IPCC’s sixth Assessment Report (AR6) at the latest, it is clear that climate protection and nature conservation are two sides of the same coin.
On Wednesday, the bridge to this “small” COP15 was laid with the thematic day in Sharm el-Sheikh. This an important sign, because something historic is to be created in Montreal: A global framework for protecting ecosystems and biodiversity. Even though there will be no binding treaty under international law in Canada, this global framework should have the same political weight for biodiversity as the Paris Agreement has for climate protection.
The comparison raises expectations, but the climate conferences also provide a model from which to learn for four reasons:
1. Formulate a goal
Before 2015, political debates were uncertain about the acceptable level of warming for the planet. Since Paris, it is undisputed and confirmed by all UN countries that 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels is the ultimate goal. Such a target is also needed for biodiversity. And it is in sight.
The 30×30 goal – 30 percent of land and marine areas under conservation by 2030 – is already supported by more than 100 countries. “30×30 is the 1.5-degree target,” German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) said on Wednesday at COP27. Even though the 1.5-degree target is once again under fire in Sharm el-Sheikh, the formulation of the target certainly contributed to a new dynamic in international climate policy.
The minister is well aware that 30 percent of protected land is not enough to prevent species extinction and deforestation. But it is a target that would be most likely to achieve consensus, she explained.
2. Formulate measures
Alongside a target, defining concrete measures as early as possible is essential. How the Paris target is to be achieved is still one of the defining issues at climate conferences even seven years later. This is to be different for nature conservation, Lemke demands: “We have to start with implementation now.”
It will not be enough to give countries five years to formulate their own goals like the NDCs and another two to implement them. The EU already has forest, restoration and water strategies. Such concrete measures could be a template for the global framework.
Also, implementation needs to be monitored right from the start. How should progress be measured? How will it be ensured that the measures undertaken actually contribute to nature conservation and do not protect areas that are not endangered anyway? Concrete steps already need to be taken in Montreal to review the targets.
3. Organize funding as early as possible
Just like in the Paris Agreement, all financial flows must be compatible with the global nature conservation goal in the long term. Just how difficult this is evident at COP27. The implementation of Article 2.1C, which is supposed to achieve the same effect for the climate, is an issue where many nations see red in Sharm el-Sheikh. The impact on the financial sector of such a step is immense. For this reason, the financial sector must be involved at an early stage. How this is to be done would have to be agreed upon in a global framework.
Where the money for the measures will ultimately come from will probably be one of the negotiators’ trickiest tasks. We know from experience with climate protection that this is where the kid gloves come off. Disputes between recipient and donor countries are inevitable. Supporter countries should look for ways to involve opponents of the global framework early on.
4. Involve people
Indigenous peoples and local communities are currently responsible for protecting 80 percent of the planet’s nature. In contrast to the climate, the influence of indigenous peoples on nature conservation is huge – in a positive sense. In many cases, their survival is also crucial for the survival of the protected countries. Thus, human rights play a crucial role here.
That is why it is imperative to acknowledge the perspective of those who already do much of this work already and include it in the global framework for conservation.
But not only indigenous peoples must be involved, other people also need to be brought on board. How this can go wrong is also shown in Germany: Whenever wind farms are built, resistance often stems from a feeling of being ignored in the decision-making process. Participation ensures greater acceptance.
Biodiversity
News
Loss and damage: India and China under pressure
Frans Timmermans urged China to help finance a loss and damage mechanism. The EU climate czar (Profile) said at COP on Wednesday, “China is one of the largest economies in the world. Why shouldn’t they share responsibility for financing loss and damage?” Regarding a proposal by the G77 group and China, he said, “According to the G77 proposal, all developing countries should be supported. We believe that we need to focus on the most vulnerable countries.”
Furthermore, he said the EU was ready to come to an agreement on losses and damages more quickly. Instead of two years from now, Timmermans said, it would be possible to agree on a funding arrangement as early as next year. Funding must be started quickly and therefore should not wait for a facility. Timmermans announced an alternative to the G77 proposal. In addition, the EU has announced plans to provide 60 million euros for loss and damage under the EU-Africa Global Gateway Initiative.
Mauritius, Jamaica and Ghana are also demanding that not only Western industrialized countries pay into a fund to finance reconstruction after climate disasters. “Those that emit carbon should contribute,” said Matthew Samuda, head of Jamaica’s COP27 delegation. Mauritian Environment Minister Kavydass Ramano wants “all major emitters” to provide funding, Bloomberg reports. Representatives of South Africa and Mali at COP reportedly said China and India should participate voluntarily. A spokesman for the Indian delegation rejected a mandatory contribution.
No free pass
Early at COP, Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, speaking on behalf of the Island States (AOSIS), said China and India, as the largest and third-largest emitters of carbon, had an obligation to pay into a loss and damage fund. “I don’t think there is a free pass for any country, and I don’t say that with bitterness,” Browne said.
China’s chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua expressed support for such a fund and announced participation in a loss-and-damage mechanism. However, he ruled out a financial contribution for the time being. nib/luk
China
Climate Finance
EU
India
Loss and Damage
Olaf Scholz’s climate club open for all
The “climate club” of climate pioneer states, with which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz intended to advance international negotiations in an exclusive setting, will become an inclusive group. The main aim of the project is to advance the decarbonization of the industry in as many countries as possible, explained Stefan Wenzel, parliamentary state secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action at COP27 on Wednesday.
This has changed the original idea of the climate club. With the new concept, the German government is also countering criticism that it would exclude important potential partners.
“The response has been very positive,” Wenzel said. A “dynamic has been created that can be very good,” he said. So far, many countries have already expressed interest in the German G7 initiative presented in June. Besides the G7 industry, these include industry heavyweights such as India, Indonesia, South Africa and South Korea.
2022: Alliance for the decarbonization of industry
Accordingly, countries can now join the “Climate Club” if they:
Pursue an ambitious climate protection policy
drive forward the decarbonization of their economy
and want to use international partnerships to do so.
With this direction, “the idea of the club has evolved,” it said. Originally, Scholz had spoken of a “climate club” to shield pioneering countries in climate protection from disadvantages in global competition due to climate protection measures. Another aim was to prevent the migration of carbon-heavy sectors to other countries with lower standards (“carbon leakage”).
2021: Net zero pioneers with carbon pricing
To achieve this, the concept that Scholz had presented as a candidate for the chancellorship in 2021 envisaged, among other things, far-reaching measures for decarbonizing industry and politics. The concept had drawn criticism because it would also have affected the planned carbon tax at the EU’s external borders (CBAM). At the time, club membership would have been tied to high hurdles.
participants commit to carbon neutrality by 2050 and set ambitious reduction targets for 2030.
participants work on joint strategies to transform energy-intensive industries and build green hydrogen technology
participants uniformly record their carbon emissions, especially in energy-intensive industries, and
give carbon emissions in these sectors “auniform (minimum) price in themedium term, at least in the energy and industrial sectors. Members commit to no longer falling below a jointly determined minimum price and agree on a path for the carbon minimum price over time.”
By now, the “climate club” abandoned most of these demands. bpo
Climate Club
COP27
Olaf Scholz
30 times more for military than for climate
The wealthiest countries spend 30 times more on their military than they pay on climate change funding to the most vulnerable countries. This is the result of a study by the NGO Transnational Institute (TNI).
Many military leaders would emphasize that they want to become greener. But according to TNI, that would be very difficult:
The military has not yet found suitable fuel alternatives, particularly alternatives for aircraft and fighter jets are too expensive
According to TNI, most declared net zero targets are based on incorrect assumptions that carbon capture technologies will be available in the future
New weapon systems consume more fuel than older versions.
The authors predict that the annual military spending of the ten largest-spending nations could fund the promised international climate finance for 15 years with 100 billion dollars per year.
Military accounts for 5.5 percent of global emissions
The military is responsible for an estimated 5.5 percent of global carbon emissions. Approximately one-fifth comes from “operational emissions,” for example from military bases. The majority come from supply chains (Scope 3 emissions), according to a new study by Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory. If the global military were a country, it would have the fourth-largest carbon footprint in the world.
The authors were only able to access a small sample of official data. Emissions data for the military are often incomplete, buried in civilian categories or not gathered at all, the study found. The Paris climate agreement does not mandate reporting military emissions, leaving it up to countries to voluntarily publish data. “The fact that countries are not required to disclose the emissions of their military and arms industries is unacceptable,” stresses Angelika Claußen, chair of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. nib
Military
West Africa: Climate change increases risk of heavy rain
Heavy rainfall that led to flooding in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and neighboring countries between June and October this year, with more than 800 fatalities, has become 80 times more likely due to climate change: This is the result of an analysis by the World Weather Attribution Group. For the study, an international team of climate scientists researched the recent extreme events in West Africa.
Floods in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and neighboring countries ranked among the deadliest ever recorded in the region. In Nigeria alone, 612 people were killed, 1.5 million people lost their homes and some 570,000 hectares of farmland were damaged. Cameroon and Benin were also affected. The floods followed a rainy season that was wetter than usual and included short periods of very heavy rain.
The international team also analyzed the drought of 2021, which reduced crop yields in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Chad and led to a food crisis the following year. Here, scientists were unable to estimate the impact of climate change due to the lack of reliable data from weather stations.
Heavy rainfall no longer rare event
To quantify the effects of human-induced climate change, researchers used weather data and computer simulations from the countries and compared today’s climate, which has warmed by about 1.2 degrees since the end of the 19th century, to the climate of the past. The analysis focused on two regions: the Lake Chad Basin, which experienced above-average rainfall during the rainy season, and the Lower Niger Basin, which experienced shorter, intense rains.
The scientists found that:
human-induced climate change increased the likelihood of the wet season in the Lake Chad Basin being as wet as it is this year by a factor of 80.
this year’s wet season was 20 percent wetter than it would have been without the influence of climate change.
shorter periods of intense rainfall in the lower Niger Basin that exacerbated flooding are now about twice as likely.
The scientists point out that the exact extent of the impact of climate change is uncertain because precipitation varies widely across the region.
The study explains that the influence of climate change means the prolonged rainfall that led to the floods is no longer a rare event. The probability of above-average rainfall occurring during the wet season is now about one in ten per year; without human activity, this would have been an extremely rare event.
The impact of the floods was exacerbated by the proximity of homes, infrastructure, and agricultural land to the floodplains combined with poverty, conflict, and political instability.
The researchers criticize the lack of important weather stations and call for greater investment in better infrastructure to help people in the region better understand weather variability and prepare for the effects of climate change. nik
Drought
Extreme weather
Heavy rain
Overfishing harms climate
Intensive fishing has a massive impact on the climate. One reason is bottom trawling. “Most bottom trawls consist of a funnel-shaped net pulled by one or more vessels. Shear boards, the size of barn doors, are pulled across the ground to keep the net open,” explains marine biologist Rainer Froese of the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel. The chain stretched between these shear boards is dragged across the seafloor. In the process, the deposited carbon dioxide is stirred up – and the sea can absorb less additional carbon.
According to a US study from 2021, the use of bottom trawls releases around 1.5 billion metric tons of underwater carbon annually worldwide. That is more than twice the amount of greenhouse emissions emitted by Germany in 2021. However, it is not yet known what percentage of the carbon stirred up in the water is actually released into the atmosphere. But the increase in carbon dioxide in the water can have far-reaching and complex effects on the carbon cycle, the researchers write.
A healthy Baltic Sea absorbs three times more carbon
Another problem is the overfishing of the oceans. The sinking of organic substances, for example, dead fish, transports large quantities of carbon dioxide into the depths and removes it from the cycle for several centuries. Intensive fishing releases the carbon dioxide content of fish on land rather than storing it on the seafloor. This was the conclusion of a team from the University of California in Los Angeles. “It is estimated that the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere would be 150 to 200 ppm higher than it actually is without this biological pump,” Science Media Center Germany said about the study.
In a paper recently published at COP27, the NGO “Our Fish” draws attention to the link between fishing and climate protection. Significant amounts of carbon dioxide have already been removed from the ocean and released into the atmosphere through the annual removal of around 80 million tons of fish worldwide. This would have reduced the positive impact of fish on the climate by almost half in the last century. Added to this are emissions from ships and boats: The EU fishing fleet alone causes almost 7.3 million tons of carbon per year. That is why the NGO calls for the abolition of subsidies for marine diesel in fisheries.
Climate activists have long advocated banning bottom trawl fishing in EU marine protected areas and instead allowing only sustainable, low-impact fishing methods – such as pots, traps or purse seines. Admittedly, these are less efficient. “But to build up healthy stocks, fewer fish need to be temporarily caught,” says Rainer Froese. “Then the stocks grow again and we have significantly higher catches in three to five years.” According to the Geomar Helmholtz Center study published in October, a healthy western Baltic Sea with higher fish stocks could absorb three times more carbon from the atmosphere than it does today. Sarah Kroeger
Biodiversity
CO2 sinks
COP27
Economy
Heads
Maisa Rojas – mediator with a clear compass
Chile’s Environment Minister Maisa Rojas
She has taken on one of the most difficult tasks of this COP: Chile’s Environment Minister Maisa Rojas, together with German State Secretary Jennifer Morgan, mediates in the negotiations on loss and damage, perhaps the fiercest-fought issue of this summit. Even though Rojas does not yet have much experience in politics, as she has only been in the ministerial post since March 2022.
50-year-old Rojas has a background as a climate scientist – and a renowned one at that. Last year, she was an author on IPCC Working Group 1 for the Sixth Assessment Report on the physical basis of climate change. She also contributed to the Fifth Assessment Report and the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 degrees. Before taking up her ministerial post, she taught at the Universidad de Chile and headed a climate research center based in the capital, Santiago. The IPCC congratulated her on her appointment as minister on Twitter.
Persistent and global thinking
As a scientist, Rojas knows very well what it means when emissions reduction, adaptation or loss and damage are negotiated at the summit. Her scientific background gives her a compass on which she focuses, she told Climate.Table in Sharm el-Sheikh. That lends a form of tenacity to her efforts to “get countries to rise to the challenge,” she said.
Rojas keeps an eye on the big questions, says climate scientist Friederike Otto. The two have been friends since they spent a lot of time together in Oxford one summer three years ago. “She doesn’t forget what it’s all about and doesn’t get lost in the technical minutiae. That describes her nature and all her work.”
It’s not just her scientific expertise that makes Rojas the perfect person to lead the loss and damage negotiations at the summit, Otto says. “She knows the reality of people in the Global South. By growing up in Germany and earning her Ph.D. at Oxford, she also has a global perspective. That helps her understand where the negotiating parties come from, not just intellectually, but from experience.”
A natural authority
María Heolísa (Maisa) Juana Rojas Corradi was born on August 10, 1972, in the city of Temuco in southern Chile, but she grew up in Germany. Apparently, that had an impact on her commitment to the environment. Rojas told the Chilean magazine Ya that ecology and the decline of the environment have been with her since I can remember, since the cradle. Culturally, she considers herself “pretty German: I don’t have much of a sense of humor, I can be stubborn, I’m punctual and schematic.”
Otto describes Rojas as “one of the coolest people I know. She’s very warm, smart, and she has a natural authority simply because of her personality.” In personal conversation, the minister is approachable, unpretentious and clear.
Via climate into politics
When COP25 was supposed to be held in Santiago de Chile – it was then moved to Madrid due to unrest in the Chilean capital – Rojas coordinated the summit’s scientific monitoring panel. She told the British Guardian that the work was like “a wake-up call” that helped her understand the dynamics of top-level politics.
She received another wake-up call in the Chilean presidential election of 2021, when right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast was ahead of his opponent Gabriel Boric by two percentage points in the first round. Kast had downplayed the dangers of the climate crisis. Rojas was shocked.
She decided to leave her academic comfort zone and get involved. Together with other researchers, she wrote a letter to the journal Naturewarning of Kast’s election victory. Soon after, Boric recruited her to his campaign team – and appointed her as a minister shortly after he handily won the December runoff election.
Her goal is a robust society
As a researcher, it has always been important for Rojas to connect the natural sciences with other disciplines. This is something she shares with Friederike Otto, who also finds “the one-sided focus on (natural science) models” to be wrong. The Science Center for Climate and Resilience (Centro de Ciencia del Clima y la Resiliencia), which Rojas chaired as director until recently, therefore researches climate change and ways to counter it from the perspectives of both the natural and social sciences.
As a politician, Rojas also aims to bring together ecological and social issues. She envisions the Chile of the future as a carbon-neutral country in which past climate damage has been contained as far as possible, and where society is robust enough to confront the inevitable climate change. She believes Chile must change, from a country in climate crisis, with many environmental problems and social inequalities, to one of sustainable development. “The change must be environmental, but it must also be social. It must bear the seal of justice,” she tells Climate.Table.
A new development path for Chile
First decisions and new laws show how the government envisages this. Since June, the country has had a climate protection law. It stipulates that Chile is to become carbon-neutral by 2050. Also in June, President Boric ordered the closure of a copper smelter that had been linked to cases of poisoning among the local population. The Spanish newspaper El País assessed this as an environmental policy shift. After all, Chile lives off its natural resources, especially copper.
According to El País, Rojas commented on the decision: “The political message is very clear: that Chile is embarking on a path of development that cannot function as it has in the past at the expense of nature, which we need for our well-being.” No development can succeed at the expense of nature: In Sharm el-Sheikh, Maisa Rojas is now trying to make that even more clear to all delegations. Alexandra Endres
