Welcome back. As week two of the U.N. climate conference kicked off in Egypt, the biggest break in negotiations seems to have come from nearly 6,000 miles away in Bali. Monday’s meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping appears to have opened the way for their climate envoys to start working together again, reversing the split caused by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
Detailed climate negotiations in Egypt have been bogged down. Traditionally, negotiators would have already been haggling over the nitty-gritty of the end-of-summit “cover decision,” which broadly sets out this COP’s economic, environmental and political goals. The rough draft only appeared late Monday.
So far the draft includes mentions of the goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, renewable-energy commitments, doubling funding to help developing countries adapt to climate change, and some sort of loss and damage support. A phase-down of fossil-fuels use is notably absent, adding to concerns about COP27's relative embrace of oil and gas producers. Tuesday is Energy Day, so we will see what that has in store.
G-20 Breakthrough in Bali
As evidenced by the Biden-Xi meeting, additional momentum on climate talks might come from Bali, where the leaders of the G-20—the European Union and 19 large developing and industrial economies—are meeting today and Wednesday. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for them to break the “dramatic geopolitical divides” in order to keep the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive. More than 200 business and civil society leaders publicly asked for the same.
The G-20 agenda is packed, but gathering most of the leaders of the globe’s biggest economies in one place (Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t coming) does create the opportunity for some type of breakthrough.
Efforts in Egypt
Back at COP27, other parties have launched a host of specific initiatives. Germany and the V20 group of climate-vulnerable nations unveiled the Global Shield on Monday, a G-7-backed initiative with about $219 million in funding that will provide quick insurance and protection funding after climate-related disasters. It adds to the so-called loss-and-damage funding but much more is needed and hoped for.
Brazil, Indonesia and Congo launched a long-discussed partnership to gather funding to protect their forests. The three countries are home to around half of the world’s tropical rainforests, a crucial store of carbon and biodiversity. Brazil’s recently elected president, Luiz Inácio da Silva, may also have a trick up his sleeve when he speaks at COP27 later this week.
Indonesia has agreed to a $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership to speed its shift from coal, reducing peak emissions and hitting peak by 2030, seven years sooner than current projections. It is modeled on South Africa’s $8.5 billion deal that was reached last year in Glasgow, which got off to a rocky start. Some of those concerns are meant to be fixed in Indonesia’s plan. More JET-Ps are in the works.
Back to Business
Companies are also getting in on climate action. Top executives from more than 100 companies called on governments to act quickly and decisively to support climate action.
Big fashion brands are using their purchasing power to back the scaling up of more sustainable fibers (see more below). The 65 companies in the Early Movers Coalition have also promised to buy $12 billion in low-carbon products and services to foster innovative new suppliers in hard-to-abate sectors like cement and long-haul transport.
Among all the gloomy reports of the failure to do enough, a new bottom-up examination of key decarbonization trends gives a rare glimmer of hope. The report says on-the-ground trends in decarbonization—including renewable installation, electric-vehicle purchases and clean-energy investment—make it likely that emissions will fall faster than promised in China, the EU and India, according to the nonprofit Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit. The other top 4 emitter, the U.S., shows promising momentum as well.
This time round: Fashionable recycled fibers; Storage
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