006 COP19-Warsaw Climate Conference - Global Issues

5/14/14 COP19Warsaw Climate Conference Global Issues
www.globalissues.org/article/803/cop19-warsaw-climate-conference 1/11
Global Issues http://www.globalissues.org
Social, Political, Economic and Environmental Issues That Affect Us All
COP19Warsaw Climate Conference
by Anup Shah This Page Created Monday, December 02, 2013
This page: http://www.globalissues.org/article/803/cop19-warsaw-climate-
conference.
To print all information e.g. expanded side notes, shows alternative links, use the
print version:
http://www.globalissues.org/print/article/803
This web page has the following sub-sections:
1. Introduction
2. Meeting outcome
3. In context: common but differentiated responsibilities
4. In context: Typhoon Haiyan
5. Lack of urgency
6. More information
7. News stories from IPS
Introduction
November 11 23, 2013, Warsaw, Poland was the venue for the 19th annual United Nations Climate
Change Conference, also known as the 19th Conference of the Parties or COP 19.
The purpose of this conference was to create a loss and damage pillar of a new climate treaty to be
finalized in 2015. The other two pillars discussed in previous meetings are mitigation (emission
reductions) and adaptation pillars.
Meeting outcome
The main outcome of the meeting was the establishment of an international mechanism for a loss and
damage associated with climate change impacts .
Predictably, the loss and damage aspect of climate negotiations brought out the worst in some countries.
Some developing countries were going to resist the idea of financing adaptation to climate change, while
others appeared to hate the idea of climate reparations for poor countries. A few years earlier,
industrialized nations had made a legal commitment to a global climate fund. Unsurprisingly, not much
came of it, as Inter Press Service summarized,
In 2009 at the semi-infamous Copenhagen talks, the rich countries made a deal with
developing countries, saying in effect: Well give you billions of dollars for adaptation,
ramping up to 100 billion dollars a year by 2020, in exchange for our mitigation
amounting to small CO2 cuts instead of making the big cuts that we should do.
The money to help poor countries adapt flowed for the first three years but has largely
dried up. Warsaw was supposed to be the Finance COP to bring the promised money.
That didn't happen.
Countries like Germany, Switzerland and others in Europe only managed to scrape
together promises of 110 million dollars into the Green Climate Fund. Developing
countries wanted a guarantee of 70 billion a year by 2016 but were blocked by the U.S.,
Canada, Australia, Japan and others.
Stephen Lehey, South Scores 11th-Hour Win on Climate Loss and Damage, Inter Press Service,
November 24, 2013
It got to the point that hundreds of representatives from various NGOs walked out of the negotiating
rooms to protest against developed countries reluctance to commit to a loss and damage mechanism. And
this was a day after the G77+China group of 133 developing countries walked out of negotiations over the
same thing.
Looking through the briefing reports from the respected NGO, the Third World Network, It seems that on
the surface, while an outcome was eventually thrashed out, there are many areas of weakness of sufficient
vagueness to satisfy everyone that contentious issues that are seemingly resolved can still be challenged
and changed in the future.
In context: common but differentiated responsibilities
Many years ago all nations agreed that climate change was largely the result of actions from todays
industrialized nations, as carbon dioxide the main greenhouse gas stays in the atmosphere for
decades. Yet, the poorest would end up suffering the most for a problem they largely did not cause. The
approaches to mitigation (emissions reduction) would therefore be different for those groups of countries
the common but differentiated responsibilities principle.
It is in this context that the discussion for loss and damage has come about. And it is something that rich
countries are keen to get rid of .
The years of resistance on this issue (and many others) means each time it is discussed again the reactions
seem to get even more hostile. Combined with the lack of detailed context in the mainstream media
coverage of this aspect, it then becomes easier each time to see culprits as China and India given their
enormous greenhouse emissions in recent years, compared to the far greater amount by the industrialized
nations over the longer period. See this sites section on climate justice for more detailed background.
In context: Typhoon Haiyan
Typhoon Haiyan was the largest cyclone on record to hit land
The meeting came at the time when the devastating Typhoon Haiyan had just killed thousands in the
Philippines and affected millions more. It was an ominous warning of what could be more frequent as
climate change continues to take hold.
It was also an example of how poorer nations could be affected by a problem they have largely not been
responsible for and that while all the international outpouring of aid and assistance was incredibly
welcome, that support for preventing and adapting to such events is paramount and efforts are urgently
needed to curb emission increases.
In an emotional speech the Philippines lead negotiator for the conference, Naderev Sao, received a
standing ovation for announcing that he will go on a hunger strike until a meaningful outcome is in sight.
Lack of urgency
Inter Press Service (IPS) noted the seeming lack of urgency given the years and years of delay and
watering down of meaningful action:
To have a good chance at staying under two degrees C, industrialised countries need to
crash their CO2 emissions 10 percent per year starting in 2014, said Kevin Anderson of
the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester.
We can still do two C but not the way we're going, Anderson said on the sidelines of COP
19 in Warsaw. He wondered why negotiators on the inside are not reacting to the reality
that it is too late for incremental changes.
Im really stunned there is no sense of urgency here, he told IPS.
Stephen Lehey, South Scores 11th-Hour Win on Climate Loss and Damage, Inter Press Service,
November 24, 2013
More information
As the conference is still underway as this page is written, more information will be added here after the
event is over.
For more about the issues from other organizations, here are some starting points:
Official United Nations section on COP19
Official COP 19 website
Updates from the Third World Network
Coverage from Democracy Now! including useful news videos
News stories from IPS
Below is a list of stories from Inter Press Service related to the Warsaw climate conference and its
aftermath.
Caribbean Fears Loss of 'Keystone Species' to Climate Change
http://www.globalissues.org/news/2014/04/26/18586
Saturday, April 26, 2014
CODRINGTON, Barbuda, Apr 26 (IPS) - A marine biologist has cautioned that the mass deaths of starfish
along the United States west coast in recent months could also occur in the Caribbean region because of
climate change, threatening the vital fishing sector.
Mexicos Climate Change Law - More Than Just Empty Words?
Monday, April 21, 2014
MEXICO CITY, Apr 21 (IPS) - When Mexico's climate change law went into effect in October 2012, it
drew international praise. But what has happened since then?
IPCC Climate Report Calls for Major Institutional Change
Monday, April 14, 2014
WASHINGTON, Apr 14 (IPS) - Greenhouse gas emissions rose more quickly between 2000 and 2010
than anytime during the previous three decades, the world's top climate scientists say, despite a
simultaneous strengthening of national legislation around the world aimed at reducing these emissions.
OP-ED: Climate Change May Affect Your Travel Plans and Those of Millions of
Animals
Wednesday, April 09, 2014
SAN JOS, Apr 09 (IPS) - There are few experiences more frustrating than a delay in travel plans
caused by bad weather. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this may be
something we will have to get used to in the future.
Rural Costa Rican Women Plant Trees to Fight Climate Change
Wednesday, April 02, 2014
PITAL, Costa Rica, Apr 02 (IPS) - Olga Vargas, a breast cancer survivor, is back in the countryside,
working in a forestry programme in the north of Costa Rica aimed at empowering women while at the
same time mitigating the effects of climate change.
U.S. Scientists Launch Wake-Up Campaign on Climate Change
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
WASHINGTON, Mar 19 (IPS) - In an unusual intervention in policy debates, the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) warned Tuesday that that world was "at risk of pushing our
climate system toward abrupt, unpredictable, and potentially irreversible changes with highly damaging
impacts."
Caribbean to Forge United Front on Elusive Climate Finance
Thursday, March 13, 2014
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Mar 13 (IPS) - Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, says the promises of money by the "biggest polluters in the world" for small island developing
states (SIDS) like his to adapt to climate change are a mostly a "mirage".
Global Study Finds Impressive Wave of Climate Legislation
Thursday, February 27, 2014
WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (IPS) - National governments across the globe have taken surprisingly robust
action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, putting in place policies that researchers say collectively offer
a strong foundation for ongoing international climate negotiations.
Indoor Mini-Farms to Beat Climate Change
Thursday, February 27, 2014
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Feb 27 (IPS) - Industrial engineer Ancel Bhagwandeen thinks that growing
your food indoors is a great way to protect crops from the stresses of climate change. So he developed a
hydroponic system that "leverages the nanoclimates in houses so that the house effectively protects the
produce the same way it protects us," he says.
In Bali, a Pivotal Moment for Climate Postponed
Friday, February 21, 2014
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 21 (IPS) - Facing a crucial meeting this week in Bali, the board of the U.N.'s
Green Climate Fund (GCF) once again postponed drawing out the bulk of policy that will guide the fund as
it prepares to open later in 2014.
Kenyas Excess of Policies Cant Deal With Climate Change
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
NAIROBI, Dic 31 (IPS) - Kenyais facing its greatest challenge as weather patterns are starting to
significantly affect food production. And experts are blaming the low adaptive capacity of the farming
sector on an excess of policy and institutional frameworks that are silent on both climate change and
agriculture.
Taste Test Stymies Caribbean's Climate-Resistant Crops
Sunday, December 22, 2013
CARONI, Trinidad, Dic 22 (IPS) - Ramdeo Boondoo, a root crop farmer in Caroni, Trinidad, understands
better than most the challenge of developing crops that are both climate resilient and marketable.
Developing Countries Still Waiting for a Global Response to Climate Change
Thursday, December 12, 2013
BRUSSELS, Dic 12 (IPS) - As president of the Council of Ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific
states, Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi had the perfect forum to voice his
concerns about the effects climate change has had on his island nation.
Preserving Life in Cuba for When the Climate Changes
Thursday, December 05, 2013
HAVANA, Dic 05 (IPS) - Nature reserves act as a safe deposit box for biodiversity and contribute to
adaptation to climate change. But in a country like Cuba, plagued by a chronic economic crisis, efforts to
increase the number of protected areas go largely unnoticed.
Today's Forecast Is for Climate-Proof Farming
Monday, November 25, 2013
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Nov 25 (IPS) - Even as weather extremes bedevil Caribbean farmers,
Ramgopaul Roop has turned his three-acre fruit farm into a showcase for how to beat climate change.
South Scores 11th-Hour Win on Climate Loss and Damage
Sunday, November 24, 2013
WARSAW, Nov 24 (IPS) - The U.N. climate talks in Warsaw ended in dramatic fashion Saturday evening
in what looked like a schoolyard fight with a mob of dark-suited supporters packed around the weary
combatants, Todd Stern of the United States and Sai Navoti of Fiji representing G77 nations.
Big Coal Angles For a Slice of Climate Finance Pie
Friday, November 22, 2013
WARSAW, Nov 22 (IPS) - Power generation is a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that
cause global warming. Choosing the right options for less-polluting energy sources in the future is a vital
question in which energy-starved Africa has a keen interest.
Storm Brews at U.N. Climate Talks
Thursday, November 21, 2013
WARSAW, Nov 21 (IPS) - Hundreds of representatives from various NGOs walked out of the negotiating
rooms at the United Nations climate talks in Poland on Thursday in protest against the reluctance by
developed nations to commit towards achieving a global climate treaty.
U.N. Climate Meet Becomes About 'Not Losing Ground'
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
WARSAW, Nov 20 (IPS) - Diann Black-Layne grew up in a single parent home with nine siblings on the
tiny Caribbean island of Antigua. Still, life was easygoing and enjoyable, she recalls. For her, it was
paradise.
Concerns Over Role of Cooperates at Climate Talks
Friday, November 15, 2013
WARSAW, Nov 15 (IPS) - As deliberations continue in earnest at the 19th United Nations Conference on
Climate Change in Warsaw, negotiators from the Global South welcome a focus on financing adaptation
but reject a new emphasis on a role for the private sector.
U.S. Fights G77 on Most Counts at Climate Meet, Leaked Doc Shows
Thursday, November 14, 2013
WARSAW, Nov 14 (IPS) - The U.S. delegation negotiating at the U.N. international climate change
conference in Poland is pushing an agenda of minimising the role of "Loss and Damage" in the UNFCCC
framework, prioritising private finance in the Green Climate Fund, and delaying the deadline for post-
2020 emission reduction commitments, according to a State Department negotiating strategy which IPS
has seen.
U.N. Climate Meet: 'It's About Survival'
by Anup Shah
Created: Monday, December 02, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
WARSAW, Nov 13 (IPS) - For the small island developing states of the Caribbean, there is nothing more
important than the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place here at the national stadium
of Poland from Nov. 11-22.
Q&A: The Eleventh Hour for Climate Justice
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 02 (IPS) - Climate justice the nexus between human rights and climate change
must be a pillar of the post-2015 development agenda, says former Irish president Mary Robinson.
Where next?
Related articles
1. Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction
2. Global Dimming
3. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
4. Reactions to Climate Change Negotiations and Action
5. Global Warming, Spin and Media
6. Climate Justice and Equity
7. Climate Change Flexibility Mechanisms
8. Carbon Sinks, Forests and Climate Change
9. Climate Change Affects Biodiversity
10. Global Warming and Population
See more related articles
Bad ideas flourish because they are in the interest of powerful groups Paul Krugman
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