 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682800&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33662351&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682801&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33662351&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682802&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33662351&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682803&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33662351&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682804&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33662351&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
|
Hello!
The COP28 summit in Dubai has reached its final day and the pressure is on as negotiators try to hammer out a final communique, amid anger that a draft text omitted a reference to directly phasing out oil and gas.
The text said parties recognise “the need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions” and calls upon them “to take actions that could include […] reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050 in keeping with the science.”
The list did not refer directly to a phase out of fossil fuels, which was a key demand by the European Union and many developing countries that are especially vulnerable to climate change.
It does mention “Rapidly phasing down unabated coal and limitations on permitting new and unabated coal power generation.”
A 12-year-old protester burst on to the stage at COP28, holding a sign above her head that read: “End fossil fuel. Save our planet and our future.”
Here is a rundown of what to watch at COP28 on Tuesday.
|
|
|
Licypriya Kangujam, an Indigenous climate activist from India, holds a banner during COP28 in Dubai, UAE. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo
|
|
|
|
- A draft of a potential climate deal at the COP28 summit suggested a range of options that countries would take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but omitted the “phase out” of fossil fuels many nations have demanded and was criticized as too weak. Click here for the full Reuters report.
- Climate campaigners have questioned the neutrality of this year’s U.N. climate talks as they are hosted in oil power United Arab Emirates and presided over by Sultan al-Jaber, who is also head of the state oil company. They have also said the talks resemble a trade fair as business people far outnumber government officials. Click here for more.
- Humanitarian concerns have been raised over Afghanistan being left out of United Nations climate negotiations for a third year in a row, as the country grapples with worsening drought and floods.
|
|
|
Um Nidal Al-Khwaja, a displaced Palestinian woman, fled her home due to Israeli strikes. A tent camp near the border with Egypt, Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
|
|
|
- Gaza humanitarian crisis: The Gaza health ministry said 18,205 people had now been killed and 49,645 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza in just over two months of warfare – hundreds of them since the United States vetoed a proposal for a ceasefire at the U.N Security Council. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge or food in the densely populated enclave. Israel says it is trying to root out Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage in an Oct. 7 cross-border attack, according to Israeli tallies. More than 100 hostages were freed during the truce in November.
- Zara pulled an advertising campaign featuring mannequins with missing limbs and statues wrapped in white from the front page of its website and app after it prompted calls by some pro-Palestine activists for a boycott of the fashion retailer. Activists said the images resembled photos of corpses in white shrouds in Gaza.
- AI & worker’s rights: Microsoft and the AFL-CIO union federation said they had struck a deal whereby the U.S. software giant will remain neutral in efforts by unions to encourage workers to become members.
- China’s State Power Investment Corp announced a 42 billion yuan ($5.85 billion) investment plan in northeast China to produce fuel from hydrogen produced from wind power, according to a company official and a local government report.
- LGBT Rights: Poland has violated the right to respect for a private life by failing to offer legal recognition for same-sex couples, the European Court of Human Rights said, putting pressure on Donald Tusk’s new government to quickly change the law. This comes as dozens of human rights groups and NGOs urged Romanian policymakers to uphold the rights of same-sex couples in line with a European Court of Human Rights ruling in May.
|
|
|
Former Minister of Climate and the Environment of Norway, Erik Solheim, spoke to Sustainable Switch about the general mood of COP28:
“I’ve been to these conferences since the COP in Bali in 2007. I can say that there has been a big shift over the last few years.
“Now it’s more like an enormous climate festival with hundreds of thousands of people.
“Business here is massive in scale. Some are here to protect their vested interests and some to promote their own renewable solar, wind, hydro businesses.
“Ten years ago Europe was the center for climate policies and where to go for best practice. I’d tell people to please go to Brussels, Berlin or Paris… Now, China is far ahead of everyone else in renewables and they’re moving very fast.”
|
|
|
A growing list of global companies are setting a price or charging themselves for each metric ton of their carbon emissions, looking to shape their investments and business for future pollution taxes or other new climate rules. Their prices differ from less than $1 per metric ton of carbon emissions to $1,600, the most of any company worldwide, set by California drugmaker Amgen.
An analysis by the non-profit CDP for Reuters found that 20% of 5,345 global companies making climate-related disclosures said they used an internal carbon price last year, up from 17% the year before. Another 22% planned to do so in the next two years, although historically only a fraction of the companies that planned to implement one have done so.
Click here for the full in-depth feature on the fluctuating carbon prices by Reuters journalists Ross Kerber, Simon Jessop and Peter Henderson.
|
|
|
Sustainable Switch is sent three times a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.
Want to stop receiving this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.
To manage which newsletters you’re signed up for, click here.
|
|
|
|
