Obama in Glasgow as Fossil Fuel Lobby Dominates: COP26 Update
by Bloomberg News · Financial Post(Bloomberg) — Former U.S. President Barack Obama is due to speak at COP26 in Glasgow on Monday as the climate meeting enters its second week.
Beyond the big name participants, delegations will delve into detailed talks as they seek to make progress before the summit’s scheduled close on Nov. 12. With the focus on creating a global carbon market after six years of deliberations, negotiators are expected to have some late nights ahead.
Key developments:
Carbon-market talks struggle……and COP braces for all-nightersClimate protests drew some 100,000 in Glasgow on SaturdayYet progress is hard without China at the tableChina’s daily coal output was the highest in yearsBrazil, though, continues to spring surprises
Compromise Sought in Carbon-Market Push (10:50 a.m.)
Negotiators stopped short of bridging the gaps on international carbon markets in the first week of COP26, but are determined to find compromises, according to Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, chair of the SBSTA subsidiary body that oversaw the talks on emissions trading. More progress could be made this week, with ministers arriving in Glasgow and taking the issue to a higher level.
Fossil Fuel Lobbyists ‘Flooding COP26:’ Global Witness (10:40 a.m.)
More than 500 lobbyists affiliated with “some of the world’s biggest polluting oil and gas giants,” have been granted access to the climate summit, according to campaign NGO Global Witness.
An analysis of a provisional UN list of attendees found 503 delegates representing the fossil fuel industry — if it were a country delegation, it would be the largest. Canada, Russia and Brazil were among the 27 official country delegations that registered fossil fuel lobbyists, Global Witness said.
China’s Extra Coal Equals Poland’s Annual Output (10.20 a.m.)
China’s announcement that average daily output Nov. 1-5 was the highest in years equates to roughly 1.2 million tons more coal than it dug in September.
That means over a 90-day period, China is adding the equivalent of Poland’s entire annual coal production.
Vulnerable Nations Face Economic Devastation (8:50 a.m.)
The economies of small island nations and least developed countries would shrink by almost 64% by 2100, if temperatures warm 2.9 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, according to new analysis published Monday by Marina Andrijevic, an economist at Humboldt University in Berlin, for the charity Christian Aid.Even if countries keep global temperature rise to 1.5C as set out in the Paris Agreement, vulnerable countries face an average reduction in gross domestic product of 13.1% by 2050 and 33.1% by 2100, it said. The danger is particularly acute in Africa, with the worst affected predicted to be Sudan.
“It’s possible that these numbers are conservative estimates if extreme weather events continue to cause substantial economic harm themselves in the coming decades,” Andrijevic said.
U.K. to Announce New Funding for Adaptation (8:01 a.m.)
As COP26 President, the U.K. government will seek to show it’s doing its bit on Monday by allocating 290 million pounds in new adaptation funding, including support for countries in the Asia Pacific to deal with the impact of global warming.
Adam Smith Opus Updated for Climate Change Era (7:30 a.m.)
A group of economists have issued an updated version of the classic text “The Wealth of Nations” to reflect the contemporary challenges of a warming planet.
The book of essays reassesses the 18h century work by Smith, often credited as the “father of economics,” and concludes that if he were writing today, he would advocate interventions to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Just Catching Up on COP26?
Here’s a quick recap of progress made during the summit’s first week.
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