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U.N.
CONFERENCE CLIMATE CHANGE
21ST
CENTURY COP OUT - The President of the French Republic, François
Hollande, and the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and future President of COP21, Laurent
Fabius, wanted to invite all Heads of State and Government to the opening of the Conference on 30 November in order to generate political momentum ahead of the negotiations, which will take place first at a technical level, then at ministerial level. By 28 November, 150 Heads of State and Government had accepted this invitation. This level of participation makes COP21 one of the largest diplomatic conferences ever organized, aside from the United Nations General Assembly sessions in New York. It has been described by Laurent Fabius as “a first” for France.
The day will begin with the official opening of the Conference at 10 a.m., when Laurent Fabius will be elected as President of COP21 by the 196 Parties. Meanwhile, the Heads of State and Government will be received at the Le Bourget site by the President of the French Republic, François
Hollande, and the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon.
The Leaders Event will start at 11 a.m. with speeches by François
Hollande, Ban Ki-moon and Laurent Fabius. After a family photo, each of the 150 Heads of State and Government will make a short speech. Although the invitations were sent by France, the order of speakers will follow the
United Nations rules in this regard, based on order of precedence and the order in which the responses to the invitation were received. List of speakers in PDF format: here.
Given the large number of Heads of State present, the speeches will be given simultaneously in the two plenary rooms of the Conference Centre, named “Seine” and “Loire”, from 12 p.m. to 1.15 p.m. A lunch will then be hosted by the President of the French Republic and the President of COP21. The speeches will resume from around 2.45 p.m. until the end of the day.
THE
GUARDIAN 28 NOV 2015
Thousands of people have marched in Brisbane and more were planning to march in Darwin on Saturday, following Friday’s 40,000-strong rally in Melbourne. Crowd reports in Brisbane varied from 5,000 to 10,000.
The People’s Climate March – a worldwide event – took place on Saturday, and organisers said thousands took part in 35 New Zealand centres – the smallest being on Raoul Island, where the island’s entire population of seven turned out.
INNOVATION
- This amazing autonomous boat was on display at the Old
Billingsgate exhibition centre in London on the 9-10th of
November 2015. This ocean cleaning workboat could pave the way
for zero carbon cruise liners and cargo ships of the future.
The platform harvests energy from nature to power onboard
pumps and filtration equipment. That same energy could be used
to propel larger vessels at reasonable speeds.
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 will be held in Le Bourget, from November 30 to December 11. It will be the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world. Leadership of the negotiations is yet to be determined.
According to the organizing committee, the objective of the 2015 conference is to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.
Pope Francis published an encyclical called Laudato si' intended, in part, to influence the conference. The encyclical calls for action against climate change. The International Trade Union Confederation has called for the goal to be "zero carbon, zero poverty", and the general secretary Sharan Burrow has repeated that there are "no jobs on a dead planet".
The conference was budgeted to cost €170m (£122m). The French government said that 20% of the cost will be borne by firms such as
EDF, Engie (formerly known as GDF Suez), Air France,
Renault-Nissan and BNP Paribas
The location of UNFCCC talks is rotated by regions throughout United Nations countries. The 2015 conference will be held at Le Bourget from November 30 to December 11, 2015.
One day before the opening ceremony of the COP21 conference, on 29 November, thousands of activists at the Global Climate March demand more efforts from the delegates, coming together in Paris.
CNN 30 OCTOBER 2015
Frustrations over restrictions on protests put in place following the attacks gave rise to what French President Francois Hollande called "scandalous" scuffles between protesters and police at the Place de Republique, the site of a memorial to victims.
French authorities have clamped down on public demonstrations in the aftermath of the deadly attacks, blocking environmental campaigners' plans for a big march on Sunday.
Police arrested more than 200 people Sunday following flare-ups in which protesters pelted police with shoes, bottles and even candles police said were taken from memorials.
In place of the big march, protesters lined up thousands of shoes representing climate change activists.
The talks will begin in earnest on Monday. Nearly 150 world leaders are expected attend the United Nations climate change summit, called with the aim of reaching a landmark global deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
The leaders of the United
States, China and
India
- the world's top three carbon-emitting countries -- are among those scheduled to attend the opening day of the event, known as COP21.
OBAMA TO MEET CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING
French President Francois Hollande was to meet with several world leaders Sunday ahead of the start of the two-week conference, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Ban's office released a statement praising Hollande and France for going ahead with the meeting despite the attack. He said he and the French President had agreed that "failure to reach an agreement was not an option and would have disastrous consequences."
U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Paris late Sunday and is expected to meet with Xi the following morning.
"Clearly, U.S. cooperation with China is absolutely essential to successful efforts to combat climate change," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said in a briefing last week. "I think the two leaders meeting at the beginning of this process, as the two largest emitters, sends a strong message to the world about their shared commitment to combat climate change and to achieve an ambitious agreement."
More than 40,000 delegates from 195 countries are attending COP21, which has the goal of achieving a legally binding agreement to keep global warming below what most scientists say is the critical threshold of 2 degrees Celsius of warming.
100%
GREENPEACE -
Greenpeace activists, demanding 100% renewable energy at Climate March 2015 in
Madrid.
They are only asking for what everyone else on the planet
wants, bar emerging nations who would like to trip the fossil
fuel light fantastic in their greed driven rush to
exploitation - and of course all those investors everywhere
else in the world in oil
and coal,
such as Bill
Gates, allegedly. But what about our oceans?
WHAT IS COP 21?
COP stands for Conference of Parties, an annual meeting of all nations that make up the United Nations Framework on Climate Change - 195 nations in total. This is the 21st meeting (thus COP21), with the first occurring in Berlin in 1995.
The purpose of the meetings is to continually assess the nations' progress in dealing with climate change and, every so often, negotiate agreements and set goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are the primary drivers of climate change. Previous memorable meetings include COP3 in Kyoto, Japan, which brought about the Kyoto Protocol; COP11, which generated the Montreal Action Plan; and COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, which was largely deemed a failure because a binding agreement wasn't reached.
WHAT IS THE GOAL OF THE 2015 CONFERENCE?
The goal for Paris in December is pretty clear-cut: to achieve a legally binding agreement, with universal participation among all nations, to keep global warming below what most scientists say is the critical threshold of 2 degrees Celsius of warming. (This refers to the increase in globally averaged temperature since the Industrial Revolution.)
This will not be an easy goal to reach, since the planet already has been warmed by 0.85 degrees Celsius since 1880, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in 2014, and many scientists say the gases we have already emitted into the atmosphere will "lock us in" to around 2 degrees Celsius of warming. Therefore, it will take significant reductions in emissions in the near future, especially from the largest emitters such as the United States and China, as well as commitments to sustainable development from all countries, which must be financed by the developed (i.e., rich) nations.
WHO WILL BE THERE?
With more than 40,000 delegates from 195 countries all over the world, it's a huge meeting. In fact, this is the largest conference the French government has ever organized. The host country's President, Francois Hollande will welcome many major world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leaders of three countries with the largest carbon emissions.
Many national leaders will be present for the beginning of COP21, which will hopefully kick off the negotiations with some political momentum. This is a stark change from COP15 in Copenhagen, when the heads of state, including Obama, came in for the last two days of negotiations. This resulted in slow negotiations until the end and talks that ultimately stalled and left the delegates frustrated and embarrassed.
It is not clear if Pope Francis will attend the Paris climate conference. The Pope has been a very vocal leader for climate activism and the battle against climate change, and his encyclical, which was released in June, was widely seen as a call for action to put pressure on delegates at COP21 to come up with an agreement.
WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR THE TALKS TO BE A SUCCESS?
Since the goal is very clear for COP21, it is necessary for the nations to unanimously adopt a legally binding agreement that will reduce global carbon emissions and aim to keep warming below the 2-degree threshold. Anything resembling Copenhagen in 2009, where some limits to greenhouse gases were agreed upon but no treaty was ultimately signed, would be deemed a failure. The limits that were put in place in the Kyoto Protocol will run out in 2020, so it is imperative that the attendees leave Paris with a new agreement to begin in 2020 and enable long-term change beyond that.
The negotiations in Paris will not just focus on national commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, but will also have a financial aspect, which could prove to be a sticking point. Previous meetings have established a $100 billion-per-year commitment, starting in 2020, from developed countries to help developing countries combat climate change and build through sustainable development. Where this money comes from will be a major negotiating point -- how much from public vs. private sources? What role will businesses play? Answering these financial questions will be crucial to the success or failure of the Paris talks.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO
ME?
Assuming you plan on living on this planet for the next few decades, as opposed to joining the Mars One colonization project, you will be affected by climate change and should care about the outcome of the Paris climate conference, as it will be critical in framing the international response to man-made climate change.
A warming climate will lead to more frequent and extreme heat waves, droughts and flash floods. In addition to extreme weather, melting glaciers and ice sheets are raising sea levels, which will continue and affect the lives of hundreds of millions of coastal residents worldwide. Other effects such as water scarcity and changes in food supply will also accompany climate change and, like most of the other effects, will hit the developing world disproportionately.
So even as the holiday season is in full swing next month, take a minute from your shopping and keep an eye on the proceedings in Paris, as the fate of the world as we know it could be at stake.
by Brandon Miller
BURNED
OUT - This fire ravaged husk of a former pier at Eastbourne
could be in store for the rest of the world if
we do not address climate change.
LINKS
CNN
2015
November 30 world news cop21 Paris conference five things you
need to know
CNN
latest news 2015/11/29
Europe France Paris cop21 climate change conference
Wikipedia
2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference
Twitter
cop21
COP21
The
Guardian environment 2015 November 28 thousands march over
climate change in Brisbane and across New Zealand
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/30/world/cop21-paris-conference-five-things/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/29/europe/france-paris-cop21-climate-change-conference/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference
https://twitter.com/cop21
http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/en/
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/28/thousands-march-over-climate-change-in-brisbane-and-across-new-zealand
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