Thread by @NiranjanAjit

the most powerful climate report of the decade was published on monday, after 195 governments fought over the words in its summary for policymakers, and the only media allowed in the room just published its account of who lobbied for what 1/

the earth negotiations bulletin is allowed into approval sessions of the hotly contested ipcc summaries for policymakers (though, as a couple of scientists have pointed out, they do not have access to the huddles where detailed discussions happen) 2/ enb.iisd.org/58th-session-i…

finland tried to say the root cause of climate change is fossil fuels, but saudi arabia pushed back, and the line didn't make it into the summary for policymakers (which is separate from the scientific report that can't be touched by governments) 3/

saudi arabia successfully pushed to get carbon capture and storage ("additional abatement") as a caveat to a sentence that emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure will blow the carbon budget for 1.5 degrees celsius 4/

norway watered down the language on cutting emissions, while saudi arabia, china, new zealand and the netherlands blocked efforts to specify that sucking loads of carbon out of the atmosphere is unproven and risky 5/

china tried to cut the most powerful finding from the report - carbon pollution must drop two-thirds in 12 years to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius - but said it would be happy to keep the numbers in a table 6/

saudi arabia blocked efforts to highlight problems with sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, arguing that if barriers were introduced into the text for carbon dioxide removal, they would want barriers for renewables to be highlighted too 7/

in a later paragraph, some delegates successfully pushed for a reference that addressed the problems with carbon dioxide removal 8/

delegates from the poorest countries had mostly left by this point, leaving mainly rich countries and the richest economies in the global south to hash out the final wording of a document that will shape, to some degree, how habitable the planet remains for all humans 9/

saudi arabia pushed back against a suggestion to replace "low-emissions technologies" with "zero-emissions technologies", and in the end both were accepted 10/

the us pushed back on a suggestion from poorer countries' to specify their ability to cut pollution depends on what richer countries do with money, tech and the remaining carbon budget 11/

china, saudi arabia, egypt and iran got rid of "taxes, subsidies and prices on consumption" as examples of tools to cut consumption-based emissions 12/

the us unsuccessfully tried to delete the word "equitable" when discussing finance, arguing the word typically refers to each country getting the same share (in the context of climate diplomacy, at least, it does not) 13/

switzerland and the us tried to delete a sentence on climate finance gaps, arguing that there is no common definition of the words "climate finance", no ipcc definition of developing countries, and that the terms "gaps" and "opportunities" are unclear 14/

the us blocked china's suggestion that richer countries are not transferring enough technology to poorer ones because of political and legal barriers 15/

the broader context: the approval session for this synthesis report should have been easier than previous ones because most of the text was taken or adapted from previously-approved summaries 16/

but the report also means more to governments - and is more likely to influence how hot the planet gets - because it ties together all the ipcc installments from the last few years into a handy summary of summaries 17/

so the stakes were higher, but the ability to lobby was weaker, and more compromises were made because so few people from the countries hit hardest by climate change could stay till the end 18/18

if you found this helpful i summed up the last three installments of the ipcc's sixth assessment report — not just the summaries for policymakers but the big studies themselves — for anyone who'd benefit from a crash course in the science

i spoke to scientists, negotiators and observers at the meeting and wrote up the full story here heatmap.news/politics/ipcc-…