Richard Black Profile picture
Nov 13, 2021 14 tweets 5 min read Read on X
THREAD - initial thoughts on the texts dropped this morning at #COP26 and unfccc.int/sites/default/…
unfccc.int/sites/default/…
First thing is, not that much has changed since the previous drafts - science, 'urgency', 'concern', request of Parties for new NDCs in 2022, adaptation finance, all still in - and placeholders still for long-term finance and implementation
Few big ones. Coal and fossil fuel subsidies still in, but in an expanded paragraph that also talks of advancing clean energy transition
I think many will see this as a strengthening because it includes building clean as well as curbing fossils and recognises 'just transition', while also - crucially IMHO - retaining coal phase-out specifically
However some countries have been pushing for mention of oil and gas phase-out in addition to coal and for removal of 'inefficient', and will be disappointed. BUT - notable, I think, that this has not been a red line for Saudi, Oz, Russia and other big fossil economies
If you'd told me at the Paris summit six years ago that we'd see this in a COP outcome document I would have expressed a great deal of doubt
I think the other significant change is on Loss and Damage, where we retain language recognising it as a serious right-here-right-now issue, but add clauses on something new:
Now: the broad G77/China bloc of developing nations wanted more than a dialogue, namely a 'standalone facility' with a clearer commitment to finance
Questions, therefore: will they settle for a 'dialogue'? Has the US given its approval to the language above, or is the UK Presidency trying to push it with this language? (I would guess the former)
We'll await the reactions but this definitely takes us further than we were before #COP26. It opens the door a little wider than the previous draft to a situation where developed nations have to take Loss and Damage seriously, including with finance
Elsewhere, the process for settling the Global Goal on Adaptation seems to have reached a decent conclusion unfccc.int/documents/3110… - and Glasgow has its name on something, the Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme
So: the two outstanding issues appear to be long-term finance and Article Six - for the second of these, here's the assessment from @ECIU_UK's @mattadamw
I'm more optimistic than at this time yesterday that we'll be out of here sometime today - but I'm wondering whether we'll be taking in our bags a finalised Article 6, or whether that has to wait for next time (again)
Update - lots of reaction coming in from climate-vulnerable countries on the new #COP26 #LossAndDamage language - and it’s not positive - eg . Looking like the UK Presidency (and by implication the US) will have to think again on this

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More from @_richardblack

Jul 2, 2024
THREAD: Seen a bit of chat recently implying that the UK shouldn't put pedal to the metal on decarbonisation as it's so far gone faster than US - which is true, it has
The implication is that somehow this speed has been bad for the UK economy. The data say otherwise
Since 1990, UK GDP has increased 3.45-fold, according to the World Bank. The US, 3.42-fold. Basically, identical data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.G…
Read 7 tweets
Dec 4, 2023
THREAD: With all the talk #cop28 centring on #fossilfuelphaseout or not – abated, unabated, etc – what actually is the logical role of CCS in the energy transition?
In a new paper for @thesmithschool @uniofoxford, Dr Andrea Bacilieri, Dr Rupert Way and I analyse the relative costs of taking a high-CCS vs a low-CCS route to #netzero and the 1.5°C temperature goal – a question that as far as we can see hasn’t been properly asked before
And the difference?
Read 16 tweets
Apr 28, 2023
Hilarious to see @NetZeroWatch plugging this 'dangers of woke banking' line... here's their chairman's own company's sustainability page 😂😂😂 recordfg.com/sustainability/ Image
There's lots more... Image
Image
Read 7 tweets
Jan 9, 2023
I have deep reservations about this 'people who live near wind farms should get cheap electricity' thing, which has reached a new depth today with a recommendation that they should get free electricity
It would only make sense if people were opposed to having wind farms nearby, and there's a welter of evidence in a range of countries showing that the majority of people aren't opposed (eg sciencedirect.com/science/articl…)
Read 9 tweets
Dec 20, 2022
THREAD: Climate change causes conflict, you say? Well: it's a bit more complex than that
Climate change and other facets of the global environmental crisis raise the risks of conflict and other forms of insecurity. But so do many other things - competition for resources, ethnic tensions, prior conflicts, pandemics...
And there is already a growing security crisis. Over the last 10 years (well before #Covid and Putin's war) the number of state-based armed conflicts, the number of people killed in them and the number of people displaced all roughly doubled
Read 12 tweets
Nov 19, 2022
THREAD: Sparked by Frans @TimmermansEU's remarks that #COP27 could kill off the #ParisAgreement 1.5 Celsius temperature target , a short thread on some realities of 1.5°C
This is also a nod to all those lining up to pontificate that '1.5°C is dead', particularly scientists who make no attempt to clarify that that what they're saying is just their opinion, not fact
Firstly let's look at the #ParisAgreement's wording - to 'hold' warming 'well below 2°C' while 'making efforts' to keep it to 1.5°C. There is no time limit on that 'making efforts'. Governments did not pledge to make efforts until warming exceeds 1.5°C and then stop
Read 18 tweets

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