Beautiful dawn for the first day of the Bonn Climate Conference which runs till the 15th of June. Looks like it will be hot.
The venue is to the right of the buildings you see here. The smallest one in the front of the two larger ones is the new office of the UNFCCC secretariat. Which came into being in the 1990s and was followed by the Kyoto Protocol.
COP 28 is due to be held in Dubai in December - somewhat controversially as the incoming President heads a massive Emirati oil conglomerate.
This meeting will host preparation discussions between the nations of the “Conference Of the Parties to the UNFCCC” from which COP gets… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Security is in place around the venue albeit at nothing close to what you see at a full COP meeting, which is typically attended by 10s of thousands of participants.
I will head down there shortly. It’s now 7am here.
Nice walk down.
Inside the venue. With registrations still underway and a big queue to get badges it looks like the main show will commence this afternoon.
Part of today’s program.
For me the interesting immediate issues will be progress on the landmark commencement of the Climate Finance and Loss & Damages initiatives adopted in Sharm-el-Sheikh (COP27) after a colossal United push from the Global South following significant disappointment in Glasgow (COP… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
For the major emitters the pressure will come on in the Global Stock Take (GST) stream of activity. A good place to get the real deal info on this is from the Climate Action Tracker website here >> climateactiontracker.org
Unfortunately at the moment the @climateactiontr Tracker results (aggregated NDC’s - Nationally Determined Contributions to lowering emissions) do not yet get us (humanity) to the stated goal of the COP process of holding the global rise in temperatures to 1.5o Degrees Celsius… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
In the end it is this gap between what is needed and agreed and what is being achieved that will top the agenda both here at Mid-COP and in December in Dubai at #COP28.
If @realDonaldTrump chooses to join Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign if he is not obeyed …. he WILL find himself indicted in the international criminal court in The Hague.
And he will then have to make a decision on whether he is willing to remain in the U.S.
@realDonaldTrump Should he proceed as he has intimated that he should now be pursued by protestors everywhere he goes.
There is a lot of concern about evacuations of civilians from Gaza in the flotilla as anyone leaving may not be able to return any time soon. /2
But the moral hazard here is palpable. There are thousands of injured and starving mostly women and children. And we saw the young babies dying in the hospitals in the early stages of this war. /3
More and more naval vessels from Europe and the Middle East are being deployed to protect the Global Samir Flotilla as it moves slowly but surely towards Gaza where it intends to deliver aid and global attention. /1
Attacks from drones on the flotilla have resumed and Israel is presumably responsible for this. It is because of this that naval vessels from Europe are now joining the flotilla to protect their citizens rights of travel in international waters. /2
The escalation appears fairly slow at present and the flotilla is still within Greek waters at present /3
The #Samud #GazaFlotilla is currently sailing across the Ionian Sea towards the island archipelago south east of Athens in the Western Mediterranean. Conditions appear good for this leg that departed from Sicily after leaving Tunisia. The Flotilla set off from Barcelona.
2/ this current leg is 860 kms roughly and lead boats in the 51 vessel flotilla are currently approaching south western Greece. You can follow the flotillas progress here >> flotilla-orpin.vercel.app
3/ After two drone attacks on flotilla boats in Tunisia the flotilla sailed first to Sicily where it was joined by several more boats. And this map shows the path of the flotilla so far. The numbers in the dots indicate more vessels joining #GazaFlotilla