Posts filed under ‘UNFCCC’
Merribek NGOs advocate for Australian climate commitments for COP27
The following statement was sent to Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and Federal MP for Wills Peter Khalil on 9 October 2022 urging them to adopt commitments regarding the Global methane Pledge, climate finance and rejoining the Green Climate Fund, to take to the UN climate conference COP27.
We look like already achieving a partial win on this. On 13 October Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said on Radio National that Australia is considering signing the Global Methane Pledge, reports the Guardian.
(more…)Inaugural Moreland Climate CUP highlights Race to Zero Emissions – Melbourne joins Global Day of action #COP26
A few months ago the idea was floated in the Moreland Climate Coalition to hold an event around Melbourne Cup day, which also coincided with the UN Climate Change conference, COP26, meeting in Glasgow.
But at that early stage all of Melbourne was in lockdown due to the pandemic with limits on public gatherings, with the vaccination program delayed due to Federal Government vaccine ordering incompetence, and was still ramping up.
When we started organising we didn’t know how many people could meet for a protest under the public health regulations. But as vaccination rate grew rapidly 30 people became the number of fully vaccinated people to meet publicly. Three covidsafe events were held in Moreland, with other climate protests in the city and at St Kilda as part of the Global day of action called by the COP26 Coalition in Glasgow.
(more…)Australia needs to double climate finance for COP26, rejoin Green Climate Fund
In 2009 wealthy countries committed to raising $100 billion per year of climate finance from 2020. This climate finance commitment was a lynch pin of getting many developing countries on board for the Paris Agreement in 2015. A recent review and report conducted by the OECD found that only $79.6 billion per year has been raised. See John Englart’s September 2021 Blog Post: Australian climate finance falling far short of our fair share, getting worse.
A new Australian report asseses Australia’s responsibility in climate finance and advocates that Australia, at the very least, double its current commitment to $3 billion of climate finance for the current 5 year period of 2020-2025, and rejoin the Green Climate Fund.
Climate Action Moreland Convenor John Englart said, “For doing our fair share on climate finance and solidarity with developing countries, Scott Morrison should announce at the UN Climate talks in Glasgow an initial doubling of Australia’s climate finance commitment to at least $3 billion for 2020 to 2025.
“It is Important that Australia also rejoins the Green Climate Fund to enhance multi-lateral financing of projects for both emissions reduction and climate adaptation and resilience building.”
Scott Morrison withdrew Australia from the Green Climate Fund in a radio interview in October 2018.
(more…)Australia wins at not honouring 1.5C climate commitment.
Australia wins not honouring the 1.5C commitment Fossil award
Australia took out an international award on the eve of the Climate Ambition international conference. But it is not an award to celebrate.
Australia was handed the international ‘Fossil Award’ for failing to honour our climate commitments under the Paris Accord. Five years ago Australia signed the Paris Agreement at the UN climate talks known as COP21. Australia even agreed to 1.5 degrees target inclusion in the Draft climate agreement.
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Second Fossil Award to Australia at COP25
Lidia Thorpe accepts Fossil Award for Australia at COP25
Our Convenor John Englart is at COP25. This is his post on the Fossil of the Day awards, with Australia achieving two awards in two days.
and on the second day of the UN climate conference Australia scored it’s second Fossil Award. Slovenia and Bosnia took first for proceeding to develop a coal plant, Belgium was third, who is behind in every climate target and the climate Minister has invented a new greenwash term: “plane pooling”.
It was Australia’s second Fossil Award of the COP. The first award (yesterday) is what is known as an implementation Fossil award – it is about action or lack of action in the country involved.
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CAMoreland signs on to Loss and Damages statement for COP25
Tacloban after Typhoon Haiyan
COP25 is coming up (Dec 2-13, 2019) to be held now in Madrid, Spain, and one of the main items up for negotiation is loss and damage – when the impacts of climate change go beyond what it is possible to adapt to, with a particular focus on most vulnerable countries.
This is an issue that Pacific countries, particularly Vanuatu and Timor Leste, have been very vocal on. Unsurprisingly, Australia continues to be one of the worst countries on this issue.
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Outcomes from Poland and UN climate Conference COP24: more action needed
Australian Environment Minister walks off the stage after delivering Australia’s ambition poor statement.
It has been a hectic two weeks for negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change conference, meeting in the heart of Poland’s coal province of Silesia. The conference was due to close on Friday 14 December, but intense negotiations continued overnight and were only finalised on Saturday evening.
The Paris rulebook was (mostly) landed to continue the momentum from Paris in 2015, and this was a vital measurement of the conference success, but some elements were just too contentious to achieve consensus and have been pushed forward to COP25 meeting in Santiago, Chile in 2019.
Climate Action Moreland Convenor John Englart has been following the negotiations, discussions, and protests online and posting blog articles over the last two weeks. He also tracked Australia’s Environment Minister Melissa Price and her public presence on social media and deciphered her High level speech for Australia.
Australia won one Fossil of the Day award for refusing to rule out using Kyoto credits to meet Paris targets, and shared in another award from the conference. While Climate policies are on the rise globally, global ambition level by many countries is still lacking, with Australia rated highly insufficient and delaying global progress.
Time for a climate damages tax on oil, gas and coal production
On Thursday, the second last day of the UN Climate Change conference in Bonn, 25 Nations, provinces and cities took the extraordinary step of committing to coal phaseout in a declaration to phase out coal in the OECD by 2030 and globally by 2050.
Everyone at COP outside the negotiating rooms is talking about coal and fossil fuels. But it is a sad fact that fossil fuels are not even mentioned or referred to once in the Paris Agreement, hence does not come up in the formal negotiating discussions or texts.
Progess on finance for Loss and Damages was one of the big asks by Pacific nations and developing countries at this conference. But substantial progress was blocked by developed countries like US, Australia, Canada and European Union. At the end a forum was conceded to discuss financial options in May. Weak progress.
Before the conference Climate Action Moreland joined with other civil society groups in signing on to the Climate Damages Declaration.
Climate Analytics has recently highlighted, it has been a year of climate extremes: a case for Loss & Damage at COP23. They identified what should be done to progress the Loss and Damage agenda at Bonn. Sadly, it was largely a missed opportunity, thanks in part to Australia’s position.
UK and Canada pushing coal closure Alliance at UN climate Conference COP23
Anglesea coal mine
The United Kingdom and Canada have formed an alliance to champion phase out of unabated coal at the UN Climate Conference in Bonn – COP23 – in November 2017. After hearing the latest energy policy announcement from Prime Minister Turnbull on the National Energy Guarantee, I doubt that Australia will be up to the task of joining this alliance. We are falling further behind the new climate leaders.
Canada’s Minister for Environment and Climate change Catherine McKenna and her UK counterpart, Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry, Claire Perry, issued a joint statement on 11 October, following a successful meeting:
“Today, we announce that Canada and the United Kingdom (U.K.) will champion a global alliance on the transition from unabated coal-fired electricityat next month’s United Nations climate change meetings in Bonn, Germany. From cleaner air, to public health, to sustainability, the benefits of moving towards low or non-emitting sources of power are clear.
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Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change 