Page 5 - Cop27

COP27 what to watch: Climate progress hinges on crucial week two

Here's how week one went down and what to expect from the rest of this year's UN climate summit

Top headlines: Twitter Blue likely to be back soon, Nawaz may return to Pak

Business Standard brings you the top headlines this hour

Paris Agreement requires phase down of all fossil fuels: India at COP27

As negotiators from 194 parties started working out a draft cover text at the UN climate summit in Egypt, India on Saturday said meeting the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement requires "phase down of all fossil fuels", sources told PTI. "Natural gas and oil also lead to emission of greenhouse gases. Making only one fuel the villain is not right," a source in the Indian delegation attending the climate talks said. The move paves the way for fierce debates during the second week of talks being held in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh from November 6 to 18. Citing the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Indian negotiators told the Egyptian COP27 presidency that meeting the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement "requires phase down of all fossil fuels". "Selective singling out of sources of emissions, for either labelling them more harmful or labelling them 'green and sustainable' even when they are sources of greenhouse gases, has no basis in

Mexico raises target for cutting carbon emissions, boosting renewables

Mexico announced on Saturday it's raising its target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting the rollout of renewable energy, though it remains a regional laggard on climate action. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico would aim to reduce emissions by 35 per cent compared to doing nothing by 2030. That's up from an unconditional pledge of 22 per cent cuts it had made two years ago. To achieve this goal, Mexico will double its investments in clean energy over the next eight years, expand protected forest areas, boost electric car use and reduce methane emissions from its natural gas industry. Ebrard announced the new target alongside US climate envoy John Kerry on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Egypt. This is a huge, significant shift from where Mexico was last year in Glasgow, Kerry told reporters, adding that it was the culmination of lengthy bilateral work. He noted that Mexico has "extraordinary availability of sun, extraordinary availability of wind

Paris agreement goal requires phase down of fossil fuels: India at COP27

As negotiators from 194 parties started working out a draft cover text at the UN climate summit in Egypt, India on Saturday proposed that the talks wrap up with a decision to "phase down all fossil fuels" including oil and gas, sources said. "Natural gas and oil also lead to emission of greenhouse gases. Making only one fuel the villain is not right," a source in the Indian delegation attending the climate talks told PTI. Indian negotiators told the Egyptian COP27 presidency of climate talks that the basic principles of common but differentiated responsibilities, equity, and nationally determined nature of climate commitments under the Paris Agreement "need to be strongly emphasised in the cover decision text". Citing the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, India said that meeting the long term goal of the Paris Agreement "requires phase down of all fossil fuels". "Selective singling out of sources of emissions, for either labelling them more .

COP27: Hundreds of activists protest for climate action at UN summit

Hundreds of activists called on industrialised nations to pay for the impact of climate change and to speed up the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy on Saturday in the largest protest yet at the UN climate summit in Egypt. Protests have mostly been muted at the conference, known as COP27, which is taking place in the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Activists blamed high cost of travel, accommodation and restrictions in the isolated city for limiting numbers of demonstrators. The protesters marched through the conference's Blue Zone,' which is considered a UN territory and ruled by international law. They chanted, sang, and danced in an area not far from where climate talks and negotiations are taking place. The protests came at the end of the first week of the two-week summit, when typically protest action at climate summits is at its biggest. Pay for loss and damage now, said Friday Nbani, a Nigerian environmental activist who was leading a group of African ...

COP27: Joe Biden says climate change efforts 'more urgent than ever'

President Joe Biden, speaking on Friday at an annual international summit on climate change, urged world leaders to double down on their resolve to fight global warming, saying Russia's invasion of Ukraine reinforces the need to phase out fossil fuels. We can no longer plead ignorance to the consequences of our actions, or continue to repeat our mistakes, Biden said. The president's brief attendance at the United Nations climate conference, known as COP27, was largely a victory lap as he emphasised new spending on clean energy initiatives that will change the paradigm for the United States and the rest of the world. But Biden glossed over how he's pushed for more oil and gas production to bring down costs that have been politically troublesome at home, and fuelled the invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to fetch higher prices for its energy exports. This gathering must be the moment to recommit our future and our shared capacity to write a better story for the world," Biden ...

COP27: UN climate change talks near halftime with key issues unresolved

As the UN climate talks in Egypt near the half-way point, negotiators are working hard to draft deals on a wide range of issues they'll put to ministers next week in the hope of getting a substantial result by the end. The two-week meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh started with strong appeals from world leaders for greater efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and help poor nations cope with global warming. Scientists say the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere needs to be halved by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord. The 2015 pact set a target of ideally limiting temperature rise to 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, but left it up to countries to decide how they want to do so. With impacts from climate change already felt across the globe, particularly by the world's poorest, there has also been a push by campaigners and developing nations for rich polluters to stump up more cash. This would be used to help developing ...

BS Views of the week: India's G20 Presidency, COP27, US midterm elections, and more

COP27: Call for urgent action to reduce emissions across industry

'Climate crisis is existential, overriding and ever present and we need to look at every piece of the puzzle, including the decarbonization of the industrial sectors that underpin the global economy'

Best of BS Opinion: Climate concerns, Patidars and patronage & more

Here are the top BS Opinion articles of the day

Area under moderately dense mangroves fell in 10 years, shows data

Overall mangrove cover increased between 2011 and 2021

Beyond bloviation: What do climate conferences like COP achieve anyway?

It would be wrong to think that nothing has been achieved. A great deal has, though far too slowly - for which lack of speed the world, especially its poor, will pay the price, writes T N Ninan

COP27: Joe Biden says climate crisis is about 'very life of the planet'

"It's more urgent than ever that we double down on our climate commitments. Russia's war only enhances the urgency of the need to transition the world off its dependence on fossil fuels," he said

Top Indian unicorn founders, venture capitalists back Green Startup Pledge

World's first climate pledge for startups is backed by India's leading VC funds and supported by entrepreneurs including Nithin Kamath, Deepinder Goyal and Bhavish Aggarwal

Technology cannot remain confined to only big players: India at COP27

Nandan said that science is there but how to apply this science and knowledge to our activities needs to be processed

COP27: Joe Biden off to climate talks, first leg of around-the-world trip

President Joe Biden is heading to a global climate meeting with a giant domestic investment in tow and he's likely to face questions about how far the US will go to pull other large greenhouse gas emitters along. His attendance on Friday at the UN climate conference, known as COP27, in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, is the first stop on an around-the-world trip that will also take him to a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders in Cambodia and a Group of 20 summit meeting for leaders of the world's largest economies in Bali, Indonesia. Biden boarded Air Force One late on Thursday buoyed by a stronger-than-expected showing by the Democratic Party in Tuesday's midterm elections, congressional passage this year of the largest climate investment in US history and Russian military setbacks on the Ukrainian battlefield. At the climate conference, Biden will discuss a new supplemental rule coming Friday that cracks down on methane emissions, a measure that expands on a similar ...

COP27: African nations push for funding to adapt to climate change

Battling droughts, sandstorms, floods, wildfires, coastal erosion, cyclones and other weather events exacerbated by climate change, the African continent needs to adapt, but it needs funds to do so, leaders and negotiators from the continent said at the UN climate summit. It's one of the main priorities for the African Group of Negotiators at the summit, known as COP27, currently underway in Egypt. Ephraim Shitima, the group's chair, said Africa is keen to see the outcomes of the negotiations translated into action for the continent where millions are facing climate-related disasters. Shitima said the summit should provide solutions to the millions of people in the continent, adding that Africa needs finance to adapt to extreme weather as well as to facilitate just energy transition and boost renewable energy uptake. A recent study released by the World Bank said that climate-related events will squeeze more than 132 million people into poverty worldwide with African countries losin

Biden administration tightens methane emissions rule amid push for more oil

The Biden administration is ramping up efforts to reduce methane emissions, targeting the oil and gas industry for its role in global warming even as President Joe Biden has pressed energy producers for more oil drilling to lower prices at the gasoline pump. Biden was set to announce a supplemental rule Friday cracking down on emissions of methane a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming and packs a stronger short-term punch than even carbon dioxide as he attends a global climate conference in Egypt. The new rule by the Environmental Protection Agency follows up on a methane rule Biden announced last year at a United Nations climate summit in Scotland. The 2021 rule targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide, rather than focusing only on new wells as previous EPA regulations have done. The new rule goes a step further and takes aim at all drilling sites, including smaller wells that emit less than 3 tonnes of methane per year. Sm

Climate change: Carbon dioxide emissions rising globally, but drop in China

The world is projected to spew 40.6 billion tonnes of CO2 (GtCO2) into the atmosphere in 2022, with no sign of the decrease that is urgently needed to limit warming to 1.5 degree Celsius, according to a new report released on Friday, coinciding with the UN climate summit in Egypt. The projection of 40.6 GtCO2 total emissions in 2022 is close to the highest-ever annual total of 40.9 GtCO2 in 2019. If current emissions levels persist, there is a 50 percent chance that warming of 1.5 degree Celsius will be exceeded in nine years, according to the "Global Carbon Budget 2022" report by a group of scientists who track emissions and publish in peer- reviewed scientific journals. 1.5 degree Celsius is the preferred warming limit set by the 2015 Paris Agreement -- a limit that countries hope will be sufficient to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Earth's global surface temperature has increased by around 1.1 degree Celsius as compared to the average in the pre-industrial (18501900)