![\"85E02015-693D-49BB-A26D-7740027E01FB\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/85E02015-693D-49BB-A26D-7740027E01FB.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHis speech, laying out the procedures used in the global stocktake, was followed by another procedural speech and then the \u201cHigh-Level Climate Champion\u201d Mr. Inia\u00a0\u00a0B. Seriuratu, Ministry of Agriculture for Fiji, launched a far more energetic call to action.<\/p>\n
As is the way of conferences, however, that speech was followed by a relatively tame panel discussion. Rachel Fyke moderated a panel of speakers from Grenada, China, Poland, Australia, and the EU.\u00a0\u00a0Melissa Price of Australia was the only woman panelist.<\/p>\n Predictably, but perhaps also as part of the positive focus of the Talanoa Dialogue, each speaker focused on what their Party had accomplished in the last two years.<\/p>\n Poland (above) is rolling out programs right now, one focusing on energy efficiency in single family homes (projected to cut 18 million tons of greenhouse gasses). Their other major program focuses on electro-mobility: turning public transport electric (from a current diesel fleet of busses). They are supporting 44 cities in adaptation strategies\u2014the most anywhere! (His exclamation point rather than mine.)<\/p>\n Simon Steel of Granada<\/b> was both blunt and eloquent: he complained that developed countries were supposed to lead the way on climate action, but they had not demonstrated much leadership. The Doha Amendment (an extension of the Kyoto Protocol) has not yet entered into force because only 122 countries have ratified the amendment, and 144 (another 22) must ratify to reach the 75% threshold for it to enter into force.<\/p>\n Grenada\u2019s climate action has involved \u201cliberalizing the energy sector\u201d by breaking the 88 year monopoly of the primary energy provider. \u201cThis has put us into the international courts of arbitration, but you see our ambition.\u201d (I wonder what other views of this \u201cliberalization\u201d might be.) Grenada has ambitious plans for geothermal, which is a resource for much of the Caribbean. They are also planning to increase energy efficiency and solar.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs for the stocktake, performance has been mixed\u2014and that\u2019s being polite,\u201d Steele said. \u201cDeveloped<\/span>\u00a0countries pledged to emission reductions 25-40% below 1990 levels. They have achieved 11%. There is more work to be done. We\u00a0<\/span>haven\u2019t made the progress we need to make. The Small Island Developing States are already suffering. A Category 5 Hurricane in<\/span>\u00a02017 left one island uninhabitable in Caribbean; a<\/span>nother island had 200% of its GDP wiped out by the passing of hurricane. This is our n<\/span>ew normal\u2014contiue to face ravaes of climate change<\/span><\/p>\n Reports of the WMO, IPCCC (and others) paint a bleak and stark picture of the almost apocalyptic world that the most effective of us will face. We have a\u00a0<\/span>12 year window to react:\u00a0<\/span>action is both financially and technically feasible\u2014so there is hope.<\/span><\/p>\n International cooperation is a critical enabler for developing\u00a0countries….\u00a0<\/span>This is not about fingerpointing but how we can move forward as one global community in which\u00a0some of us have more capacity, some require support in capacity building.<\/span><\/p>\n I seem to have missed taking a picture of the EU<\/b> commissioner<\/b> for climate action and energy. He responded pretty directly to Grenada\u2019s points, stressing that all of EU countries had ratified the Doha amendment, that the EU remained committed to pre-2020 action as demonstrated by them having exceeded their reduction pledge (a modest pledge of 20% reduction from 1990 levels, currently 22% reduction), that the EU remained committed to the global target of 100 billion per year to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and that they are currently the largest donor to both the GCF and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).<\/p>\n China\u2019s special representative also stressed China\u2019s efforts and successes. Of China\u2019s (also modest)\u00a02020 objectives, two have been achieved three years early: 1)\u00a0<\/span>lower carbon intensity by 46% (the objective was 40-45%), and 2)\u00a0<\/span>forest coverage, which is now \u201cmuch higher than expected.\u201d Some of the translation was hard to follow, but China also mentioned electric vehicles (1.6 million), a carbon market with a\u00a0<\/span>trading volume of 33 billion tons\u2014the largest carbon market in the world\u2014as well as\u00a0<\/span>south-south cooperation in 29 developing countries (<\/span>support in areas of early warning, reduction and prevention, efficiency, renewables).<\/span><\/p>\n Australia stressed its success in \u201cincentivizing demand for renewables.\u201d Melissa Price mentioned a \u201creverse auction mechanism\u201d which \u201ccontracted 100 million tons of abatement since 2015.\u201d The government will provide 1 billion in grants over five years, including some focused on Pacific nations; they share measurement, reporting and verification experience, such as helping in 2009 with Indonesia\u2019s forest monitoring program, which they then expect Indonesia to share with others. There\u2019s a reef initiative; Australian farmers are increasing their productivity. Their \u201cClean Energy Finance Organization\u201d is the world\u2019s largest green bank: they contributed 10 billion to organizations matched by double that amount of private investment. They doubled their investment levels from 2015 to 2020.\u00a0<\/span>Renewables will grow in mix by 23% to consumer by 2020. What can I say? It all sounded kind of weak to me.<\/span><\/p>\n The EU stressed structures and governance. Grenada said they needed more financing. China said we need to change our lifestyles (and no one picked up on that). Fyke challenged Poland and Australia more directly. \u201cA signal must go out from this room.\u201d Poland and Australia pretty much doubled down on what they were doing.<\/p>\n Then Fyke took questions from the floor.<\/p>\n India wanted to know whether the actions that had been taken were adequate (answer: obviously not). He mentioned\u00a0significant gaps\u2014up to 40%–noted in IPCC, but he also complained that the IPCC report didn\u2019t do justice to the urgency of the issues: it didn\u2019t call out those failing to act.<\/span><\/p>\n He proposed that any emission gap from this pre-2020 stocktake \u00a0be carried over to post-2020 (instead of letting Parties get away with failing to live up to their NDCs). Significant gaps in support (that 100 billion per year has not yet been achieved) should also be carried over. [I can\u2019t imagine developed nations agreeing to this.]<\/span><\/p>\n Ecuador ramped up the pressure. She spoke fast and furiously: \u201cNone of the clear mandates have been met. We are m<\/span>oving away from the possibility of meeting targets, p<\/span>utting at risk our trust in process. The\u00a0<\/span>IPCC report clearly underscored the importance of efforts on p<\/span>overty eradication\u2014ministers recognized main countries responsible for situation have not met responsibilities: they are falling behind. This is the c<\/span>limate debt we have to the planet and to current and future generations. We need f<\/span>inancing, tech transfer, capacity building.\u00a0<\/span>Kyoto was not met, Cancun not met: we hope the secretary\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>report on pre-2020 will be updated regularly and u<\/span>sed to determine opportunities for support.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Maldives got the last word on the panel:\u00a0Concerns about progress led us to call for stocktake last year: we knew we were falling short\u2014Small Island Developing Nations are uniquely vulnerable. We were startled by findings of the IPCC: without dramatic transformation, we could hit 1.5 by 2030. This shines a new light on the importance of pre 2020 action.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After the RINGO meeting, I went to the High-Level Session devoted to assessing mitigation efforts prior to 2020. There\u2019s been a tendency on the part of some developed countries to plan for climate action after 2020 without undertaking any present action. The pre-2020 Global Stocktake is one way to try to increase ambition and urge … Continue reading High Level Session: Pre-2020 Global Stocktake<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":776,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions\/776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/cop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a>The moderator Rachel Fyke said, \u201cIt\u2019s clear that some things are working and working well\u2014we\u2019re still not where we need to be\u2014where would you like to see the focus to be moving forward?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n