India and other developing countries today signalled that they would resist any “obligatory review mechanism” intended to increase their individual efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet. Climate change negotiators from the so-called like-minded developing countries (LMDC), concluding a two-day meeting hosted by India, said any review of actions to curb greenhouse gas emissions should factor in the differential responsibilities of developed and developing countries. In a joint statement, the negotiators said the LMDCs have expressed “strong reservations” against any obligatory review mechanism to increase individual efforts of developing countries. —The Calcutta Telegraph, 15 September 2015
India on Monday hosted a meeting of Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs) on climate change to prepare strategies for negotiation for the Paris conference slated to be held later this year.
India will negotiate together with a so-called group of like-minded developing countries (LMDCs) at the climate change summit in Paris at the year-end, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday. At the end of a two-day meeting of negotiators from 13 LMDCs in New Delhi, Javadekar asked rich nations to walk the talk in transferring funds to the poor to mitigate the effects of climate change. Javadekar said: “…if developed world doesn’t walk the talk on issue of finance, there will be a problem for the Paris outcome. I hope the developed world will consider it and rise to the occasion.” –Mayank Aggarwal, Live Mint, 16 September 2015
Don’t look for the drama of an American president barging in on fellow heads of state in a private meeting on the final night [of the Paris summit], because—if all goes according to plan—none of them will be there. Instead of bringing in heads of state at the end of the two-week conference, French officials have flipped the script and invited them to the beginning. Not everyone is excited about the early appearance by heads of state. Former U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said it it’s not clear what purpose it serves, and that it could even detract from discussions on the hoped-for pact. And leaders may not want to fly to the City of Lights just to give a speech at the start of the meeting and then go back home. “My experience is, politicians travel in order to celebrate success,” he said. “To fly to Paris and just show a bit of leg at the beginning of a conference is not really enough of a reason,” he said. –Ben Geman, National Journal, 15 September 2015
When the International Energy Agency reported in March that global carbon emissions had stayed flat in 2014, even as the world economy grew, the news was hailed as a turning point in the struggle to curb climate change. But more recent data about Chinese coal consumption, seen by Reuters, raise doubts about whether that historic decoupling of economic growth and carbon emissions from energy use actually occurred. One of the keys to keeping carbon emissions flat in 2014 was significantly lower coal consumption in China, the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter: a 2.9 per cent drop, reported in preliminary Chinese data in February. But in May, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released a China Statistical Abstract, not available online but only on paper, showing that coal consumption edged up by 0.06 percent from 2013. –Alister Doyle and David Stanway, Reuters, 16 September 2015
Resource investors, take note: By 2025, just 10 years from now, energy consumption in Asia will increase a whopping 31 percent. A whole two-thirds of that demand, driven largely by China and India, will be for fossil fuels, most notably coal. That’s according to a new research piece by financial services group Macquarie, which writes that the estimated rise in fossil fuel demand is equivalent of “three times Saudi Arabia’s current (all-time-high) oil production.” Macquarie’s research is in line with BP’s “Energy Outlook 2035,” released earlier this year, which predicts that more than half of the world’s energy consumption will come from China and India by the year 2035. –Frank Holmes, Mineweb, 15 September 2015
Anyone hoping that Australia will do more to fight climate change after Malcolm Turnbull ousted Tony Abbott to become prime minister may be disappointed. After beating Abbott in a late-night ballot of Liberal Party lawmakers, Turnbull described the nation’s current climate policy as “a very, very good piece of work.” Turnbull, speaking in parliament on Tuesday, called the auction earlier this year “a resounding success” and defended the climate change plan that Environment Minister Greg Hunt helped introduce. “The government policy on climate is right, and it is being proved right,” Turnbull said. –Angus Whitley and James Paton, Bloomberg, 15 September 2015
