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Hoisted from the Archives . . . Cancun – Wednesday 6th December 2010 – Time to Make It Happen: a Fair Climate Fund
20 Nov 2013
Over 200 civil society organisations today launch a call for a fair climate fund to be established this week in Cancun. As ministers arrive to face the vital politi¬cal challenges around the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, sufficient political time and energy must be spared to ensure substantive outcomes on issues that really matter to […]
Finance through the equity lens
20 Nov 2013
With negotiations for a draft ADP text entering their third day, the debate on equity is surely heating up. This is the moment to ensure that an important aspect of effort sharing is on the agenda: the equitable provision of finance and other means of implementation – especially to the most vulnerable. As a number […]
ADP: We have a text, but . . .
19 Nov 2013
At the ADP session last night on the chairs’ (now Parties’) text there was at least one thing in common: nobody likes it very much. ECO is with you on that, but at least there is a text. That’s an important milestone in a long journey. We’ll heed the Chairs’ advice and not provide per […]
The Loss and Damage Mechanism: Don’t Leave Warsaw Without It!
19 Nov 2013
Last year, Doha decided that institutional arrangements ‘such as an international mechanism’ would be established at COP 19. Fulfilling this mandate is the biggest expectation here in Warsaw. The world has entered the era of devastating loss and damage from climate change. The collective failure to reduce emissions and support necessary adaptation actions means that […]
Climate Help Wanted: Germany
19 Nov 2013
Germany is in the middle of difficult coalition talks following the September elections. Climate policy is one of the areas where there still is no agreement. The negotiations in Warsaw would really benefit from a bit of leadership from developed countries, and in particular the EU. But EU leadership is hard to mobilize without full […]
The Key to Inteq (Intergenerational Equity)
19 Nov 2013
The climate system is a heritage held in trust and passed on from generation to generation. Although the ADP is currently deadlocked, the principle of intergenerational equity (‘Inteq’) could help find common ground. Not only could Inteq bridge generations, it could also heal the divide between developed and developing countries. Inteq is the principle that […]
Fossil of the Day-Nov 18
19 Nov 2013
The COP host, Poland, earns today’s First Place Fossil for aggressively promoting coal. The Polish government is endorsing the International Coal and Climate Summit. The Polish Ministry of Economy and the World Coal Association developed "The Warsaw Communiqué", a statement claiming “there is a misconception that the use of coal is incompatible with meeting the […]
Poland: Coal, Climate and Contradiction
18 Nov 2013
There is not much worse you can do as the presidency of the COP than hosting and blessing what’s advertised as the ‘coal industry’s most important event of the year’. Just three kilometres away from the venue where discussions on how to avoid the worst impacts of global warming are ongoing, coal lobbyists will be […]
Siekierki coal power station
18 Nov 2013
The Siekierki coal power station is readily visible south of the National Stadium in Warsaw. First operational in 1961, it now generates 622 MW of electricity and provides district heat for a large part of the city. It is owned since 2012 by PGNiG, a large oil and natural gas company controlled by the Polish […]
Coal and Health
18 Nov 2013
Only two days apart, Warsaw is playing host to two major conferences in parallel with COP19. You all know about the first one — the International Coal and Climate Summit starting today. The second was a climate and health summit over the weekend organised by the Global Climate and Health Alliance. Both are seeing involvement […]