The Climate Crisis continues

Here is my reminder that the Climate Crisis isn't going anywhere.  COP-29 details follow.

Vital Signs publication from The Environmental Defense Fund on the UN's annual climate conference - COP-29 which ended last Sunday after two weeks of difficult negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan...70,00 attendees from around the world.

Here are some details:

Funding:

Throughout the conference, negotiators grappled with how to financially support the nations that have produced relatively little climate pollution yet are suffering from devastating extreme weather driven by climate change. Wealthy countries, responsible for the majority of the pollution heating the planet today, ultimately agreed to a target of $300 billion annually by 2035 to help vulnerable nations both adapt to the impacts of climate change and transition to clean energy.  

But this is only a fraction of the $1.3 trillion needed, according to economists. While the agreement does require countries to make a plan to reach $1.3 trillion, many expressed disappointment.  

"The climate crisis demands bold leadership, decisive action, and inclusive processes — not hesitation and half-measures,” said Environmental Defense Fund’s Angela Churie Kallhauge. “The outcome falls well below the expectations of developing countries.” 

Political uncertainty was met with resolve 

The mood at COP29 was steadfast despite political changes around the world, including the election of Donald Trump in the United States. Trump has again promised to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, an international climate treaty born out of the 21st COP in Paris in 2015.  

At COP29, a coalition of countries, including the U.K., Canada, Mexico, Norway and the EU, pledged to stay the course with or without the U.S., and further cut their climate pollution to meet the most ambitious targets agreed to in Paris. 

"What I heard was a steely resolve,” said EDF President Fred Krupp, who attended COP29. “Other nations are determined to step in and lead the fight for a safer climate if the U.S. does step back.” 

Carbon Markets:

After years of stalled talks, negotiators came to an agreement on rules for a United Nations-administered global carbon market for emissions trading that could unlock billions to help fight climate change. Carbon markets are an economic strategy meant to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while raising capital for climate solutions.  

Negotiators agreed on a centralized market organized by the UN, but there’s still work to be done to ensure the credits traded on the market actually reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere effectively and benefit communities. 

“[This is] a historic milestone in establishing carbon market cooperation to boost ambition and mobilize urgent climate finance,” said EDF’s Pedro Martins Barata, a former negotiator for Portugal on carbon markets. “But climate justice and social safeguards can't be afterthoughts — they are fundamental to the success and fairness of these mechanisms.” 

Methane Measuring:

Methane, the main component of natural gas, is also a potent super-pollutant responsible for a whopping one-third of the warming the planet is currently experiencing. 

Much of the world’s methane emissions come from oil and gas operations, which the industry already has the technology to reduce.  

At last year’s UN climate talks, more than 50 oil and gas companies agreed to slash their methane pollution as much as 90% by 2030. Earlier this year, EDF, the International Energy Agency and UN Environment Programme outlined a new framework to hold them accountable, including measuring emissions using EDF’s new methane-hunting satellite, MethaneSAT. 

MethaneSAT has been circling the globe since March and released never-before-seen images at COP29 to showcase its groundbreaking ability to produce high-resolution data, including finding methane pollution that is invisible to other satellites.  

(One must wonder how they decided to hold them accountable.)

Next year:

Negotiators’ attention now turns to COP30, the UN’s next climate conference in Brazil. The stakes will be high: countries must continue to grapple with how to rapidly scale up money for climate action — while they also update their national climate plans.  

“The upcoming COP30 in Belém, Brazil requires the international community to set higher standards for climate action,” said Churie Kallhauge. “The need to accelerate climate action across all fronts has never been more urgent.” 

Thanks for this summary. 70,000 attendees must have meant a lot of people from businesses that care about climate change restrictions, as well as those affected most by climate change...oh and some governments who do have decision making policies to address. But having had these conferences for 30 years says something. For one, only a little bit of education about Climate Change has been out there in the public. And secondly, those in industry have supported those in politics, so laws and restrictions are not happening as fast as they should have/might have done. And third, the increases of climate change driven events like floods, hurricanes, and forest fires are just now being connected and spoken of by the media.

Before and after Hurricane Helene: Hwy 19 next to the Toe River, near Mt. Michelle, NC

Feeling frustrated with blogger. I'd just about finished a whole new blog telling about my early life, complete with photos, kind of making it a story. Then I added a few more from a prior blog. When I looked again, all the first part was missing and I only had the few added at the end. NOW, do I go back and recreated the first part, or just hang it up and hope since I have photos I might be able to do it another time!

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Historic note on my other blog: Early Governance in the Capitol building