Welcome boost for just transition
Without more social and economic justice, the green transition will be a “mirage”, Climate Action Network’s Anabella Rosemberg said on the last day of the Bonn climate talks, where activists are excited that talks on a Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP) have progressed rather well.
After 30 years of negotiations, planet-heating emissions are still going up – and part of the reason for this, Rosemberg told Climate Home, is that measures to cut them are often designed in a way that harms ordinary people. Governments then “use their citizens as a barrier to action” by arguing that green measures always cost jobs and hit peoples’ pockets, she explained.
That penny may be dropping. After stalling at COP29 in Baku, negotiators agreed in Bonn on a way forward for the JTWP, allowing them to get together with observers last night for beer-garden drinks by the Rhine.
Campaigners hope the JTWP will lead to a Baku Action Mechanism that enables advice-sharing with government officials at all levels who are trying to pursue a just transition on the ground. This would save them money on consultants, Rosemberg added. Supporters of the JTWP also want reporting on just-transition progress to be part of governments’ NDC climate plans.
Negotiators are today expected to decide to forward an informal note to COP30 in Belém, which says that the green transition should be fair to workers and protect nature, as well as advancing clean energy access and clean cooking for all. It should also promote gender rights and human rights, particularly for Indigenous, disabled, migrant and young people, the text says.
After Baku setback, activists call for ‘just transition’ to be front and centre at COP30
Although most governments indicated on Wednesday night they would approve this note, there were a few quibbles, according to a summary of discussions by reporting service IISD ENB which – unlike the media – is allowed in the negotiating rooms.
The Like-Minded Developing Countries group and the Arab Group – whose members both include Saudi Arabia – opposed a reference to the opportunities of moving away from fossil fuels in the context of expanding clean energy and clean cooking. These groups insisted that transition pathways should depend on national circumstances, IISD ENB reports.
Paraguay, which has a socially conservative, male-led government, opposed wording on gender-based approaches to just transition. Russia wanted to insert a reference to unilateral trade measures – something opposed by the European Union, whose carbon border taxes are the main target of that language.
These debates are likely to be hashed out in Belém – where, according to Rosemberg, more controversies are likely to emerge.
Bert de Wel from the International Trade Union Confederation told Climate Home workers could not afford for the just transition negotiations to be derailed by proxy fights between governments on other issues. “Whether you’re in the Global North or the Global South, your workers are depending on you to deliver a just transition,” he said.
But, Rosemberg added, for now there is a “solid basis” on which to build and “we have the political work to do in capitals to show the opportunities behind this win”.
Out in the real world, there have been protests on the streets against removal of fossil fuel subsidies and green taxes, from France to Nigeria. “If they were done in a just way, if they had workers and communities on board, maybe we would not be where we are right now with the NDC ambition gap,” Rosemberg said, referring to governments’ plans to cut emissions which are far off-track to meet global climate goals.
The post Bonn bulletin: Just transition talks find firmer footing appeared first on Climate Home News.
Next week, diplomats from around the world will descend on Yerevan, Armenia, to negotiate a series of decisions under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Between 19 and 30 October, 196 parties will gather to hammer out the precise wording of the dozens of legal texts that make up the decisions under the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD.
This year’s summit is particularly significant, as it marks the halfway point between the agreement of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the deadline for achieving its targets.
The CBD has found that countries are currently not on track to meet 22 out of the framework’s 23 targets.
During the fortnight, delegates will also be negotiating decisions relating to the two supplemental protocols to the CBD: the Cartagena Protocol, which covers biosafety; and the Nagoya Protocol, which covers access and benefit-sharing for the use of genetic resources.
(The Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols, which are each governed by a “meeting of the parties”, or “MOP”, have fewer parties than the CBD as a whole, with 173 and 141, respectively.)
Carbon Brief is tracking the progress of countries towards consensus on dozens of negotiating texts using the interactive table below.
The tracker includes texts from the COP, as well as the MOPs for the Cartagena and Nagoya protocols. It also includes draft decisions from the most recent subsidiary body meetings, as these form the starting point for the negotiations in Yerevan.
The CBD has three subsidiary bodies: the subsidiary body on scientific, technical and technological advice (SBSTTA), the subsidiary body on implementation (SBI) and the subsidiary body on article 8(j) and other provisions (SB8J).
SB8J focuses on issues related to the Indigenous peoples and local communities. It was established at COP16 in Cali, Colombia, in 2024.
The first two columns of the interactive tracker list the topic of each agenda item and the relevant body, with subsequent columns including dates, page counts and links to the original documents.
The table is searchable and can be sorted using the arrows in the header.
Areas of disagreement in UN draft texts are denoted by square brackets. Counting the brackets in a particular iteration of a text therefore gives a sense of how far parties are from reaching consensus.
The bracket column is colour-coded, with dark green indicating a low number of brackets and red indicating a high number of brackets remaining.
Texts can also present parties with choices using “options” or alternatives (“alt”), which are counted together in the sixth column of the table.
The key discussions in Yerevan will centre around two agenda items in particular. The first is the global review, which will assess progress towards the GBF and make recommendations for accelerating action.
The second is finance, which can be separated into two parts: resource mobilisation and the financial mechanism. On resource mobilisation, biodiverse global south countries are likely to push for an increased amount of international finance for conservation.
Disagreement over the creation of the financial mechanism led to the suspension of COP16 in Cali in October 2024, as parties failed to find agreement on the mobilisation of finance before the end of the summit.
Global south countries want the establishment of a separate financial mechanism under the control of the CBD; global north countries largely prefer to maintain the existing mechanism, which sits under the Global Environment Facility.
At the resumed session of COP16 in Rome in early 2025, countries agreed on a roadmap that would lead to the establishment of a permanent mechanism.
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The post Interactive: Tracking negotiating texts at the COP17 biodiversity summit appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Interactive: Tracking negotiating texts at the COP17 biodiversity summit
A beacon of love
On an outer island of Fiji, two thousand nautical miles from Sydney, is a shining light of hope and resilience for our troubled world.
The island of Kioa is home to a Tuvaluan community who migrated from their atoll of Vaitupu in the late 1940s. It is a land of warm hearts, big smiles, and deep cultural roots; a place where the sound of a conch still summons the island together, where islanders paddle out to fish in carved outrigger canoes, and healthy happy children walk barefoot to school.
Here, culture is life. Kioans live sustainably through their traditional knowledge and practices. The island is alive with song, dance and the rhythms of a life tied to the tides, the winds, and the seasons.
Facing the future
Greenpeace has been lucky to have a relationship with Kioa for a number of years now, and we are continually learning from this remarkable community.
Last week, as part of our Voyaging Oceania project, we returned to the island. Our purpose was twofold —- to carry messages from the island to leaders gathering in Nadi this week for the Pacific Pre-COP, and to support the Kioa community in their efforts to improve water security for the island.
Unlike Tuvalu itself, with its eight atolls, Kioa is a mountainous, forested and richly fertile island. It will remain habitable far into the future. Kioans did not initially migrate from Vaitupu due to climate change, but the move was prophetic. They now have a lifeboat.
However, even Kioa faces challenges on our rapidly warming planet, in particular when it comes to water. Climate change is shifting once reliable rainfall patterns. On top of this, the island is already feeling the effect of this year’s intensifying El Niño event, which for Fiji means reduced rainfall and prolonged dry spells.
Right now, fresh water has to be carefully rationed, and is only available for a few hours a day. During last week’s visit aboard our campaigning ship Oceania, Greenpeace was privileged to work with the Kioa community on a new solar-powered water distribution project for the island.
Designed and led by the island, the project involves using a solar pump to move water from a reliable source to a storage tank and then using gravity to distribute the water around the village.
It was a lesson in how local knowledge and ingenuity can be the backbone of today’s climate solutions. To build a dam around the source, the local community knew the exact spot where they could gather gravel at low tide to mix with the cement. They took only what was needed, knowing that all resources must be carefully conserved. Kioa has no roads and no machinery, and it was an all-of-island effort to carry the materials up to the project site, including many heavy bags of sand and rock.
Such projects truly bring to life the vision of a resilient, locally-led, fossil fuel free Pacific.
Gallery photos taken by Raeed Ali, Pacific Community Mobiliser at Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Voices of wisdom
During our four precious days on Kioa, Greenpeace’s Pacific team sat with the island’s elders as they shared stories and experiences for us to carry with us to the Pre-COP. During a fun filled morning at the island’s school, Kioa’s children shared what they love about their life on Kioa and what they want to see nourished and protected. They wrote these messages on flags which will fly proudly from Oceania in Nadi.