UN climate talks in Bonn have concluded with progress on technical issues, but with bigger questions about cutting carbon unresolved. Delegates say they are pleased that the rulebook for the Paris climate agreement is finally coming together. But these technical discussions took place against the backdrop of a larger battle about coal, oil and gas. It means that next year’s conference in Poland is set for a major showdown on the future of fossil fuels. This meeting, known as COP23, was tasked with clarifying complex operational issues around the workings of the Paris climate agreement. One of the most important elements was the development of a process that would help countries to review and ratchet up their commitments to cut carbon. Fiji, holding the presidency of this meeting, proposed what’s being called the Tala noa Dialogue. Over the next year, a series of discussions will take place to help countries look at the promises they have made under the Paris pact.
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The large coalition of US cities and state s backing climate action – which as a group represents the third-largest economy in the world – stole the American show, with the California governor, Jerry Brown, popping up everywhere, pumping up the crowds. The multi-nation pledge to phase out coal use was the political high point, but the dragging on of the coalition talks in Germany prevented Angela Merkel from potentially joining the party. The politics is key: UN climate talks run on consensus, with no votes, so trust and momentum are vital and were preserved in Bonn. But the summit was like a dress rehearsal for next year, when the Paris rulebook has to be finalised and poorer and vulnerable nations will demand much more action and funding from the rich countries they blame for climate change. Further gatherings in Paris in December and California next year will also help prepare the stage for the 2018 UN climate summit. That will be in Silesia, a heartland of Europe’s King Coal, Poland, which has alre ady started feeling the international pressure to clean up its act. If that summit achieves its goals – accelerating carbon cuts – then the curtain will have been raised on the clean, green 21st century, against a backdrop of the mines and power plants of the 20th century.
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One of the fathers of climate science is calling for a wave of lawsuits against governments and fossil fuel companies that are delaying action on what he describes as the growing, mortal threat of global warming. Former Nasa scientist James Hansen says the litigate-to-mitigate campaign is needed alongside political mobilisation because judges are less likely than politicians to be in the pocket of oil, coal and gas companies. “The judiciary is the branch of government in the US and other countries that is relatively free of bribery. And bribery is exactly what is going on,” he told the Guardian on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Bonn.
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