UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT, GLASGOW, NOVEMBER 2021

OMNI

COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference,

GLASGOW Oct. 31-Nov. 1-12, 2021

OMNI Glasgow Countdown, 9-4-21

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This November’s UN climate summit -- known as COP26 (Conference of the Parties), will take place in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12.  --Dick

CONTENTS COP 26 COUNTDOWN 9-4-21

UN Wire, Guterres:  Code Red Alert

Covering Climate Now, What’s at Stake?

Climate Hawks, Sign the Glasgow Petition

Covering Climate Now, Preparing for COP26, Three
   Themes

Public Citizen [Popular Resistance], Nicaragua
   Proclaims Code Red for COP 26

Rainforest Action Network, Road to COP 26

Buckley and Friedman, ADG, John Kerry and US v. China

TEXTS

Guterres Declares CODE RED ALERT

Guterres urges leadership, action ahead of COP26

Group of 20 member countries must demonstrate leadership and make firm commitments to meeting climate goals set out under the Paris Agreement for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference to succeed, says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "This signal is desperately needed by the billions of people already on the front lines of the climate crisis and by markets, investors and industry who require certainty that a net-zero climate-resilient future is inevitable," Guterres warns.

 Full Story: NDTV (India)/Asian News International (7/26) 

COP 26 Press Briefing: What's at Stake?
[This “briefing” is addressed to journalists, but it applies to all informed citizens working to end fossil fuels and to create a just society.]

Climate Hawks, 8-29-21

Dick,

A few hundred government and industry leaders hold the fate of the world in their hands.

It’s now or never. The Glasgow climate talks this November will come during our last, best chance to get those decision makers to substantially accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy, and we won’t stop until they hear us.

Over 140,000 people have already signed the Deadline Glasgow petition demanding that financial institutions and the US government stop funding climate destruction.

Will you add your signature before Sunday, when we'll start delivering petitions?

Scientists and other experts have made it crystal clear: we must start rapidly decarbonizing our economies right now. There’s no time left to wait! We’re reaching out to the real decision makers and demanding that they do the right thing for our planet and future generations.

Because it’s now or never.

Best,   Jessica Hamilton

Climate Hawks Vote
PO Box 141
Agoura Hills, CA 91376-0141
United States

How to kickstart your COP26 coverage – THE CLIMATE BEAT

Countdown to COP26: 3 Themes   8-24-21

From Transforming Nature To Transforming Ourselves

By Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign. Popular Resistance (8-24-21).   On 9 August the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued the starkest report ever warning of the ‘code red for humanity’ of the climate emergency. UN Secretary General António Guterres said: “If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as today’s report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses. I count on government leaders and all stakeholders to ensure COP26 is a success.” Nicaragua has long warned of consequences of the chronic lack of ambition on the part of the ten countries responsible for over 70% of global carbon emissions. -more-

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U.S.-China strain creeps into climate talks

·         Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3 Sep 2021

·         CHRIS BUCKLEY AND LISA FRIEDMAN

·         U.S.-China strain creeps into climate talks

·         Read more...

(The New York Times/Billy H.C.

“My response to them was, ‘Hey look, climate is not ideological.’”

— John Kerry, U.S. climate envoy

Escalating tensions between China and the United States have spilled into their talks over how to stop global warming from hitting catastrophic levels after Chinese officials warned the U.S. climate envoy, John Kerry, that political ill will could undermine cooperation.

Kerry emerged Thursday from 2½ days of discussions in the northern city of Tianjin, where Chinese leaders made what he described as “pointed” comments about the worsening relationship. He told the officials he was focused on staving off the worst effects of climate change said, Kerry, a former secretary of state.

“My response to them was, ‘Hey look, climate is not ideological. It’s not partisan, it’s not a geostrategic weapon or tool, and it’s certainly not day-to-day politics. It’s a global, not bilateral, challenge,’” he said on a call with reporters.

And, Kerry said, when it comes to tackling climate change, “We think China can do more.”

Kerry said he and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, agreed to meet again in November before international negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland.

Leaders from nearly 200 countries will try to agree on intensified efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and money to help the poorest nations prepare for the effects of global warming. Hopes for a breakthrough in Glasgow rest heavily on whether China and the U.S. — the two largest emitters of planet-warming pollution — can build momentum.

Kerry said Chinese leaders briefed him on plans to cut emissions, but added that any efforts will be insufficient as long as China continues to build the coal-fired power plants that are most responsible for planet-warming emissions.

Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above the preindustrial average — the point at which scientists say the effects of climate change will be catastrophic and irreversible — requires a dramatic turnaround of China’s coal trajectory, Kerry said he told Chinese leaders.

“Needless to say, adding some 200-plus gigawatts of coal over the last five years, and now another 200 or so coming online in the planning stage, if it went to fruition would actually undo the ability of the rest of the world to achieve a limit of 1.5 degrees,” he said, adding, “The stakes are very high.”

The talks reflected the precarious role that global warming has come to play in relations between the Biden administration and Xi Jinping, China’s leader. Climate change could spur the two countries to cooperate on developing emissions-cutting technology, but it is also a point of discord over whether the other side is pulling its weight.

Relations between Beijing and Washington have descended into rancor over China’s treatment of Muslim minorities, its dismantling of human rights in Hong Kong, and U.S. support for Taiwan.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, warned Kerry on Wednesday that antagonism from the U.S. on those and other fronts could hobble climate cooperation.

“The United States should stop regarding China as a threat and adversary,” Wang told Kerry, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Work between the two nations on climate change, he said, “cannot possibly be divorced” from other geopolitical tensions.

“The U.S. side hopes that climate cooperation can be an ‘oasis’ in China-U.S. relations, but if that ‘oasis’ is surrounded by desert, it will also become desertified sooner or later,” Wang added.

END OMNI’S FIRST NEWSLETTER ON COP26, UN’S NEXT CLIMATE SUMMIT