Climate

New York, October 26 – Plans submitted by countries to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to earth warming, have failed their targets and may lead earth’s temperatures to rise to at least 2.5 degrees Celsius, a level deemed catastrophic, a new report by U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said.

The 2015 Paris Agreement signed by most countries had called for limiting global temperatures to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century and a number of countries had announced their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reach that target by 2030. But the plans submitted by those countries were not ambitious enough, the report said. The NDCs are voluntary efforts by countries to lower greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.

Despite the negative assessment on efforts to cut down gas emissions, there have been an improvement over last year’s report, a climate official said.

“The downward trend in emissions expected by 2030 shows that nations have made some progress this year,” said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of U.N. Climate Change as reported by UN News.

“But the science is clear and so are our climate goals under the Paris Agreement. We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5 degrees Celsius world,” Stiell said. He urged governments to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years.

At the 26^th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021, governments agreed to act on their climate plans, but only 24 out of 193 countries submitted updated plans to the U.N., Stiell said was a disappointment,

“Government decisions and actions must reflect the level of urgency, the gravity of the threats we are facing, and the shortness of the time we have remaining to avoid the devastating consequences of runaway climate change,” he said.

Governments to hold COP27 in Egypt November 6-18

“COP27 is the moment where global leaders can regain momentum on climate change, make the necessary pivot from negotiations to implementation and get moving on the massive transformation that must take place throughout all sectors of society to address the climate emergency,” Stiell said.

Stiell urged governments to show at the coming conference how they will put the Paris Agreement to work through legislation, policies and programs, as well as how they will cooperate and provide support for implementation, UN News reported. Stiell urged progress to be made in four priority areas: mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and finance.

Close to 200 countries and hundreds of climate and environment experts will take part in the 27th Conference of the Parties – COP27 – to take action against climate change. The summit in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh from November 6 to 18 will take place in a year that has seen the most severe climate events.

One third of Pakistan was flooded, affecting 33 million lives and over 15 million people could be pushed into poverty. Hurricanes caused massive destructions in the United States, the Philippines and Caribbean islands while European countries were hit by the hottest summer in 500 years.

The summit brings all countries that signed the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. The convention commits those countries to take common actions to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations which contribute to warming of the earth.

Other actions fighting climate change include phasing down coal-fired power stations, reduce methane emissions and reverse deforestation and land degradation. Industrialized countries are urged to provide $100 billion a year to help developing countries cope with climate change.

(By J.Tuyet Nguyen)

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Berlin/New York, February 28 – While all efforts have focused on preventing planet earth from heating up above 1.5 degrees Celsius, a new study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with the contribution of 270 scientists from 67 countries said global temperatures will well exceed that threshold in the 21^st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions occur during this decade.

IPCC, a UN organization dedicated to assessing the science related to climate change, provided a detailed look at threats from global warming, focusing on climate change impacts and how countries have so far adapted to new technology to fight climate change. It said if earth temperatures are heating up above 1.5-2 degrees, coastal and Arctic regions could suffer beyond repair and the planet will see rising seas and more frequent and widespread wildfires, flooding and droughts.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the report shows “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership. With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change.”

“As current events make all too clear, our continued reliance on fossil fuels makes the global economy and energy security vulnerable to geopolitical shocks and crises,” Guterres said. “Instead of slowing down the decarbonization of the global economy, now is the time to accelerate the energy transition to a renewable energy future. Fossil fuels are a dead end – for our planet, for humanity, and yes, for economies. A prompt, well-managed transition to renewables is the only pathway to energy security, universal access and the green jobs our world needs.”

The report said governments have not done enough to adapt to climate-friendly technology and taken the necessary measures to ward off the hazards of climate change. It called for transformational changes to safeguard human well-being, including building up stronger health systems, supply chains and providing the necessary needs in society, from energy to advanced urban planning.

It said poor countries face much bigger challenges than rich ones while developing countries do not have enough resources for dealing with climate shocks. It said floods, droughts and storms killed 15 times as many people in developing nations in Africa, Asia and elsewhere than in the wealthiest countries in the last decade. Between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people, or nearly half of the world population, are “highly vulnerable” to climate change.

Reaction supporting the report’s findings  were prompt. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Geneva called for urgent local action and funding, particularly for those most vulnerable, to combat the devastating humanitarian impacts of the climate crisis confirmed in the IPCC report.

IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said, “The IPCC report confirms what the IFRC and its network of 192 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have already witnessed for years: Climate change is already disrupting the lives of billions, particularly the world’s poorest who have contributed the least to it.”

“The global response to COVID-19 proves that governments can act decisively and drastically in the face of imminent global threats. We need the same energy and action to combat climate change now, and we need it to reach the most climate-vulnerable communities across the world so that they have the tools and funding to anticipate and manage risks.”

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The Clean Ocean International Expert Group of the UN Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development will formally present its short list of activities and goals, and a strategy to reach them, in a “manifesto” at the outset of a three-day online conference on achieving a clean ocean, Weds. 17 to Fri. 19 Nov. (https://bit.ly/3EQHRfQ). 

(Leaders of the Clean Ocean International Expert Group are available for advance interviews.

The group’s “Manifesto for Clean Ocean 2030” is appended below in full.

They will also take part in an online UN conference, “A Clean Ocean, Where Sources of Pollution are Identified and Removed,” Weds. 17 to Fri. 19 Nov. (full program: bit.ly/3EQHRfQ; registration: bit.ly/3oo7NZH)

High-res images: www.oceandecade-conference.com/en/press.html

Contact: Terry Collins, tc@tca.tc, +1-416-878-8712)

Interim goals for 2025 and an integrated ocean debris observing system exemplify demands of experts’ “Clean Ocean Manifesto.”

Reducing marine debris by 50-90% and a globe circling, high-tech system of monitors are two essential aims among several championed today by nine distinguished international experts appointed to help the UN reach the goal of a clean ocean by 2030.

Co-Chaired by Angelika Brandt of Germany, a Southern Ocean / Antarctica biodiversity expert, and Elva Escobar Briones of Mexico, a deep sea biodiversity expert, the group concisely outlines “the challenges and some of the opportunities that the Ocean Decade can provide for a Clean Ocean.”

The statement charts the most direct route to a clean ocean citing these objectives for 2030: Enlarge understanding of pathways for spread and fates of pollutants; Reduce and remove top-priority forms of pollution (e.g., marine debris) by large amounts, as much as 50% to 90%

To prevent recurrence, reduce sources or emission of pollutants (e.g., anthropogenic noise, discarded plastic and harmful chemicals, farming practices adding harmful sediment outflow). Improve dramatically the outcomes of control measures (e.g., to decrease amounts of mercury in tuna, die-offs of marine life, eutrophication). Improve monitoring (often as part of the Global Ocean Observing System [GOOS]) for more accurate, precise, timely, comprehensive real-time tracing of spills and monitoring of ocean soundscapes; improve systems to provide timely warning of pollutants emerging and increasing.

Identify and accelerate development and adoption of technologies to promote a Clean Ocean. These could range from cleaner, more efficient motors and fuels to new forms of remediation and waste management; better ways to monitor, track, and map marine pollutants and progress toward a clean ocean (such as aerial remote sensing, genomics, and hydrophone arrays); and better technologies for emergency cleanup.

Improve national mechanisms (legal, regulatory) for control and prevention, better align financial incentives, and lift compliance with international treaties.

Lift public engagement and understanding with access to information associated with behavioral shifts favoring the motto of “reduce, reuse and recycle” and encourage participation in citizen science as part of events involving sailing, surfing, and other activities dependent on a Clean Ocean

With such a framework agreed and in place, specific objectives can be identified and efforts activated, with targets and timetables similar in scope and character to next spring’s anticipated world agreement to protect 30% of the marine environment by 2030, and the completion of high-resolution mapping of the seabed, also by 2030.

Interim objectives for 2025

The expert group underlined that, “This process should aim to define and attract financial and other support to meet an initial set of goals for 2025, followed by goals for the end of the Ocean Decade in 2030.”

And they set out examples of nearer term objectives for 2025: Quantify the global harm of marine pollution from all major sources on ecosystems and organisms and on human health; assessment methods need to take into account multiple stressors. Survey the totality of anthropogenic chemicals flowing into the oceans.

Define a Clean Ocean, including acceptable levels of pollution to set threshold values, and define ecological boundaries or maximal levels of pollutants as well as their rates of degradation to maintain well-functioning ecosystems; this includes understanding tolerances of species and ecosystems to pollutants.

Develop a widely shared vision of a Clean Ocean.

Identify high-priority geographic challenges such as polar regions and urban coasts. Identify barriers to action impeding scaling up solutions for regional and global impact; quantify possibilities for amelioration. Identify key partners, including those who might be left behind, and provide engagement strategies for early career ocean professionals, indigenous peoples, and island communities. Develop reference scenarios for industrialization of the oceans during the next decade, including tourism, seabed mining, windfarm development, for example, as they relate to a Clean Ocean.

Develop initial estimates of costs associated with transitions to a Clean Ocean.

Secure major financial commitments.

“By 2030 we want to achieve measurable improvement in monitoring and clear reduction of emissions and harm through a spectrum of technical and behavioral strategies,” the group says.

The three-day on-line conference Nov. 17-19 will highlight more than 30 activities in place or in development around the world that can make important contributions by 2030 to a Clean Ocean. 

These include initiatives to:

Successfully and consistently monitor marine debris from space as part of an Integrated Global Marine Debris Observing System; Operate deep sea observatories in the Atlantic that document and publicize multiple stressors; Observe the vast Southern Ocean to give early warnings of possible pollution hot spots in this relatively pristine ocean; Instrument 30% of coastal city ocean spaces to report on pollution changes including restoration; Identify and greatly reduce persistent organic pollutants globally.

The manifesto, which presents the signatories’ views and not official positions of their respective institutions, is also directed at other groups such as the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, the Economist magazine World Ocean Initiative, and the World Ocean Council. 

The group plans to share its manifesto with other expert groups, national committees, and with endorsed projects and programs of the UN Ocean Decade to speed development of a strong set of Clean Ocean activities.

Says lead author Jesse Ausubel, Director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University, New York City: “We want this decade to transition from increasing to decreasing the environmental problems of the oceans.”

Clean Ocean International Expert Group Co-Chairs

Angelika Brandt, biodiversity of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica; Germany

Elva Escobar Briones, biodiversity of the deep sea; Mexico

Members

Frida Armas-Pfirter, marine and coastal law; Argentina

Jesse Huntley Ausubel, technologies for ocean observing; USA, lead author

Gina Bonne, environment and climate, Seychelles

Saskia Brix-Elsig, polar seafloor biology; Germany

Angelique Songco, marine protected areas; Philippines

Kaveh Samimi-Namin, coral reef ecosystems; Iran

Sofia Fürstenberg Stott, maritime industry innovation; Sweden

Links

UN Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

www.oceandecade-conference.com/en/program.html

Creating the Ocean We Want

www.oceandecade-conference.com/en/creating-the-ocean-we-want.html

Clean Ocean Laboratory  

www.oceandecade-conference.com/en/a-clean-ocean.html

Ocean Decade Factsheet

www.oceandecade-conference.com/files/Factsheet%20Ocean%20Decade.pdf 

* * * * *

In full: Manifesto for Clean Ocean 2030

Clean Ocean International Expert Group, in anticipation of the Ocean Decade Laboratory

A Clean Ocean, 17-19 November 2021

A clean ocean where sources of pollution are identified and removed

Comprising 71% of Earth’s surface, the ocean encompasses remote trackless seas and heavily trafficked harbors. It spans the seafloor through the water column to the sea surface and extends from coastal zones to mid-ocean. The ocean spans habitats from beaches and rocky shores to reefs and canyons and polar and deep seas. A Clean Ocean benefits both humanity and the spectrum of other forms of life ranging from whales and fish to mollusks, corals, and seagrasses with which we share it. Our Manifesto for Clean Ocean 2030 aims to increase circularity of the economy in the face of increasing industrialization of the oceans and promote mobilization to manage ocean pollution at its sources in ways that enable both a profitable Blue Economy and a Clean Ocean.

Ocean Pollutants – Many forms of pollution threaten or already dirty the ocean:

Debris, including plastics; Oil and chemical spills and releases from seafloor extraction, pipelines, and shipping; Runoff of fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals from agriculture and both rural and suburban areas; Sewage and other coastal runoff, including pharmaceuticals, from urban areas and harbors, and associated harmful algal blooms; Contaminants that, although settled in sediments, can be remobilized by disturbances; Sewage and other improperly discarded wastes from vessels; Acute and chronic elevation of noise and light; Radiation from radioactive materials deposited or discharged into the oceans ; Invasive species and other harmful aspects of bilge and ballast water carelessly released; Construction debris from platform and island building, spoils from channel dredging and pipe-laying, and derelict facilities; Abandoned and discarded equipment from ocean navigation and research and military activities

Threats to a Clean Ocean

Pollution in the ocean comes from land-based and atmospheric sources and from the sea itself.

Land sources include agricultural fertilizers (causing deoxygenation or dead zones), herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and other materials employed in the bioeconomy; micro- and macro-plastics from carelessly used and discarded products; non-metabolized medicines and other drugs from human consumption; detergents and many other chemicals that form parts of urban and industrial metabolism; heavy metals from mining; and brine from marine water desalination.

Atmospheric sources include greenhouse gases (primarily generated on land) associated with climate change and acidification; forms of sulfur, nitrogen, mercury, and other harmful pollutants generated both at sea and on land; noise from aviation and wind farms, and dust from anthropogenic fires.

Sea sources include spills from extraction, transport, and use of petroleum products; ship sources of waste, including discarded fishing gear and other forms of waste; untreated wastewater from recreational and commercial vessels; deep-sea tailing placements; lubricants and other chemicals from offshore facilities; underwater noise from shipping, mining, fishing, and pile driving; and night-time illumination of vessels and fleets.

Since 1969 the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) has examined these and other threats to the Clean Ocean and provided authoritative, independent, interdisciplinary scientific advice to organizations and governments to support the protection and sustainable use of the marine environment.

The Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

Launched in January 2021, the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), the “Ocean Decade,” is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for ocean actors across the world to come together to generate knowledge and foster the partnerships needed to support a well-functioning, productive, resilient, sustainable, and inspiring ocean. We propose that the leadership of the Ocean Decade organize Clean Ocean activities in the following way:

Collect the major Clean Ocean recommendations from the reports of GESAMP and other expert bodies, such as national academies of sciences.

Consolidate and reduce these and other inputs to a set of not more than ten global goals for a Clean Ocean. New targets and timetables should be similar in scope and character to the Endorsed Recommendations to protect 30% of the marine environment by 2030 and complete the high-resolution mapping of the seabed by 2030.

Work with the many concerned entities worldwide to coordinate and optimize roles and contributions so the Decade will achieve historic collaborative global objectives for a Clean Ocean.

This process should aim to define and attract financial and other support to meet an initial set of goals for 2025, followed by goals for the end of the Ocean Decade in 2030.

Examples of Clean Ocean objectives for 2025

Quantify the global harm of marine pollution from all major sources on ecosystems and organisms and on human health; assessment methods need to take into account multiple stressors.

Survey the totality of anthropogenic chemicals flowing into the oceans.

Define a Clean Ocean, including acceptable levels of pollution to set threshold values, and define ecological boundaries or maximal levels of pollutants as well as their rates of degradation to maintain well-functioning ecosystems; this includes understanding tolerances of species and ecosystems to pollutants.

Develop a widely shared vision of a Clean Ocean.

Identify high-priority geographic challenges such as polar regions and urban coasts.

Identify barriers to action impeding scaling up solutions for regional and global impact; quantify possibilities for amelioration.

Identify key partners, including those who might be left behind, and provide engagement strategies for early career ocean professionals, indigenous peoples, and island communities.

Develop reference scenarios for industrialization of the oceans during the next decade, including tourism, seabed mining, windfarm development, for example, as they relate to a Clean Ocean.

Develop initial estimates of costs associated with transitions to a Clean Ocean.

Secure major financial commitments.

By 2025 we aim to identify potential pathways toward solutions for knowing what is manageable. By 2030 we want to achieve measurable improvement in monitoring and clear reduction of emissions and harm through a spectrum of technical and behavioral strategies.

Examples of Clean Ocean objectives for 2030

Enlarge understanding of pathways for spread and fates of pollutants.

Reduce and remove top-priority forms of pollution (e.g., marine debris) by large amounts, as much as 50% to 90%.

To prevent recurrence, reduce sources or emission of pollutants (e.g., anthropogenic noise, discarded plastic and harmful chemicals, farming practices adding harmful sediment outflow).

Improve dramatically the outcomes of control measures (e.g., to decrease amounts of mercury in tuna, die-offs of marine life, eutrophication).

Improve monitoring (often as part of the Global Ocean Observing System [GOOS]) for more accurate, precise, timely, comprehensive real-time tracing of spills and monitoring of ocean soundscapes; improve systems to provide timely warning of pollutants emerging and increasing.

Identify and accelerate development and adoption of technologies to promote a Clean Ocean. These could range from cleaner, more efficient motors and fuels to new forms of remediation and waste management; better ways to monitor, track, and map marine pollutants and progress toward a clean ocean (such as aerial remote sensing, genomics, and hydrophone arrays); and better technologies for emergency cleanup.

Improve national mechanisms (legal, regulatory) for control and prevention, better align financial incentives, and lift compliance with international treaties.

Lift public engagement and understanding with access to information associated with behavioral shifts favoring the motto of “reduce, re-use and recycle” and encourage participation in citizen science as part of events involving sailing, surfing, and other activities dependent on a Clean Ocean.

Now is the time for ambitious targets and timetables to elicit the science for the Clean Ocean we want.

Contact: Terry Collins, tc@tca.tc, +1-416-878-8712

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Glasgow/New York, November 11 – The United Nations said some “progress” has been made at the Glasgow Climate Change Conference as countries and more than 1,000 cities around the world have committed to reach net zero emissions by 2050 while the global coal pipeline has decreased by 76 per cent since 2015. But the progress is “far from enough,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres one day before the conference is to adopt a final document before closing.

More than 100 countries have committed to halting and reversing forest loss and land degradation by 2030 and others have agreed to reducing methane emissions 30 per cent by 2030. The 197 countries attending the climate change conference have also formed a Net-Zero Asset Owners Alliance, which Guterres said is “the gold standard for credible commitments and transparent targets” and “is managing US $10 trillion in assets and catalyzing change across industries.”

“I encourage the much larger Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero to follow the same path,” he said in an address to the high level of attendees to the conference. He also cited decisions by 28 new countries and members to join the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which raised the membership to 165 countries, cities, regions and businesses, and the 44 countries and 32 companies and regions that have committed to transition from coal to clean power.

“That’s why I have been calling for the formation of coalitions of countries, international financial institutions and private finance – as well as renewable energy companies – to support this momentous shift,” he said. “Some 30 member states and regional development banks have pledged immediate support for the clean energy transition in countries. I urge more financial institutions and investors to follow suit.”

“The announcements here in Glasgow are encouraging – but they are far from enough,” he said.

Guterres said he will establish a High-Level Expert Group to propose “clear standards to measure and analyze net zero commitments from non-state actors,” a decision he said is beyond the mechanisms already set out in the Paris Agreement. “This High-Level Expert group will build on existing work and submit a series of recommendations to me during the course of next year. They will work in a transparent and inclusive manner, and I invite you all to cooperate fully with them.”

US and China to cooperate on cutting emissions

The United States and China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters, said in a surprise announcement at Glasgow on November 10 that they will take joint actions to fight climate change in the coming decade. The announcement stirred hope of climate action, but it failed to support a proposal by the United Kingdom to all countries to update their emissions-cutting plans by the end of 2021. Climate organizations said the UK proposal could help close the differences between how countries plan to cut emissions and what scientists believe what are needed to prevent climate disasters.

See joint statement at:

https://www.state.gov/u-s-china-joint-glasgow-declaration-on-enhancing-climate-action-in-the-2020s/

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Glasgow/New York, November 9 – A group of 47 countries, a majority of them developing and climate-vulnerable countries, have committed to develop climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems as increasing evidence shows that climate change has impacted people’s health worldwide. The decision by these countries was announced by the World Health Organization at the 26th UN climate summit at the Scottish city attended by 197 member countries of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

WHO said most countries in the group have also committed to transform their health systems to be more sustainable and low-carbon while 12 countries have set a target date to reach net zero carbon emissions on or before 2050. The commitments were made as part of the COP26 Health Programme, which is a partnership between the UK government, WHO, the UNFCCC and health groups such as Health Care Without Harm.

“Commitments are anticipated to be implemented in the coming years and will allow countries to develop a roadmap for future investments in climate resilient and low carbon sustainable health systems and facilities,” the programme said.

WHO said countries that have committed to achieving low-carbon, sustainable health systems include Argentina, Fiji, Malawi, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and 36 others. Countries that have committed to enhance the climate resilience of their health systems include Bangladesh, Ethiopia, the Maldives, the Netherlands, and 42 others.

“The future of health must be built on health systems that are resilient to the impacts of epidemics, pandemics and other emergencies, but also to the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events and the increasing burden of various diseases related to air pollution and our warming planet,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

“Health systems must also be part of the solution, by reducing carbon emissions. We applaud those countries that have committed to building climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems, and we hope to see many others following their lead in the near future.”

Countries that have joined the COP26 Health Programme are: Argentina, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Bhutan, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Lao PDR, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone ,Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America and Yemen.

Island states are some of countries most vulnerable to climate change from the Caribbean to the South Pacific Ocean.  WHO pointed out Fiji where the government has built more climate-resilient health infrastructure, strengthened the health workforce and provided health care facilities with sustainable energy services to cope with cyclones, flash floods and rising sea levels.

Minister for Health and Medical Services Ifereimi Waqainabete of Fiji said, “In the midst of the pandemic, we had to recover from extreme weather events and manage the resulting health impacts. [It] has shown us that health systems and facilities are the main line of defense in protecting populations from emerging threats … and that now is the time to increase our commitment to a safer, and more sustainable and inclusive future for all.”

“The message from WHO and health professionals around the globe is clear: climate change is a huge health challenge and we need to act now. I’m really pleased to see so many countries prioritising this issue through the COP26 Health Programme and their level of ambition. Strong leadership from the health sector is vital to make sure we protect our populations from the impacts of climate change by enhancing the climate resilience of health systems, and by reducing emissions from the health sector,” said Wendy Morton, Minister for Europe and Americas, in the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The COP26 Health Programme include:  Building climate resilient health systems; Developing low carbon sustainable health systems; Adaptation Research for Health; The inclusion of health priorities in Nationally Determined Contributions and Raising the voice of health professionals as advocates for stronger ambition on climate change.

Countries participating in the programme are committed to, first, conducting climate change and health vulnerability assessments, and to develop national adaptation plans for health, and second, high ambition-high emitter countries commit to setting a target date by which to achieve net zero emissions health systems and develop an action plan or roadmap to achieve sustainable, low carbon health systems.

The second commitment is significant to global mitigation efforts: the health sector accounts for 10 per cent of global GDP and is a substantial contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for around 4.6 per cent.

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Glasgow/New York, November 5 – Thousands of young climate activists, so far the largest crowd of protesters in the Scottish city of Glasgow, took to the streets to demand actions against climate change. Headed by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, the young activists called the UN global climate summit “a failure” and brandished signs calling for an end of deforestation and for saving the planet from climate dangers.

But Glasgow is expecting a much larger protest Saturday November 6 as tens of thousands of climate activists are prepared to demonstrate as part of the “Global Day for Climate Justice” organized by Cop26 Coalition. The demonstrations demand that the 197 governments that are holding the 26^th UN global climate summit work out effective and just measures against climate change.

More than 25,000 people have registered to attend the climate summit, which the UN considered its most important one as global warming is threatening the earth with more climate disasters such as flooding, severe draught and wildfires. The organizers said over 200 simultaneous events are set to take place around the world, with over 100 in the United Kingdom alone.

With such large crowds in Glasgow, COP26 Coalition has provided guidelines to all participants to take measures against Covid-19 including testing, wearing facial masks and social distancing.
“Public health and safety during the ongoing pandemic is our primary concern,” the guidelines said. “We have planned all activities over COP26 to minimise the risk of spreading Covid-19. We are fighting for climate justice at COP against the backdrop of global vaccine inequality and a need to keep everyone in our communities – both in Glasgow and abroad – safe.”

The Global Day for Climate Justice organization said in its website, which provided also details for the demonstrations, said:

“The Era of Injustice is Over: Our Time is Now”

“Justice won’t be handed to us by world leaders or delivered by corporations. So far, governments have done too little too late: colluding with corporations and hiding behind green washed ‘solutions’ that actually don’t exist yet, that don’t address the scale of the problem, and in many cases rely on more exploitation of people and the planet.

“The transformative solutions that we need to survive and build a more just and fair world can only be brought about through collective action, solidarity and coordination, from our local communities and international levels. We are bringing together movements from across the world to build power for system change – indigenous movements, frontline communities, trade unions, racial justice groups, youth strikers, land workers, peasants, NGOs, grassroots community campaigns, feminist movements, faith groups.”

“Wherever you are in the world, now is the time to join the fight for climate justice. We need all hands on deck: in workplaces, communities, schools, hospitals and across national borders.”

Asad Rehman, a spokesperson for the COP Coalition, told the 350.org, a climate organization present in Glasgow that civil society groups had little access to the climate summit.

“We are taking to the streets across the world this weekend to push governments from climate inaction to climate justice,” Rehman said.  “This has been the least accessible climate summit ever – with so many people sidelined at the talks or not able to make it in the first place. Today those people are having their voices heard.”

“The climate crisis has resulted from our broken, unequal societies and economies. We must transform our global economies into ones that protect both people and our planet instead of profit for a few.”

Brianna Fruean, a Samoan member of the Pacific Climate Warriors delegation and a speaker at the rally on Saturday, said:

“As someone from one of the regions most threatened by climate breakdown I know just how important this climate summit is, and how crucial it is that voices are heard on the streets as well as the corridors of power. For a decade now, the storms in the Pacific have been getting more violent, the droughts have been longer and the floods deeper. Fishers cannot feed their families. Family-owned shops that are flattened in a cyclone are rebuilt, only to be destroyed by rising water.”

“That’s why I’m marching today – with people right across the world – because it can’t go on like this. We refuse to be just victims to this crisis. We are not drowning, we are fighting and on Saturday the world will hear us.”

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Following is a news release from the World Food Program:

Antananarivo, Madagascar, November 2 – As climate talks get underway in Glasgow, families in Southern Madagascar, where climate is driving famine-like conditions, brace themselves for yet another harsh year ahead as the ongoing drought shows no signs of abating, signaling deteriorating hunger.

Severe hunger has touched over 1.1 million people with 14,000 of them one step away from famine. The situation, already alarming, is set to worsen by the end of year with the number of people in famine-like conditions expected to double.

“The changing climate has meant that many families who were able to live off the land 15 years ago have now fallen into severe hunger. Families are scavenging for survival and many are living only on the food assistance they receive,” said Menghestab Haile, WFP Regional Director, Southern Africa.”I recently met a mother who told me that she had lost her 8-month-old to seeds from cactus fruit that had accumulated in his stomach. The face of hunger in Southern Madagascar is horrific.”

The drought has led to the complete disappearance of food sources leaving families visibly famished and resorting to survival measures such as eating locusts, wild leaves and cactus leaves which are usually fed to cattle. Vulnerable children are bearing the brunt of the crisis with malnutrition in under-fives expected to quadruple, crossing the half million mark by April 2022.

“The number of malnourished children coming to health centres in Southern Madagascar has doubled compared to this time last year. Many of them are too weak to laugh or cry, let alone play and learn,” said Anna Horner, WFP’s Chief of Nutrition Innovative Financing, who recently visited Southern Madagascar. “The physical and mental damage to children due to malnutrition can be irreversible. It is heart-wrenching to see so many young minds and bodies unnecessarily suffering from hunger and malnutrition.”

Amidst the hottest decade on record, Madagascar has suffered from exceptionally warm temperatures, deficits in rainfall and unexpected sandstorms that have covered fields, left crops wilted and harvests well below average.  By April 2021, 70 per cent of the Grand Sud was in drought with food production only a third of the last five-year average. The forecasted dry start to the upcoming planting season means families will not be able to sow their fields immediately and their access to food and an income hangs in the balance. Adding to an already dire situation, a recent upsurge of locusts is expected to affect an estimated 400,000 hectares of land.

WFP has been reaching around 700,000 people monthly with emergency life-saving food as well as supplementary nutrition products for pregnant and nursing women and children. Moving beyond emergency support, WFP together with the government, is implementing long-term resilience building activities that help communities adapt to the changing climate. These include access to water, reforestation, sand dune stabilization and economic support like access to microinsurance schemes in case of crop failure.

In September, 3,500 households received a payout of US$100 each to recover losses from the failed maize crop. The payout helped families sustain themselves despite a lost harvest.

WFP aims to scale up its response in Southern Madagascar and urgently needs US$69 million over the next six months to do so. WFP is increasingly concerned about the situation in Madagascar and has been ringing the alarm bells over the climate-induced hunger crisis, one of the potentially many in the world.

The United Nations World Food Program is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.  We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

Follow us on Twitter @wfp_media @PamMadagascar

For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org)

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Glasgow/New York, November 2 – The United States and the European Union are calling for a global pact to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent and have received backing from dozens of governments, a move that would help the climate summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow to move forward as it badly needs a breakthrough in climate action to revert global warming.

Methane is one of greenhouse gases that cause global warming and its impact is over 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 20-year period. Scientists and environmentalists said cutting methane emissions could help the goal of slowing down global warming.

The US Environmental Protection Agency planned to issue strict rules limiting methane emissions from oil and natural gas production in the United States as part of President Joe Biden’s climate initiatives, it was announced in Washington.

Governments attending the climate summit have begun signing the Global Methane Pledge, which aims at cutting methane emissions to keep global temperature within 1.5 degrees Celsius. The pledge says participating countries agree to take “voluntary actions to contribute to a collective effort to reduce global methane emissions at least 30 per cent from 2020 levels to 2030, which could eliminate over 0.2 degree C warming by 2050.”

See climate summit’s schedule of meetings: https://unfccc.int/conference/glasgow-climate-change-conference-october-november-2021

The UN Environment Program, with support from the European Union, launched on October 31 an International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) at the G20 summit in Rome for the purpose of driving action on reducing methane emissions. UNEP said methane emissions are responsible for at least a quarter of the current climate warming.

It said IMEO will “improve the reporting accuracy and public transparency of human-caused methane emissions. IMEO will initially focus on methane emissions from the fossil fuel sector, and then expand to other major emitting sectors like agriculture and waste.”

“As highlighted by IPCC, if the world is serious about avoiding the worst effects of climate change, we need to cut methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry. But this is not a get-out-of-jail free card: methane reductions must go hand in hand with actions to decarbonize the energy system to limit warming to 1.5°C, as called for in the Paris Agreement,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

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Glasgow/New York, November 1 – In his address opening the climate summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the 197 countries that signed UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to prevent a climate catastrophe. “We face a stark choice:  Either we stop it — or it stops us,” he said.

The United Nations’ 26^th climate conference, considered the biggest and most important for planet earth, opened negotiations that could last two weeks faced with negative views that it may not succeed in efforts to revert global warming as wealthy nations remain divided about measures to phase out coal and other energy sources responsible for global warming.

“It’s time to say: enough,” he said. “Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet.

Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.”

Guterres said the planet is changing “from the ocean depths to mountain tops, from melting glaciers to relentless extreme weather events.

Sea-level rise is double the rate it was 30 years ago.”

The UN chief called recent statements that the world is still on tract to fight climate change an “illusion.” He said published report of Nationally Determined Contributions, which are pledges by countries to implement measures cutting emissions, would still increase global temperature to 2.7 degrees Celsius this century instead of 1.5 degrees as demanded in the Paris climate agreement in 2015.

“So, as we open this much anticipated climate conference, we are still heading for climate disaster,” he said. “Young people know it. Every country sees it.”

Frustration built up after the group of 20 major economies (G20) remained divided about how to implement the Paris 2015 climate agreement, which aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 by removing enough greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in order to match any new emissions.

The two-week climate summit opened on October 31 in Glasgow with an ambitious but difficult program of setting up new regulations to implement targets of phasing out fossil fuels burning that are heating up the planet. Known as COP26, which means the 26^th annual Conference of the Parties to the UNFCC signed by 197 countries. About 100 heads of state and government and more than 25,000 participants from the UN, non-governmental organizations and civil societies and activists have registered to attend in person. US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, European Union leaders, Guterres and other government leaders were to address the summit.

See climate summit’s schedule of meetings: https://unfccc.int/conference/glasgow-climate-change-conference-october-november-2021

A main goal of fighting climate change was set at the climate conference in Paris in 2015, which demanded that countries implement climate mitigating measures and adapt to climate technology to prevent the average global temperature from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius. But studies showed that global warming will continue with deadly heat waves, flooding, wildfire, drought and the collapse of the ecosystems.

Climate action requires also that wealthy countries allocate $100 billion a year to developing and vulnerable countries so they can adapt to green technology and cope with climate disasters that they are not responsible for. But wealthy countries have not yet met the needed financial goal.

The UN Environment Program said in a new Emissions Gap Report before the Glasgow conference that new and updated commitments to mitigate climate change were a positive step forward. But it said however that the world remains on track for a dangerous global temperature rise of at least 2.7 degrees Celsius this century even if climate action is implemented.

The report said the efforts remained insufficient and the world needs a 55 per cent reduction to limit global temperature increase below 1.5°C, the capstone defined by scientists as the less risky scenery for our planet and humanity’s future.

See full report here: https://bit.ly/2ZhNuUT

Executive summary: https://bit.ly/3GloOfd

The report showed that updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are pledges by each country to reduce national emissions, as well as other commitments made for 2030 but not yet officially submitted – would only lead to an additional 7.5 per cent reduction in annual greenhouse emissions in 2030, compared to previous commitments.

The UN Development Program and the University of Oxford issued also a new survey called the G20 Peoples’ Climate Vote that showed the crucial importance of how young people support climate action in the G20, which is a group of the world’s wealthiest nations. Climate action by the G20 would have a huge impact on mitigating climate change because the group accounts for 80 per cent of the global economy and 75 per cent of global emissions.

See full report: https://bit.ly/3GixZNt

“This new Peoples’ Climate Vote shows that, on average, 70 per cent of young people in G20 countries believe that we are in a global climate emergency,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

“Given that they are about to inherit this climate emergency, young people are sending a message to global leaders that is loud and clear: they want climate action now. The world is now watching – hoping that countries will come together at COP26 in Glasgow to make bold, historic decisions that will literally change the future.”

The most popular climate policies among under-18s in the G20 countries surveyed were conservation of forests and land (59%), using solar, wind and renewable power and using climate friendly farming techniques (both 57%). Support for these policies was stronger among young people by three percentage points for the first two policies, and by four percentage points for climate-friendly farming.

The survey polled over 689,000 people, including over 300,000 under 18 years old. Youths at are particularly aware of climate dangers as they are entering the workforce and becoming voters, which put them in positions of greater influence.

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