The 1.5°C Reader
A series of 7 in-depth video reports from different angles about the Caribbean's importance and participation in COP27.
Dale Elliott is the reporter, writer, and producer. He owns and operates the Independent Film Company in Saint Lucia and served as a special reporter for the Earth Journalism Network during COP27.
21 NOVEMBER 2022
The biggest breakthrough came on support for climate victims. Developing countries got the loss and damage fund they fought for – on the proviso that the burden of paying into it does not all fall on rich governments. Who pays and who benefits is a battle for Cop28.
There was little to stop polluters causing more damage, though. A proposal to phase out all fossil fuels, not just the coal power targeted at last year’s summit, went nowhere. The Egyptian presidency openly struck gas deals on the sidelines.
→ MORE ON CLIMATE HOME NEWS WEBSITE
21 NOVEMBER 2022
The one major area of progress was the creation of a loss and damage fund to compensate the ‘particularly vulnerable developing countries’ from climate impacts. But at the end of the day, this addresses the symptom without putting further attention to the cause.
→ READ MORE ON RENEW ECONOMY'S WEBSITE
20 NOVEMBER 2022
The 1.5C target, beyond which the most disastrous climate impacts lie, is not yet physically impossible to meet. To achieve that, global carbon emissions must be reduced by 50% by 2030, yet record levels of pollution are still being pumped into the atmosphere.
→ READ MORE ON THE GUARDIAN'S WEBSITE
19 NOVEMBER 2022
The United States is “working to sign on to a deal,” according to a Biden administration official who asked not to be identified because negotiations were ongoing. The change means the U.S. will no longer block a fund that has long been sought by poor nations overwhelmed by floods, heat and drought made more destructive by climate change.
14 NOVEMBER 2022
Diversity is central to good decision-making. Yet the family photograph of heads of state and government broadcast to the world on the first day on COP27 last week included 110 men and seven women.
→ MORE ON ENERGY MONITOR WEBSITE
19 NOVEMBER 2022
KALAIN HOSEIN
A successful COP is one where everyone leaves unhappy—but what happens when the COP nears failure?
With misaligned priorities of developed and developing countries, many of these international climate conferences rarely produce the outcomes small island states like Trinidad and Tobago desperately need to fight the climate crisis. Instead, such activities usually produce watered-down, compromised climate policy and financing facilities developed with politically charged statements that do not always translate into action.
→ MORE ON THE T&T GUARDIAN WEBSITE
18 NOVEMBER 2022
Dr. Jem Bendell is Professor of Sustainability Leadership and Founder of the Initiative for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) at the University of Cumbria (working part-time) as well as Founder of the Deep Adaptation Forum and the co-Founder of the International Scholars’ Warning on Societal Disruption and Collapse.
At times there were some glimmers of reality and sanity in the conference hall. The Colombian President Gustavo Petro gave a speech where he made it very clear we can’t tackle climate separately from the exploitative and extractive global systems that serve the rich. It was a sentiment stated in less eloquent terms by Venezuela’s President Maduro. Many were surprised to see President Emmanuel Macron suddenly appear friendly with him. Could he be interested in his views on capitalism and the climate? Or perhaps he was just wanting new sources of fossil fuels as the European energy crisis arrive at that awkward moment we call winter. Despite Petro’s speech, which had the additional benefit of upsetting the journalists at Breitbart, it’s clear that nothing in the UNFCCC processes will ever tackle the economic drivers of humanity’s self-destruction.
→ MORE ON UNIVERSITY OF CUMBRIA PR. JEM BENDELL'S BLOG
18 NOVEMBER 2022
Late on Thursday night in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the Cop27 UN climate talks seemed stuck in an irretrievable logjam. Rich and poor countries had reached deadlock, a “breakdown between north and south”, according to the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
By Friday morning, the talks had been upended and the battleground dramatically redrawn, in a way it has not been in 30 years of these annual talks. At stake is the question of whether some of the world’s leading economies – countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf petrostates, Russia and countries with high per capita income such as South Korea and Singapore – should start contributing for the first time to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries with the impacts of climate disaster.
→ MORE ON THE GUARDIAN'S WEBSITE
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"COP27: EU agrees to loss and damage fund to help poor countries amid climate disasters"
A breakthrough looked possible in the deadlocked global climate talks on Friday as the European Union made a dramatic intervention to agree to key developing world demands on financial help for poor countries.
In the early hours of Friday at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt, the European Commission vice-president, Frans Timmermans, launched a proposal on behalf of the EU that would see it agree to establishing a loss and damage fund.
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17 NOVEMBER 2022
The estimated damage caused by the November 6 floods in Saint Lucia is expected to increase beyond the current ECD$6.2 million.
“To date, for this Level II Disaster, we have damage and loss estimates of ECD$6.2 million. This figure is expected to increase as teams continue to assess businesses, infrastructure, and other affected households,” Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre wrote Wednesday on Facebook.
→ MORE ON SAINT LUCIA TIMES WEBSITE
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