Global Warming Effects and Challenges of Climate Change

GREEN BOND LISTS ON JSE

SOUTH AFRICA

A MEMBER of the World Bank Group, IFC, has issued its first rand-denominated domestic bond on the JSE’s primary debt market.

The IFC was the first multilateral organisation to list a green bond on the JSE and the fourth entity to list a bond dedicated to funding private sector investments focused on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The R1bn nine-year IFC green bond was issued at a yield of 8.72%.  Since 2010, IFC has raised funds for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in other emerging markets, such as India and China.  As of November 2015, the IFC had issued nearly $4.5bn in green bonds globally.

CLIMATE CHANGE - COP21 PARIS 30 NOVEMBER – 11 DECEMBER 2015

There has been a discernible shift in attitude towards global warming among world leaders since the last major climate conference, held in Copenhagen in 2009.  The will to act is stronger, and the majority (189) of the 196 countries in Paris have lodged their intended contributions (INDCs) with the UN. But while there is a cautious optimism about the talks, it remains to be seen whether world leaders will move far enough, fast enough.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK opposition, calls for rich countries to agree strong, binding targets, while the Moroccan environment minister Hakima El Haite identifies technology and funding as key issues for poor countries. 

Alberto Saldamando of the Indigenous Environmental Network calls for the rights of native peoples to be included in the final agreement. Changhua Wu, Greater China director of the London-based Climate Group, hopes China can look forward to a low-carbon future.
Mukund Rajan, the Tata Group’s Chief Ethics Officer, talks about the need for investment in renewable energy.

SIX KEY ROAD BLOCKS AT THE UN CLIMATE TALKS IN PARIS

Extracts from article written by Guardian US Environment Correspondent Journalist, Suzanne Goldenberg

From a 1.5C or 2C limit, to climate aid and the public reporting of emissions, here are the main differences in the draft text.

Temperature Goal - 1.5C Or 2C

Small islands and low-lying states are at risk of disappearing under rising seas even at the currently agreed 2C temperature goal, and have long argued for tougher limits on warming. According to Myles Allen, a climate scientist at Oxford. “Human-induced warming is already close to 1C, so to limit warming to 2C, CO2 emissions need to fall, on average, by 10% of today’s emission rate for every tenth of a degree of warming from now on. To limit warming to 1.5C, CO2 emissions need to fall, on average, by 20% for every tenth of a degree of warming.  At the rate we’re warming at the moment, a tenth of a degree means five to 10 years. So 1.5 will be tough.”

The draft released by the French hosts on Wednesday had three options: 1. below 2C, 2. well below 2C with efforts to reach 1.5C and 3. 1.5C.

A schoolgirl tries to collect water from a dry puddle in Nongoma, north-west of Durban, that has been badly affected by the recent drought. Photograph: Mujahid Safodien/AFP/Getty Images

Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Getting to 1.5C or 2C requires achieving near zero greenhouse gas emissions by the second half of this century. Business leaders, some campaign groups and even the Pope have called on negotiators to adopt a decarbonisation goal as a way of translating temperature goals into more tangible targets for action.  Net zero means emissions can continue but must be balanced by negative emissions efforts such as tree planting or technologies to suck emission from the air.  The draft released on Wednesday has two main options.  Under option 1, the stronger option, countries aim to peak global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, with rich countries making deep emissions cuts by 2050 with an end goal of net zero.

Money

Finance was the big issue leading into these negotiations. Developing countries need funding to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and build the infrastructure that will help protect their people from extreme weather and other climate impacts. Best estimates suggest it will cost trillions to transform the global economy.  

Loss and Damage

Some low-lying and vulnerable countries are facing irreversible and permanent damage from climate change. Land loss could force millions to relocate. Those countries want the agreement to recognise those dangers, and offer some measure of protection. But the US is adamantly opposed to any language in the agreement about liability or compensation that could potentially expose US companies to the threat of law suits for causing climate change. “Loss and damage as an idea is meant to refer to the impacts of climate change that neither mitigation nor adaptation has been able to address and in so far as there is a focus on that kind of element, that is completely appropriate,” Todd Stern, the state department climate change envoy, said. “We don’t accept the idea of compensation and liability. We have never accepted and we are not going to accept it now.”

The choices before negotiators in the draft released on Wednesday range from burying any reference to loss and damage in a separate section of the text to setting up an entirely separate process to look at the problems of land loss and climate refugees.

Future Improvements to The Deal

Governments at the Paris meeting have come out with lofty ambitions, unlike other climate talks, and there is a sense of momentum towards an agreement. But what about the follow-through? Industrial countries in particular are pushing hard for public reporting of all countries emissions reductions, a so-called “stocktaking”, which would subject climate laggards to public shaming. The US and other countries are pushing for an early stocktaking in 2018. Developing countries are trying to push back the first inventory to 2024. Then there is “ratcheting”. Developed countries are pushing for governments to put forward tougher emissions plans at five-year intervals, in order to take advantage of advances in clean energy technology, and improve the chances of getting to zero emissions in the middle of the century. India and other developing countries want to put off those ratchet meetings to once a decade or so.

Developed Vs Developing World

This is the biggest stumbling block because the question about differentiation is rooted in history, unlike other areas of talks which are about actions in the future. Who should bear responsibility for climate change – the countries that industrialised first and were responsible for historic emissions, or developing countries such as China, now the world’s biggest emitter? The bigger developing countries argue they did little or nothing to cause climate change but are being asked to trim their growth to reduce emissions. The US insists that the current structure of the agreement, which relies on voluntary pledges put forward by each country, acknowledges those differences in economic history. “This is all about differentiation,” John Kerry, the secretary of state, said. India which has played a strong leadership role in the developing country bloc in the Paris negotiations, said the new structure represents progress, but that rich countries should not be trying to re-write history.

“Today the world is experiencing (and many countries are suffering because of) a temperature rise of 0.8C and that temperature rise has taken place because of historic emissions of 150 years so that cannot be wished away,” Prakash Javadekar, India’s Environment Minister, said. “Historic emissions are responsible.”

THE WORK NOW BEGINS AFTER PARIS

COP21 was a culmination of twenty years of debate.  Everyone wants change however a lot of the rhetoric won’t kick in for the next five years.  There will be a lot of work in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.  Work that has been well overdue and countries will have to think very carefully, going forward on how they develop.