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Technical negotiations approaching final stage

As technical negotiations on the Paris rulebook are approaching the finish line at the COP23 climate conference in Bonn, the German delegation said that after a few days filled with worry, they were now quite satisfied with the results. Negotiators have produced very detailed documents 鈥� 180 pages on climate change mitigation alone 鈥� and now some important procedural decisions must be made, Jochen Flasbarth, state secretary in Germany鈥檚 environment ministry, said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important that negotiators will be allowed throughout the coming year to really work with the documents and make changes to the text, so that we don鈥檛 have to do all that in Katowice next year鈥�, he explained. The Polish city will host COP24 in 2018.

From a German point of view, the documents on the implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement 鈥渋nclude everything that鈥檚 needed鈥�, Flasbarth told the press. The aspects covered include the way the countries calculate the emissions baseline and measure their progress.

During the second week of the COP, the ministers are scheduled to concentrate on political issues, such as loss and damage, climate finance, or how the 100 billion US dollars pledged by industrialised countries could be mobilised if some parties fail to pay their contributions.

Germany is the 'Fossil of the Day'

The technical COP host received the Fossil of the Day "award" on Tuesday, "for increasing its emissions in 2017 and risking missing its 2020 targets for emission reductions". What happened to the so called "climate chancellor" who had G7 leaders agree to decarbonise global economy?, NGO association CAN lamented at the award ceremony held in Bonn. Unfortunately Germany had forgotten to actually reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and Chancellor Merkel had "preferred to listen to the fossil fuel industry, energy intensive companies and the powerful carmakers", the activists said.

Under2 Coalition grows - with California's support

California's governor Jerry Brown and environment secretary Matthew Rodriquez stressed the unwavering commitment of American states and cities to take action on climate change. Brown, who鈥檚 been drawing large audiences at events at the COP, said that nation states remained key in the process because they had the tools necessary to take decisive action. But as the federal US government had decided to stay at the sidelines, it was up to the states to act given the urgency with 鈥渉umanity on the chopping board鈥�, Brown said at an event of the of states and regions committed to climate action from across the globe. Earlier, Californian environment secretary Rodriquez told journalists that while it was disappointing that the US delegation did not play much of a role, they did not disrupt the negotiations.

Germany's coal subsidies

NGOs have used the COP in Bonn to call attention to the current practice of subsidising coal mining and coal-based power production in Germany. The Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Climate Action Network (CAN), and Green Budget Germany (贵脰厂) distributed their September 2017 聽in the German pavilion. It finds that Germany鈥檚 coal subsidies, ranging from energy and power tax breaks to direct help for rehabilitating mining areas or coal research, amounted to an average 3.2 billion euros annually. In 2016, the country also introduced a聽capacity reserve聽for old lignite-fired plants, paying operators an average 230 million euros per year between 2016 and 2020.

Read a factsheet on Germany鈥檚 coal issue聽here聽,and find background information on coal聽here.

Germany pledges 125 million US dollars at climate risks partnership kick-off

Fiji, Germany, and others announced, on 14 November, their intention to bolster an initiative that aims to provide climate risk insurance to 400 million people in countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change by 2020. The German government pledged 125 million US dollars in support of the new InsuResilience Global Partnership.

The announcement comes in the wake of a series of unprecedented and devastating extreme weather events that have hit countries and communities in Asia, the Eastern Caribbean, and the Americas. The year 2017 is about to become the most expensive year on record in terms of natural catastrophes, S枚nke Kreft, executive director of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII), has said聽.

People often have the least protection in places hit hardest by natural disasters that become more and more frequent as a result of climate change, Thomas Silberhorn, parliamentary state secretary in the German development cooperation ministry, said at a press conference on 14 November.

The InsuResilience Global Partnership for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance Solutions 鈥� announced at the G20 summit in Hamburg in July, and launched on 14 November 鈥� brings together state governments, civil society, and the private sector. It aims to enable countries to respond to disasters in a timely manner, and promotes risk finance and insurance instruments. It is based on an initiative launched by the G7 in Elmau, Germany, in 2015 to insure 400 million people against the effects of climate change by 2020.

Whether insurance should be considered part of climate finance is still a matter of dispute. Insurance is just one of several measures a country or institution might opt for when providing climate finance,聽聽(CAN). While insurance certainly has a role to play in reducing losses from extreme events, 鈥渧ulnerable countries should not be paying insurance premiums to insure themselves against impacts from climate change 鈥� a problem they had almost no role in creating鈥�, says the CAN.

Sabine Minninger, climate expert at Bread for the World Germany, agrees. In accordance with the polluter pays principle, developed nations have a responsibility to support developing and vulnerable states, and not just in the short term, she told the 麻豆无码版 in Bonn. 鈥淭here is no insurance protection for the long-term effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels鈥�, Minninger explained, . She sees the need for a fund to help repair climate change damage.

However, while climate insurance schemes might have a bad reputation, this is not wholly justified, said Minninger. She welcomed the German government鈥檚 voluntary commitment in this area, and said that the InsuResilience initiative was a good example of how poorer countries can be supported in coping with climate-related devastation.

When scaling up InsuResilience to include the private sector, the people affected by climate change must remain the focus of attention, 鈥渘ot the market expansion of the insurance industry鈥�, said Minninger.

Just transition needed to avoid climate action becoming an elite project

The unavoidable transition to a climate-friendly economy must involve all segments of society in order to avoid social ruptures that might slow climate action, German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks and the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Sharan Burrow, said at a side-event to COP23 in Bonn co-organised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). 鈥淐limate protection has a lot of support in Germany, but the necessary transformation must not scare people and take their opportunities away鈥�, Hendricks said. 鈥淚f we want to avoid climate protection becoming an elite project, we need to build up new opportunities in parallel.鈥� ITUC鈥檚 Burrow also urged a just transition when exiting coal mining and coal-fired power generation. 鈥淚f we do not get it right, we leave behind stranded communities and stranded workers鈥�, she said. Rising inequality would only exacerbate a sense of unease and mistrust, which many already feel towards modernisation, she explained. Burrow warned businesses against dragging their heels on necessary changes.聽鈥淲e want companies to survive because they mean jobs鈥�, she said. 鈥淏ut if businesses insist on defending today鈥檚 models, they won鈥檛 survive.鈥�

NDC Partnership turns one

罢丑别听, a coalition of countries and institutions aimed at supporting developing and emerging countries in reaching their climate goals, celebrated its first anniversary at the Bonn climate conference.

鈥淭hose who can least defend themselves suffer the most from climate change鈥�, said German Development Cooperation Minister Gerd M眉ller. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we especially support developing countries [鈥�], for example with tailor-made climate solutions for each individual country.鈥�

The minister pledged an additional 31 million euros in short-term support under the NDC Partnership.

Launched at the COP22 meeting in Marrakesh by Morocco and Germany, the NDC Partnership aims to enhance cooperation so that countries have access to the technical knowledge and financial support they need to achieve the goals set out in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The partnership currently has 77 members, including 48 developing nations, 16 industrialised countries, and 13 international organisations.