Early on Sunday morning the UN finalised an agreement on climate change that, as it stands, cannot hold global temperature rises to 2 degrees. The three part Durban pact extends the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012; mobilises a $100bn Green Climate Fund by 2020; and sets nations to work on a comprehensive global agreement which is…
As the restive crowds gather at the UN centre in Durban, the ITUC has issued a final appeal to governments to “make a U-turn on the road they are taking to climate disaster.” After two weeks of negotiations, the talks are entering their final hours with negotiations expected to continue into the early hours of…
After nearly two weeks of stalled progress at the Durban climate conference, U.S. youth spoke out today for a real, science-based climate treaty. Abigail Borah, a New Jersey resident, interrupted the start of lead U.S. negotiator Todd Stern’s speech to “call out” members of Congress for impeding global climate progress, delivering a passionate plea for…
“The game of ping-pong between the US and China at climate conferences is becoming more and more tiresome.” The leader of the European Parliament delegation here in Durban added that, “Once again, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases are not contributing towards achieving a binding, global climate agreement.” ITUC delegate Gladys Branche (Sierra Leone Labour Congress) reported…
Tomorrow a coalition of trade unions and environmental organisations is organising a day of action on the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) here at the Durban centre. It follows a heavily supported letter sent to President Zuma this week, signed by the TUC among many others, urging him to show leadership in support of the FTT…
As Ministers begin to arrive for the second, high level segment of these talks, what will the UK’s Environment Secretary Chris Huhne bring in his bag? What a weekend! Over there, UK Ministers and advisers have reaped an NGOs whirlwind, accusing the PM of leading the “most environmentally destructive government to hold power in this…
Dorji Khatri of the Nepalese Union of trekking, travels, rafting and airlines, Unitrav speaks at the ITUC meeting today about his ascent of Mount Everest on 26 May 2011, when he planted the ITUC flag on the mountain top. Ten years ago the peak was covered in ice and now more and more rock is…
It’s impossible not to comment on the UK government’s latest mishandling of the green economy, on a day when the UN resumes work on the Cancun agreement that includes principles of just transition and green jobs agreed last year. But to begin with UN business here at the COP17 Climate Change Conference in Durban: Today’s…
The talk here at the UN climate conference is of the UK rowing two ways at once. As a party to the EU, we join its solidarity call to other developed nations to renew their Kyoto Protocol commitments. Yet in his Autumn Statement yesterday the Chancellor, George Osborne, called green policies a “ridiculous cost” to British…
I’m here in Durban, taking part in an open debate with the South African miners’ union, the NUM, on a post-coal future when news comes through on where the UN will stage next year’s climate conference. How about Qatar, notorious for its violations of workers’ rights? It’s difficult to imagine a more crass way to…