Does it really matter? Because there really hasn’t been that much in the news about the latest UN IPCC conference. And Trump is trying to Save The Planet by not having his people take long fossil fueled flights
U.S. skips the COP31 climate summit as 1.5C global warming limit slips away
Representatives from around the world will gather in Antalya, Turkey, from November 9 to 20 for the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Although it is an annual event, this year’s climate summit is notable for two reasons: first, it coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement entering into force; and second, the United States — the world’s second-largest and historically biggest emitter, which formally withdrew from the agreement at the start of this year — will not send an official delegation. (Members of Congress and U.S. businesses will still attend.)
I’ll be interested to see which Democrats take long fossil fueled flights to Turkey
With the legacy of the Paris Agreement in question, COP31 President Murat Kurum has set the goal of moving beyond climate pledges to the concrete implementation of existing commitments. Alongside the formal COP agenda, Kurum has introduced an Action Agenda organized around ten themes, including the clean energy transition and electrification, zero waste and methane reduction, and climate-resilient cities. The COP31 presidency has also put forward voluntary pledges, including a 35-by-35 pledge aimed at increasing electricity’s share of total energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035—up from 23% today—as well as a commitment encouraging countries, corporations, and investors to make artificial intelligence more sustainable.
The Paris scam agreement was 11 years ago: why have most nations only paid lip service to it? Anyhow, what’s on the agenda?
Climate finance. Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement states that developed countries “shall provide” financial resources to developing nations “with respect to both mitigation and adaptation” — but who pays, in what form, and how much are matters of long-standing debate. At COP31, developing nations will continue pressing developed countries to deliver on existing funding commitments, including the COP29 goal to mobilize at least $300 billion per year in climate finance by 2035 and the COP30 call to at least triple adaptation finance over the same period. Developed countries provided and mobilized a record $136.7 billion in climate finance in 2024, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Although developing nations are seeking faster and larger payouts and note that loans can add to debt distress, developed nations are under financial stress from increased fuel costs.
Yeah, redistribution of strings-free money from producing nations to non-producing nations
Fossil fuels. How to treat fossil fuels is a recurring point of contention at recent COPs. At COP30, the parties failed to formalize a roadmap for transitioning away from fossil fuels, even though the measure drew support from a broad coalition of more than eighty countries. The outcome of COP30—the Belém Political Package—omitted the words “fossil fuels” from the official text. Vulnerable nations, civil society groups, environmental nongovernmental organizations, and other actors viewed the omission as a major pullback from the Glasgow Climate Pact (COP26), which called for the phasedown of unabated coal power and phaseout of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, and the United Arab Emirates Consensus (COP28), which explicitly called for transitioning away from fossil fuels. To quell the tension, the COP30 presidency published elements of a voluntary roadmap ahead of COP31.
Brazil? Is that where 50K+ took fossil fueled flights, then fossil fueled auto trips to Belam down a road built by cutting down a section of the Amazon? Which is followed by certainly 50K+ taking fossil fueled trips to Turkey? Piss off.
What’s standing in the way of climate action?
Well, how about that most people are in favor of Doing Something in theory, but, are not particularly happy when it is done in practice, and have seemingly had enough of this authoritarian crap, at least in the 1st World.
