Nations at odds over next UN climate science report

Yet another climate conference

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Another attempt to stir up interest in the idea that humans can somehow adjust the naturally variable global climate, despite ongoing lack of evidence that they might have any power to do so. Nevertheless the conferences must go on, amid yet more of the usual tedium about artificial ‘thresholds’ and ‘milestones’.
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Representatives of nearly 200 countries gather Monday to continue fraught negotiations on the timing and content of the UN’s next blockbuster assessment of global warming science, says Phys.org.

The meeting in the Chinese city of Hangzhou comes on the heels of the hottest year on record and rising alarm over the pace of warming. [Talkshop comment – we’re in an interglacial i.e. between ice ages].

Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement will also cast a shadow, with media reports suggesting Washington will not send a delegation to the five-day meeting.

The talks aim to flesh out plans for the next landmark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), set up in 1988 to inform policymakers.

At issue is whether the three-part assessment—covering physical science, climate impacts and solutions for reducing greenhouse gas levels—can be produced quickly enough to inform a crucial 2028 UN “stocktake” of the global response to rising temperatures.

Many wealthy countries and developing nations most exposed to climate impacts support an accelerated timetable, but face objections by some oil producers and major polluters with rising emissions, such as India and China.

The High Ambition Coalition of European and climate vulnerable countries said grounding the 2028 UN progress report in up-to-date science was a crucial part of the Paris climate deal, and warned that severing that link “would undermine its credibility and integrity”.
. . .
‘Bitter’
Observers expressed concerns that this week’s talks will be the last chance to find agreement to get the reports finished in time for the stocktake.

“I think why it’s been so bitter is where we are at this moment in time—the geopolitical pressure and the financial pain of impacts, and the transition away from fossil fuels,” said one person close to the talks, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

They noted that new findings in fast-developing areas of research with global implications would be particularly important for policymakers as they draw up new climate plans.

The IPCC has warned the world is on course to cross the Paris deal’s aspirational long-term warming threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the early 2030s.

But recent studies have suggested that milestone could be crossed before the end of this decade.

Full article here.
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Image: Yet another climate conference