Yesterday was my first day back in the office since November. I’m afraid this left no time for a blog but, on the plus side, that now gives me an opportunity to contrast the last two days. In one sense, the last two nights of negotiations have been similar in that I was equally confused…
Finally! A session I can be happy about. I spent my time, last night, at a session on aligning the assessments of the CTCN (the Climate Technology Centre and Network) and the “Technology Mechanism”. This is all about transferring climate-friendly technology to less developed nations with the “mechanism” being legalese for what’s in the various…
Last night’s meeting was probably the most frustrating, for me, so far. I watched a 90 minute discussion that was entirely taken up with debating whether or not another meeting was needed. The session in question was supposed to be about “impacts of mitigation”. I mentioned this set of talks in an earlier blog where…
No I haven’t missed a day; we actually had Sunday off! Monday night was my first late session (10:00 pm – 1:00 am) and I’m definitely starting to see a pattern in the negotiations. I had expected all sorts of subtle groupings of nations and shifting alliances depending upon the exact issue. That’s not what…
I’ve spent the last few days, as many of you will have done over half term, with my family. So I’ve missed a few days but am back in harness now. The highlight for me, on day 6, was the realisation that border carbon adjustments are on the “agenda” but not on the agenda. I…
Image: OxfordClimatePolicy.org Why is climate negotiation so difficult? This thought passed through my head repeatedly, today, as I contemplated the efforts of 250 diplomats to agree common time frames for NDCs. Let me explain what (I think) that means and then I’ll come back to my puzzlement over how hard it is. The UK’s Nationally…
The learning curve for COP26-processes is as steep and technically tricky as the North Ridge of Everest. I’m currently getting my head around the draft provisional agenda item 4b of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation whilst looking forward with barely suppressed excitement for the 4th meeting of the Katowice Committee of Experts—I wonder what they’re…
The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts report, Environmental Tax Measures, published today, is savage in its condemnation of the failure of the Government to align its environmental ambitions with the means to achieve them through its fiscal policy: Tax is an important instrument for pursuing government’s environmental goals, particularly getting to net zero…
As Kevin Frea, the speaker at last month’s national meeting told us, we need to seize the opportunity offered by these elections to tell our local representatives about Climate Income and gain their support for this brilliant policy. Climate Change is set to be on the agenda; the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, for…
BCAs are currently quite a hot topic. The Sun recently reported that UK Secretary of State for International Trade (Liz Truss) will promote them at the G7 meeting in June. BCAs are also a key component of the EU’s “Green New Deal” and may well be introduced by the EU from the start of 2023.…
