2024-11-17 10:09

U.N. officials urge G20 leaders to break COP29 stalemate Wealthy nations asking more countries to foot climate bill Climate accord may only get trickier with return of Trump RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Diplomatic tensions over global warming spilled over into the G20 summit negotiations in Brazil this week, with sources saying the 20 major economies reached a fragile consensus on climate finance that had eluded U.N. talks in Azerbaijan. Heads of state arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday for the G20 summit and will spend Monday and Tuesday addressing issues from poverty and hunger to the reform of global institutions. The talks must now also grapple with how to address escalating violence in Ukraine after a deadly Russian airstrike on Sunday. Still, the ongoing U.N. climate talks have thrown a spotlight on their efforts to tackle global warming. While the COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, is tasked with agreeing a goal to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars for climate, leaders of the Group of 20 major economies half a world away in Rio are holding the purse strings. G20 countries account for 85% of the world's economy and are the largest contributors to multilateral development banks helping to steer climate finance. "The spotlight is naturally on the G20. They account for 80 percent of global emissions," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters in Rio de Janeiro. He expressed concern about the state of the COP29 talks in Baku and called on G20 leaders to do more to fight climate change. "Now is the time for leadership by example from the world's largest economies and emitters," Guterres said. U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell wrote a letter to G20 leaders on Saturday imploring them to act on climate finance, including boosting grants for developing nations and advancing reforms of multilateral development banks. However, the same fights that have plagued COP29 since it began last week became central to G20 negotiations, according to diplomats close to the Rio talks. COP29 must set a new goal for how much financing should be directed from developed countries, multilateral banks and the private sector to developing nations. Economists told the summit it should be at least $1 trillion. Wealthy countries, especially in Europe, have been saying that an ambitious goal can only be agreed if they expand the base of contributors to include some of the richer developing nations, such as China and major Middle Eastern oil producers. On Saturday, discussions of a G20 joint statement in Rio snagged on the same issue, with European nations pushing for more countries to contribute and developing countries such as Brazil pushing back, diplomats close to the talks told Reuters. But early Sunday morning, negotiators agreed to a text mentioning developing nations' voluntary contributions to climate finance, stopping short of calling them obligations, according to two diplomats. The breakthrough remains overshadowed by the return to power of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who is reportedly preparing to again pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. His election throws into doubt how much money the world can muster to address climate change, possibly without the support of the world's largest economy. Trump is planning to roll back landmark climate legislation passed by outgoing President Joe Biden, who visited the Amazon rainforest when he made a stop there on Sunday on his way to Rio. The success of not only COP29 but also the next U.N. climate summit, COP30 hosted in Brazil next year, hinges on an ambitious deal on climate finance. A centerpiece of Brazil's COP30 strategy is "Mission 1.5," a drive to keep alive the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The U.N. estimates that current national targets would cause temperatures to rise by at least 2.6 degrees C , opens new tab. Developing countries argue they can only raise their targets for emissions reductions if rich nations, who are the main culprits for climate change, foot the bill. "It is technically possible to meet the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius, but only if a G20-led, massive mobilization to cut all greenhouse gas emissions ... is achieved," said Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis at COP29 last week. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/world-looks-g20-rio-breakthrough-climate-talks-2024-11-17/

2024-11-17 08:02

Russia stages first big missile attack on Kyiv since August Power system damaged further as winter sets in Strike piles pressure on Ukraine at critical juncture Attack prompts Poland to scramble air force KYIV, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Russia unleashed its largest air strike on Ukraine in almost three months on Sunday, launching 120 missiles and 90 drones that killed at least seven people and caused severe damage to the power system, officials said. Ukrainians had been bracing for weeks for a renewed Russian attack on an already hobbled energy system, fearing long winter blackouts and mounting psychological pressure almost 1,000 days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The strikes, which caused numerous power cuts, came at a time when the impending U.S. presidency of Donald Trump, who has pledged to end the war without saying how, has raised the prospect of a push for negotiations. Air defences could be heard engaging drones over the capital Kyiv in the night, and a series of powerful blasts boomed across the city centre during the missile attack. Residents huddled in underground metro stations, wrapped in winter coats. "Severe damage to Ukraine's energy system, including to DTEK power stations. These attacks again highlight Ukraine's need for additional air defence systems from our allies," said Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, Ukraine's largest private power company. The extent of the damage was hard to assess. After repeated Russian attacks on the power grid, officials reveal little detailed information about the outcome of strikes and the state of the network. Officials confirmed damage to "critical infrastructure" or power cuts in regions from Volyn, Rivne, Lviv in the west to Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast. DTEK imposed emergency power cuts in the southern Odesa region, but had lifted them in three other regions by late morning. Emergency work was ongoing in the Odesa, Rivne and Volyn regions, national grid operator Ukrenergo said. Russia's defence ministry said it had launched a massive strike on energy facilities that supply Ukraine's military-industrial complex. "The enemy's target was our energy infrastructure across Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. UKRAINE NERVOUS ABOUT WESTERN DIPLOMACY Kyiv's air force said it had destroyed 104 of the incoming 120 missiles and shot down 42 drones. Another 41 disappeared from radar, it said. At least seven people were killed, in the regions of Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk, authorities said. Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Mihai Popsoi said Russian missiles and drones had violated Moldovan airspace during the attack. NATO member Poland, which also borders Ukraine, said it had scrambled its air force as a precaution. Russia last launched a major barrage at Kyiv on Aug. 26, when officials said it had fired more than 200 drones and missiles at targets across Ukraine. Its latest onslaught piles more pressure on Ukraine as Moscow's troops notch up their fastest battlefield gains in the east since 2022 in their effort to seize the entire industrial Donbas region. Ukrainian troops are meanwhile trying to hold an area of land that they seized in Russia's Kursk region in August, something Kyiv has said could one day be a bargaining chip. Sybiha said the strike appeared to be Moscow's "true response" to leaders contacting President Vladimir Putin, an apparent swipe at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who called the Russian leader on Friday for the first time in two years. Though Scholz urged Putin to pull out his troops, which occupy a fifth of Ukraine, Kyiv bridled at a call that it said reduced Putin's isolation. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk echoed Sybiha: "The attack last night, one of the biggest in this war, has proved that telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West for Ukraine. The next weeks will be decisive, not only for the war itself, but also for our future." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/blasts-shake-key-ukraine-cities-poland-scrambles-air-force-after-russian-missile-2024-11-17/

2024-11-17 05:19

Methane emissions rose faster in past 5 years than any other period on record Tropics identified as main source of methane surge, driven by wetlands Methane cuts beyond 30% pledge may be needed to meet climate goals, scientists warn BAKU, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The world's warming tropical wetlands are releasing more methane than ever before, research shows — an alarming sign that the world's climate goals are slipping further out of reach. A massive surge in wetlands methane — unaccounted for by national emissions plans and undercounted in scientific models — could raise the pressure on governments to make deeper cuts from their fossil fuel and agriculture industries, according to researchers. Wetlands hold huge stores of carbon in the form of dead plant matter that is slowly broken down by soil microbes. Rising temperatures are like hitting the accelerator on that process, speeding up the biological interactions that produce methane. Heavy rains, meanwhile, trigger flooding that causes wetlands to expand. Scientists had long projected wetland methane emissions would rise as the climate warmed, but from 2020 to 2022, air samples showed the highest methane concentrations in the atmosphere since reliable measurements began in the 1980s. Four studies published in recent months say that tropical wetlands are the likeliest culprit for the spike, with tropical regions contributing more than 7 million tonnes to the methane surge over the last few years. "Methane concentrations are not just rising, but rising faster in the last five years than any time in the instrument record," said Stanford University environmental scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the group that publishes the five-year Global Methane Budget , opens new tab, last released in September. Satellite instruments revealed the tropics as the source of a large increase. Scientists further analyzed distinct chemical signatures in the methane to determine whether it came from fossil fuels or a natural source — in this case, wetlands. The Congo, Southeast Asia and the Amazon and southern Brazil contributed the most to the spike in the tropics, researchers found. Data published in March 2023 in Nature Climate Change shows that annual wetland emissions over the past two decades were about 500,000 tonnes per year higher than what scientists had , opens new tab projected under worst-case climate scenarios. Capturing emissions from wetlands is challenging with current technologies. "We should probably be a bit more worried , opens new tab than we are," said climate scientist Drew Shindell at Duke University. The La Nina climate pattern that delivers heavier rains to parts of the tropics appeared somewhat to blame for the surge, according to one study published in September in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But La Nina alone, which last ended in 2023, cannot explain record-high emissions, Shindell said. For countries trying to tackle climate change, "this has major implications when planning for methane and carbon dioxide emissions cuts," said Zhen Qu, an atmospheric chemist at North Carolina State University who led the study on La Nina impacts. If wetland methane emissions continue to rise, scientists say governments will need to take stronger action to hold warming at 1.5 C (2.7 F), as agreed in the United Nations Paris climate accord. WATER WORLD Methane is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2) at trapping heat over a timespan of 20 years, and accounts for about one-third of the 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 F) in warming that the world has registered since 1850. Unlike CO2, however, methane washes out of the atmosphere after about a decade, so it has less of a long-term impact. More than 150 countries have pledged to deliver 30% cuts from 2020 levels by 2030, tackling leaky oil and gas infrastructure. But scientists have not yet observed a slowdown, even as technologies to detect methane leaks have improved. Methane emissions from fossil fuels have remained around a record high of 120 million tonnes since 2019, according to the International Energy Agency's 2024 Global Methane Tracker report. Satellites have also picked up more than 1,000 large methane plumes from oil and gas operations over the past two years, according to a U.N. Environment Programme report published on Friday, but the countries notified responded to just 12 leaks. Some countries have announced ambitious plans for cutting methane. China last year said it would strive to curb flaring, or burning off emissions at oil and gas wells. President Joe Biden's administration finalized a methane fee for big oil and gas producers last week, but it is likely to be scrapped by the incoming presidency of Donald Trump. The Democratic Republic of Congo's environment minister Eve Bazaiba told Reuters on the sidelines of the U.N. climate summit COP29 that the country was working to assess the methane surging from the Congo Basin's swampy forests and wetlands. Congo was the largest hotspot of methane emissions in the tropics in the 2024 methane budget report. "We don't know how much [methane is coming off our wetlands]," she said. "That's why we bring in those who can invest in this way, also to do the monitoring to do the inventory, how much we have, how we can also exploit them." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/tropical-wetlands-are-releasing-methane-bomb-threatening-climate-plans-2024-11-17/

2024-11-17 05:01

MANILA, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Super typhoon Man-Yi swept across the Philippines' main island of Luzon on Sunday, threatening heavy rain in the capital region Metro Manila, after triggering more than a million evacuations and damaging buildings in several areas. Packing winds of 185 kph (115 mph), it weakened slightly after hitting land in the town of Panganiban in Catanduanes province on Saturday night to arrive over the coastal waters of Camarines Norte province by 8 a.m., weather officials said. "We evacuated because every time there is a typhoon, the water rises in the nearby river," said Amalia Santisas, one those living near coastal areas in Manila, the capital, who followed evacuation orders. "We have children with us and we are scared," added Santisas, who was among more than a million evacuated from the typhoon's expected path to keep them safe from storm surges. Despite the evacuations, no casualties were reported, though the typhoon's strong winds damaged homes, schools and commercial buildings in Catanduanes, civil defence chief Ariel Nepomuceno told Reuters. The sixth tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in a month, Man-Yi is hurtling towards the southern and central areas of Luzon. "Pepito is forecast to slightly weaken as a typhoon prior to its second landfall," state weather agency PAGASA said in a statement, using the storm's domestic name, as it urged precautionary measures. "Significant weakening will occur during the passage of this tropical cyclone over mainland Luzon today." The highest storm alert has also been declared for eastern parts of the islands of Polillo and Calaguas. Winds had weakened in the Catanduanes town of Virac, and the rain had eased to a drizzle, allowing some of those who had sought shelter to return home, provincial disaster officer Roberto Monterola told DZBB radio. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/super-typhoon-man-yi-set-weaken-it-barrels-through-philippines-2024-11-17/

2024-11-16 21:28

Wright is defender of fossil fuel use Last year he said, 'There is no climate crisis' Wright likely to be involved in expansion of nuclear power WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that oil and gas industry executive Chris Wright, a staunch defender of fossil fuel use, would be his pick to lead the Department of Energy. Wright is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver. He is expected to support Trump's plan to maximize production of oil and gas and to seek ways to boost generation of electricity, demand for which is rising for the first time in decades. He is also likely to share Trump's opposition to global cooperation on fighting climate change. Wright has called climate change activists alarmist and has likened efforts by Democrats to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism. "There is no climate crisis, and we're not in the midst of an energy transition, either," Wright said in a video posted to his LinkedIn profile last year. Wright, who does not have any political experience, has written extensively on the need for more fossil fuel production to lift people out of poverty. He has stood out among oil and gas executives for his freewheeling style, and describes himself as a tech nerd. Wright made a media splash in 2019 when he drank fracking fluid on camera to demonstrate it was not dangerous. U.S. oil output hit the highest level any country has ever produced under Biden, and it is uncertain how much Wright and the incoming administration could boost that. Most drilling decisions are driven by private companies working on land not owned by the federal government. The Department of Energy handles U.S. energy diplomacy, administers the Strategic Petroleum Reserve - which Trump has said he wants to replenish - and runs grant and loan programs to advance energy technologies, such as the Loan Programs Office. The secretary also oversees the aging U.S. nuclear weapons complex, nuclear energy waste disposal, and 17 national labs. If confirmed by the Senate, Wright will replace Jennifer Granholm, a supporter of electric vehicles, emerging energy sources like geothermal power and a backer of carbon-free wind, solar and nuclear energy. Wright will also likely be involved in permitting of electricity transmission and the expansion of nuclear power, an energy source that is popular with both Republicans and Democrats but which is expensive and complicated to permit. Power demand in the United States is surging for the first time in two decades amid growth in artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and cryptocurrencies. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-picks-oil-industry-ceo-chris-wright-energy-secretary-2024-11-16/

2024-11-16 20:17

Iran denies meeting between envoy and Elon Musk Iran prepared for confrontation or cooperation with IAEA 2015 nuclear deal holds less value for Iran, Araqchi says DUBAI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Saturday strongly denied a reported meeting between Tehran's United Nations envoy and U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, in an interview with state TV. Araqchi also warned that Iran was "prepared for confrontation or cooperation" in its dispute with the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA and Western countries within the body over its nuclear programme. "This (reported meeting) was a fabricated story by American media, and the motives behind this can also be speculated," Araqchi said, reiterating an earlier denial by Iran's Foreign Ministry. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Musk, who is an adviser to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, met with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations on Monday. "In my opinion, the American media’s fabrication about a meeting between Elon Musk and Iran’s representative is a form of testing the waters to see if the ground for such move exists," Araqchi said. "We are still waiting for the new U.S. administration to clarify its policies, and based on that, we will adjust our own policies. Right now, it is neither the time for such meetings nor is it appropriate," Araqchi said. "There was no permission from the leadership for such a meeting," Araqchi said, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state. Relations between Tehran and the IAEA have soured over several long-standing issues, including Iran barring the agency's uranium-enrichment experts from the country and its failure to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites. "Our nuclear path in the coming year will be sensitive and complex, and we are prepared for confrontation or cooperation," Araqchi said. He said that the 2015 nuclear deal, from which Trump exited in 2018 in his first term, no longer holds the same value for Iran. "If negotiations begin, the nuclear pact may serve as a reference, but it no longer has its previous significance. We must reach a feasible agreement," Araqchi said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-denies-meeting-between-envoy-elon-musk-2024-11-16/