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Health restrictions by the German authorities left no alternative but to defer negotiations planned for October, UN Climate Change said.
There will be no UN climate negotiations this year, after preparatory talks scheduled in October have been postponed a second time into 2021.
On Monday evening, top climate diplomats decided the intersessional meeting which happens every year between UN climate summits in Bonn, Germany, where UN Climate Change is headquartered, would not be able to take place on the proposed dates of 4-12 October. A new date for the meeting is yet to be decided.
The meeting, initially scheduled in June, was tentatively moved to October after the coronavirus pandemic made it too risky to hold international conferences. The next major summit, Cop26 in Glasgow, UK, has been pushed back to 1-12 November 2021.
The UN Climate Change bureau, which is constituted of 11 climate diplomats from around the world, met at short notice on Monday after the German government announced last week it would extend a ban on large events until at least the end of October, to avoid a new wave of coronavirus infection.
In a statement, UN Climate Change secretariat said the decision was based on the need to ensure “the well-being and safety of all involved under the current travel restrictions and guidelines from local German health authorities”.
Earlier this month, observers to the climate talks also raised concerns after top diplomats presiding over the process warned participation at the October meeting would likely have to be restricted to ensure physical distancing inside the conference venue. UN Climate Change said the talks’ delay to 2021 was also based on the need to ensure “full inclusion and participation”.
Members of the bureau regretted having to take the decision but stated there was no alternative, the statement said.
Federica Fricano, a member of the UN Climate Change bureau and Italy’s director of international climate negotiation, said in a tweet the bureau would meeting again soon to discuss the work ahead. “Climate change is and remain[s] the emergency to tackle,” she said.
The Bonn meeting was expected to make progress on the last unresolved issues of the Paris Agreement rulebook, which was supposed to be finished in 2018. Climate diplomats have yet to agree the rules of a new global carbon market, the transparency framework for reporting emission reductions and the timeframe for aligning countries’ climate plans.
Chile, which is still officially presiding over the Cop process, the UK, which is due to take over at the start of Cop26 in Glasgow, and the UN Climate Change secretariat committed to do “everything to drive the process forward despite the adverse circumstances”.
Carolina Schmidt, Cop25 president and Chile’s environment minister, said this would include a continued dialogue with countries to submit tougher climate plans before the end of the year and the formulation of a clear roadmap to Cop26.
For 26 Congolese women, this year’s International Women’s Day will be remembered as the beginning of an unprecedented journey towards a livelihood they could never otherwise have imagined – and along the way, educating their husbands, families and future co-workers on equality and empowerment.
UN entities and energy experts have launched substantive preparations for a summit-level meeting on energy in September 2021. Five thematic working groups are meeting virtually to identify roadmaps to achieving SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. The High-level Dialogue on Energy will be convened by the UN Secretary-General under the auspices of the UN General Assembly.
Pushed off their customary lands and severed from their traditional way of life, Indigenous communities living on roadsides in the tropical forests of Central Africa face perilous conditions. The livelihoods of about 10,000 Baka Pygmies in southeastern Cameroon are in jeopardy, according to a new study in Scientific Reports led by scientists with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), which shows their available hunting area is at risk.
Three years on, the NDC Partnership’s hard work is bearing fruit. Together, we are producing country led plans that offer a pathway to achieving the low-carbon, climate-resilient societies envisaged by the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Across the world, our country members and institutional partners collaborate to cut economy-wide emissions, build sustainable communities, mobilize financial and technical support, and engage civil society.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has joined forces with Pegasus Capital Advisors and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in an innovative bundling of public-private financing to plug a funding gap for sub-national climate initiatives.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is heeding calls to help developing countries bolster their defences against the increasingly damaging effects of climate change, while overcoming COVID-19 fiscal constraints.
On Feb. 23, the United Nations Security Council will meet to discuss the threat that climate change poses to global peace. The question is no longer whether global warming sparks the flames of conflict; it is about where climate shocks are likely to tip already fragile situations into war or civil strife.
The Children and Youth Major Group to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) organized a virtual Youth Environment Assembly to coordinate, mobilize, and build capacity ahead of the fifth UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5). Participation was open to any youth and youth organizations to discuss and identify their broader priorities for environmental action.
The 2021 Desertification and Drought Day to be held on 17 June will focus on turning degraded land into healthy land. Restoring degraded land brings economic resilience, creates jobs, raises incomes and increases food security. It helps biodiversity to recover. It locks away the atmospheric carbon warming the Earth, slowing climate change. It can also lessen the impacts of climate change and underpin a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Land is the foundation of our societies and is a cornerstone to global food security and environmental health, zero hunger, poverty eradication and affordable energy. It underpins the success of the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Developmen, and yet this finite resource is under existential threat.
Cambridge, UK: 16th February 2020 - With governments meeting this week to discuss targets and indicators for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, TRAFFIC urges Parties to strengthen global efforts to ensure trade and use of species is legal, at sustainable levels and safe, and effectively measure progress on the implementation of these efforts.
Read: Building back better through the Landscape Agenda; Update on 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People initiative; Join our virtual FAO-EcoAgriculture Partners Independent Dialogue for the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) on March 30th “Strengthening landscape partnerships”...
World Wildlife Day will be celebrated in 2021 under the theme "Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet", as a way to highlight the central role of forests, forest species and ecosystems services in sustaining the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people globally, and particularly of Indigenous and local communities with historic ties to forested and forest-adjacent areas.
This 2019 Annual Report on Landmark Deforestation Events (LDEs) based on Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) alert tools, the first of its kind, is produced by the Operational Unit for Forest Cover Monitoring (UOSCF), set up by Order No 0086/MINFOF/C2D-PSFE2 of 18 May 2016.
Bonn/ New York, 26 February 2021 – UN Climate Change today published the Initial NDC Synthesis Report, showing nations must redouble efforts and submit stronger, more ambitious national climate action plans in 2021 if they’re to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise by 2°C—ideally 1.5°C—by the end of the century.
The COP 25 Presidency and the incoming COP 26 Presidency will hold monthly multilateral consultations with Group Chairs and Heads of Delegation covering topics that will be central to COP 26. The monthly multilateral consultations are stepping stones to COP 26: a chance for Parties to move together towards COP 26, identifying and testing solutions to key topics along the way.
Climate shocks such as record high temperatures and a “new normal” of wildfires, floods and droughts, are not only damaging the natural environment, said UN chief António Guterres, but also threatening political, economic and social stability.
Brazzaville, Congo, March 2, 2021 (ECA) - Good quality data and statistics are important for informing development decisions and Africa should not be found wanting as it seeks to meet the global 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and Africa’s Agenda 2063, experts say.
Brazzaville, Congo, March 2, 2021 (ECA) – Before the onset of the deadly novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Africa was recording positive growth rates but not enough to achieve the sustainable development goals, says Economic Commission for Africa’s Bartholomew Armah.
Brazzaville, Congo, March 2nd, 2020 (ECA) - Can African countries still achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030? African growth trajectories and the impact of COVID19 are currently shedding doubts on countries’ ability to reach this objective, unless the region achieves faster growth than before the pandemic in the upcoming years.
Addis Ababa, 2 March 2021, ECA – The Economic commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with five other partners is organizing a two-day high-level event on investment facilitation for development for African countries starting on 3 March.
Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) is the management, by communities or smallholders, of forests and agroforests they own, as well as the management of state-owned forests (some of which share customary tenure and rights under traditional laws and practice) by communities.
The second independent verification of the milestones of the Letter of Intent between the DRC and CAFI analysed the level of achievement of intermediate milestones (2018) and progress towards final milestones (2020).
"The Minister does not allocate new forest concessions", reacts the Minister of the Environment who reminds that the law establishing the Forest Code “provides for the procedure to strip a concessionaire of his rights. (Articles 114 to 116).”
Kinshasa, February 11, 2021 – Greenpeace Africa calls on the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, to order the immediate cancellation of four illegal forest concession contracts signed last June 11 by the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Claude Nyamugabo. Greenpeace Africa calls on the public prosecutor to open proceedings.
The first UNEP synthesis report is titled: “Making Peace With Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies” and is based on evidence from global environmental assessments.
The report flags the interlinkages between our environmental and development challenges and describes the roles of all parts of society in the transformations needed for a sustainable future.
Since 2013, ATIBT has implemented a major program to involve the private sector in FLEGT, REDD+ and certification processes. This program is currently coming to an end after 7 years of implementation in 5 countries.
UN Climate Change News, 1 February – The UN Climate Change Secretariat today announced Regional Climate Weeks in 2021 and 2022, key meetings that will help build regional momentum for the annual UN Climate Change Conferences and drive forward regional implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The workshop held from 02 to 04 February 2021 comes after the "second CBFP Civil Society Day" organized on 10 December 2020 in Kinshasa with the support of the German CBFP Facilitation.
To inspire and support these actions, the Cool Coalition and the Climate & Clean Air Coalition have developed a brief that outlines shovel-ready strategies, best practices and case studies from around the world.
From 2 to 4 February 2021, the auditorium of the French Institute of Cameroon in Yaoundé hosted the fifth edition of the "COP CHEZ NOUS" organized by the Association Jeunesse Verte du Cameroun (AJVC) which runs the Technical Secretariat of the Central African Youth Network for the Sustainable Management of Forest and Wetland Ecosystems (REJEFAC).
The Policy Council on “Safer, Resilient and Sustainable Cities, Capable of Facing Crises” convened on Thursday, 11 February. The Council is co-chaired by Fatimetou Abdel Malick, President of the Nouakchott Regional Council, Mauritania, Johnny Araya, Mayor of San José, Costa Rica, Co-President of UCLG, and Sami Kanaan, Mayor of Geneva, Switzerland.
A study by the University of Wolverhampton’s Centre for International Development and Training (CIDT), has revealed that global climate goals and livelihoods of forest communities are at risk due to increased illegal logging in the forests of the Congo Basin.
The Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) 2021 launched the Adaptation Action Agenda 2030 and Decade of Action, establishing practical climate adaptation solutions and plans leading to 2030. The Adaptation Action Agenda 2030, which will guide the Decade of Action towards 2030, joins over 50 partners to establish initiatives aimed at concrete actions and partnerships to increase climate resiliency.