Month: November 2015

Monday, November 30 – Opening Day of COP 21

Members of Climate Action Network watch the opening of COP 21.

Members of Climate Action Network watch the opening of COP 21.

Today was a lot calmer than yesterday but no less busy.  It was the opening day of the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known for short as COP21.  Because of all the security measures, Le Bourget, the converted airport north of the Paris city center where COP21 is taking place, was closed to the public.  So I went with several members of the Citizens Climate Lobby delegation to the hub for the Climate Action Network, or CAN, a network of organizations from around the world working on climate change.  The CAN hub is about a 10-minute walk from my hostel at Place to B, but my phone got confused at an intersection where several streets came together.  Eventually I found it, and several of us congregated in two rooms to watch the ceremonies, which were being livestreamed on the Internet.

After the so-called “family photo” of all the visiting world leaders, more than 150 country presidents, prime ministers, and other heads of state were scheduled to speak at the Leaders Event starting at noon.  Even though each leader was only given three minutes to speak, there were so many of them that speeches ran in two rooms simultaneously and still went on into the evening.

President Obama speaks at COP 21.

President Obama speaks at COP 21.

President Obama spoke about 12:45 and gave what I thought was an excellent speech.  He called the Paris climate conference a “turning point … the moment we finally determined we would save our planet.” “I’ve come here personally, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and the second-largest emitter, to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it,” Obama said.  He talked about his recent trip to Alaska and called for an ambitious and transparent agreement.  He talked about how this is life or death for island nations and said he was meeting with their leaders tomorrow. He also mentioned the multibillion-dollar investment fund in clean energy research and development to be launched by Bill Gates and others today.

You can see video of Obama’s speech here and read statements by all the world leaders here.

My CCL colleague Chuck Lynd leads the Global Climate March in Columbus.

My CCL colleague Chuck Lynd leads the Global Climate March in Columbus.

While I was listening to the various leaders speak, I was also paging through my social media accounts and saw that my CCL colleague Chuck Lynd had pulled off quite a march for climate in Columbus. As I was trying to avoid arrest at Place de la Republique in Paris, Chuck and others had gotten over 100 people to come out as part of the Global Climate March organized by 350.org.  I was amazed because before I had left, only a handful of people were signed up.  In less than a week, Chuck got the word out to environmental advocates across Central Ohio, and they turned out in droves, resulting in a great photo in the Columbus Dispatch.  That made my heart sing.

See video of the Columbus march from Carolyn Harding and photos from David Roseman via the Sierra Club Central Ohio Group.

On the frustrating side, the keys on my iPad stopped working.  I had planned to live tweet the Leaders Event, and even posted that I would on my Facebook page. but was unable to.  This was a cause for some panic, as I had not brought a laptop to Paris but was relying on the iPad to do the heavy lifting.  I was worried it had crashed even though it was only six months old.  Perhaps the blog posts and photos from yesterday had worked it too hard.  I wasn’t sure what to do, so I sent out a query through the CAN-talk listserv asking if anyone had a laptop I could borrow.  Most people recommended that I take the iPad to an Apple store in Paris, which I finally decided to do.  One was about a mile away, which gave me my first chance to truly walk around the city.  Once I got to the Apple store, it took awhile to figure out the system for getting some help, but when I finally did, the technician simply told me to call Apple support.  Well, I could have done that from the CAN hub!  But unfortunately I did not buy international minutes from Verizon.

Then I noticed that the operating system for the iPad needed to be updated.  I prayed that would solve the problem and pressed the button.  It was an entire new install of the IOS operating system and took a long time to work. After that, I sat at the store playing with the keys again for awhile.  Eventually I decided the iPad was indeed fixed, though I considered buying a new laptop in France anyway. Posting blogs and processing photos is so much easier from a laptop, and I will not travel to an event like this again without one.  But not only is the electrical outlet on French laptops different, the keyboard is different — it is not a QWERTY keyboard but AZERTY.  So I decided not to.

Members of the Citizens Climate Lobby delegation meet in Paris.

Members of the Citizens Climate Lobby delegation meet in Paris.

Finally tonight I ended up at the dinner and meeting for Citizens Climate Lobby.  Both took place at apartments that CCL members had rented out for the conference through Air B&B.  I’ve never used Air B&B, but after seeing their apartments, I decided to try it next time I am traveling internationally.  Their setup looked much more comfortable than the hostel, which is basically a dormitory, and they have access to full kitchens so they can cook their own food.  This is cheaper than buying every meal out as I have to do.

The highlight of the CCL meeting was hearing from Joe Robertson, the global strategy director, about the launch today of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition.  CCL’s entire platform is carbon pricing, specifically a proposal called carbon fee and dividend that would tax carbon at the source of extraction and return all proceeds to American households.  There is a lot of talk nationally about a carbon tax, but a formal discussion of pricing carbon was taken off the agenda for COP 21 in October.  Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, said at the time that countries had too many different carbon pricing schemes for them to be reconciled into one document.

Even so, the launch of the CPLC on the first day of COP 21 put carbon pricing front and center in the conference. Consisting of 15 national governments (including Canada, Germany, and France), five subnational governments (Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and California), and more than 60 businesses (including BP, Enel, and Shell), the CPLC has a goal of adding carbon pricing to all national strategies by 2020 — only five years away!  And they just may be able to do it.  At the launch was a powerhouse of leaders: World Bank President Jim Kim, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Philippines President Benigno Aquino III, and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Joe saw the entire thing inside the Blue Zone.

CCL has two blog posts about the launch of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Forum, one by Peter Joseph, leader of the Marin County Chapter, and one by Jessica Langerman, a volunteer from Massachusetts.

COP 21 State of Play – Day 1

Each day, Fred Heutte, lead volunteer for the Sierra Club’s Federal and International Climate Campaign, is providing updates about the day’s events at COP21, the Paris Climate Conference.  I will reprint these in this blog with his permission.

Fred Heutte

Fred Heutte

SUNDAY, NOV. 29 — The annual UN climate conference got off to an unusual start with a Sunday evening plenary of the ADP (Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform), the body preparing the negotiating texts for the Paris Agreement.

The reason for this first-ever session ahead of the official opening of the COP on Monday was so that spinoff groups on key topics could start meeting and not lose a full day of negotiations time because of the special Leaders Event on Monday.

At the ADP plenary, outgoing COP 20 president Manuel Vidal Pulgar (environment minister, Peru) and incoming COP 21 president Laurent Fabius (foreign minister, France) both emphasized the urgency of completing preparation of the ADP’s work by the end of the week so that ministers have a workable text with a limited number of options in week 2.

Shoes of Pope Francis at Place de Republique

Shoes of Pope Francis at Place de la Republique

MONDAY, NOV. 30 — Today was the formal opening of COP 21, with a short COP plenary followed by statements from many of about 150 heads of state and government invited by the French government to give momentum to the difficult two weeks of talks ahead of us.

President Obama emphasized the progress being made in the United States over the last several years, as well as around the world, as setting the stage for a much greater effort to address climate. He noted that many nations have contributed little to climate change but will be the first to feel its effects, and said he would meet with island nations on Tuesday. The latter part of his speech focused on the legacy that this generation must leave for future generations.

Obama touched on two more specific things — the United States is joining with 10 other countries to replenish the Least Developed Countries Fund — the U.S. share will be $51 million out of a total of $248 million. The LDCF mainly supports adaptation planning and program development. This is a continuation of a long-running program (the U.S. funding goes back to the George W. Bush administration).

He also stated the United States has “a new commitment to risk insurance initiatives,” which is a still-developing idea to provide financial support for efforts to recover from extreme events like storms and floods.

With a few evening ADP spinoff groups running but closed to observers, the talk around the halls today was about what issues need to be moved forward this week so that ministers can start to move away from longstanding deadlocks — on climate finance, on five-year cycles of review, on loss and damage (efforts to respond when mitigation and adaptation both fall short and climate impacts cause severe damage to vulnerable countries and areas), on differentiation (fair shares for the climate efforts each country makes and for the financial and technology support that developed countries like the United States should provide to assist developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable).

There were two areas where major initiatives were announced today.

The first is in clean energy, with three side-by-side announcements:

  • Mission Innovation, including 20 participating countries pledging to double public clean energy research and development investment over five years (www.mission-innovation.net).
  • The Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a coordination effort on a multibillion-dollar clean energy finance push by a global group of major investors including Bill Gates, Mukesh Ambani, Tom Steyer, Masayoshi Son and George Soros. This will also be coordinated with with Mission Innovation (www.breakthroughenergy.com)
  • The International Solar Alliance, announced by Prime Minister Modi, will be headquartered in India and already has 120 participating countries and numerous major companies involved in the solar industry.

A second important announcement came from a group of developing countries who have decided to take much quicker action on creating their own clean energy economies. The new Climate Vulnerable Forum (V20), including among others Philippines, Sudan, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Honduras, Bhutan and Vietnam, which are not only calling for a global goal of 1.5 degree C temperature rise (roughly equivalent to 350 ppm), but are pledging to greatly accelerate transition of their own economies from fossil fuel dependence to clean energy, in part with mutual support as well as pushing for more assistance from developed countries.

State of Play Dateline

[x] Sunday 29 ADP pre-plenary
[x] Monday 30 COP opening plenary – Leader Event
[ ] Tuesday 1 COP/CMP joint plenary, SBI and SBSTA opening plenaries, start of ADP contact group and spinoffs
[ ] Wednesday 2
[ ] Thursday 3
[ ] Friday 4
[ ] Saturday 5 closing ADP plenary, COP plenary
[ ] Sunday 6 [COP 21 closed]
[ ] Monday 7 High Level Segment
[ ] Tuesday 8 High Level Segment
[ ] Wednesday 9
[ ] Thursday 10
[ ] Friday 11 closing COP plenary

further info: phred@sunlightdata.com

Note: This list of UNFCCC acronyms could be helpful: http://unfccc.int/essential_background/glossary/items/3666.php

Sunday, November 29 – Nearly caught up in a crackdown

Today has been an adventure, much more than I bargained for. First I got seven glorious hours of sleep which really helped after two days of travel. I woke up with hopes my luggage had arrived overnight, but no such luck. No clothing shops would open before 10 a.m. when the Sierra Club’s orientation for all members at COP21 was set to take place. So either I had to miss the orientation hope a shop would be open and have my my size, or wear the same old sweats to the orientation. I elected to do the latter thinking I could sit in the back. I was glad I did because the information shared there was crucial to understanding the negotiations.  I’ll post a series of “State of Play” updates by Fred Heutte, lead volunteer with the Sierra Club Federal and Climate Campaign, to cover this.

Mini-march at Place de Republique

Mini-march at Place de Republique

Orientation got out about noon, so several people headed over to Place de Republique to see if we could find the shoes exhibit. Earlier in the day, Sierra Club volunteers and others had put out thousands of pairs of shoes to symbolize those who could not march. However by the time we got there, we couldn’t find them and figured they had been removed, as they were only going to be on display for a few hours. Lots of people were in the plaza, and they would have stumbled all over a large exhibit.

Media interviewed demonstrators.

Media interviewed demonstrators.

We looked for a few minutes at the huge memorial to the terrorist victims – two large rows of flowers, cards, and items left all around the huge bronze statue of Marianne, the symbol of the French republic holding an olive branch in her right hand and resting her left on a tablet engraved with the Rights of Man. Then we went to lunch. See video of the memorial to the Paris terrorism victims

After lunch, the others headed to Musee D’Orsay, but I decided to go back to the hostel to check on my luggage. My metro train changed at Place de Republique, so I decided to go up to see if I could get photos of the terrorism memorial and look again for the shoes. There were again a lot of people, some groups doing “mini marches” around the plaza, and other people just hanging out. I decided to also get pics of some of the activists, their activities and signs. I also found a small shoe exhibit, which people were just then adding to.

A second shoe exhibit, smaller than the morning exhibit, appeared at the plaza.

A second shoe exhibit, smaller than the morning exhibit, appeared at the plaza.

While I was doing that, the police arrived and stood in phalanxes along the streets leading into the square. They stood on the sides of the square for a long time. I asked people if the police would come into the square and make arrests. People who I talked to said no, they didn’t think so. But that was wrong. They started with tear gas around the edge of the plaza and not near me, but it pushed people my direction. Then was a series of loud booms. I wasn’t affected because it was all across the plaza, but I could smell it. If you’ve ever lit those old firework snakes on July 4, it smells like that.

tear gas at the other end of the plaza

Tear gas at the other end of the plaza

As this was going on, I found an AP van and talked to their staff member. She was inside the van watching video their camera people were getting from above and sending them instructions over a walker talkie as to what to close in on. I wasn’t sure if things would escalate, but the AP person told me the police would not bother them, so stood near their van in hopes of looking like media just in case. I also pinpointed where the metro entrance was so I could get out quickly if needed.

Row of police move closer

Row of police move closer

Then the police started to move in. That’s when I decided it was time to leave. I started down the stairs to the metro only to find the police had closed the metro stops. Another nearby metro stop was also gated shut, with police behind the gate. So I could not leave. Then police started to cordon off the streets. Fortunately some well-dressed people with luggage showed up to get into the Crowne Plaza, whose doors were also closed. But the bellhop opened the doors for them and I took advantage. See video of police moving in on protesters

View from the hotel: Police vans move in

View from the hotel: Police vans move in

From the hotel window I watched dozens of police vans move in, presumably to start arrests. There was a crowd demonstrating a few hundred feet down from the hotel, so that’s probably where the police were going to start. I have no desire to get arrested, so I hung out in the hotel bar for a couple of hours with a soup and tea. Finally by 5:45 I was ready to leave, but the metro stop was still closed and the police were still making arrests. The hotel staff pointed me to the next metro stop down away from the arrests, and I found a train and got back to the hostel. It was eerie riding through the Place de Republique stop, which is normally extremely busy but tonight was totally empty.

Vegan demonstrators

Vegan demonstrators

So what are my feelings about all this? On the one hand, I did not see anything different in Paris as at the countless demonstrations in the US. People were simply expressing themselves and their feelings of urgency about the climate, which I understand and share. On the other hand, Paris has just suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks since 9/11, which took place not far from today’s events. The government is understandably concerned about another attack, and it would be easy for bad people to hide in the crowd. So while I wish the government hadn’t felt the need to cancel the climate march, I can see why they did, and I wanted to respect that.

An AP staffer directs camera angles from the van.

An AP staffer directs camera angles from the van.

Then there’s a third hand, which is that with a previous career as a journalist, I also wanted to document events, and here I had a front row seat. I could have left the moment police showed up, but I wasn’t sure they were going to make arrests. I thought maybe they were just trying to contain the crowds in one area or making sure it didn’t get above a certain size. So I decided to see what happened. Part of why I’m here is to witness history, and this was the history of a cancelled climate march.

Men in black moved past just as police moved in.

Men in black moved past just as police moved in.

One more thing happened just as I was walking toward the metro stop to leave. A group of men all in black pants and jackets came running toward me. As I took a picture, one of them slapped down my arm and yelled at me “No photo!” I was afraid he would take my phone, so I just said “Okay” and tried to look harmless. They moved on, and I was left wondering who they were. They could have been civil demonstrators, anarchists, rabble rousers, or genuine terrorists, but clearly they didn’t want their picture taken, and you couldn’t see their faces anyway because they were covered in black too. So while I feel like the police did not need to crack down on civil demonstrators as harshly as they did, I am also not convinced that everyone in the crowd was a climate activist. Some may have very well not had good intentions.

P.S. My luggage finally arrived! 11:30 pm after three more calls to the airline.

 

Here are some more pictures from the day’s events:

Another mini-march around the plaza

Another mini-march around the plaza

 

Idle No More France was present

Idle No More France was present

 

Activists let their frustration with the cancelled march be known.

Activists let their frustration with the cancelled march be known.

Sustaina Claus - I'm not sure what was in the bag!

Sustaina Claus – I’m not sure what was in the bag!

more bike signs

more bike signs

detail of shoe exhibit.

detail of shoe exhibit.

Signs left behind

Signs left behind

Demonstrators start to get louder

Demonstrators start to get louder

Bicyclist with sign

Bicyclist with sign

Police gathered outside the plaza.

Police gathered outside the plaza.

Tear gas at the edge of the plaza

Tear gas at the edge of the plaza

The hotel TV showed events just outside the doors.

The hotel TV showed events just outside the doors.

Saturday, November 28 – I made it to Paris!

I made it. The flight was incredibly long, though British Airways keeps you well fed and the food is good. However, I didn’t sleep at all on the flight – I never do on flights – so I am exhausted. And worse, they lost my luggage. As much as I like Ohio State sweats, I don’t want to wear them for days on end, and I’d really like a change of underwear.

place to BI arrived at my hostel – St Christopher’s Inn, or for COP21, Place to B. They don’t officially start the COP21 event until 3pm, so I couldn’t get into the room until then. It is a typical hostel. I’m in the room with the least number of beds – four – but they are bunk beds and I am on top! I have to climb a tall ladder to get up there. This will be interesting – haven’t done that since age 12.

A world map made from moss adorns the inside of Place to B.

A world map made from moss adorns the inside of Place to B.

Inside P2B was a hub of activity this afternoon with staff trying to get ready for the conference, so I decide to go elsewhere for lunch. Just around the corner was a place billing itself as “The world’s best vegetarian Indian restaurant,” so I decided to stop there. That’s when I realized I’m not in Ohio anymore. The menu was in a mix of French and English but at least the dishes had names I recognized. I ordered mutter paneer only to find you had to order rice separately. You also have to ask for silverware and water separately. The wait people probably got tired of hearing from me.

COP1 badge 1995I did sneak in a short nap after lunch and am hoping to get to a meeting with the Citizens Voice team. Meanwhile I’ve been catching up on email. I got signed up on several email lists from Climate Action Network, an umbrella organization for climate groups all over the world. The past few days people with CAN have been sending a constant stream of emails with information about events, briefings, badges, security, and who knows what. One of them even dug up an old sticker from the very first COP in 1995!

A reception at Place to B starts at 6 p.m., but I may have to go buy some toiletries and go back to bed instead. Between my last term paper and an overnight flight, I can barely keep my eyes open. Paris is 6 hours ahead of New York – and Ohio – so it will be like going to bed at noon the next day. The Bose noise canceling headphones we got may turn out to be a crucial investment, especially for people sensitive to noise as I am.

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Ségolène Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development, and Axelle Lemaire, French Deputy Minister for Digital Affairs visited Place to B.

Ségolène Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development, and Axelle Lemaire, French Deputy Minister for Digital Affairs, visited Place to B.

I did get to the reception.  First was mixing and mingling, where I met the other Citizens Voice contributors.  Things were very crowded so it was hard to do much beside say hi.  Then the event started.  First was a a visit by Ségolène Royal, French Minister of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development, and Axelle Lemaire, French Deputy Minister for Digital Affairs.  Then we spoke with two artists behind a project called the Bureau of Linguistical Reality.  The idea was to coin new words to capture the concepts behind climate change, which is something humans have never faced before.  Besides the fairly well-known “anthropocene” were words like “ennuipocalypse” and “gwilt.” Citizens Voice team member Jeremy Lent did interviews with both artists, now up on Youtube.

 

Why I’m going to the climate conference in Paris

Note: I submitted this column to the Columbus Dispatch a week before my trip to the COP21 climate conference in Paris.  They asked me for a photo to go with it, but never published it.  I include it here because it is a good explanation of why I decided to go.

Headlines about climate change greet us daily. Just last week in the Columbus Dispatch, we learned that a melting glacier in Greenland could boost sea levels almost two feet (“Sliding glacier could raise sea levels by 20 inches,” 11/14); last month was the hottest October on record (“Absurdly hot October as Earth sets 8th heat record this year,” 11/18); and ocean temperatures have reached a new high (“Ocean warming tops previous El Nino record,” 11/19).

In Ohio, former state climatologist Jeffrey Rogers tells us that climate change has increased instances of extreme weather, leading to more rain coupled with more periods of drought, higher temperatures, and greater windstorms (“Map shows weather is worsening, group says,” 11/13).

COP21 logoThe ongoing urgency of climate change is why next week I will travel to Paris to participate in events surrounding the United Nations climate talks. As a volunteer for Ohio Sierra Club, Citizens Climate Lobby, and Climate Reality Project, I will be staffing booths in the civil society section of the conference; attending debates, workshops, screenings and presentations on climate change risks and solutions; and reporting on events through blogs, social media and online video. And yes, I will offset the carbon emitted by my flight through a purchase at NativeEnergy Travel Offsets.

As this one week of headlines shows, climate change is one of the most pressing problems of our time. Climate scientists agree that if left unaddressed, climate change would destabilize the Earth’s environment, making parts of the planet virtually uninhabitable for humans and many other species by the end of the century. Nor can the solutions to climate change wait. Physics doesn’t care about politics, which puts addressing climate change on a non-negotiable timeline.

The good news is that most observers expect the Paris climate conference to rise to the challenge. Throughout the year, nations have held a series of meetings leading up to the Paris talks, and so far 168 countries have made “intended nationally determined contributions,” or pledges to reduce their carbon emissions. If all nations come to an agreement on lowering carbon emissions in Paris, it will be a historic first, as past UN climate conferences have covered only developed countries.  This year the agreement is expected to cover developing countries too.

The momentum for the Paris climate talks began a year ago when President Obama announced a historic deal on lowering carbon emissions with China. The United States, relying largely on the EPA Clean Power Plan, agreed to lower emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. China agreed to peak emissions and get 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030. China is closing coal plants, building solar plants, and will launch a cap-and-trade program next year.

One mark of momentum going into the Paris climate talks is that this year for the first time, 100 world leaders will arrive on the opening day of the conference, rather than waiting until the last minute to swoop in and try to hammer out an agreement. Everyone wants to avoid the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009 when leaders could not agree and the talks fell apart.

Scientists and policymakers have set 2 degrees Celsius as the maximum we can warm the planet without destabilizing the environment, and some think the limit is 1.5 degrees C. Will the expected agreement at the Paris climate conference bring emissions down far enough? Most observers think probably not. The Earth has already warmed almost a degree since the Industrial Revolution, with about a half-degree more locked in due to the long half-life of carbon.

But what a climate agreement among all nations would do is provide a baseline to start, so that negotiators can then continue to move the ball forward. One proposal being discussed is a requirement for nations to revisit their pledges every five years, which would provide a platform for pushing them to continue doing more until we are within a safe threshold for climate.

By going to Paris, I hope to help make a difference in this process. As one person, I can vote, contact my legislators, and organize local meetings and events – all of which I do. But by banding together with thousands of others from around the world, I can contribute to making a strong statement to world leaders that their citizens want them to take action on this crisis.

Cathy Cowan Becker is on the executive committee of Sierra Club Central Ohio Group, co-leader of Citizens Climate Lobby Columbus Chapter, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.