Key questions about "loss and damage" from climate change

 Following are the 8 key questions answered in the WRI's article:

1) What Is Loss and Damage?
2) What Counts as Loss and Damage?
3) What Is the Difference Between Mitigation, Adaptation, and Addressing Loss and Damage?
4) What’s the History of Loss and Damage in UN Climate Negotiations?

EU countries lead the way to decarbonization and decoupling of economic growth and carbon emissions

 Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, and Sweden are among those EU countries who achieved the success in growing their economies and, at the same time, reducing CO2 emissions during last 30 years.

The cost-of-living crisis and climate-related risks are the biggest future threats facing the world

The World Economic Forum asked 1,200 experts under its annual Global Risks Perception Survey to rank the most severe short- and long-term risks, and they identified the cost-of-living crisis as the most severe immediate risk but saw the failure to mitigate the climate crisis as the biggest risk 10 years from now.

The agreement on the EU Emissions Trading System and the Social Climate Fund

 The European Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on legislative proposals of the ‘Fit for 55’ package that will allow the EU to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and to achieve climate neutrality in 2050 while making sure the most vulnerable citizens and micro-enterprises are effectively supported in the climate transition.

The Council and Parliament agreed to increase the overall ambition of emissions reductions by 2030 in the sectors covered by the EU ETS to 62%.

IPCC: major climate changes are inevitable and irreversible

 The AR6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, is a result of eight years of hard work of hundreds of experts and peer-review studies. It represents the world’s full knowledge to date of the physical basis of climate change and found that human activity was “unequivocally” the cause of rapid changes to the climate, including sea level rises, melting polar ice and glaciers, heatwaves, floods, and droughts.

Human influence has warmed the climate at a rate unprecedented in at least the past 2000 years

Current NDCs submission status under the Paris Agreement

Under the Paris Agreement, Parties must  submit  Nationally  Determined  Contributions  (NDCs)  to  the UNFCCC and  to introduce policies  aiming the achievement of their stated objectives. The first round of  NDCs,  submitted  by  191 countries,  covers  more  than  90%  of  global  energy‐related  and  industrial  process  CO2  emissions.

As  of  23  April  2021,  80 countries  have  submitted  new  or  updated  NDCs  to  the  UNFCCC,  covering  just  over  40%  of  global  CO2  emissions. 

Still, just a few percent of the global net zero emission targets currently are supported by law (see figure below).

Source: IEA, 2021

IEA proposes technological and policy pathways allowing transition to a net zero energy system by 2050

The energy sector is the source of about 75% of GHG emissions today and holds the key to preventing the worst effects of climate change.

In its recent report NET ZERO BY 2050: A ROADMAP FOR THE GLOBAL ENERGY SECTOR, IEA proposes technological and policy pathways allowing transition to a net zero energy system by 2050 while ensuring stable and affordable energy supplies, providing universal energy access, and enabling robust economic growth.

The path to net-zero emissions is challenging: staying on it requires immediate and intensive deployment of all available clean and efficient energy technologies.

Have countries done enough to meet their climate action promises made five years ago in Paris?

 Unfortunately, according to BloombergNEF, the world's biggest #GHG emitters still are far behind in terms of implementing policies and actions to meet their #ParisAgreement commitments...

BloombergNews

Outcomes of COP24 in Katowice, December 2018

The Katowice climate package, adopted in December 2018 during COP24 in Katowice, Poland, is a set of rules regarding how the Parties will measure the carbon emissions and report on their emissions-cutting efforts. This ‘rulebook’ can be called as the detailed “operating manual” of 2015 Paris Agreement, and it includes:

•    the information about domestic mitigation and other climate goals and activities that governments will provide in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs);
•    the rules for the functioning of the Transparency Framework, which will show to the world what countries are doing about climate change;
•    how to assess progress on the development and transfer of technology;
•    how to provide advance information on financial support to developing countries and the process for establishing new targets on finance from 2025 onwards

The implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement respect the different capabilities and socio-economic realities of each country while providing the foundation for ever-increasing ambition with respect to climate action. They establish an effective international system for promoting and tracking progress while empowering countries to build national systems for implementing the Agreement

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Source: Katowice climate package. UNFCCC

What are the major outcomes of COP 23?

The official  UNFCCC’s press release on November 17, 2017 lists over 30 concrete climate action commitments at COP23.

Couple month later, Climate Institute in the publication COP23: A Critical Assessment of the Conference’s Outcomes provides an overview of the most important outcomes of the negotiations, highlighting the main drawbacks and achievements.

Just to be aware: key charts used by climate change skeptics

See other charts at https://wattsupwiththat.com.  Below the publication with charts you can see its discussion. 
  “Tips and Notes”  on the topic can be found on the other page of the same web site.

Report on climate change impacts and costs in Europe

Report, published by European Environment Agency, shows that climate change is already having wide-ranging impacts on ecosystems, economic sectors and human health and well-being in Europe. Climate change is affecting all regions in Europe, but the impacts are not uniform. Most impacts of climate change across Europe have been adverse, although some impacts have been beneficial.

Climate change as century’s greatest threat to human health

Impact of climate change on human health became a subject of serious research. In 2009, prior to Copenhagen climate change conference, prestigious medical journal The Lancet published an article, which stated that “climate change is potentially the biggest global health threat in the 21st century”.

COP22 in Marakech pledged to move ahead with implementation of Paris Agreement

In the Marrakech Action Proclamation Parties to UNFCCC confirmed heir “commitment” to the “full implementation” of the Paris Agreement and called for “the highest political commitment to combat climate change” and “strong solidarity with those countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change”. In the Proclamation, developed countries reaffirmed their $100 billion mobilization goal per year by 2020 to support climate action by developing countries.

Volcano eruption mitigated sea level rise by quarter of an inch per decade

 

The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, which sent tens of millions of tons of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere and caused reflection of solar heat and cooling ocean temperatures, has masked the worsening effects of industrial pollution on global sea levels.

Green Climate Fund contributes US$ 378 million to EBRD projects

This contribution will be made in support of sustainable energy financing facilities the Bank is offering in Armenia, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Serbia, Tajikistan and Tunisia. The program, with overall cost of more than US$ 1.4 billion in the 10 countries, is expected to leverage a five-fold additional financing by participating private sector banks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 2 million tonnes a year.

Paris Agreement will enter into force on 4 November 2016.

On 5 October 2016, further to the deposit of the instruments of ratification to the Paris Agreement by 74 Parties to the Convention, the per cent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions achieved was 58.82 per cent.  

Now we are living in a 400 ppm CO2 world...

September 2016 is a major milestone for the world’s climate change history - according to Mauna Loa CO2 program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the monthly value of atmospheric carbon dioxide failed to drop below 400 parts per million. It means, that 2016 will be the year that CO2 officially passed the symbolic 400 ppm mark, never to return below it in our lifetimes.

Extreme weather disasters, induced by global warming, cost U.S. $67 Billion

Between 2005 and 2015, the presidents of the U.S. issued 832 separate emergency or disaster declarations for which Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided either public assistance—defined as funding for state, tribal, and local governments—or individual assistance in the form of grants typically made to homeowners and renters whose home damage was not covered by homeowners insurance.

Ancient civilizations that were destroyed by climate change

This isn't the first time climate change has threatened civilisation. Many scientists speculate that devastating environmental changes caused by climate change are largely to blame for disappearance some famous past civilisations. The decline in Ancestral Puebloans, who suddenly abandoned their distinctive homes in the Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon villages, located on Colorado Plateau, "coincided with a prolonged drought in the San Juan Basin between 1130 and 1180. Lack of rainfall combined with an overtaxed environment may have led to food shortages".