European Investment Bank launches fund to support the circular bioeconomy

The new EIB fund will provide access to finance – in the form of equity, debt or quasi-equity – to innovative circular bioeconomy companies and projects of various sizes. 
ECBF Management GmbH and Hauck & Aufhäuser Fund Services S.A. will act as the Alternative Investment Fund Manager.  ECBF Management will raise funds from public and private investors with a target fund volume of EUR 250 million and aims for a first close in Q1 2020. 
It is expected that EIB also will invest up to EUR 100 million in the fund.

What to expect from COP25?

The key issues to be discussed and resolved at COP25 include:
- Strengthening Climate Ambition, Long-Term Decarbonization and Resilience.
At COP25, countries must not only reiterate but strengthen their commitments regarding  enhanced NDCs by 2020 and launch national inclusive and multi-stakeholder enhancement processes.
- The rules, modalities, procedures, and guidance developed under Article 6 must be in line with the highest standard of environmental integrity.
Recommendations should be prepared on far more ambitious NDCs based on the findings of the three recent IPCC special reports on 1.5°C, land, and oceans and cryosphere. Rich countries must use the Pre-2020 

World Energy Outlook 2019 suggests a path fully aligned with the Paris Agreement goal

WEO 2019, the International Energy Agency’s flagship publication, suggests a pathway that enables the world to meet climate, energy access and air quality goals while maintaining a strong focus on the reliability and affordability of energy for a growing global population.
The path the world is on right now is presented by the Current Policies Scenario, which provides a baseline vision of how global energy systems would evolve if governments make no changes to their existing policies.

US starts formal withdrawal from Paris climate accord

The Trump administration announced that it will begin formally withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord, the first step in a year-long process to leave the landmark agreement to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases.

Critics of the withdrawal say that the US leaving an agreement it helped negotiate will harm the country's standing internationally.

A poll conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication earlier this year showed that about 7 in 10 Americans think global warming is happening, and at least 6 in 10 are "somewhat worried" about it.

Source: CNN

Outcomes of UN Climate Action Summit in New York

United Nations Climate Action Summit, which was held in New York on September 23, 2019, boosted climate action momentum, and demonstrated growing recognition that the pace of climate action must be rapidly accelerated.
 Among major outcomes of the Summit:

• 65 countries and  sub-national economies committed to cut GHG emissions to net zero by 2050
• Over 100 business leaders delivered concrete actions to align with the Paris Agreement targets,  including asset-owners holding over $2 trillion in assets and leading companies with combined value also over $2 trillion

Ecopreneur Circular Economy Update report 2019

Ecopreneur.eu published the report with an overview of circular economy policies in all EU member states. Combining the Circular Economy Monitoring Framework of the European Commission with available rankings, databases and reports, Ecopreneur presents 28 country profiles using a combination of available quantitative data and qualitative information to highlight specific indicators covering various aspects of the circular economy.

Circular economy gap: just 9% of the 92.8 billion tonnes of materials that enter the economy are re-used annually

These numbers were revealed in a report presented by Circle Economy in Davos during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. According to the report, 62% of global greenhouse gas emissions (excluding those from land use and forestry) are released during the extraction, processing and manufacturing of goods to serve society’s needs; only 38% are emitted in the delivery and use of products and services. Authors of the report argues that innovation to extend the lifespan of existing resources will not only curb emissions but also reduce social inequality and foster low-carbon growth.

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

Renewable energy needs to be scaled up at least six times faster

In recently published report Global Energy Transformation: A Roadmap to 2050, IRENA states that renewable energy needs to be scaled up at least six times faster for the world to meet the decarbonisation and climate mitigation goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
While different paths can mitigate climate change, renewables and energy efficiency provide the optimal pathway to deliver most of the emission cuts needed at the necessary speed.

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.