Climate change negotiations kick off in Paris

CSE brings you updates from the field as climate change talks get underway. Daily reports, analyses, videos, infographics, interviews, blogs, images…

What is desirable from Paris? As Sunita Narain, director general of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says, the world must strongly underscore the need to keep temperature rise below 20C at the very least. But what has been discernible in the run-up to Paris is an effort to change the narrative. CSE’s report – Capitan America – released just before the 21st Conference of Parties kicks off in Paris, says as much, even as it explores the unambitious INDCs of the US (download free at http://www.cseindia.orghttps://cdn.cseindia.org/userfiles/Capitan-America-Report.pdf).

Get a whiff of what is going on inside the conference venue from our very own team of climate change specialists. They are in Paris, keeping track of the negotiations and mobilising the voice of the developing world to ensure that climate talks are just and enable the development needs of developing countries while the world cuts down its emissions.

Do check out the complete CoP21 package at www.downtoearth.org.in, and stay with us through the days that will follow. We will bring you the true story, every day.

Highlights of today’s dispatch:

  • Alternative Paris – editorial by CSE director general Sunita Narain

Paris must agree to operationalise equity by accepting that the level of effort of each country’s INDC will be equal to its share of the global carbon budget.
http://w            ww.downtoearth.org.in/blog/alternative-paris-51916

  • Drafting the Paris agreement

A first-person account of how the conference began -- by observing a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of the recent terror attack in the French capital…
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/drafting-the-paris-agreement-climate-change-negotiations-kick-off-51918

  • US hints at a new climate regime

A few hours ahead of the Paris climate summit, the US has called annexes-based differentiation between developed and developing, as given by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as “outdated” and irrelevant in contemporary circumstances
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/hours-ahead-of-paris-summit-us-hints-at-a-new-climate-regime-51920

  • India and France invite countries to join International Solar Alliance

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and French president Francois Hollande, together invited over 100 countries to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA). The initiative will be launched by them on November 30 in Paris.
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/india-and-france-invite-countries-to-join-international-solar-alliance-51903

  • Video: TV DTE interviews Ajay Mathur, senior Indian negotiator, at Paris

“Global stock taking of INDCs is essential, and developed countries must enhance their CO2 reduction commitments post-2020”
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/video/-developed-countries-will-have-to-enhance-their-indcs-after-2020--51910

CSE has a five-member team attending the CoP21 deliberations in Paris. Please contact us if you need to speak with any of them.

The CSE Delhi team: Souparno Banerjee, souparno@cseindia.org, 99108 64339 / Anupam Srivastava, asrivastava@cseindia.org, 99100 93893