Focus on climate crisis
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Reporting on climate change is one of the major journalistic challenges of our time. The climate crisis is also one of the most important issues of humanity for SPIEGEL. For this reason, we support an international initiative that seeks to take a look this week: "Covering Climate Now" has been initiated by the Columbia Journalism Review and the Canadian newspaper "The Nation", with more than 200 media companies worldwide including the Guardian, El País, La Repubblica, The Times of India, Bloomberg or Vanity Fair. SPIEGEL is dedicating the cover story of the current issue to the climate crisis this week and every day pays special attention to mirror.de
Why did Guterres convene the "Climate Action Summit"?
Almost three years after his election as UN Secretary-General, Guterres, often without luck, has found his central theme in climate change. He fights hard with the summit to turn the demands and energy of the street protests into the greatest possible pressure on the Member States. He is also seeking a solidarity with the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. The Guterres forgave the right to speak only to heads of state and government officials who have concrete things to offer.
How is the meeting different from a "normal" climate summit?
The most important meeting of international climate policy is traditionally the annual conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Because it is called Conference of the Parties in English, it is often abbreviated to COP. This year's COP, the 25th of its kind, will take place from 2 to 13 December in Santiago, Chile. There, decisions are taken that are binding on the member states of the Treaty. That's not the case at the meeting in New York.
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Who participates in the "Climate Action Summit"?
In addition to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also allowed to speak. However, the list of speakers also includes representatives of small states such as the Marshall Islands, which have little to do with climate change, but suffer particularly badly. Large CO2 producers such as China and Russia, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeyev, only send their second guard. Nevertheless, the presentation of China, the largest producer of greenhouse gases, will be very important for the summit result.
What role will Greta Thunberg play?
Politicians will also be joined by representatives of the private sector and civil society, including 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. The United Nations would not have wished anyone better could talk to the heads of state and government on the big stage once more. The 16-year-old Swede, a symbol of the climate movement, comes with the mandate of the road to the summit: on Friday, hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people around the world followed Thunberg's call for a global climate strike. She had spoken to tens of thousands in New York and later appeared at a UN Youth Summit.
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And who will miss the summit?
First and foremost Donald Trump. Shortly after taking office, the US president announced that he would opt out of the Paris Climate Agreement, making him the most powerful adversary in the fight against climate change. He is organizing a meeting on religious freedom in parallel with the climate summit and is sending a department head of the Foreign Ministry to the climate summit, which will not speak. Other states, which often act as brakes in the climate negotiations, have no right to speak: Brazil, for example, or even South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Guterres wants to send a reminder to those who do too little.
What does Chancellor Merkel bring to the Climate Summit?
Merkel's speech is expected to UN data about 16:50 clock German time. In it she will talk about the "cornerstones for the Climate Protection Program 2030", which the Climate Cabinet decided on Friday. In addition to many promotion plans and incentives, they include a legal framework that will be followed up on climate protection in the coming years and the introduction of a CO2 price for transport and heating. However, this CO2 price from 2021 is so low that researchers have criticized it massively. (Read here a comprehensive analysis on the topic.)
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Can Germany (still) be seen in New York with the Climate Package?
On the world stage, Germany has not lost the pioneering image in the fight against global warming. For example, Minister of the Environment Svenja Schulze (SPD) was proud to announce that they are now also joining the Alliance of Countries that want to make do without climate-damaging coal-fired power. German climate change diplomats are not likely to tear Germany's plans from their stools. With the coal exit, which plans Germany until 2038, some countries are earlier. However, they are less in a hurry with the nuclear phase-out than the Germans. Even a CO2 price is not a new idea. And because Germany will crack its climate protection target for 2020, a program for 2030 will not change anything either.
Voice # 113 - Is Angela Merkel really the "Climate Chancellor"?
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How far is the world in fulfilling the Paris climate goals?
It looks pretty grim. The aim of the Paris Agreement is to limit earth heating to "well below 2 degrees", preferably to 1.5 degrees. If you put together everything that the states have promised so far, but the planet is heading with high probability to about 3 degrees more - with catastrophic consequences. And not even for these from a climate-science perspective to lax goals are the states so far on track. In the coming year, the members of the agreement should submit more ambitious plans. This is not obligatory.
What results can be expected on Monday?
Unlike other climate conferences, there will be no negotiated final document. The conference will have to be measured by the measures announced by the countries. New climate announcements should make for global headlines and at least generate some optimism before the COP in Chile in December.