OMNI UN COP26 Glasgow Followup #2, 11-19/12-4, 2021

 

OMNI UN COP26 Glasgow Followup #2, 11-19/12-4, 2021

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

Omnicenter.org/donate/

CONTENTS

I reported all I received after 11-17, leaving blank the days my sources did not report on COP26.

11-19
Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Guterres’ dark appraisal of COP 26 (“the
      army of corporate executives and lobbyists”), COP 27

UNA/USA
  Keyon Rostamnezhad, UNA/USA Today
  UNA CALL TO TAKE ACTION
  Read IPCC Report

11-20
Baraka, Black Agenda Report, Popular Resistance.org: COP26 Northern Colonial Capitalist Greenwashing.

11-24
Prashad and Alexandra, Two gains at COP26: next COP in 2022 and 1.5
     degrees Celcius kept alive.
Harris, Climate Mobilization announces important coming events.
Alexandra, Big Polluter US Military complex Ignored at COP26.
Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin Interviewd by C. J. Polychroniou for  
    Truthout.

11-26
Chowhury, Mary Robinson: COP26 “a shameful dereliction of
   duty.”
11-30
Art Hobson, ADG, Price on Carbon Needed.
The Climate Optimist, Harvard U, COP26 a “tremendous momentum.”

12-2
Climate Coverage Now (CCN), critical appraisal: 1.5 Celcius already catastrophic, and the feeble pledges of COP26 certain to raise temperature higher.

12-3
MR online.org, COP26 “did not take any steps to stop the catastrophe.”

12-4
Chito Arceo, YACAKP, Popular Resistance.org: A new participant’s
      disappointment.
John Bellamy Foster, Marxism, Ecology, Climate Change Crisis

 

 

 

 

UNA/USA TAKE ACTION TODAY

UNA/USA TAKE ACTION TODAY

 

TEXTS

11-19
In the name of saving the climate, they will Uberise the farmlands: The Forty-Sixth Newsletter (2021)

Vijay Prashad.  Mronline.org (11-19-21).

The organisers of COP26 designated themes for many of the days during the conference, such as energy, finance, and transport. There was no day set aside for a discussion of agriculture; instead, it was bundled into ‘Nature Day’ on 6 November, during which the main topic was deforestation.    

 

CLIMATE AND ENERGY

 

Vulnerable regions urge UN to pressure major emitters.  UN Wire, 11-19-21 Countries particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change are asking United Nations officials to put pressure on high-emission countries that are resisting calls to action. Climate Vulnerable Forum program director Selamawit Wubet says the fight is "an uphill battle" and is seeking support from heads of COP26 and COP27, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat and the Secretary-General, as well as key negotiators.  Full Story: The Guardian (London) (11/18)

 

UNA Today: Here's what happened at COP26 

UNA-USA <info@unausa.org>	Nov 19, 2021, 3:38 PM (18 hours ago)

 

COP26 was Full of Highs and Lows: What Really Happened? The Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which created the Paris Agreement, Kyoto Protocol, and other major climate change Accords, was held this year in Glasgow, Scotland. As a UNA-USA Global Goals Ambassador, my objective was clear: to deliver the voice of engaged Americans to COP26, and to bring back the lessons of COP26 to all Americans. Photo With U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, omitted. This was my fourth COP, and each year I strive to make a larger impact by engaging with as many delegates on the ground to find common areas to bring climate solutions back home. MY TAKEAWAYS FROM COP26   Keyon Rostamnezhad  UNA-USA Global Goals Ambassador, SDG13: Climate Action

 

UNA/USA TAKE ACTION TODAY

Ask your lawmakers to support more ambitious climate action COP26 may have ended but the need for bold climate action continues—and our officials must be held accountable. Take 30 seconds to urge your lawmakers to uphold the commitments made by the United States at COP26.  SEND A MESSAGE   Read the IPCC's latest report In August, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their latest report—and the findings are distressing.  The report, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres called "a code red for humanity," warns that climate change is rapidly intensifying and impacting every region of the world—and we're running out of time to take action. READ THE IPCC REPORT

UNA Today aims to inform Americans interested in global affairs and the UN about important updates, events, opportunities, and campaigns. As the largest group of UN advocates in the U.S., UNA-USA members are the leaders fighting to protect and promote the vital work of the United Nations. PASSPORT is our members-only newsletter where you can learn about opportunities, events, programs, and perks! Join UNA-USA today to gain exclusive access to learning, leadership and networking opportunities, and our closed online community to connect and network with fellow members across the country! (Those under 26 join free!) JOIN OUR MOVEMENT

 

11-20

COP26: Greenwashing And Plutocratic Misadventures

By Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. Popular Resistance.org (11-20-21).  COP 26 reaffirmed what has been obvious from the beginning: the Northern colonial and capitalist states most responsible for creating the climate crisis are unwilling to place people before profits in order to address the planet’s looming ecological collapse and humanitarian catastrophe. We need justice. But that word -- Justice! -- despite all of the philosophical pontificating from John Locke to John Rawls, is a concept incompatible with the rapacious civilizational logic of a colonial/capitalist system based on self-interest, greed, and social Darwinism. -more-

11-24

Why Our Climate Isn’t Jumping For Joy After COP26

By Vijay Prashad And Zoe Alexandra, Socialist Project. Popular Resistance.org (11-24-21).  Two major gains took place at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Glasgow, Scotland, which concluded on November 13: the first was that there would be another COP in 2022 in Egypt, and the second was that the world leaders expressed their aspiration to keep global temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius alive. These were, however, the only gains made at the end of COP26 to address the pressing issue of climate change. After more than two weeks of intense discussions – and many evenings of corporate-funded cocktail parties – the most powerful countries in the world... -more-

 

 

Organizing for a Just Recovery 11-24-21

Rebecca Harris <tcm@theclimatemobilization.org> Unsubscribe	9:02 AM (8 hours ago)
On Monday evening, you have an incredible opportunity to hear from two leaders on the front lines of the climate emergency.  Organizing for a Just Recovery is a special learning event we’re putting on for members of the Climate Mobilization community.   You will come away from the conversation with new ways to think about the climate crisis, new tools to respond to next year’s challenges and a new approach to your organizing work.   Sign up now to join Monday night’s event.   One of our featured speakers is José Bravo, Executive Director of Just Transition Alliance. He will share a report back from COP 26 and his analysis of real and false solutions to climate change, as well as his experiences organizing to push back against disaster capitalism.   We’ll also hear from Allen Myers of Regenerating Paradise, which is working to transform the community of Paradise, CA following the Camp Fire. Regenerating Paradise recently premiered the visionary short film A Message from the Future of Paradise.   Don’t miss out — sign up today!   Warmly, Rebecca Harris, Organizing Director,  Climate Mobilization Project  Climate Mobilization Project 228 Park Ave. S PMB 87816 New York, NY 10003 United States

 

What role does the military play in climate change?

Editor.  11-24-21

A gaping hole in the COP26 official agenda was the oversized role of the military industrial complex in environmental devastation. The US is a global leader on this front with the Pentagon being a bigger polluter than 140 countries combined.   

 

COP26 Legacy: Interview with Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin

Political Economy Research Institute peri@peri.umass.edu via uark.onmicrosoft.com	Nov 24, 2021, 8:51 AM (1 day ago)
If you can't see this e-mail properly, view it online Chomsky and Pollin: Protests Outside of COP26 Offered More Hope Than the Summit Touted as our "last best hope" to end a climate catastrophe, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) ended on November 13 with a disheartening “compromise” deal after two weeks of negotiations with diplomats from more than 190 nations. In an interview with C.J. Polychroniou for Truthout, Noam Chomsky and PERI's Robert Pollin offer their assessments of what transpired at COP26 and share their views about ways to go forward with the fight against the climate crisis. Excerpts from the Interview Noam Chomsky: "There were two events at Glasgow: within the stately halls, and in the streets. They may have not been quite at war, but the conflict was sharp. Within, the dominant voice mostly echoed the concerns of the largest contingent, corporate lobbyists; rather like the U.S. Congress, where the impact of lobbyists, always significant, has exploded since the 1970s as the corporate-run neoliberal assault against the general population gained force. The voice within had some nice words but little substance. In the streets, tens of thousands of protesters, mostly young, were desperately calling for real steps to save the world from looming catastrophe." Robert Pollin: "The first thing to say about the COP26 conference is that it demonstrated, yet again, the breathtaking capacity of high-level diplomats to discuss issues of human survival almost entirely disconnected from reality. For example, it was considered an achievement of the conference that, for the first time, the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy was officially recognized as a cause of climate change. The only way that we can consider this progress is in relationship to the flat-out absurdity that the previous 25 COP agreements had all failed to acknowledge the long-established reality that burning fossil fuels is responsible for producing about 75-80 percent of the greenhouse gases causing climate change." Read Truthout Interview Read "Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal" by Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin Contact: Kim Weinstein, 703-229-2146

11-26
Climate injustice at Glasgow COP-out

Anis Chowhury.  Mronline.org (11-26-21)

Former Irish President Mary Robinson observed, "People will see this as a historically shameful dereliction of duty,… nowhere near enough to avoid climate disaster."   

 

11-30

Needed: A price on carbon

Meeting reflects need for greater action

Art Hobson, ahobson@uark.edu

NWADG, 30 November 2021

The recent two-week Glasgow meeting on global warming didn't move

the needle significantly, but it did reflect a public alarmed by environmental

catastrophes. MORE  https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2021/nov/30/opinion-art-hobson-glasgow-results-reflect-need/?opinion

So far as I can determine, the conference didn't even discuss the idea

that's most likely to solve the problem: Carbon Fee and Dividend. I first

encountered CF&D in climate scientist James Hanson's wonderful 2009 book Storms of my Grandchildren. It would levy, at the mine, oil well or gas well, a fee on the atmospheric carbon that will be emitted by burning the extracted fuel. The fee should equal the fuel's environmental damage. The fee would be phased in, starting at a low price and gradually rising. This would significantly raise fossil fuel prices. People will quickly look for cheaper energy solutions, reducing emissions.

This plan's brilliance lies in how the fees will be used. Hanson and

every other sensible analyst suggest that it be returned to all citizens on an

equal per-capita basis. According to Citizens' Climate Lobby, the skilled

organization that champions this plan, a reasonable fee would provide an

initial dividend of $50 per month per family, soon rising to $300. CCL thus

estimates two-thirds of Americans, including most poor people, will receive

more in dividends than they pay in higher prices, injecting billions into the

economy and protecting family budgets.

The recently-passed infrastructure bill includes money for directly

capturing carbon-dioxide from the air, reducing net emissions. It's goal is to

capture CO2 at a cost of $100 per ton, suggesting $100 per ton of emitted

CO2 as an appropriate carbon fee.

Because it's nearly certain to be effective, this plan will be fiercely

resisted by industry,. Stock values of those companies having no realistic

plans for switching their business model into non-polluting channels will

decline immediately upon enactment of CF&D. It will be the beginning of

the end of the fossil fuel age.  -------------------------

References: MORE  https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2021/nov/30/opinion-art-hobson-glasgow-results-reflect-need/?opinion

 

 

November was a BFD (Big Fossil Deal)  11-30-21

The Climate Optimist via auth.ccsend.com  [Does Harvard pass the Reality Check?  --D]	9:54 AM (57 minutes ago)
By Marcy Franck   November started with great uncertainty, but we're heading into December with progress at COP26, a bi-partisan infrastructure bill packed with climate goodness, and more reasons to be optimistic than many skeptics expected.     Did COP26 deliver the perfect movie ending, with world leaders singing in unison while promising to change their dirty fossil fuel ways? No. But was it just a lot of blah blah blah, as Greta Thunberg accused them with great vim and vigor? “Well, maybe one blah was justified but three may have been overkill,” said our former Director Gina McCarthy.    Thank God, because I was one more blah away from totally losing it.    We can’t kick back with our umbrella drinks and watch our bright, clean energy future unfold on autopilot. But the world is finally in the same pool, making our way to the bar, and that’s a BFD (big fossil deal). Plus, no one is denying there is a pool, which is equal parts eye roll and major win.   In this issue we’re highlighting this month's top three announcements poised to improve health, and they have to do with methane, health care, and deforestation.   Subscribe | Read past issues | Donate    View as Webpage   COP26 GAVE US TREMENDOUS MOMENTUM   Like we just got a speed boost in Mario Kart.   We still have a long way to go but we’re heading in the right direction. . . .
This is the last newsletter of the year, but we'll be back with glorious puns and irreverent takes on climate change in January! All of us at Team C-CHANGE wish you a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season—and let’s keep our eyes on the Build Back Better prize in December.

 

C-CHANGE: Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment | The Landmark Center, 401 Park Drive, 4th Floor West, Suite 415, Boston, MA 02215

12-2

INVITE | Talking Shop: The Climate Story After Glasgow

Covering Climate Now <editors@coveringclimatenow.org>  12-2-21    https://coveringclimatenow.org	)
The climate story after Glasgow As this year draws to a close, we’re reflecting on the broad climate themes we’ve urged newsrooms to focus on as they evolve their climate reporting, including the oft-heard but frequently misunderstood metric of 1.5 degrees Celsius.  It’s a number that dominated negotiations at last month’s United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, where close to 200 countries gathered to agree on a forward trajectory for solving the climate crisis. Addressing reporters minutes after gaveling the conference to a close, the president of COP26 Alok Sharma insisted that the 1.5-degrees-C target had been kept alive, though “its pulse is weak.” The goal is only achievable if global emissions fall by half by 2030.  Even if all the pledges that governments made in Glasgow are implemented — a big if — temperatures are still projected to rise a catastrophic 2.4 C this century, according to the nonprofit Carbon Action Tracker. That’s just one reason why more than a few activists derided COP26 as a “failure” or “betrayal.”   Anything more than capping average global temperature increases at 1.5 degrees C “is a death sentence for us,” Mohamed Nasheed, the parliament speaker in the Maldives, said, echoing a sentiment by representatives of other low-lying island states most threatened by higher temperatures. COP26 drove home that 1.1 degrees C — the global temperature rise to date — has already caused catastrophe for the most vulnerable people and communities around the world. “Climate impacts are here, and they are devastating lives and also taking lives,” said Saleemul Huq, the director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh.  Many vulnerable countries were bitterly disappointed that the Glasgow Climate Pact did not establish a fund to compensate them for “loss and damage,” a failure Huq attributed to Sharma allegedly bowing to the will of the United States.  To help journalists move this story forward, we’ve created an explainer on the importance of 1.5 degrees C, the forces standing in the way of achieving it, and what it means to live in a 1.5-degrees-C (or warmer) world. Following the events in Glasgow, we’re encouraging newsrooms to: · Scrutinize what the world’s governments do in the coming months to keep the 1.5-degrees-C goal alive, including how they do — or don’t — encourage private banks and investors to stop funding climate destruction and instead finance climate solutions. · Report on what the private sector is promising — and actually doing — to limit carbon emissions and preserve the planet. As we note in our explainer, journalists should be especially cautious of “net zero” pledges.  · Demonstrate how countries are adapting to 1.1 degrees C temperature rise, including those most vulnerable to climate change, and the status of funding promised by rich countries to help them. · Consider attending our Talking Shop next week (see below) where we’ll be exploring how to cover climate in the coming year.   From Us Talking Shop: The Climate Story After Glasgow. Mark your calendars for Thursday, December 9th at 11am US Eastern Time. We’ll be talking about what happened at COP26 and what it means for news coverage in 2022. RSVP here.     Essential News  more  https://coveringclimatenow.org

12-3

Neoliberal apotheosis COP26 creates the global fire market and offers it to capitalist arsonists, at the expense of the people

Editor.  Mronline.org (12-3-21)

The balance sheet is clear: on paper, Glasgow clarifies the ambiguous Paris goal by making it more radical (1.5°C is now the target) and mentions the responsibility of fossil fuels; but in practice, the conference did not take any steps to stop the catastrophe.   

 

12-4
COP26: On The Outside, Always Looking In

By Chito Arceo, YACAP. Popular Resistance.org (12-4-21).   As the first-ever person from my city to attend the biggest summit in the world about climate change, the hype was real. My friends and family were very much eager to see what would happen in the most anticipated COP since COP21, and the local government gave me their full support to report back the important things that could be echoed back to my community. Unfortunately, my disappointment was even bigger than I thought imaginable, and this COP turned out to be quite uneventful on my part. Coming into the Blue Zone (the area where the official negotiations took place) for the first time and seeing... -more-

 

Marxism, Ecology and the Climate Crisis—John Bellamy Foster
https://mronline.org/2021/12/04/marxism-ecology-and-the-climate-crisis-john-bellamy-foster/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=marxism-ecology-and-the-climate-crisis-john-bellamy-foster&mc_cid=c65cd3c4d1&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e

Posted Dec 04, 2021 by John Bellamy Foster

Climate Change, Environment, Ideology, Marxist EcologyGlobalCommentaryAnthropocene, Ecosocialism, Featured, Holocene, Ocean acidification, Pollution

In the week before the COP26 international summit, John Bellamy Foster analyzed the climate emergency and how we can achieve climate justice.

[I am reading two of Foster’s books now:  The Ecological Revolution (2009) and The Return of Nature (2020).  The first, an excellent introduction to Marx, ecology, and our present crises, I will finish soon I hope; the second, an encyclopedic survey of Marxists on ecology, I will be glad to have as a reference.  –Dick]

About John Bellamy Foster

John Bellamy Foster, professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, is editor of Monthly Review, an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. His research is devoted to critical inquiries into theory and history, focusing primarily on the economic, political and ecological contradictions of capitalism, but also encompassing the wider realm of social theory as a whole. He has published numerous articles and books focusing on the political economy of capitalism and the economic crisis, ecology and the ecological crisis, and Marxist theory: (with Paul Burkett) Marx and the Earth: An Anti-Critique (2016); The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism: An Elaboration of Marxian Political Economy (New Edition, 2014); (with Robert W. McChesney) The Endless Crisis: How Monopoly-Finance Capital Produces Stagnation and Upheaval from the USA to China (2012); (with Fred Magdoff) What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism: A Citizen's Guide to Capitalism and the Environment (2011); (with Brett Clark and Richard York) The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth (2009); (with Fred Magdoff) The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences (2009); The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace with the Planet (2009); (with Brett Clark and Richard York) Critique of Intelligent Design: Materialism versus Creationism from Antiquity to the Present (2008); Ecology Against Capitalism (2002); Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature (2000); (with Frederick H. Buttel and Fred Magdoff) Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the Environment (2000); The Vulnerable Planet: A Short Economic History of the Environment (1999); (with Ellen Meiksins Wood and Robert W. McChesney) Capitalism and the Information Age: The Political Economy of the Global Communication Revolution (1998); (with Ellen Meiksins Wood) In Defense of History: Marxism and the Postmodern Agenda (1997); The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism: An Elaboration of Marxian Political Economy (1986); (with Henryk Szlajfer) The Faltering Economy: The Problem of Accumulation Under Monopoly Capitalism (1984). His work is published in at least twenty-five languages. Visit johnbellamyfoster.org for a collection of most of Foster's works currently available online.

 AnthropoceneEcosocialismFeaturedHoloceneOcean acidificationPollution

White supremacy, Nazism and fascism R U.S.

 

COP26 FOLLOWUP #1  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/11/omni-un-cop26-glasgow-followup-1-11-14.html

 

 

END OMNI UN COP26 FOLLOWUP #2