AFP UK

President Jair Bolsonaro’s government will pursue a confrontational negotiating strategy at the upcoming UN climate summit, renewing calls for other countries to pay Brazil to preserve the Amazon, the vice president said Monday.

Vice President Hamilton Mourao, an army general who is Bolsonaro’s point man on the Amazon, said Brazil would use the “weapons of diplomacy” to protect what the administration sees as its national interest at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, which opens Sunday.

“The Amazon represents around 50 percent of Brazil’s territory. If we have to maintain 80 percent of that intact, not only because of our own legislation but also to cooperate with the rest of the world to prevent drastic climate change… we’re talking about preserving 10 Germanys,” Mourao told journalists.

“There has to be a negotiation on the country being compensated for doing that job for the rest of humanity’s benefit.”

Bolsonaro has faced international criticism since taking office in 2019 for a surge in deforestation and fires in the Amazon, and for his government’s alleged lack of ambition at international climate talks, including its insistence Brazil be paid for protecting its 60-percent share of the world’s biggest rainforest, a vital resource in the race to curb climate change.

Brazil has said its efforts to reduce deforestation since 2006 are worth $30 billion to $40 billion.

Mourao, 68, said Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter of beef — much of it produced in the Amazon — had to defend its right to develop its economy.

“There’s political opposition (to Brazil), our government being a right-wing government and there being a left-wing majority vision in many countries of the world. That creates a political clash,” he said.

Mourao said Brazil would announce one key advance in Glasgow: a pledge to shave two to three years off its previous committment to end illegal deforestation by 2030.

He also sowed confusion on another key issue: whether Brazil will end its opposition to stopping the “double counting” of carbon credits, in which countries that reduce pollution could both sell an emissions credit to another country and count it for themselves.

Mourao, who will not be in Glasgow, said he opposed double counting, before clarifying: “It’s not my place to reveal the nuances of our (negotiating) strategy. As you know, negotiations are a push and pull.”

The Glasgow summit, the biggest climate conference since the 2015 Paris talks produced a landmark accord on curbing global warming, is seen as crucial for setting global emissions-cutting targets.

Saudi Arabia pledged more than $1 billion for new environmental initiatives on Monday, as the world’s top oil exporter took further steps to bolster its green credentials ahead of next week’s COP26 climate summit.

Two days after targeting carbon neutrality by 2060, crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman announced two initiatives to fund the “circular carbon economy” and provide “clean fuel” to help feed 750 million people worldwide.

The projects were targeted to cost 39 billion riyals ($10.4 billion). Saudi Arabia will contribute 15 percent and seek the remainder from regional funds and other countries, Prince Mohammed said.

“Today we are initiating a green era for the area, believing that these changes are not only for the environment but also for the economy and security,” he told heads of state and other senior officials at the Middle East Green Initiative Summit in Riyadh.

“We will work on establishing an investment fund in solutions with circular carbon technology in the region and a global initiative which will supply solutions for clean fuel to provide food for more than 750 million people globally.”

The “circular carbon economy” is a concept promoted by the Saudis which aims to remove and store carbon for reuse in other products.

– ‘Biggest market opportunity’ –

US President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, endorsed the Saudi plan and said the shift to cleaner energy was the “biggest market opportunity the world has ever known”.

“The winners are going to be the people that get into that market, and I think that is something the crown prince has understood,” he told the gathering.

The summit, which also featured the leaders of Qatar and Pakistan among others, follows Saturday’s Saudi Green Initiative where Prince Mohammed announced a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2060.

Environmental group Greenpeace questioned the seriousness of that target, which comes after state oil firm Saudi Aramco said it planned to raise crude production capacity to 13 million barrels a day by 2027.

The watchdog also accused Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s biggest polluters, of trying to divert criticism at COP26. The Glasgow summit aims to set the world on a path to net zero by mid-century.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia also said it would join a global effort to cut emissions of methane — another planet-warming gas — by 30 percent by 2030, while Aramco committed to being a carbon net zero enterprise by 2050.

The United Nations says more than 130 countries have set or are considering a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by mid-century, an objective it says is “imperative” to safeguard a liveable climate.

Saudi Arabia, the largest crude producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), also draws heavily on oil and natural gas to meet its growing power demands and desalinate its water.

The desert kingdom, population 34 million, is estimated to belch about 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year — more than France (population 67 million) and slightly less than Germany (population 83 million).

Carbon neutrality is a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.

According to the UN, the circular carbon economy is essential to achieving the world’s climate goals. It involves avoiding excessive consumption, waste and use of fossil fuels by leasing, reusing, repairing and recycling existing materials and products.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin on Monday announced it wants to launch a space station that will house up to 10 people in the second half of the decade, as the race to commercialize the cosmos heats up.

“Orbital Reef,” described in a press statement as a mixed-use business park in space that will support microgravity research and manufacturing, is a joint venture with commercial space company Sierra Space and has the support of Boeing and Arizona State University.

“For over sixty years, NASA and other space agencies have developed orbital space flight and space habitation, setting us up for commercial business to take off in this decade,” said Blue Origin executive Brent Sherwood.

“We will expand access, lower the cost, and provide all the services and amenities needed to normalize space flight.”

The private outpost is one of several planned in the coming years as NASA considers the future of the International Space Station after the 2020s.

The space agency holds a contract with a company called Axiom to develop a space station that will initially dock with the ISS and later become free-flying.

Last week, space services company Nanoracks, in collaboration with Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin, announced a planned space station that will be operational by 2027 and be known as Starlab.

According to a fact sheet released by Blue Origin, Orbital Reef will fly at an altitude of 500 kilometers (310 miles), slightly above the ISS, with inhabitants experiencing 32 sunrises and sunsets a day.

It will support 10 people in a volume of 830 cubic meters (30,000 cubic feet), which is slightly smaller than the ISS, in futuristic modules with huge windows.

The ISS was completed in 2011 and has long been a symbol of US-Russia space cooperation, though Moscow has recently equivocated on the future of the partnership.

It is currently rated as safe until 2028 and new administrator Bill Nelson has said he hopes it will last until 2030, by which time NASA wants the commercial sector to step up and replace it.

Blue Origin is currently only able to fly to suborbital space with its New Shepard rocket, which blasted Star Trek actor William Shatner beyond the atmosphere, earlier this month.

Its other planned projects include New Glenn, a rocket that can fly cargo and people into orbit, and a lunar lander — though it lost the Moon contract to rival SpaceX, and is suing NASA to try to reverse that decision.

Bezos, the second richest man in the world thanks to e-commerce giant Amazon, founded Blue Origin in 2000, with the goal of one day building floating space colonies with artificial gravity where millions of people will work and live, freeing Earth from pollution.

These colonies would be based on a design by Gerard O’Neill, Bezos’ physics professor at Princeton, and would consist of counter-rotating cylinders providing artificial gravity.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler pledged more than $1 billion for new global environmental initiatives on Monday, taking further steps to bolster the green credentials of the world’s top oil exporter.

Two days after targeting carbon neutrality by 2060, and ahead of next week’s COP26 global climate change summit, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced two initiatives to fund the “circular carbon economy” and provide “clean fuel” to help feed 750 million people worldwide.

The two initiatives were targeted to cost 39 billion riyals ($10.4 billion). Saudi Arabia will contribute 15 percent and seek the remainder from regional funds and other countries, Prince Mohammed said.

“Today we are initiating a green era for the area, believing that these changes are not only for the environment but also for the economy and security,” he told heads of state and other senior officials at the Middle East Green Initiative Summit in Riyadh.

“We will work on establishing an investment fund in solutions with circular carbon technology in the region and a global initiative which will supply solutions for clean fuel to provide food for more than 750 million people globally.”

The “circular carbon economy” is a concept promoted by the Saudis which aims to remove and store carbon for reuse in other products.

– OPEC’s largest producer –

The summit, which also featured the leaders of Qatar and Pakistan, and US climate envoy John Kerry, follows Saturday’s Saudi Green Initiative where Prince Mohammed announced a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2060.

Environmental group Greenpeace questioned the seriousness of that target, which comes after state oil firm Saudi Aramco said it planned to raise crude production capacity to 13 million barrels a day by 2027.

The watchdog also accused Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s biggest polluters, of trying to divert criticism at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

COP26 aims to set the world on a path to net zero by mid-century.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia also said it would join a global effort to cut emissions of methane — another planet-warming gas — by 30 percent by 2030, while Aramco committed to being a carbon net zero enterprise by 2050.

The United Nations says more than 130 countries have set or are considering a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by mid-century, an objective it says is “imperative” to safeguard a liveable climate.

Saudi Arabia, the largest crude producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, also draws heavily on oil and natural gas to meet its growing power demands and desalinate its water.

The desert kingdom, population 34 million, is estimated to belch about 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year — more than France (population 67 million) and slightly less than Germany (population 83 million).

Carbon neutrality is a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.

According to the United Nations, the circular economy is essential to achieving the world’s climate goals. It involves avoiding excessive consumption, waste and use of fossil fuels by leasing, reusing, repairing and recycling existing materials and products.

Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere reached record levels last year, the United Nations said on Monday in a stark warning as Boris Johnson admitted being “very worried” about the COP26 summit going awry.

The UN’s blunt report on rising global warming comes as British Prime Minister Johnson, the COP26 host, said it was “very, very far from clear that we’ll get the progress that we need”.

“I’m very worried because it might go wrong… it’s touch and go,” Johnson said, though he remained hopeful a deal can be done at the 12-day climate talks to reduce carbon emissions and limit future temperature rises.

COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference, is being held in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said that continued rising greenhouse gas emissions would result in more extreme weather and wide-ranging impacts on the environment, the economy and humanity.

The WMO said the economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a temporary decline in new emissions, but had no discernible impact on the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and their growth rates.

The organisation’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin said the annual rate of increase last year was above the yearly average between 2011 and 2020 — and the trend continued in 2021.

– ‘Way off track’ –

The WMO said that as long as emissions continue, global temperatures will continue to rise.

And given the long life of carbon dioxide (CO2), the temperature levels already observed will persist for several decades even if emissions are rapidly reduced to net zero.

“The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin contains a stark, scientific message for climate change negotiators at COP26,” said WMO chief Petteri Taalas.

“At the current rate of increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, we will see a temperature increase by the end of this century far in excess of the Paris Agreement targets of 1.5 to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“We are way off track.”

The WMO said that with continued rising greenhouse gas emissions, alongside rising temperatures, the planet could expect more extreme weather. 

“We need to revisit our industrial,energy and transport systems and whole way of life. The needed changes are economically affordable and technically possible. There is no time to lose,” said Taalas.

The WMO also said that alarmingly, the southeast part of the Amazon rainforest, long a carbon sink, has now become a source of carbon emissions due to deforestation.

– ‘The disaster gets closer’ –

The three major greenhouses gases are CO2, methane and nitrous oxide. CO2 is the most important, accounting for around 66 percent of the warming effect on the climate.

CO2 concentrations reached 413.2 parts per million (ppm) in 2020, up 2.5 ppm, and is at 149 percent of the pre-industrial level in 1750, the WMO said.

Methane averages reached a new high of 1,889 parts per billion in 2020, up 11 ppb on the year before, and is at 262 percent of the pre-industrial benchmark.

Nitrous oxide averages reached 333.2 ppb, up 1.2 ppb, and is now at 123 percent of 1750 levels.

Euan Nisbet, from the University of London’s Greenhouse Gas Group, compared the greenhouse gas measurements to “skidding into a car crash”.

“The disaster gets closer and closer but you can’t stop it. You can clearly see the crash ahead, and all you can do is howl.”

Dave Reay, director of the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, said the report provided a “brutally frank” assessment of COP achievements so far: “An epic fail.”

Meanwhile, a decade-old target for rich countries to contribute $100 billion a year to help poorer ones fight climate change should be attainable in 2023, according to analysis by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The target was meant to have been reached last year, and the failure of developed nations to do so has become a key point of contention heading into Glasgow.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler pledged more than $1 billion for new environmental initiatives on Monday, taking further steps to bolster the environmental credentials of the world’s top oil exporter.

And two days after targeting carbon neutrality by 2060, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promised to contribute 15 percent of $10.4 billion to fund the “circular carbon economy” and provide “clean fuel” to help feed 750 million people worldwide.

Severe thunderstorms bringing record rainfall hit northern California on Monday, following several months of gigantic forest fires caused by drought.

The phenomenon, known as a “bomb cyclone,” came from the Pacific Ocean and struck San Francisco and Oakland, as well as the states of Oregon and Washington, further north, on Sunday.

The rain caused multiple floods and mudslides, blocking roads, while winds of more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) per hour tore trees and roofs.

Two people were killed when a tree fell on their vehicle near Seattle.

Sacramento, the capital of California which didn’t see any rainfall from March to September, saw an all-time record 5.44 inches (14 centimeters), according to a Monday update from the National Weather Service.

Heavy snowfall has also struck the Sierra Nevada mountain range as the weather front headed east.

The rain has been falling on the dry soils of the drought-stricken western United States, a situation exacerbated by the effects of climate change.

California has been affected for several years by increasingly numerous and destructive blazes, and with a marked lengthening of the fire season. 

At the end of July, the area burned in the state was up 250 percent compared to 2020, which itself was already one of the worst years in terms of fires. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday said he was “very worried” that the 12-day COP26 climate summit he will host in Glasgow from later this week “might go wrong”.

But the UK leader told a special Downing Street press conference with children that he remained hopeful a deal can be done to reduce carbon emissions and limit future temperature rises.

“I’m very worried because it might go wrong and we might not get the agreements that we need and it’s touch and go,” Johnson said, as he fielded questions from the youngsters aged eight to 12.

“It’s very, very far from clear that we’ll get the progress that we need.

“It’s very, very difficult, but I think it can be done.”

The British premier said that the gathering running from Sunday to November 12 in the Scottish city was “perhaps the most important summit that this country has had in our lifetimes”.

It will be the biggest climate conference since the 2015 Paris summit and is seen as crucial in setting worldwide emission targets to slow global warming, as well as firming up other key commitments.

Johnson’s downbeat assessment follows similar weekend comments by Alok Sharma, the British minister in charge of the talks, who warned success at COP26 would be “definitely harder” to achieve than in Paris.

Flanked by WWF UK chief executive Tanya Steele at Monday’s kids’ event, Johnson said striking a deal would require world leaders each “making some sacrifice”.  

“Each of them have got to agree to do something that’s difficult for them — whether it’s stop using coal-fired power stations, or give some money to help the developing world, or start using electric vehicles,” he said. 

“I do think that world leaders are really starting to listen.

“I’ve talked to a lot of them in the last few weeks, and they’re making some good commitments,” the UK leader said.

Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere reached record levels last year, the United Nations said Monday in a stark warning ahead of the COP26 summit about worsening global warming.

The UN’s blunt report comes as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the COP26 host, said he was “very worried” that the 12-day climate talks could go awry.

“I’m very worried because it might go wrong… it’s touch and go,” Johnson said.

“It’s very, very far from clear that we’ll get the progress that we need,” he said, though he remained hopeful a deal can be done to reduce carbon emissions and limit future temperature rises.

COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference, is being held in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said that continued rising greenhouse gas emissions would result in more extreme weather and wide-ranging impacts on the environment, the economy and humanity.

The WMO said the economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a temporary decline in new emissions, but had no discernible impact on the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and their growth rates.

The organisation’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin said the annual rate of increase last year was above the yearly average between 2011 and 2020 — and the trend continued in 2021.

– ‘Way off track’ –

The WMO said that as long as emissions continue, global temperatures will continue to rise.

And given the long life of carbon dioxide (CO2), the temperature levels already observed will persist for several decades even if emissions are rapidly reduced to net zero.

“The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin contains a stark, scientific message for climate change negotiators at COP26,” said WMO chief Petteri Taalas.

“At the current rate of increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, we will see a temperature increase by the end of this century far in excess of the Paris Agreement targets of 1.5 to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“We are way off track.”

The WMO said that with continued rising greenhouse gas emissions, alongside rising temperatures, the planet could expect more extreme weather. 

“We need to revisit our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life. The needed changes are economically affordable and technically possible. There is no time to lose,” said Taalas.

The WMO also said that alarmingly, the southeast part of the Amazon rainforest, long a carbon sink, has now become a source of carbon emissions due to deforestation.

– ‘The disaster gets closer’ –

The three major greenhouses gases are CO2, methane and nitrous oxide. CO2 is the most important, accounting for around 66 percent of the warming effect on the climate.

CO2 concentrations reached 413.2 parts per million (ppm) in 2020, up 2.5 ppm, and is at 149 percent of the pre-industrial level in 1750, the WMO said.

Methane averages reached a new high of 1,889 parts per billion in 2020, up 11 ppb on the year before, and is at 262 percent of the pre-industrial benchmark.

Nitrous oxide averages reached 333.2 ppb, up 1.2 ppb, and is now at 123 percent of 1750 levels.

Euan Nisbet, from the University of London’s Greenhouse Gas Group, compared the greenhouse gas measurements to “skidding into a car crash”.

“The disaster gets closer and closer but you can’t stop it. You can clearly see the crash ahead, and all you can do is howl.”

Dave Reay, director of the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, said the report provided a “brutally frank” assessment of COP achievements so far: “an epic fail”.

Meanwhile a decade-old target for rich countries to contribute $100 billion a year to help poorer ones fight climate change should be attainable in 2023, according to analysis by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The target was meant to have been reached last year, and the failure of developed nations to do so has become a key point of contention heading into Glasgow.

The latest round of national emissions cutting plans submitted under the Paris Agreement will make no material dent in short-term carbon pollution levels and still put Earth on course to warm 2.7C, the UN said Monday.

With the COP26 summit starting next week, the UN’s climate team said the latest plans confirmed “worrying trends” of countries delaying sorely needed emissions cuts.

The landmark 2015 Paris accord saw countries commit to limiting global heating to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels and to strive for a safer cap of 1.5C through sweeping emissions reductions. 

Under the deal’s “ratchet” mechanism, signatories are required to submit new climate plans — known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs — every five years. 

In an update to a recent assessment of NDCs submitted ahead of COP26, which was delayed one year due to Covid-19, the UN said that 143 countries had submitted new or updated NDCs.

Taken together, these plans would see emissions from these nations fall 9 percent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels.

Yet, taken together, all Paris signatory plans would see emissions rise a “sizeable” 16 percent this decade, it said. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says emissions must fall 45 percent over that timeframe to keep in line with the 1.5C target.

The current commitments will lead to 2.7C of global heating by 2100 — the same as in September’s assessment.

“The message from this update is loud and clear: Parties must urgently redouble their climate efforts if they are to prevent global temperature increases beyond the Paris Agreement’s goal of well below 2C -– ideally 1.5C -– by the end of the century,” said UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa. 

– ‘Critical decade’ –

The IPCC said in August that the 1.5-C limit could be breached by 2030 and would be surpassed by mid-century no matter what happens with emissions.

Many countries who submitted new NDCs have also announced plans to achieve net-zero emissions around 2050. 

Monday’s assessment showed that group of 143 nations plans would lead to emissions levels 83-88 percent lower than 2019 levels by 2050.

But it warned of the risks of delaying decarbonisation.

“Overshooting the temperature goals will lead to a destabilised world and endless suffering, especially among those who have contributed the least to the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions in the atmosphere,” said Espinosa.

COP26 host Britain says it wants promises made at the summit to keep 1.5C within reach. 

Notably absent from the latest round of NDCs were China and India, the world’s first and fourth biggest emitters, respectively. 

COP26 president Alok Sharma called on G20 nations — responsible for 80 percent of all manmade emissions — to work together at the summit for “stronger commitments… over this critical decade.”

“Glasgow must launch a decade of ever-increasing ambition. At COP26 we must come together for ourselves, future generations and our planet,” he said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday said he was “very worried” that the 12-day COP26 climate summit he will host in Glasgow from later this week “might go wrong”.

But the UK leader told a special Downing Street press conference with children that he remained hopeful a deal can be done to reduce carbon emissions and limit future temperature rises.

“I’m very worried because it might go wrong and we might not get the agreements that we need and it’s touch and go,” Johnson said, as he fielded questions from the youngsters aged eight to 12.

“It’s very, very far from clear that we’ll get the progress that we need.

“It’s very, very difficult, but I think it can be done.”

The British premier said that the gathering running from Sunday to November 12 in the Scottish city was “perhaps the most important summit that this country has had in our lifetimes”.

It will be the biggest climate conference since the 2015 Paris summit and is seen as crucial in setting worldwide emission targets to slow global warming, as well as firming up other key commitments.

Johnson’s downbeat assessment follows similar weekend comments by Alok Sharma, the British minister in charge of the talks, who warned success at COP26 would be “definitely harder” to achieve than in Paris.

Flanked by WWF UK chief executive Tanya Steele at Monday’s kids’ event, Johnson said striking a deal would require world leaders each “making some sacrifice”.  

“Each of them have got to agree to do something that’s difficult for them — whether it’s stop using coal-fired power stations, or give some money to help the developing world, or start using electric vehicles,” he said. 

“I do think that world leaders are really starting to listen.

“I’ve talked to a lot of them in the last few weeks, and they’re making some good commitments,” the UK leader said.