Putin says Russia, US have 'common interests' on climate change

Russian President Vladimir Putin told US climate envoy John Kerry that Moscow and Washington have a shared interest in battling climate change, the Kremlin said Wednesday, in a rare area of common ground between the rivals.

"The climate problem is one of the areas where Russia and the United States have common interests and similar approaches," Putin said in a phone call with Kerry who is visiting Moscow, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Putin told the former secretary of state that Moscow "attaches great importance" to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and "advocates de-politicising" dialogue on climate change.

The State Department gave a similar description, saying Putin and Kerry "underscored the importance of the United States and Russia working together across a range of climate issues."

Kerry pointed to Russia's role in addressing climate change in the Arctic Council and efforts to end emissions fom coal, a State Department statement said.

The comments on a rare point of cooperation between the two countries come after Putin met US President Joe Biden for talks in Geneva last month.

Moscow has welcomed Kerry's visit and called it a positive step to improve relations.

For years Putin was notorious for his scepticism about man-made global warming and saying Russia stands to benefit from it.

But in recent months he has also made statements to the effect that climate change is not just a boon to Moscow.

Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that climate change and decarbonisation are "top of the agenda" for the Russian leader.

He said the climate issue is "where dialogue between Russia and America is possible and necessary".

Putin has made the development of Russia's Arctic region a strategic priority as its ice cover melts, opening up new shipping routes for Moscow.

Earlier this week, Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov -- whom he met many times when he served as secretary of state -- with the pair agreeing to cooperate on climate issues.

At his annual state of the nation address in April, Putin said Russia must adapt to climate change and called on the country to create an industry for utilising carbon emissions.

Climate change is one of the few areas in which the United States and the European Union have said they are ready to engage with Russia amid high tensions over a range of issues, including Ukraine, cyber-attacks and Moscow's human rights record.

Developing nations demand climate funding before COP26
Paris (AFP) July 14, 2021 - Nations most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming on Thursday called for rich countries to live up to their promise to finance the fight against climate change, ahead of a crunch UN summit.

Highlighting a "worrying lack of urgency" from recent G7 and G20 summits, dozens of countries said the COP26 talks in Glasgow later this year needed to deliver help to communities already impacted by climate-driven extreme weather.

With growing warnings from scientists and climate change gaining international attention, the pressure on delegates to achieve meaningful results is huge.

The Glasgow to-do list is similarly daunting.

As well as finalising the rulebook implementing the 2015 Paris agreement, nations are also expected to make good on a 2009 promise to give climate-vulnerable nations $100 billion annually to draw down their emissions and adapt to climate impacts.

"At least $100bn per year was promised by 2020 with increased annual sums from 2025," the countries wrote in their five-point plan for COP26.

These include Kenya, Ethiopia, Gabon, Somalia, the Philippines, Bhutan, Tanzania and Bolivia.

"However, this target has been missed and needs fixing urgently if developing countries can trust richer nations at COP26 to keep to what they negotiate."

They also called for at least 50 percent of funding to be allocated to future climate adaptation, as well as separate allocation for the "loss and damage" already inflicted upon poorer nations by the historical emissions of rich economies.

The Paris Agreement saw nations commit to limiting global temperature rises to "well-below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 Farenheit) above pre-industrial levels through sweeping emissions cuts.

The accord also strives for a more ambitious 1.5-C temperature cap.

But six years after the deal was signed, several issues remain unresolved.

These include how carbon markets are governed and how climate finance is accounted and reported.

The plan, formulated with government ministers, negotiators and climate campaigners from nations across Africa and southeast Asia, called for richer nations to do their "fair share" of emissions cuts.

This would include historic polluters rapidly decarbonising their economies and paying poorer nations -- least responsible for the climate crisis -- to do likewise.

- 'Lack of keeping promises' -

The developing nations said rich emitters also needed to agree as a matter of priority the final details of the Paris rulebook.

"A lack of keeping promises on these key areas of finance, adaptation, and loss-and-damage is unacceptable," said Fekadu Beyene of the Ethiopian Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission.

"What's the point of agreeing on a new set of promises if we don't keep them?"

Mohamed Adow, Director of Nairobi-based energy and climate think tank, Power Shift Africa, said the countries' five-point plan had "fired the starting gun" on COP26 negotiations.

"These elements are what are required if we're going to meet the challenges of the heating planet and its devastating climate consequences," he said.

The UN says that emissions must fall more than 7 percent every year by 2030 in order to keep the 1.5-C Paris temperature goal in play.

Although Covid-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions saw emissions plunge in 2020, concentrations of planet-warming CO2 continue to climb ever higher.

Climate Action Network Executive Director Tasneem Essop said COP26 was an unprecedented test of world leaders' will to tackle the crisis.

"COP26 will be both a moral and practical test that will define the legacy of political leaders: earning them a badge of honour for steering the world through this critical time, or bearing the shame of being complicit in our demise."

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NASA, European Space Agency join forces on climate change
Paris (AFP) July 13, 2021
NASA and the European Space Agency joined forces Tuesday in the battle against climate change, a move they said paves the way to a global response to the problem. "To ensure that data from Earth-observing satellites are used to their best advantage, further science and, ultimately, bring the most benefit to humankind, ESA and NASA have formed a strategic partnership for Earth science and climate change," ESA said in a statement. The partnership was formalised on Tuesday with a statement of inten ... read more