COP19

[biffvernon]

The BBC still seem to be operating a news blackout on the Talks in Warsaw.

Today's press briefing from Christiana Figueras was pretty significant in a couple of respects: the hint of some progress at the COP and, interestingly, her account of the Coal meeting, where she reported that the industry accepted the science on global warming and were told about the fiduciary responsibility with respect to stranded carbon assets.

http://unfccc4.meta-fusion.com/kongress ... eme=unfccc

[biffvernon]

In a speech today at the World Coal Association's International Coal and Climate summit in Poland, United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres told industry that most of the remaining coal reserves must stay underground if the world is going to avoid the worst of climate change.

In her address—given on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Warsaw—Figueres became the latest international climate leader to embrace the view that existing reserves of fossil fuels contain more carbon than what can be burned without exceeding 2 degrees of warming.

Major investors are also concerned, and have urged energy companies to rethink the value of their fossil fuel reserves in a carbon-constrained and fast-warming world. As much as 30 percent of the value of some of the world's stock exchanges is in proven coal, oil and natural gas reserves that may be "unburnable" if strict climate policies and market factors compel firms to leave their fossil fuels in the ground.

The fear is that companies with large amounts of unburnable carbon could see their stock prices slashed, diminishing the value of investment portfolios that hold the shares.

"Like any other industry, you have a fiduciary responsibility to your workforce and your shareholders. Like any other industry, you are subject to the major political, economic and social shifts of our time," Figueres said. "And by now it should be abundantly clear that further capital expenditures on coal can go ahead only if they are compatible with the two degree Celsius limit."

http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-n ... ves-ground

[woodburner]

The BBC still seem to be operating a news blackout on the Talks in Warsaw.

Really?

[biffvernon]

Official text of Figueras at Coal

http://unfccc.int/files/press/statement ... iation.pdf

[biffvernon]

The BBC still seem to be operating a news blackout on the Talks in Warsaw.

Really?

Exactly so, Woodburner. Matt McGrath arrived in Warsaw on Saturday, (5 days late) and as of yesterday had sent out three tweets, two about other stuff and one to link to the article you linked to. This article says nothing about COP19 - just reports that Figueras is about to talk to the coal industry.

No reporting of anything that has happened in the conference afaik

Hopeless.

[biffvernon]

Kevin Anderson Alice Bows-Larkin interview calling for degrowth. Excellent. http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/21/ ... scientists

[biffvernon]

Much is confusion, but it seems India and Saudi Arabia are todays bad guys.

[biffvernon]

Seems like they've been talking all night but to little avail.

[biffvernon]

Nice song to end on

Dumb Ways to Fry (a Planet) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlM7uOZn ... ata_player

[woodburner]

Nice? They won't get many (any) recording contracts. You're stuffed anyway, unless you invest in fracking.

[biffvernon]

Neatly put within 140 characters:

Peace Child ‏@PeaceChild
#COP19 ends with plans to make plans about the future in the future #bigstepforward or status quo? http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... -emissions

[emordnilap]

Time to learn from tobacco

Short article written during COP19.