Climate Change
Global Issues
Simon Evans

A draft international climate agreement package will be published within weeks, setting the scene for crunch UN talks in Paris in December.

During negotiations in Bonn last week, countries made progress on some key sticking points and started to lay out the skeleton of the planned agreement. Yet with just five more days of formal negotiations before Paris, disagreement over many details remains profound.

The co-chairs of the process will now attempt to cement progress and bridge those divides. They have been given a mandate to prepare a draft agreement by the first week of October. Parties will then start line-by-line negotiations on the draft text when they return to Bonn on 19 October.

Carbon Brief summarises events in Bonn last week and rounds up reactions to the latest talks.

Source:
Carbon Brief

Oli Brown, SDG Knowledge Hub / IISD

A new publication on SDGs and foreign policy, prepared by researchers at the German think tank adelphi, highlights a phenomenon I call this the ‘Great Splintering’ – the fracturing of political will for collective action on the global stage. This article outlines five steps we could take to revive multilateralism.

Adaptation & Resilience
Climate Change
Conflict Transformation
Environment & Migration
Security
Water
Sub-Saharan Africa
Natalie Sauer, Climate Home News

Satellite analysis shows ‘vanishing’ lake has grown since 1990s, but climate instability is driving communities into the arms of Boko Haram and Islamic State. Climate change is aggravating conflict around Lake Chad, but not in the way experts once thought, according to new research.

Climate Change
Climate Diplomacy
Europe
North America
Asia
Natalie Sauer, Climate Home News

At a meeting of the Arctic Council, secretary of state Mike Pompeo refused to identify global warming as a threat, instead hailing an oil rush as sea ice melts. The US refused to join other Arctic countries in describing climate change as a key threat to the region, as a two-day meeting of foreign ministers drew to a close on Tuesday in Ravaniemi, Finland.

Biodiversity & Livelihoods
Environment & Migration
Forests
Global Issues
Stella Schaller, adelphi

Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood, and about 2.6 billion people rely directly on agriculture. Deforestation, land degradation, and unsustainable management of ecosystems threaten those livelihoods and may contribute to resource-related conflicts and social unrest.