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

Climate Diplomacy
Development
Energy
Asia
Megan Darby, Climate Home

As falling renewable energy costs and a shadow carbon price are making coal power investments unviable the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is making a decisive shift to clean energy, according to bank energy chief Yongping Zhai.

Climate Change
Security
Global Issues
North America
Raquel Munayer, adelphi

The Global Climate Action Summit has created a subtle, yet resonating effect on international climate diplomacy. Arguably, its biggest contribution lies in reaffirming the active role of the US in climate action – a refreshing sign of political maturity and environmental responsibility in Trumpian times.

Climate Change
Climate Diplomacy
South America
Karl Mathiesen, Climate Home

Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has named an anti-globalist diplomat to lead foreign affairs and his country’s relationship with the Paris Agreement. Ernesto Araújo, a relatively junior diplomat, accuses the left of using the environmental cause ‘to serve their political project of total domination’

Development
Energy
Sustainable Transformation
Asia
Dhanasree Jayaram

As opposed to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, India could lead a campaign for climate-responsible international development cooperation, shifting from coal to renewables domestically and promoting the values of the International Solar Alliance globally.