Welcome to Planet Days, a green newsletter for a greenwashed Planet.
If you’re new to this newsletter, every week we curate a five-minute roundup of the latest climate news and what it means for our Planet. If this was forwarded to you, smash that subscribe button:
Before we get started, some quick housekeeping: Planet Days will be taking next week off for the Thanksgiving holiday — we’ll be back in your inboxes in December!
Now, onto COP news: This week, we’re again focusing on the United Nations’ 27th Conference of Parties, or COP27, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt (for a quick refresh, here’s last week’s newsletter).
Yesterday, leaders from nearly 200 countries agreed to deal that sort of, kind of, maybe gets us closer to limiting global warming and avoiding a climate catastrophe. But the final agreement is just one part of a two-week long conference that had a lot of movement on the sidelines.
Read on for our recap of the second week of COP27.
Monday, November 14
India’s plan to phase down fossil fuels
The week started with a splash, as a number of countries sought to improve an agreement made at COP26 in Glasgow. India led a charge to “phase down” all fossil fuels — not just coal, as was laid out in last year’s Glasgow Climate Pact.
As India struggles to reign in its own coal production, the move could help ease the feeling that coal is being “singled out” for warming the Planet. The U.S. backed the language, and so did the European Union, but (spoiler alert) it failed to make it into the final COP27 agreement. The Independent has the story.
Good news for the rainforest
Weeks after Brazil’s presidential election, which saw Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ousting climate-denier Jair Bolsonaro, Lula took to the stage at COP27 to declare "Brazil is back" in the fight against global warming.
And he quickly got to work: At COP27, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia — nations home to over half the world’s rainforests — formed an alliance, formally vowing to work together on sustainable management and conservation, restoration of critical ecosystems, and the creation of economies. Find out more from CNN.
US and China restart talks
One of the most watched stories of the summit was if the U.S. and China, the Planet’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, would resume climate talks — on ice for a bunch of reasons, including differences in politics, security, and trade.
For now, we can breathe a sigh of relief: Ahead of the Group of 20 Summit in Indonesia, U.S. President Joe Biden and China President Xi Jinping met for several hours and said they’d work together on climate action. A day later, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry met with China’s top climate official Xie Zhenhua at COP27.
Other decently good news (not technically COP, but hey, it all counts): At the same G20 summit, leaders from the world’s largest economies doubled down on pledges to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels. The New York Times has more.
Tuesday, November 15
Getting the Planet off coal
To ensure a liveable Planet, we really need to get off coal, the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel. At the G20 Summit (sorry, I know it’s not COP, but still!), leaders moved that direction by inking a $20 billion deal to move Indonesia off coal.
To access the funds, which will be a combination of private and public sector investments, Indonesia agreed to speed its transition to clean energy. The U.S.-Japan-led deal is part of a Just Energy Transition Partnership, a program South Africa started last year.
“What the JETPs do is sort of force the conversation around what are the policies that you need to change to really unleash the renewable future?” Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council told E&E News.
1 in 8 billion
Week two of COP27 coincided with a global milestone: The world population reached 8 billion people, leaving many wondering what that means for the climate, reports Deutsche Welle.
In a statement, the U.N. announced one billion people had been added to the global population in just 12 years. The world does have the resources to support 8 billion people and more, but with many (rich countries) living beyond their means, it’s going to take major improvements in land use practices and management to prevent further environmental degradation.
Wednesday, November 16
Ramping up global methane pledge
A total of 150 countries have pledged to reduce methane emissions, with 50 joining in the last year and seven in the last week of the climate conference. Though China, the world’s biggest methane polluter, didn’t formally join the pledge, it did announce a national action plan to curb the potent greenhouse gas. Bloomberg News has more on that.
Altogether, the pledges made at COP27 are some of the most concrete to stop the often overlooked emission. But they still fall short of what is needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, writes Reuters.
Sunday, November 20
Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan
Like has happened for the many COPs before it, COP27 went into overtime. Negotiators worked through the weekend before striking a deal early Sunday morning.
The non-binding agreement, known as the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan, sets up the first-ever “loss and damage fund” to compensate poorer countries for the costs of climate-fueled disasters.
But what’s most notable about the plan may be what it doesn’t do.
Negotiations failed to agree on which nations will feed into the fund, how much money will be required, and where the money will go.
Despite a push by some major players, the text fails to call for a “phase down” of all fossil fuels.
Instead, the plan commits to transitioning “low-emission sources,” which could be a loophole for natural gas.
The plan does double down on last year’s text to phase down unabated coal power — but even that lacked a follow-through plan that some had hoped to see.
Overall, establishing a loss and damage fund is a historic win for vulnerable countries already facing sweltering heat waves and overwhelming floods. But the agreement also lacks many provisions to hasten the transition from fossil fuels and limit the Planet’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. POLITICO has more details.
Bonus
D.C.’s new silver line
Brandon had plans to be one of the first to ride Washington, D.C.’s new Metrorail silver line extension — he won a contest and everything — but *sigh* work got in the way. Fortunately, Brandon’s good friend and fellow public transit lover, Dane, went to the grand opening on Brandon’s behalf.
The 11.5 mile extension adds six new stations to Northern Virginia, including a link to Dulles International Airport, which was previously only accessible via highway. The decades-long project opened four years late and is a cautionary tale for infrastructure planning, but it’s also a step forward for providing safe, reliable alternatives to driving, writes CityLab.
Have a great two weeks,
Brandon and Sam