Global climate news: September

1. United Nations Summit ‘Pact for the Future’

Sept 22-23, 2024

World leaders on Sunday adopted the Pact for the Future, a landmark declaration pledging concrete actions towards a safer, more peaceful, sustainable and inclusive world for tomorrow’s generations.

The global pact included explicit calls to phase out fossil fuels. The pact called for reaffirmed commitment to the Paris climate agreement (2015), which laid out goals to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/09/1154581

Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

Thanks to a collective pressure from the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and its network of civil society, governments, Nobel Laureates and thousands of individuals.

2. COP 16 – Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

Oct 21 – Nov 1 Cali, Colombia.

COP 16 will be the first Biodiversity COP since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP 15 in December 2022 in Montreal, Canada

Parties to the Convention are expected to show the alignment of their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) with the Framework

3. International Conference on BioDiversity, Ecology & Climate Change

Toronto, Ont Nov. 28–29

Gathering of experts in the field of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Climate Change to discuss the latest research and challenges and to increase understanding of emerging scientific issues and research methodologies.

https://igrnet.org/Conference/932/ICBECC

4. COP 29 Nov 11 – 24 Baku, Azerbaijan

Particular focus of this COP is on the efforts each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Paris Agreement (Article 4, paragraph 2) requires each Party to prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that it intends to achieve.

  • Authoritarian leader; 90% of Azerbaijan’s exports are oil & gas
  • host of the United Nations COP29 climate summit, has announced the launch of a new Climate Action Fund with the goal of mobilizing $1 billion for the support of new national climate targets in developing nations.
  • Environmentally harmful subsidies are reaching $2.6 trillion per year.
  • Critics – are noting that soliciting voluntary donations alone would not be adequate, “What’s needed is a proper levy, not just some opaque voluntary mechanism.

https://www.unep.org/gan/events/conference/un-climate-change-conference-cop29

ACTION: Letter – not to support such a fund but instead to phase out fossil fuels – re: Pact for the Future – Fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.

5. Big Oil Facing a rising # of Climate focused lawsuits

The number of cases filed against oil companies globally each year has nearly tripled since 2015 – the year the UN Paris climate agreement was signed – with 86 cases filed and 40 currently pending, the authors found…

The suits were filed by cities, states and other government organizations, as well as environmental groups, Indigenous tribes and individuals. Fifty were filed in US courts, while 24 were filed in European countries, five in Australia and four in Nigeria.

The largest growth in litigation was in complaints demanding compensation for climate damages, which account for 38% of cases

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/climate-focused-lawsuits-against-fossil-fuel-companies-are-on-the-rise-report-finds

Other news:

G7 Summit 2025 will be held in Kananaskis, Alberta (no date yet).