Breaking Waves: Ocean News

In today’s newsletter: The view from Azerbaijan is of disappointingly low direct finance guarantees to the developing world, although it is ‘less bad than nothing’ • Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition Good morning. Cop29 in Baku finally finished at 5.31am local time yesterday, more than 35 hours after it was due to conclude – and the extra time did not lead to a triumphant outcome. On the biggest issue under discussion, the transfer of climate finance from the developed to the developing world, the headline figure in the agreement was $1.3tn (£1tn) by 2035. But that masked much smaller commitments in direct finance in the form of grants and low-interest loans, which amounted to only $300bn. Nor is the outcome an injustice whose impact is limited to the global South, of course: if the money isn’t there to support a green energy transition in developing economies, temperatures will rise all over the world. UK weather | Storm Bert is expected to cause further disruption on Monday after torrential downpours caused “devastating” flooding over the weekend and a major incident in Wales. At least five people have died in England and Wales since the storm hit. Economy | A defiant Rachel Reeves will rebuke critics of her tax-raising budget on Monday, telling disgruntled business leaders at the Confederation of British Industry that they have offered “no alternatives”. CBI director-general Rain Newton-Smith will meanwhile accuse Reeves of jeopardising economic growth, saying: “Tax rises like this must never again be simply done to business.” Britons detained abroad | Families of prominent British prisoners detained abroad have urged the foreign secretary to deliver on pledges to help secure their release with signs of growing resistance from diplomats. There are fears that they are resisting a plan to appoint a special envoy on those detained abroad without a fair trial lest it affect trade deals. Middle East | A Guardian investigation has found that Israel used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three more in a 25 October attack in south Lebanon which legal experts have called a potential war crime. Europe | A little-known, far-right populist took the lead in Romania’s presidential election on Sunday, and will probably face leftist prime minister Marcel Ciolacu in a runoff in two weeks, an outcome that has rocked the country’s political landscape. Calin Georgescu led the polls with about 22% of the vote after nearly 93% of votes were counted. The money could come not just in the form of the grants and very low-interest loans that developing countries need, but … from a “wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral and alternative sources”. Money will be “mobilised” rather than provided – a nice distinction that allows for the inclusion of private sector co-investing to be counted alongside public money from government budgets and development banks. Continue reading...

Nearly all observers believe Chris Bowen is strongly committed to action. Most agree that can’t be said for his party Cop29 in Baku has concluded but its outcome is disappointing – in many dimensions. Its decisions on finance – agreeing that the developed world would provide US$300bn a year by 2035 – come nowhere close to what’s needed. Ultimately, it may even be poisonous because of its lack of ambition and muddled scope – it does not even cover loss and damage. Baku saw little sense of urgency or increased climate action, despite the universal message from scientific studies, including the Climate Action Tracker. Our global update this year found that in the last three years there’s been virtually no improvement in either action on the ground, nor ambition to take action in the future. And this is despite a series of seemingly never-ending, global warming-linked deadly catastrophes unfolding around the world. Continue reading...

A rushed final text in Baku strains trust between nations, as inadequate climate finance commitments leave vulnerable countries calling for justice The hasty imposition of a deal at the UN climate conference, Cop29, in Azerbaijan, over the objections of poorer nations has fractured global trust and undermined recent progress. This was supposed to be the “finance Cop” when two dozen industrialised countries – including the US, Europe and Canada – promised to pay developing nations for the damage caused by their rise. Instead, developing nations – led by a group including India, Nigeria and Bolivia – say this weekend’s agreement for $300bn a year in 2035 is too little, too late. Worse, rich-world governments will be able to escape their obligations by being able to rely on cash from private companies and international lenders. Independent experts say the developing world, excluding China, would need $1.3tn a year by 2035 to fund its green transition and keep temperature rises in line with the Paris agreement. The climate finance target, pushed through by the Azerbaijani chair, is described by poor nations as a death sentence for those already drowning under rising seas and facing devastating costs. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

If Peter Dutton senses an opportunity in blocking bills in the lead-up to an election, he might just take it Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The final parliamentary sitting week of the year is here! That odour you’re smelling is drip filter coffee to fuel late-night Senate votes and the faint whiff of desperation to pass as much of the government’s legislative agenda as possible. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...