A fire in Gennadi, on the Greek island of Rhodes, in July. Photograph: Spyros Bakalis/AFP/Getty Images

No country could think itself immune from catastrophe, said Simon Stiell, who will oversee the crucial Cop28 climate summit that begins next week. Scores of world leaders will arrive in Dubai for tense talks on how to tackle the crisis.

“We’re used to talking about protecting people on the far-flung frontlines. We’re now at the point where we’re all on the frontline,” said Stiell, speaking exclusively to the Guardian before the summit. “Yet most governments are still strolling when they need to be sprinting.”

Global temperatures have broken new records in recent months, making this year the hottest on record, and perilously close to the threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels that countries have agreed to hold to. Temperatures are now heading for a “hellish” 3C increase, unless urgent and drastic action is taken, but greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise.

Stiell said it was still possible to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to stay within the crucial limit, but that further delay would be dangerous.

“Every year of the baby steps we’ve been taking up to this point means that we need to be taking … bigger leaps with each following year if we are to stay in this race,” he said. “The science is absolutely clear.”

The fortnight-long Cop28 talks will start this Thursday in Dubai, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a major oil and gas-producing country. Scores of world leaders, senior ministers and officials from 198 countries will be in attendance, along with an estimated 70,000 delegates, making it the biggest annual conference of the parties (Cop) yet held under the 1992 UN framework convention on climate change.

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is expected to attend, and King Charles will give the opening speech, along with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and the UAE president, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The pope will also be there, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and an invitation has been extended to Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria.

The presidents of the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, Joe Biden of the US and Xi Jinping of China, are not expected to attend, but their envoys John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua have signalled their close cooperation before the talks.

Simon Stiell. Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images

“This is not the first Cop to be hosted by a fossil fuel producing nation and it certainly won’t be the last. Every country, even those that are major oil producers, have their role to play,” he said. “What’s important are the messages and the signals that the incoming president is giving, and they speak to the need for urgent action and a focus on the how – how do we speed up the transition to a new decarbonised world.”

Fossil fuel executives are likely to be out in force at the summit, as they have been an increasing presence at Cops in recent years.

Stiell said: “It’s important that we recognise that the fossil fuel industry has to be part of the solution. We know where the problems lie. But in order to progress the conversation from what needs to be done to how it needs to be done, the fossil fuel industry has to be part of the conversation.”

Source: The Guardian

 By foreign affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic

Vanuatu's representative to the United Nations said 105 states back its push.(Supplied: Vanuatu Department of Tourism/Kirkland Photos)

Australia will join more than 100 nations and co-sponsor Vanuatu's landmark bid to have the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rule on the legal obligations that states have to deal with climate change and the damage it has caused.

Vanuatu's representative to the United Nations said on Thursday that 105 states — including several European countries, Pacific island nations and a host of smaller developing countries — would join its push to get the UN General Assembly to formally seek an opinion on the international legal obligations countries have to respond to global heating.

Neither China nor the United States, the world's two largest emitters, have signed on as co-sponsors for the motion, and neither have some larger developing countries that remain dependent on coal, including Indonesia and India.

However, an actual vote at the United Nations will not be held until later in the year.

Australia's move to join as a co-sponsor has been welcomed by Vanuatu and environmental groups, which have been urging the government to ramp up its ambition on tackling climate change.

Ruling would not be binding

Vanuatu was slammed by Cyclone Judy on Wednesday, and its foreign minister, Jotham Napat, said the disaster was another reminder of his nation's vulnerability to extreme weather events supercharged by climate change.

"While severe Cyclone Judy is today showing no mercy on the people of Vanuatu, it is welcome news that countries are committing to co-sponsor Vanuatu's UN Resolution on clarifying international climate obligations," he said.

Pacific advisor to Greenpeace Australia Pacific Shiva Gounden said he was also heartened by the strong international support for the motion.

"As the people of Vanuatu look ahead, yet again, to repairing their communities and counting their losses, the support of Australia and other countries around the world will provide hope for a better future," he said.

If the ICJ does agree to take on the issue and delivers an opinion, it would not be binding.

However, Pacific Island officials — who are championing the move — say it will still set a powerful precedent.

It could shape future rulings around the international legal obligations of states to protect people from climate change, and to compensate individuals and countries that suffer as a result of the resulting environmental chaos.

Previously, Australia argued the ruling should not focus solely on the responsibilities of the historically largest emitters, but must also capture the obligations of countries that are currently increasing emissions or that will continue to pollute in future years.

The government hasn't yet issued a public statement on its decision to join as a co-sponsor, but the ABC has approached the office of Foreign Minister Penny Wong for comment.

Source: ABC News

Exclusive: Early results from ‘applied mindfulness’ courses suggests they have helped overcome despair that little can be done

Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent

EU officials from various departments walking in a forest near Brussels last month, led by Jeroen Janss, who runs the mindfulness course. Photograph: John Thys/AFP/AFP

EU officials working on the 27-country bloc’s green deal climate policy are attending “inner green deal” courses intended to foster a deeper connection among decision-makers and negotiators tasked with tackling the crisis. The courses incorporate woodland walks near Brussels and meditation sessions, including one that invites participants to feel empathy for trees and animals to boost “environmental compassion”.

Some managers have reportedly shown impatience at being asked to meditate and want to “get on with business”. But early results from the first 80 participants suggest the course has strengthened officials’ motivation to tackle climate problems and overcome personal despair that little can be done.

Mindfulness has boomed in the west in recent years through courses, meditation apps and books. But it has drawn criticism that it has become a “religion of the self”, with one critic warning of “McMindfulness”. However, it is recognised by the NHS as an effective treatment for recurrent depression when delivered as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

Now advocates of “applied mindfulness” believe it could accelerate consensus-building between climate decision-makers. A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted the need for “inner transitions” and the potential of meditation to encourage lower-carbon lifestyles.

Some UK MPs are backing a policy report launched this week that argues examining the human heart and mind is the “missing dimension” in the global response to the climate crisis.

The report, overseen by the Mindfulness Initiative, which supports the UK parliament’s all-party group on mindfulness, says tackling climate breakdown has too long been framed as a problem of technology rather than compassion and empathy, and this is holding back humanity’s ability to move faster.

Supporters include the former UN climate negotiator Christiana Figueres and the UK’s only Green party MP, Caroline Lucas.

The report argues the climate emergency is rooted in “a crisis of relationship that has us treating the world we belong to as a resource to be exploited, and the other people in it primarily as competitors”.

It calls urgently for policy attention to “the neglected inner dimension of the climate crisis” and argues for “the importance of mindfulness and compassion practices in restoring the conscious connection fundamental to human and planetary health”. Applying mindfulness, it argues, can help decision-makers mentally “stay with” the often overwhelming problem humanity is facing rather than fleeing it.

Figueres, who led the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord negotiations, told the Guardian her practice of “deep listening”, which is related to mindfulness and emerges from Buddhist teaching, was “the key” to the successful agreement.

“Had I not been practising deep listening I never would have understood where 195 countries and thousands of stakeholders were coming from,” she said. “I really wanted to know deeply what they were saying. I chalk up a lot of the Paris accord to deep listening.”

Lucas said: “Mindfulness is about making the space to feel the connections that could then inspire action. Reaching into people’s deeper empathy for the world is a way of generating the extra energy, motivation and belief that change is possible.”

She is among a group of MPs who meditate regularly together at parliament and she said the practice “keeps me on track by reminding myself, amid the noise and distraction of political life, of what’s important”.

Under the EU’s training package, officials learn mindfulness practices before being presented with raw facts about the climate emergency. They then explore how they personally relate to problems that can seem overwhelming.

Jeroen Janss, who runs the course, said strong emotions often arose, including deep sadness, frustration over lack of progress, guilt and hopelessness. Participants learn how to regulate these emotions, find their personal role and, through collaborating around concrete initiatives, come out with a sense of agency.

“They feel ‘I can do something’,” said Janss. “There is less eco-anxiety.”

“There is a lot of power in even one or two people being fully present in a meeting,” said one policy officer working on EU-wide climate negotiations who has taken the course. “The inner dimension has been missing for some time and it has the potential to unlock how we collaborate.”

Source: The Guardian

Although not a diagnosable condition, experts says climate anxiety is on the rise worldwide

Andrew Gregory Health editor

In September children and young people around the world, including Glasgow, took part in protests against the climate crisis. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The climate crisis is taking a growing toll on the mental health of children and young people, experts have warned.

 Papua New Guinea's prime minister has called on developed nations to show more care towards island states impacted by climate change.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and the United Nations' Resident Co-ordinator Gianluca Rampolla cut cake at a Partnership Dialogue in Port Moresby to mark 75 years of existence of the UN, 3 November 2020.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and the United Nations' Resident Co-ordinator Gianluca Rampolla cut cake at a Partnership Dialogue in Port Moresby to mark 75 years of existence of the UN, 3 November 2020. Photo: PNG PM Media

The prime minister called for greater international collaboration to address the impacts of climate change in the Pacific.

While he cited PNG's own low-lying atolls and coastal areas, he also singled out Micronesian and Polynesian Islands as being particularly vulnerable.

According to him, having caused the greater environmental damage, nations with advanced economies owe "a little bit more care" and restitution to Pacific island states.

He urged the UN to facilitate discussions on greater assistance to islands states impacted by climate change and for technologies that can help them reclaim land.

"I ask the United Nations to coordinate this discussions without fear or favour," he said at the Dialogue event at APEC Haus in Port Moresby.

"If the UN is to advance into the next 75 years, carry the rights of every member states, including the Smaller Island States, the right to leave on their own land and not immediately look at relocation."

Marape said the collective carbon foot prints of Smaller Island States were nothing compared to the carbon footprint of industrial nations.

"I would like to press on here, on the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, that advanced nations owe a little bit more care and restitute [sic] to the low lying atolls and coastal areas of our country and the Smaller Island States of the Pacific Region."

Marape said that as well as PNG he was speaking for the 15 other smaller Pacific Island states.