Five things to know about Bonn summit

Fiji seeks global impact

BERLIN, Nov 5, (Agencies): Climate change is back on the agenda with a global climate conference kicking off Monday in the German city of Bonn.

Who’s coming, what are the key debates about and how green will this meeting be? Five things to know about the UN conference known as COP23, which runs from Nov 6-17.

Who is coming to Bonn?

Up to 25,000 people are expected to attend the talks, which will be presided over by Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji — the first time that a small island nation will be at the helm of a major international climate conference. Participants will include diplomats from 195 nations, as well as scientists, lobbyists and environmentalists.

Macron

Why Bonn?

SUVA, Fiji:

The United States, which has announced its intention to pull out of the landmark Paris climate accord, will be represented by Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon.

Key countries to watch during the talks are the emerging economic powers China and India. Other nations — Estonia, Peru, Ecuador, Iran, Mali, Ethiopia and the Maldives — will also be in the spotlight for leading major international groupings.

French President German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders are expected to fly to Bonn toward the end of the summit to give the talks a final push and signal their commitment to fighting climate change.

What are the big climate change topics now?

The 2015 Paris accord set a target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) — or 2 degrees at the most — by the end of the century.

But diplomats didn’t agree on the details of how their nations will reach that ambitious goal. The Bonn talks will flesh out the rule book that countries have to abide by.

This includes coming up with international standards for how to measure carbon emissions, to make sure that one nation’s efforts can be compare to another’s. A second debate centers around how countries take stock of what’s been achieved and set new, more ambitious goals for curbing carbon emissions after 2020.

The third big issue concerns money. Experts agree that shifting economies away from fossil fuels and preparing countries for some of the inevitable consequences of climate change will require vast financial resources — including some from the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump, which is doubtful about man-made climate change.

Organizing a massive global conference in Fiji would have strained the Pacific nation’s resources and posed a travel nightmare for thousands of delegates. Germany offered to host the talks in Bonn, the country’s former capital, because it has ample conference space and is already home to the U.N. climate change agency.

Still, they are going to miss the sunshine of Fiji. The weather in Bonn is generally dreary at best in November.

How green will the conference be?

Germany says the two-week talks will as environmentally friendly as possible. The country is setting aside part of the 117 million euro ($136.3 million) budget for a fleet of bicycles and electric buses to ferry people between venues.

Each participant will receive a bottle to fill with tap water — a move organizers say will save half a million plastic cups.

Germany’s environment ministry is also investing in renewable energy projects to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by people from all over the world flying into Bonn for the talks.

And what about Germany’s coal usage?

Germany likes to portray itself as a leader in the fight against global warming and Merkel’s reputation as the “climate chancellor” is partly built on the pivotal role she played during past negotiations.

But environmentalists note that Germany still gets about 40 percent of its electricity from coal-fired plants — one of the most carbon intensive sources of energy. And German highways are also virtually unique in having no general speed limit, despite the fact that auto emissions rise dramatically at higher speeds.

If prosperous Germany fails to meet its own emissions targets, as current predictions suggest, critics say that would send a bad signal to the rest of the world.

Also:

Fiji’s Prime Minister brings a sobering message as he presides over UN climate talks in this week — climate change is real, it’s already having disastrous impacts on his people and only urgent action can address the problem.

is hosting the talks and asked Bainimarama to act as president to highlight how the issue is affecting Pacific island nations on the frontline of global warming.

As incoming president of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP23), Bainimarama has criss-crossed the world in recent months voicing islanders’ fears.

“Rising seas, extreme weather events or changes to agriculture... threaten our way of life, and in some cases our very existence,” he said. “We who are most vulnerable must be heard.” Scientists warn some low-lying island nations risk being swamped entirely as sea levels rise.

Droughts and flooding have become commonplace across the region as the weather swings from one extreme to the other.

Farmland and sources of drinking water have been rendered useless by seawater and even graveyards have been lost to rising tides in the

Bainimarama said Fiji, an island nation of about one million people, was left reeling when Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston hit like a wrecking ball in February last year.

Packing gusts of 325 kilometres (202 miles) per hour, it was the strongest cyclone to ever make landfall in the South Pacific.