Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won’t give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had         – Joni Mitchell

“Last week the UNEP warned that Canada is not doing enough on climate change, right now at #COP24 we should be talking about increasing climate ambition yet the debate in Canada due to pressure from oil is about the price crisis & more bailouts.” – Tzeporah Berman

“Negotiators at COP24 took time out Sunday to rest after the first week of talks ended on a sour note the previous night, when the United States sided with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in blocking endorsement of a landmark study on global warming.” – CBC news

Despite all the new revelations and dire news over the last year, it seems nothing has changed at the Conference of the Parties this year in Katowice, Poland.

As stated above, at COP24 last weekend the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait blocked progress by refusing to allow a UN commissioned report to be “welcomed,” although those countries (and all other Party states) requested the Report three years ago. The Report is the one released in South Korea in early October which said that the world is far off track on reducing emissions, heading for 3 degrees by the end of the century, and that what is required are “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.”

“Welcoming” the Report would mean it would become the centerpiece of negotiations for the remainder of COP24. Now, theoretically, it is not. Although it may be that, like banning a book, this refusal will only put more of a spotlight on the Report and its role at COP24 and next year’s COP25.

At the same time, to add further challenges, Macron is under siege in Paris, and on Monday Trump promoted clean coal, and spoke in favour of the yellow vests on the basis that “[t]he Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris..”

The world has four days to make progress at Katowice. Failure will reinforce Greta Thunberg’s words that the rules are not working, and we need new rules. The longer we fail the more drastic that change will be when it comes.