Unterstützer

Reliable energy supply is vitally important to meet the growing electricity demand and hence to sustain the socio-economic progress of Morocco. With the kingdom's electricity consumption projected to double by 2025 and to increase more than five times by 2050, substantial investments in additional power generation capacities are required. Faced by the dual challenge of importing 96% of its energy supplies as fossil fuels from abroad, and being highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Morocco has, therefore, explicitly set low-carbon and climate change resilient development as its strategic development priority.

This report provides an analysis of REDD+ project standards against expectations and principles set by the BMUB/IKI and Germanwatch. atmosfair contributed to this report with its experience in the field of MRV and climate integrity of offset projects. The goal of the report is to provide a clear underlying guidance for the use of one or several REDD+ standards for use by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the BMUB and beyond.

[Unauthorised translation of the German original: http://germanwatch.org/de/11433] The conference in Paris has impressively confirmed the growing international consensus that was last demonstrated at the 2015 G7 summit in Germany. Governments around the world are now serious about taking decisive action well before the end of the century to phase out fossil fuels in accordance with the findings of climate science. We welcome the clear commitment made by large industrial countries to undertake the necessary transformation of their energy systems by the middle of the century. This undertaking is now more feasible than ever thanks to declining costs for renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

The Climate Change Performance Index is an instrument supposed to enhance transparency in international climate politics. Its aim is to encourage political and social pressure on those countries which have, up to now, failed to take ambitious actions on climate protection as well as to highlight countries with best-practice climate policies. On the basis of standardised criteria, the index evaluates and compares the climate protection performance of 58 countries that are, together, responsible for more than 90 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions.

The international community has agreed several times that climate change must be limited to below 2°C. Many of the most vulnerable countries demand that this upper limit be tightened to 1.5°C to avoid further negative impacts on their populations. These global temperature limits will likely be included in the Paris Agreement as well. But temperature goals are very abstract. Paris will deliver an agreement – but emission reductions have to be realized on national, subnational, local and private levels...

By end September 2015 most countries will submit their climate contributions (INDCs) for the new climate agreement to be adopted in Paris this December. The EU has already announced its contribution of at least 40 percent emission reduction by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. In India, the preparations for the INDC have been finalized, too. What is expected of the Indian INDC? What would be equitable?

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This report describes the planning and licensing process for extra high voltage transmission lines under EU and national law regulatory framework. It is shown that the TEN-E Regulation 347/2013 introduces binding priorities (PCI, Projects of Common Interest) into national planning processes, shifting participation requirements to the EU level. The comparison between the German and the UK system of planning and permitting displays the different approaches: while the regulatory system is much more refined in Germany, granting much access and public participation, the participatory approach in the UK is more open, and access to justice is easier.

A new wave of climate leadership is coming from the African continent. On 5 June, Morocco became the third African nation, following Ethiopia and Gabon, to submit its climate action commitment (or Intended Nationally Determined Contribution - INDC). With its timely submission, the host of the upcoming UN climate summit in 2016 also is the first Arab country to put forward its plan to transition its economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This is an important step towards the new global climate agreement, due to be signed in Paris this December.

At the G7 summit in Elmau on 7 and 8 June 2015, the most important and affluent industrial nations will discuss how to facilitate the adoption of a new global climate change treaty. This white paper illuminates key background issues in the run up to the summit. It also identifies three signals that must be sent by the summit to underscore the commitment of industrial nations to preventing catastrophic climate change.