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The UK ranks first place in today ́s Fossil of the Day

Fossil of the Day goes to the UK for sticking their heads in the sand on loss and damage finance.

You know that feeling when you’ve had an absolute age to study for that crucial exam and you leave it to the very last minute to get stuck into the revision – all nighters/lots of coffee with extra sugar.

Such an ostrich-like approach to exam preparation is what we’ve seen from Boris and chums over loss and damage finance in the run up to the delayed COP26.

Not only did they have an extra year to get their house in order after the postponement, but wasn’t it blindingly obvious to everyone that there was quite a bit of groundwork to put in or did they just not get the memo?

The many calls from vulnerable countries and civil society for loss and damage finance to be a top COP priority fell on deaf ears. It was so far down the list that it didn’t even make it into the list of presidency goals.

Such inadequacy leaves us facing a frantic and dramatic conclusion to this COP (coffee with three sugars please?).
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First Fossil of the Day Award goes to the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of

Saudi Arabia

For the first Fossil of the Day in this second week of COP, we have a tie between Saudi Arabia and the UK for their sterling efforts in securing a weak new Work Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) which we’re now going to be lumbered with for the next decade!

First of all the UK Presidency appears to have been eager to finish work early on Friday. They dispensed with making the shaping of the text inclusive, instead pushing all parties to come to an agreement that evening, dashing the hopes of civil society organisations and youth groups, who had worked so hard, of having more time to help shape the text.

Not that it may have made any difference anyway – Saudi Arabia gets their first Fossil for manipulating the rushed and restrictive decision making process, to keep the words “human” and “rights” out of the final text. ACE!

As if by magic, or maybe by maintaining a hardline position, “Human rights-based approach” disappeared from the guiding principles. We think we can guess why those oil kings think the next generation doesn’t need a robust climate education….
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First Prize goes to Brazil

First place in today’s Fossil of the Week goes to Brazil, for its ghastly and unacceptable treatment of indigenous people. On Monday, indigenous activist Txai Suruí, was lauded for her powerful conference speech telling world leaders about the impact climate change is already having on her tribe.

Unfortunately, this didn’t go down too well back home where she was publicly criticized by Brazilian President Jair Bolsanaro, for «attacking Brazil», prompting online trolls to heap abuse on the 24 year-old. Worse still, she was allegedly subjected to bullying from a Brazilian government environment ministry official, who towered over her saying she “shouldn’t bash Brazil”. Worryingly, days later, another Brazilian state representative, with ties to the rural lobby, was detained by conference security for trying to intimidate indigenous women.

Such despicable behaviour is well documented in Brazil; invasions of indigenous lands have skyrocketed; wildcat gold mining is polluting waterways, intimidation is rife and they have a vice-president who justified denying freshwater to Covid-hit villages because “the Indians drink from the rivers”. We could go on to talk about rainforests and deforestation but think you get the idea.

Bolsanaro didn’t bother to go to Glasgow, preferring to visit his ancestral home in Italy and hang out with a far right-leader instead.
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The Polish Government awarded Fossil of the Day for walking a very crooked line

It appears that the Polish government isn’t exactly telling the truth about their pledge to quit coal.

Now if you’re sitting comfortably we’ll begin this sorry tale of coal addiction:

On the 3rd of November, as part of an international agreement, Poland, along with 40 other countries and organisations, pledged to quit coal. The agreement was that major economies phase out coal in the 2030s and poorer ones in the 2040s. All fine so far.

Being based on trust, countries were able to choose which decade they would stop this nasty addiction.

But here the story gets a bit murky.

The Polish ministry of climate and environment decided that, despite being the 23^rd largest global economy, (forecast to grow further in the coming years, according to the

World Bank) and with ambitions to join the G20, to put the country in the ‘poorer’ category.

According to ministry boffins, they weren’t a “major economy” anymore and the phase out could wait until, not just the 2040’s but – wait for it- 2049!

The story ends badly (for the moment) with Poland dodging its coal commitment at a time when it’s absolutely paramount that they, and all OECD countries, stick to the 2030 deadline and keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C degrees, to avoid extreme climate breakdown.
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So the 4th of November is energy day at COP26 but is that positive or negative energy – you decide…

The First Fossil of the Day Award goes to the United States of America (USA).

United States President Joe Biden, supported by the UK Government and others, launched the new ‘AIM for Climate’ (AIM4C) initiative at the World Leaders Summit innovation event. Did Joe think we’d be stuck in the line too long to notice that this is a sneaky scheme to reframe industrial agriculture and disruptive technologies as climate action? Come on Joe, we’re not confused by lines, just frustrated. So it’s crystal clear that it’s the opposite and goes against any principles of justice, sustainable development and food security. Biden’s ‘gift’ is really part of a cunning ploy to exclude farmers from agriculture – they don’t even get a mention on AIM4C’s website – and replace them with robots, gene-edited seeds and boost technology profits for the buddies in Silicon Valley.

AIM4C could also be a poisoned chalice for food policy, increasing energy use, pollution and strengthening the very industrial food chain that is harming the climate as the agri-giants redefine themselves as ag-tech and newcomers like Microsoft and Amazon begin to shuffle into the digital agriculture arena.
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Today´s list of Fossil Award winners is as long as the queues at COP. 

1st Fossil of the Day Award goes to Norway.

Norway likes to play the climate champion but behind closed doors, new prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre is gaining a reputation as a fossil fuel cheerleader. The Labour leader, who’s only been in charge for a few weeks, has, apparently, boasted to media that “Norwegian gas is not the problem, but part of the solution for a successful transition to renewable energy” especially if combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS).

He positions the land of the midnight sun’s fossil fuel production as a solution for the billion people who don’t have access to electricity and has an interesting interpretation of the International Energy Agency and United Nations calls for an end to new fossil exploration. In Støreworld this only applies to large coal producers and not Norway.

Before COP, his government was caught red-handed by the media lobbying the IPCC to declare CCS a fix for continued fossil production. Alongside calling for further oil and gas development, they’ve joined Russia in arguing against the EU Commission’s potential blacklisting of drilling in the Arctic.

As if that wasn’t enough, not a single Norwegian climate target has ever been met, the petroleum industry is the largest source of domestic emissions and exported emissions of Norway’s petroleum industry are around ten times higher than national emissions.
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