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France, you’ve been doing good so far on the international stage! You helped shape the Paris Agreement at COP21, and since then you’ve been working to achieve ambitious outcomes at UNFCCC conferences. Congratulations on this — keep up the good work!

But guess what? Strong ambition at international meetings is not enough. “Making our Planet Great Again” also requires national policies that live up to international rhetoric. Backsliding from agreed upon commitments cannot happen if you want to remain the gatekeeper of the Paris Agreement.

Yesterday, your government announced that you would not honour your 2025 target of phasing nuclear down from 75% to 50% of your electricity mix, delaying your ambition from 5 to 10 years. This target was part of a law for energy transition, passed after 3 years of inclusive dialogue with French civil society and ahead of COP21. ECO reminds you that your newly elected President Emmanuel Macron made the promise to respect and implement the energy transition as such.
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The first Fossil of the Day award goes to…take a deep breath…Turkey, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, France, Japan and Indonesia for duplicity at the UN climate negotiations. While representatives from climate vulnerable countries, cities, businesses, and civil society organisations are fighting to keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground, as well as preventing the expansion of polluting airports (hat-tip to France), these countries still aim to increase their domestic fossil fuel extraction. By doing so, they are quite literally drilling under everyone’s efforts to keep global warming below the critical threshold of 1.5°C. These countries helped forge the Paris Agreement which is now in force, committing them to halt climate change, so they really need to get the left hand and the right hand talking to each other. Put your money where your mouth is, please!

The second Fossil of the Day award goes to Japan for its dodgy stance on coal. Japan has a crazy number (48!) of new coal power projects in the pipeline and is funding a massive 10 GW worth of new coal in Indonesia. On a near-daily basis Indonesian locals have been protesting against proposed coal operations in the Cirebon region, concerned about the impact on public health and water supplies.
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Yesterday’s first place Fossil of the Day award went to Australia for their complaints about dirty baggage. ECO doesn’t mean to gossip, but yesterday Australia was caught complaining to the US about American charities standing in solidarity with Australian communities who are fighting to prevent the construction of the largest ever coal mine down under—Adani’s Carmichael mine. Australia ratified the Paris Agreement last Friday, so lobbying for coal expansion here is an ugly thing to be doing.

Second place went to Austria for dodgy lobbying and dragging down ambition. Despite no progress on emissions for over 25 years, Austria has lobbied hard to get maximum flexibility for LULUCF credits as part of the Effort Sharing Decision for the EU’s 2030 climate targets. At the same time, the Austrian government has failed to make any kind of post-2020 financial commitment. Boo to you, Austria!

Last place went to New Zealand for supporting suspect carbon credits. Despite being involved in discussions to develop ‘high-integrity’ international carbon markets, NZ has been fronting up with ‘dodgy carbon credits’ to meet its obligations under the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. New Zealand: why are you trying to be Australia now?

The First Place Fossil goes to India for continuing to be a spoiler on equity at the ADP sessions. The previous fossil to India was for their push to get the only mention of equity in the text to be deleted. At yesterday’s late night ADP session, India once again spoke against equity opposing South Africa’s proposal on the Equity Reference Framework and wanting to cancel the workshop on equity at the upcoming ADP session in Bonn. We certainly expect more from a Party that showed promise of being an equity champion just two years ago in Durban, saying they could not see a future deal without equity embedded in it.

The First Place Fossil goes to India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and China for proposing to delete the only reference to equity in para 9 of the ADP text.  Equity is key to the 2015 agreement and Parties must leave Warsaw with a clear understanding of how the ex ante review will be conducted.  We were shocked that with all the discussions here and in Bonn, equity did not yield more than a passing reference in the first version of the ADP text. The next iteration must expand and not ‘streamline’ references to equity.  To these members of the Like-Minded Group, we urge you to engage in the development of an ex ante review, rather than hovering over the delete button.

The Second Place Fossil goes to Australia, who along with some other developed countries is impeding progress towards setting up an international mechanism on loss and damage. Trying to keep out key text elements proposed by more than 130 developing countries, delaying negotiation progress through procedural manoeu- vres, and lacking a clear commitment to strong support provisions in the decision text is highly concerning.  Australia is the leader of those lacking constructive spirit.

We call on the other developed countries to work seriously for the needs of the most vulnerable countries and help in establishing an effective international mechanism on loss and damage here.

The COP host, Poland, earns today’s First Place Fossil for aggressively promoting coal.

The Polish government is endorsing the International Coal and Climate Summit. The Polish Ministry of Economy and the World Coal Association developed “The Warsaw Communiqué”, a statement claiming “there is a misconception that the use of coal is incompatible with meeting the challenge of climate change”, contrary to the fact that coal combustion is the largest contributor to the human-made increase of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere.

As the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres said at the summit today, most of the known reserves of coal will have to stay in the ground if we are to secure a safe climate.

Also, today 27 scientists released a joint statement discrediting “high efficiency coal” promoted at the coal summit. The scientists confirm that the unabated burning of coal will make it impossible to secure a safe climate.

Poland could halve its coal demand, boost energy from renewable sources to over 25 per cent and create 100,000 jobs by 2030, but instead, the government plans to increase Poland’s emissions even after 2020 . . .

Read complete Fossil texts at www.climatenetwork.org/fossil-of-the-day

In a case of doubling down on a dastardly display, Australia was handed the First Place Fossil of the Day award for an unprecedented fourth time in a row at the Warsaw climate negotiations.

This is getting silly, folks. It’s almost like the new Australian Government is trying to compete with Canada for being handed the most fossils in a UNFCCC session.

After their first fossil on Monday for refusing to make any new finance commitments, Australia has today gone even further with their nasty rhetoric, willfully and completely undermining the very concept of climate finance.

The Australians said obligations for new, predictable and reliable finance from developed countries are ‘not realistic’ and ‘not acceptable’. This is nothing short of an attack on an important cornerstone of the UNFCCC.

In the same statement, Australia said that climate finance ’is not welfare transfer’. Indeed. Climate finance isn’t welfare – it’s a moral obligation (sorry Australia, it might not be acceptable to you, but it’s true) and a legal commitment that developed countries have made because of their responsibility in causing climate change.

New, additional, adequate and predictable finance – which must primarily be public money if it is to reach the poorest countries and communities and meet UNFCCC obligations – is not an optional part of the UNFCCC.
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