Hi there. This biweekly product highlights the most important news on international climate diplomacy, finance, loss and damage, and more. Please forward this email tointerested colleagues so they can subscribe here.
Consider us also as a resource to help uplift your stories, reports, actions, and events - contact Shravya Jain-Conti at sjain@climatenexus.org!
Personal note: Today was my final issue writing the international briefing. It’s been a joy covering climate finance and diplomacy for you, and I thank you for your support. Keep an eye out for the next edition on June 12, which will come from international@climatenexus.org. Cheers, Daela Taeoalii-Tipton
SPOTLIGHT
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron lifted the state of emergency in the French-ruled territory of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific that has been rocked by weeks of violent protests. While the most proximate reason for the Indigenous unrest is a voting reform deemed to undermine native Kanaky political power, one critical mineral also plays an outsized influence. Enter: the Nickel Doctrine.
New Caledonia accounts for 20-30% of the world’s nickel, which is a major component of electric vehicle batteries and solar panels. Domestically, mining is responsible for a quarter of the island’s jobs and 90% of its exports. While global prices for the mineral have soared since the unrest started, nickel prices dropped 45% last year, slamming New Caledonia’s economy, which has already suffered significantly as multiple major players have left the archipelago.
“Despite Macron’s rhetoric about France being a partner for the Global South and for those pushing for the reform of the international financial architecture and greater climate financing, France shows that it is incapable of being a good partner for its own Global South,” Aude Darnal, who leads The Stimson Center’sGlobal South in the World Order Project, told us “It’ll be interesting to see how this crisis impacts France’s credibility with its Southern partners.”
WORTH 1000 WORDS
ON OUR RADAR
The 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4) is underway in Antigua and Barbuda, on the heels of a historic victory after a United Nations tribunal on maritime law held that countries must work beyond the Paris Agreement to mitigate pollutants absorbed by oceans.
As expected, climate finance is a major focus of the summit. Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne lambasted rich countries for their “grossly inadequate” climate action before calling on them to meet their climate finance commitments. Debt has also been a major feature of the talks, with the unveiling of a new initiative to seek debt relief and the continued advocacy of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, which aims to take vulnerability into account when determining aid eligibility. A new OECD report out today finds that while developed countries and multilateral development banks made progress towards the $100 billion goal, most of it was debt-generating.
Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley also released Bridgetown Initiative 3.0, a call for urgent reform of international financial architecture that includes the International Monetary Fund’srecent move to allow countries to channel reserve assets to multilateral development banks.
NEWS
Climate Diplomacy
US-Kenya: US, Kenya deals and investments announced as Ruto meets Biden (Reuters), US Sen. Chris Coons on Kenyan president’s visit, Africa policy and trade (Devex $)
G7: Yellen pushes for joint G7 response to China's industrial overcapacity (Reuters), Are the G7 finally ready to act on fossil fuel subsidies? (Forbes $)
Elections: As South Africa heads to the polls, voters await stalled “just energy transition” (Climate Home), Farmers in India are weary of politicians' lackluster response to their climate-driven water crisis (AP), EU election 2024: What the manifestos say on energy and climate change (Carbon Brief)
COP: Climate: can young activists still sway the outcome of COP negotiations? (The Conversation), Biden: US ready to support Azerbaijan in making COP29 success (News.AZ), UN climate summit in Baku risks being again co-opted by fossil fuels, US lawmakers say (Financial Times $)
Mixed bag: Experts: What are the biggest geopolitical risks to climate action in 2024? (Carbon Brief)
Climate envoys: U.S., EU kickstart renewed climate change cooperation with first call (Reuters)
International Finance
Follow the money: Rich nations are earning billions from a pledge to help fix climate (Reuters)
Annual finance goal: Climate talks are struggling to agree on finance to poor nations (Bloomberg $)
Adaptation $: Are reports of climate adaptation finance being exaggerated? (Context)
Carbon pricing: Global carbon emissions pricing raised record $104 bln in 2023 (Reuters)
Consequences: Economic damage from climate change six times worse than thought – report (The Guardian)
Impacts
Loss and damage: In Malawi, dubious cyclone aid highlights need for loss and damage fund (Climate Home)
Displacement: ‘Nothing left’: How climate change pushes Indigenous people from their land (Al Jazeera), Why climate migration in Brazil has become a global crisis (ABC News)
Ice: Slovenia was the first country to lose its last glacier. Then came Venezuela. (E&E $)
Storms: This hurricane season could be among the worst in decades, NOAA warns (The Washington Post)
At a glance: Human rights violations are widespread as the economic crisis, climate change and environmental impacts disproportionately affect vulnerable populations around the world. For the first time, the report examined how countries are upholding the right to a healthy environment. It also highlighted climate justice, and how activists are facing growing threats, criminalization, and unnecessary force used against them.
4: IEA report launch: COP28 Tripling Renewable Capacity Pledge: Tracking countries’ ambitions and identifying policies to bridge the gap (online)
4: Designing the New UN Climate Finance Goal: Ambition, Additionality, and an Extended Contributor Base?, Center for Global Development webinar (online)
6: IEA report launch: World Energy Investment 2024 (online)
6-7: US Export Import Bank annual meeting (Washington, DC)
10-12: 3rd meeting of the G20 International Financial Architecture Task Force (Fortaleza, Brazil)