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Your daily must-read during the UN climate change summit in Paris | COP21
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EARTH UNITES
TO SAVE PLANET
The Race Is On: Historic Cleantech Shift Starts Today
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Planet Earth is not quite save yet, but leaders representing most of its nations have struck a deal at the climate change summit in Paris this weekend to try to make it so.
From the International Space Station — currently our only 'Planet B' should Earth become uninhabitable — to the tiniest islands in the Pacific ocean and the COP21 conference centre in Paris, everyone was jubilant when the news broke on Saturday. The French president, François Hollande, said: “This is a major leap for mankind."
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UN climate chief Christiana Figueres tweeted: "One planet, one chance to get it right. We did it at COP21."
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8 Takeaways From the Agreement:
1. What is it: The beginning of the transition to a low carbon economy. It's no silver bullet, but a crucial starting point. For the first time, virtually all nations on Earth have agreed to phase out fossil fuels and power the global economy with clean technologies.
2. What does it do: The agreement sends a long term signal to businesses, unlocking vast amounts of investments. It includes a goal to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. The politicians have even made a reference to 1.5 degrees.
3. Who's paying for it: Rich countries are committing $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries shift their economies away from fossil fuels.
4. How binding is it: The deal doesn’t make specific emissions reduction targets legally binding as such, but a new system will name and shame participants based on their performance and revise targets every five years. Countries will now start looking at businesses and regional and city governments for help in delivering the targets.
5. When will we see change: Because of the clear signal it sends to business, we will see change very soon. How much change we will see in 2016 and the years ahead will depend on whether countries start implementing new rules before the Paris Agreement actually takes effect in 2020. But countries are "invited" to start immediately and to already raise targets in 2018. The agreement says greenhouse gas emissions should peak as soon as possible, and need to be reduced soon after that to achieve a zero carbon economy in he second half of this century.
6. Five-year review: Even if all the greenhouse gas promises made by countries ahead of COP21 are carried out, the result would be almost 3 degrees warming – still too much. That's why a five-year review was enshrined in the agreement. This review will be crucial, much more radical reductions are needed.
7. What it all means: We've got work to do! A single silver bullet will not be sufficient to bring about the systemic change required. We need to transform how we live, what we consume, and how we do business. We now have a clear road map, let's get to work!
8. Next steps: The world will come together once again in November 2016 for COP22. In Marrakesh, a summit will focus on how to boost the scaling up of new innovations to help countries meet their targets. In Europe, this is something a partnership like Climate-KIC has already been doing since 2010, and will continue to do next year – no need to wait until November, the transition has already begun.
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For all their complications, there is one thing that Europe's constant internal diplomatic struggles breed in Brussels: brilliant strategists. Although US president Obama didn't waste any time to claim his fair share of the glory, tweeting that the Paris deal is a "perfect example of what American leadership can do," it is clear that the EU's so called "High Ambition Coalition" played a key role in the successful outcome of the summit. By the end of the summit, the unofficial EU-led alliance had grown to over 100 countries with last-minute additions such as Brazil and Japan. Earlier, countries like the United States and Canada had already joined the group. The coalition managed to outmaneuver though negotiators such as India and China.
The United Kingdom's offices in the COP21 conference centre were used as the makeshift headquarters for the “high ambition" countries, reports Politico. On the day of the deal, the coalition ministers filed out through the doors, locked arms and proceeded to make a slow walk down the conference halls, surrounded by a throng of reporters, negotiators and observers and growing cheers and whistles, and finally filed into the main conference hall.
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The Australian reports that from the gourmet tofu sandwiches to the subtle handling of negotiations, the French hosts of the UN climate conference have been showered with praise. “It’s the most skilful diplomacy I’ve seen in the more than two decades that I’ve been going to this kind of meetings,” former US vice-president Al Gore said. Getting almost all nations to agree on transforming the energy system underlying the world economy was bound to be tricky. But the French did not have to push hard for the assignment. “We were chosen, but I must point out that we were the only candidate,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said more than once.
Two years ahead of the summit Fabius started to prepare. “I mobilised our diplomatic network, started organising international meetings, and put together my team,” he said. He made 12 trips to China, and four each to India and Saudi Arabia, historically spoilers in climate talks. Days before the conference, Fabius made rapid-fire pitstops in India, Brazil and South Africa — all crucial for success. France’s top negotiator, Laurence Tubiana, also clocked tens of thousands of kilometres in the run up to the COP21.
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Every five years almost every government in the world is now set to go through what most experienced in the run-up to the Paris summit: unusually intense public scrutiny of their climate plans and how these commitments measure up to those of other nations, reports the Financial Times. While the new agreement does not contain legally binding requirements to meet specific targets to cut emissions — as the 1997 Kyoto protocol did — it does oblige virtually every country, rich or poor, to set out what it is going to do about its greenhouse gas emissions every five years, with a proposed starting date of 2020.
France’s president François Hollande already announced on Saturday night that he would revise his country’s existing carbon reduction targets before 2020 and invited other countries to join him. The Paris agreement contains other measures likely to put extra political pressure on governments to accelerate low carbon policies, confirms the Financial Times. The pact implies much deeper cuts in the carbon dioxide emitted when fossil fuels are burnt than what many countries are currently aiming for – indicating the race to scale up new technologies will intensify.
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"This is the end of fossil fuels," says a CNN headline. The Guardian reports business leaders say this will have massive consequences for industry, global security, financial markets and public health. Unilever CEO Paul Polman said consequences of the deal will be felt in banks, stock exchanges, boardrooms and research centres as the world wakes up to the news that it is embarking on an unprecedented project to decarbonise the global economy. "This realisation will unlock billions of dollars. It establishes a clear path to decarbonise the global economy within the lifetimes of many people alive today, reaping the benefits of cleaner air, greater security and avoiding the worst effects of climate change,” said Polman.
Climate-KIC CEO Bertrand van Ee said: “The deal struck in Paris today has unlocked a blue ocean of uncontested opportunities for business. The trajectory of staying well below two degrees warming is achievable, but achieving it requires a major shift in the global economy. That shift represents a highly lucrative economic opportunity. Already, there’s a $5.5 trillion market for low carbon technologies and products. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
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Scroll Down for Social Media Highlights
 We'll be back: Thanks for reading the Daily Planet during what have turned out to be a truly historic two weeks. This extra edition is our final issue of this year, but we'll be back in 2016 with a slightly different format to report on the biggest global project of our time: the construction of a prosperous low carbon economy in just decades. In the meantime: see how Europe's climate innovators respond to the deal, have a look at our holiday reading tips and check out some of this weekend's social media highlights below!
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Climate Innovators Repond
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So said Climate-KIC chairman Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who also commented: "this is a turning point in the human enterprise where the great transformation towards sustainability begins.” Continue >>
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"President Obama ended his speech at the opening of the COP21 climate change summit with 'Let’s get to work.' I would now like to recall those words on the day of the historic Paris Agreement," said Climate-KIC CEO Bertrand van Ee in a statement. Continue >>
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Top Tip: Save trees and money, go digital! No need to use paper. If you don't own a tablet or an e-reader, this could be the moment to inform Santa.
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1. You may want to kick the festive season off with some climate innovation fiction. This 2010 novel by Ian McEwan follows a Nobel-winning physicist whose dysfunctional personal life and cynical ambition see him pursuing a solar-energy based solution for climate change. It is billed as "a darkly satirical novel showing human frailty struggling with the most pressing and complex problem of our time." The Daily Planet can confirm that although It was awarded with a literary award for comic writing, it is not for the faint hearted.
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2. The Sparking an Innovation Step Change study – released at COP21 – reveals that most European business leaders have prepared strategies to respond to climate change, but with a lack of focus on innovation. As a result, their strategies are likely to be ineffective for achieving the goals set out in the Paris Agreement. Get a free digital copy of this Climate-KIC study and start 2016 well-informed!
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3. It's all about the money, as the saying goes. This is especially true for kick-starting climate innovation in cities. A UN report – produced by McKinsey – released at COP21 recommends that a network of labs to innovate new financial instruments and funding models should be created. One of the existing examples mentioned is Climate-KIC’s Low Carbon City Lab programme.
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4. If you read German, this one may be for you. In a book published in the run up to COP21, Climate-KIC chairman and Potsdam Institute director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber looks at the "fatal relationship" between the climate, mankind and carbon. Newspaper Die Zeit says the book, titled "Self combustion", is a life's work that combines biographical, historical, political and cultural lines to a new view of human history and climate-future.
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5. For a dose of climate adventure, and a white Christmas: get a copy of the White Planet. This book by Climate-KIC governing board member and eminent scientist Jean Jouzel – and two of his colleagues – takes readers on a spellbinding scientific journey through the shrinking world of ice and snow to tell the story of the expeditions and discoveries that have transformed our understanding of climate change.
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6. And last but not least... the Paris Agreement. Grab the PDF, check out the text yourself and find out under which article this sentence sits: "Accelerating, encouraging and enabling innovation is critical for an effective, long-term global response to climate change and promoting economic growth and sustainable development."
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New friends: EU climate change chief Miguel Arias Cañete tweeted these photos of his encounter with one of China's negotiators after the agreement was announced, saying "谢谢" (thank you).
"谢谢, Xièxiè, thank you! China: a tough but loyal partner. We made it happen! #COP21," he tweeted.
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Photo bomb: And this time it's for real! Australia's foreign minister Julia Bishop tweeted this photo of herself. In the background, Canada's climate change minister Catherine McKenna is seen executing a classic photo bomb.
"Waiting for #ClimateChange #COP21 plenary to start. Canadian Environment Min photo-bombing @ec_minister," said Bishop.
Bishop and McKenna were two of many female ministers to lead the negotiations during the final week of COP21, following the male dominated first week that saw country's leaders take the stage.
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Back to work: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor and politician, took to Twitter to congratulate the UN secretary general, the French COP21 hosts and all negotiators. He did so by sending a GIF of the famously dramatic end scene of one of his movies, which sees the Terminator giving a thumbs up as he sinks into molten steel...
"Congrats Sec Gen Ban Ki-moon, @fhollande, @LaurentFabius & the negotiators at #COP21. Now it's time to get to work," he tweeted.
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#JourneyToParis Flashback
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#JourneyToParis:
We have arrived!
 Check out our Journey to Paris, which took us across 27 countries. We put a spotlight on innovators who are already creating solutions across Europe.
We have an unprecedented opportunity to create a prosperous zero carbon future, driven by innovation, jobs, and investment. Climate-KIC is seizing that opportunity for Europe by connecting both public and private sectors with climate change-focused education, research and innovation. Join us!
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Get in touch
 Drop the Daily Planet newsroom a line if you have any questions or tips!
Contact our editors on Twitter or send us an email at media@climate-kic.org.
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EDITORIAL: Executive Editor: Angela Howarth | Editor in Chief: Peter Koekoek | Editor, Events: Kelsey Hunter | Editor, Social Media: Molly Redmond | Reporter, Le Bourget: Andrea Karpati
PUBLISHER: Climate-KIC, the EU's main climate innovation initiative © 2015 Climate-KIC
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