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Your daily must-read during the UN climate change summit in Paris | COP21 Day #11
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If you think you're having a rough morning, imagine being a negotiator at COP21. Unless you are one of course. Yesterday, ministers were warned they could face a long night of negotiations as the shortened negotiating text designed to focus attention on a number of remaining contentious issues was released in the afternoon, a few hours later than expected. BusinesGreen reports the new text has been reduced from 43 to 29 pages, while three quarters of the square brackets denoting areas of disagreement have been removed.
The BBC quotes an observer who expected "fireworks" at last night's negotiations: "We saw [this] earlier this year at a previous climate meeting in Bonn when the co-chairs tried to come up with a shorter text and the response from parties was to re-insert all their favourite parts back into the text. There could be fireworks." In the course of today, details should start emerging about what really happened last night and we should get an indication of whether campaign groups were right to worry that too many compromises might be made in an effort to reach the deadline.
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While the politicians move the negotiations into their final stage, business organisations working with thousands of corporations and investors are doing what they can to get world leaders to commit to a firm and robust agreement, Blue and Green Tomorrow reports. Members of a number of business groups have released a letter sent to Heads of State and Government, saying they need a "clear and specific long-term emissions goal well before the end of the century coupled with a five-year ambition mechanism that begins around 2020."
"A strong Paris outcome will enable us to speed up and scale up our solutions,” said Philippe Joubert, Chair of the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group, which brings together 23 European companies with combined revenues of $170 billion, one of the organisations to sign the letter. Last week, a new study launched by Climate-KIC at COP21 already showed that 63 per cent of European business leaders think climate change poses a risk to their business, Reuters reported.
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Time Magazine calls her the chancellor of the free world, but at COP21 she is known as the “Climate Chancellor”. The US magazine unveiled its December cover yesterday, announcing German leader Angela Merkel as “Person of the Year” – the first woman in almost three decades to get the title – because her leadership has so far helped preserve and promote an open, borderless Europe in the face of economic turmoil and the ongoing refugee crisis. “She's the de facto leader of a continent, steward of the world’s fourth biggest economy, a principled manager and a resolute diplomat,” the magazine explains.
So why is Time’s person of the year nicknamed the Climate Chancellor? Clean Energy Wire has put together an overview, starting with Merkel the scientist, then her role as environment minister followed by “the making of the Climate Chancellor” which started when she took office as the leader of Germany in 2005. Clean Energy Wire takes you through the highs and lows of Merkel’s leadership on climate change, ending with the G7 earlier this year where she managed to get industrialised nations to agree to invest $100 billion (€87 billion) annually by 2020 to help developing countries mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects.
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While Angela Merkel’s achievement of becoming Time’s “Person of the Year” may indicate times are changing, UN climate envoy and former Irish president Mary Robinson says the climate change talks are still too dominated by men, the Guardian reports. “This is a very male world [at the conference]. When it is a male world, you have male priorities,” she said. She pointed to the line-up of ministers now leading the talks, few of whom are women. “If you don’t have women here, how can you say this is about people?” Some countries are understood to even be opposed to including language on gender equality in the COP21 agreement. The European Union and United States have said they support the inclusion of such terms.
Earlier, Robinson had called for more global collaboration in the search for solutions against climate change, praising members of the Climate-KIC community for their ambition to build a zero carbon economy. Robinson, who heads the ‘climate justice’ focused Mary Robinson Foundation, also highlighted Climate-KIC’s efforts to export its climate innovation partnership model outside Europe, starting in the South Pacific region. “Collaboration is needed on an unprecedented scale,” she said, “and not just between countries”.
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Scroll Down for Social Media Highlights
 Scroll down for our COP21 social media highlights, as well as The Daily Planet Report and #WordOnTheStreet with interesting comments overheard at COP21. Other items include insider tips from Le Bourget where the negotiations are taking place, our insight of the day about the role of business in solving climate change as well an overview of climate innovation events in Paris and a flashback to how we made it there. Not a subscriber yet? Subscribe today!
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Video: The Daily Planet Report
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On Friday, COP21 celebrated the unprecedented opportunity to create a zero carbon economy through innovation. The Daily Planet was there in central Paris and brings you this report with the VIPs, the innovators and the amazing atmosphere in the stunning Grand Palais.
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Watch the video on YouTube and find out more about the 'volocopter' built by Climate-KIC start-up E-volo — also knowns as the 'Tesla of helicopters'. The event took place during the opening night of SolutionsCOP21, the exciting technology and arts exhibition.
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The report also features a range of climate change celebrities such as UN climate envoy — and former president of Ireland — Mary Robinson and John Schellnhuber, the physicist, Angela-Merkel-adviser and Climate-KIC chairman.
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Insider Tips from the Summit in Le Bourget
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The Daily Planet's latest insider tips, brought to you by Climate-KIC's observers at the COP21 negotiations.
- A look ahead to the post-COP21 decade: Join this debate in the Blue Zone at 11:30 and tell the panel what you think, do the solutions exist — or should we hold on for new breakthrough technologies? The International Energy Agency's Phillipe Benoit will deliver a keynote.
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- Cities, Finance & Action: For a focus on cities and financing climate action, join this event at 15:00 in the green zone. We'll talk about innovative solutions to improve cities’ access to climate finance, such as matchmaking platforms, green bonds, result-based finance, pooled-finance instruments and innovation labs for city-level climate finance.
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Did You Know? Insight of the Day
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A new Climate-KIC study released in Paris last week shows European business is addicted to incrementalism, and lacks the skillset needed for an innovation step change in line with a 2°C trajectory. The Daily Planet brings you an insight per day!
Did you know, that most firms (29 per cent) invest between 10-20 per cent of their budget in R&D, but nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) only dedicate 5 per cent or less of their R&D budget to innovation to respond to climate change?
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In #WordOnTheStreet, we bring you some of the most interesting comments overheard at COP21.
There's an app for that!: The Daily Planet hears that some delegates were surprised when long lines formed by the printers yesterday afternoon as many rushed to print off a personal copy of the updated 29 page draft agreement — rather than using their tablet computers, smartphones or laptops.
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Climate Innovation at COP21
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Today in Le Bourget at 10:30.
Climate-KIC’s Carbocount project appears on the Web TV Stage in Le Bourget. The project focuses on atmospheric measurement and emissions modelling at city-scale.
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Today in Le Bourget at 15:00.
An interactive high-level discussion on improving cities’ access to climate finance. Topics include matchmaking platforms, green bonds, result-based finance, pooled-finance instruments and innovation labs for city-level climate finance.
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It's called the Blue Zone for a reason: As reported in a previous edition of the Daily Planet, one of the advantages of COP21 taking place in Paris is the French cuisine. Journalist Tim McDonnell seemed to think French wine deserved a separate mention when he posted this tweet highlighting wine goes by the bottle in France, also at lunch.
"Gotta love that the #COP21 cafeteria has both glasses and whole bottles of wine. Vive la France! " he tweeted.
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The Empire Strikes Back: "Dark forces like fossil fuels destroy they must," Star Wars' Yoda told a reporter for Germany's ARD television yesterday.
"'Simple Message that is!' Protest von @Avaaz auf der #COP21 @starwars #TheForceAwakens #climateaction," the ARD tweeted.
The first Star Wars movie in ten years, "The Force Awakes" is set to hit movie theaters next week.
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2015 is a great year: Apparently this special COP21 Bordeaux is not for sale at the cafeterias at Le Bourget, according to a tweet by energy adviser Koskimaki PirjoLiisa. The Daily Planet newsroom would be delighted with a bottle however!
"Unfortunately this wine not for sale :-) #COP21 ," PirjoLiisa tweeted.
If you can spare a bottle, please feel free to pass it on to our Blue Zone reporter @krptndr!
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Daily #JourneyToParis Flashback
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#JourneyToParis:
We have arrived!
 Following a virtual journey that started in June, we have arrived in Paris and now keep you up to date with daily reports from COP21.
Find out how we got here by checking 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 — based in Paris and London during COP21 — on Twitter or send us an email at media@climate-kic.org.
Connect with Climate-KIC's COP21 observers at the official UN site in Le Bourget: Tweet @krptndr or email andrea.karpati@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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