COP25: Europe’s Green Deal opens door to global climate disaster politics / Geographical

/in , , , /by

Hope is the last to die, and the Paris Agreement created plenty of it. For the last four years, since COP21 in France, world nations have consoled themselves that the gulf between their intentions and the globally agreed target to limit warming to well below 2˚C was a temporary accounting challenge. To close the gap, a crank or ‘ratchet mechanism’ was added to the Paris Agreement in 2015, intended to tighten national commitments and deepen emission cuts every five years.

Continue reading at Geographical

The third in my three part series from the 2019 UN Conference of the Parties, where world representatives met this December to try to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees. 

COP25: Citizens and scientists unite behind climate injustice / Geographical

/in , , , /by

Indigenous activist Daiara Tukano of Brazil speaks to press during a demonstration against the slow pace of climate negotiations at COP25 (Image: Christine Thao Tyler)

Brandon Wu is director of campaigns and policy at Action Aid USA and he has just been reunited with his jacket. He’s spent a few chilly hours outside the COP25 United Nations climate summit in Madrid after being ejected from the venue. Earlier he had been part of an organised but extra-official protest in which youth, trade union, Indigenous, women and gender delegation groups beat empty pans and unfurled banners. ‘Police linked arms,’ he told Geographical, ‘forcibly marching people out of the door.’

Continue reading at Geographical

The second in my three part series from the 2019 UN Conference of the Parties, where world representatives met this December to try to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees. 

COP25: World leaders debate global carbon trading playbook / Geographical

/in , , , /by

Any good parent knows you should never make a rule that you can’t enforce. In the first week, however, of the UN COP25 climate change conference, the troublesome Article Six policy of the Paris Agreement was a 2015 promise some nations were perhaps beginning to regret. Article Six allows countries and companies to potentially leverage emissions savings they create overseas for continued or even increased emissions at home. The mechanism is currently as vague as it sounds….

Continue reading at Geographical

The first in my three part series from the 2019 UN Conference of the Parties, where world representatives met this December to try to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees. 

 

Chile’s crisis set to reframe UN climate conference – Geographical

/in , , , , , /by

Climate change is affecting the world’s most vulnerable. The protests over inequality and corruption in Chile have deep roots and connection with environmental destruction. Before the cancellation of the pivotal UN climate change conference in Santiago, I asked how the spotlight on inequality could reframe the focus of the global summit. 

Read the article for Geographical published here. 

 

 

Fitness and Fatherhood – Men’s Fitness

/in , , , /by

A lovely big feature story about my wild, wonderful and ultra wearying journey into fatherhood as I attempt to maintain a shred of athletic self respect. For Men’s Fitness.

Click here to read full page. 

054-059_MF_DEC19_in focus_fitness and fatherhood

Chile’s “Sacrifice Zones” – Geographical

/in , , , , , /by

The Chilean President collected a prize for his commitments to tackling climate change this September, then almost as he stepped off the stage appeared to backtrack on his promise to close coal plants that leave children excreting blood in the coastal sacrifice zones.  The day the socio-economic riots began in Chile, I headed to Quintero to meet the people affected by the President’s environmental hypocrisy. 

Read the story for Geographical magazine.