Extract from ABC News
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has distracted world governments from efforts to combat climate change, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said in a video message played at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt.
Key points:
- Mr Zelenskyy criticised the impact of war and aggression on global joint actions on climate change
- Ukraine is hosting an exhibition space for the first time at a UN climate conference
- Andrew Forrest called for a pause to seabed mining at COP27
"There can be no effective climate policy without the peace," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"This Russian war has brought about an energy crisis that has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power generation in order to lower energy prices for their people … to lower prices that are shockingly rising due to deliberate Russian actions.
"[It] brought an acute food crisis to the world, which hit worst those suffering the existing manifestations of climate change.
"The Russian war destroyed 5 million acres of forests in Ukraine in less than six months."
Ukraine this year is hosting an exhibition space for the first time at a UN climate conference.
But unlike the other booths at the COP27 festooned in colourful logos, flags and greenery, Ukraine's stood out for its bleakness — covered in grey and black to symbolise the war at home.
Mr Zelenskyy, who wore a trademark green T-shirt and faced the video camera from behind a desk, criticised world leaders for paying lip service to climate change without delivering real change.
He did not name individual states.
"There are still many for whom climate change is just rhetoric or marketing … but not real action," he said.
"They are the ones who hamper the implementation of climate goals, they are the ones in their offices who make fun of those who fight to save life on the planet, although in public they seem to support the work for the sake of nature.
"They are the ones who start wars of aggression when the planet cannot afford a single gunshot because it needs global joint action."
Forrest calls for ban on seabed mining
Fortescue Metals executive chairman Andrew Forrest said his charitable foundation is in favour of a pause on seabed mining, the first time a prominent mining executive has spoken out against the nascent industry.
Mr Forrest said the Minderoo Foundation, which he and his wife Nicola fund with the dividends they get from Fortescue, will back a pause until there's sufficient evidence that damage to ocean environments can be prevented.
Seabed mining would involve vacuuming up potato-sized rocks rich in battery metals that blanket vast swathes of the sea floor at depths of 4-6 kilometres, and are especially abundant in the north Pacific Ocean.
Mining the seabed in areas outside national jurisdiction cannot begin until the International Seabed Authority, a UN body based in Jamaica, decides on regulations governing the industry.
Some seabed mining already occurs in national waters but at much shallower depths, for example offshore Namibia where a De Beers subsidiary mines diamonds.
The ISA's latest round of negotiations, ending this Friday, has been marked by division between member states over whether mining should go ahead at all.
"If regulators can't apply exactly the same whole-of-ecosystem studies, including flora, fauna, terrain and unintended consequence and the same or higher standards, as we do on land, then the seabed shouldn't be mined," Mr Forrest said at the COP27 conference.
Last week Germany said it backed a temporary ban on deep-sea mining to allow for further research, joining France, Spain, and New Zealand among countries opposed to the practice.
Alternatives, such as more efficient mining methods and recycling of existing metals, should be explored before seabed mining goes ahead, Mr Forrest said.
Reuters
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