Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man with guest editors annetteboardman and Chitown Kev. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time. Special thanks to JekyllnHyde for the OND banner. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Special thanks to JekylinHyde for the OND banner.
India unveils global solar alliance of 120 countries at Paris climate summit
The Guardian
India’s prime minister has launched an international solar alliance of over 120 countries with the French president, François Hollande, at the Paris COP21 climate summit.
Narendra Modi told a press conference that as fossil fuels put the planet in peril, hopes for future prosperity in the developing world now rest on bold initiatives.
“Solar technology is evolving, costs are coming down and grid connectivity is improving,” he said. “The dream of universal access to clean energy is becoming more real. This will be the foundation of the new economy of the new century.”
Divisions over climate change responsibility in spotlight at Paris talks
Al Jazeera America
PARIS — President Barack Obama, the leaders of China and Russia and about 150 other states are in Paris on Monday for talks aimed at forging an international agreement to stem global climate change emissions. Despite months of negotiations — and with only two weeks remaining before the deadline for a new treaty — several unresolved and controversial topics threaten to weaken or even derail a new deal.
At the heart of the split is a debate over how much responsibility developed countries like the United States should bear for producing emissions historically and, in parallel, how much assistance should be given to developing countries to encourage them to stop polluting as they struggle to pull millions of people out of poverty.
UN climate conference opens in Paris
NHK World
The United Nations conference on climate change has opened in Paris, with world leaders from about 150 countries and territories attending.
The 2 weeks of discussions are aimed at reaching a new framework that would obligate all nations, including developing countries, to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
The Kyoto Protocol, agreed upon 18 years ago, requires only developed nations to reduce their emissions.
The conference is taking place amid the highest security on Monday, against a backdrop of the deadly terrorist attacks on the French capital in mid-November.
UN climate conference opens with calls for compromise
DW News
"Let's get to work" - it was with this appeal that US President Barack Obama ended his statement after talking for almost 14 minutes, oblivious to a horn honking to indicate that his allotted time of three minutes had run out.
Obama said he had come personally as representative of the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases to let the world know "that we are embracing our responsibility to do something" about climate change.
The president announced that the US would make new financial contributions to the Least Developed Countries Fund and called on other leaders to "make sure that resources flow to countries that need help.”
Why Negotiators At Paris Climate Talks Are Tossing The Kyoto Model
NPR
Negotiators and heads of state from nearly 200 countries are meeting for the next two weeks near Paris to craft a new treaty to slow global warming.
It's the 21st "Conference of the Parties" held by the United Nations to tackle climate change. One treaty emerged, in 1997, after the conference in Kyoto, Japan. That's no longer in effect, and, in fact, the Kyoto Protocol, as it's known, didn't slow down the gradual warming of the planet.
Now governments are ever more desperate to do something to slow warming — so much so that they've thrown out the model set in Kyoto and opted for a new approach for Paris.