Protester from Sudan at a march held in the official Blue Zone area at Cop28 in Dubai. (Geneva Solutions/Paula Dupraz-Dobias)

🌳Carbon markets require rights focus, say NGOs at Cop28. A text regarding carbon market mechanisms being discussed at the climate talks provides little human and environmental rights assurances according to activists, who see few positive examples of the tool used by polluters to offset emissions, to date.

💭 Refugees are a symptom of collective failure – only working together will tackle the root causes writes UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi ahead of the refugee summit in Geneva starting on Wednesday. He criticises some, mainly wealthy, states for “tough talk” on asylum rather than searching for solutions.

🕊️Switzerland to host Ukraine peace talks in January. Scheduled for the day before the WEF’s Davos summit, the discussions are in support of Ukraine’s peace plan, which foresees the immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops from all occupied territories, including Crimea.

🏥WHO governing board approves consensus resolution on Gaza health and humanitarian situation. The health agency’s call on Sunday for “immediate, sustained and unimpeded” humanitarian relief to Gaza is the first consensus-based statement at a UN body.

🗳️ Global Red Cross elects new president amid row over sexual harassment claims. American Red Cross’s Kate Forbes was elected as the next president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Monday despite clashes over whether to postpone the elections following sexual harassment allegations against the Kenyan candidate.

NGOs lining the way as negotiators return to discussions on “unacceptable”text, on Monday 11 December. (Geneva Solutions/ Paula Dobias-Dupraz)

Phase-out of fossil fuels missing from draft Cop28 climate agreement. The latest draft text released by the UN’s climate body on Monday does not include the phase-out of fossil fuels that many countries are asking for to keep within the 1.5 degree Celsius limit, instead mentioning a reduction of fossil fuels by 2050.

As negotiators shuffled in and out of a conference room to express their positions on the document, civil society groups lined the way in protest. A negotiator for Britain told journalists that the text was unacceptable. A representative from Guyana, where large oil reserves have been discovered, told Geneva Solutions that the text was “problematic” while Cuba said that there was still a lot of work to be done. The talks were expected to continue overnight.