Hello, this is Michelle. UN commemorations in Geneva of the 75th anniversary of a worldwide commitment to prevent genocide from ever happening again after the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide were overtaken this week by current events.

In Dubai, a call for a fossil fuel phase-out is gathering political pace. We’ll have to see if it survives the record number of industry lobbyists roaming around. Back in Geneva, pandemic negotiations are in their last round of formal talks for the remainder of the year.

Michelle Langrand

06.12.2023

On our radar

Photo article

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Königsplatz in Munich, Germany, on 2 December to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. They also spoke out against anti-Semitism and racism. (Keystone/SuedDeutsche Zeitung Photo/Mufkinnphotos)

War in Gaza casts shadow over celebration of genocide convention. Delegates gathered at the Palais des Nations on Monday spoke of the horrors of the Holocaust and the extermination of six million Jews that prompted states to vow to never again allow such crimes to happen through the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948. But the one-day event did not escape the current geopolitical circumstances as Palestine’s allies took the floor to express concern over the war in Gaza being a prelude to genocide.

Geneva Solutions (EN)

Here's what else is happening

🏭 Cop28 negotiators consider fossil fuel phase-out. A draft negotiating text shows that countries are considering calling for a formal phase-out of fossil fuels in what would be the first global agreement of its kind.
Reuters (EN)
🏥 WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’. Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s representative in Gaza, said he was worried about the vulnerability of the health system amid intensified bombing in the south of the Palestinian enclave.
Reuters (EN)
🧊 UN proposes action plan to reduce emissions from cooling sector. Implementing a range of measures to make the global cooling sector sustainable, from installing “cool roofs” to greening cities, could cut predicted 2050 greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent, a UN report says.
Down to Earth (EN)
😷 Bumper week for pandemic negotiations. Negotiators knuckled down this week at two sets of meetings addressing future pandemics – the WHO’s intergovernmental negotiating body and the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations.
Health Policy Watch (EN)

Number of the day

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That’s the number of fossil fuel lobbyists, give or take, that have been granted access to the Cop28 summit in Dubai, according to analysis from the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition. The record turnout, which compares with 636 at last year’s summit in Egypt, eclipses the 1509 delegates from the most climate-vulnerable nations combined, the civil society alliance said.

Many have gained access by being part of a trade organisation – the largest being Geneva-based International Emissions Trading Association, which brought 116 people including representatives from Shell, TotalEnergies and Norway’s Equinor. The findings come amid mounting pressure for negotiators at the summit to address fossil fuel production and agree on a phase-out altogether.

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