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detailing how that could be achieved in a way that is transparent, accountable, and taking into consideration countries’ different, mostly economic, capabilities.
Agreeing the rulebook is a complicated political process, however, beset with extra disagreements between the rich and the developing economies.
The fundamental divide is over demands of the poorer nations that the developed world provides financing to help
them cope with the effects of climate change. The dispute goes back to the issue of historical responsibility of the developed world for the accumulation
of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere that kicked off the warming now affecting the entire globe.
The IPCC report said in October that a 2-degree warming would set off major and drastic changes to the world’s weather, impacting agriculture, speed- ing up degradation of the environment, and forcing mass migration from regions too hot to live in.
To avoid that, the report said, humanity needs to cut its greenhouse gas emis- sions by as much as 45% in only 11 years, by 2030.
The world’s countries have been devel- oping their national plans to limit emis- sions but climate science says the plans are merely a fifth what must be done
in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Current ambitions to cut emissions put the world on track to a most likely cata- strophic warming of 3 degrees Celsius by 2100.
On top of that, the rise of populists has threatened the earlier unity – however frail – over the need to tackle climate change. US President Donald Trump and Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro are both against the Paris Agreement.
French President Emmanuel Macron has, in turn, faced rebellion in the streets after a proposal to increase tax on fuels sparked weeks of violent protests.
European court rejects Czech Prime Minister Babis's complaint, leaves him on StB spy list in Slovakia
bne IntelliNews
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis will remain on the list of the former Communist secret police StB agents in Slovakia, after a complaint he filed against the Slovak Republic with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) was rejected, Czech weekly Respekt reported on December 10.
The information was confirmed by Babis to the Czech News Agency a day later on December 11.
According to Respekt, the ECHR decided that the complaint was "unacceptable" in November.
Babis, who was born in Slovakia, appealed to the ECHR in June, arguing that his rights were violated during the proceedings before Slovak courts.
Back then he recorded a video with heart-breaking music, released on his Facebook page, appealing to Czech media "not to lie" about his involvement with the StB. “No, this is not an attack on public media. Just an appeal. The appeal and also a plea for journalists and politicians not to lie about my legal dispute over StB collaboration, which is, as you for sure know, untrue,” he said.
The prime minister tried to have his name removed from the Communist secret police list through Slovak courts after he entered top politics in the Czech Republic. He won the first instance proceedings, because the court took into account the testimony of former StB officers, who said either that Babis wasn't an agent or that they didn't remember anything.
Their statements were opposed by fragments of 12 StB volumes that include records on an agent 'Bures', a cover name for Babis since the beginning
of cooperation recorded with StB. Slovakia´s courts decided that the name ´Bures´ will remain in records, noted Respekt.
“The ruling is now being studied by lawyers. The dispute won't end and will continue in Slovakia, where I've won several times in court but the Constitu- tional Court overturned this for incomprehensible reasons,” Babis told Blesk Zpravy online on December 11.
“The truth is on my side, and I'm convinced that I'll win the dispute because I've never signed up for any cooperation,” Babis added for the Czech News Agency.
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