Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Commonwealth talks boost hopes of climate deal
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PORT OF SPAIN (AFP) - Hopes were rising Saturday that a new global climate pact is within reach after rich nations at a Commonwealth summit offered to help poorer countries bear the costs of implementing any deal.
The 53-nation body embracing major global players like Britain, Australia and India, and smaller island states like Nauru and the Maldives, were expected to issue a joint commitment to tackling climate change.
"Success in Copenhagen is in sight," said UN chief Ban Ki-moon, referring to the climate negotiations in the Danish capital December 7-18.
He and Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, who both made a rare address to the Commonwealth even though they are not members, praised a move by Britain and France to launch a 10-billion-dollar fund for developing nations.
By showing willingness to meet "the need for money on the table," it was now "realistic" to expect Copenhagen to result in the framework for a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012, Rasmussen said.
"We should use the momentum out there and convert this momentum into an ambitious deal in Copenhagen."
But he stressed the deal to be hammered out by some 87 leaders including US President Barack Obama must include "commitments, numbers and precise language."
Ban, who has led the push towards Copenhagen, agreed it must not become just another talking shop, saying: "We will come out with a very concrete foundation for a legally binding treaty."
For the first time Indian Premier Manmohan Singh Saturday said that he was willing to commit his country to ambitious global carbon emission cuts, provided others shared the burden.
Much of the new momentum for a climate deal stemmed from a joint overture by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Commonwealth gathering, whose leaders represent two billion people, or a third of the planet's population.
The two European leaders proposed to compensate developing countries for the economic disadvantages they would face in cutting carbon emissions.
Britain said it had already set aside 1.3 billion dollars to be paid into the Copenhagen Launch Fund over the next three years.
"Poorer countries must have an understanding that the richer countries will help them adapt to climate change and make the necessary adjustments in their economies," Brown said on his website.
Sarkozy, who was also specially invited by Brown to address the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad, did not say how much France would contribute.
But he told reporters the fund would operate for the next three years, beyond which an "ambitious mechanism" for continued payments would be established.
Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also welcomed what he called "a fast-start fund."
"Australia is of the view that such a fast-start fund can assist in bringing about a good outcome at Copenhagen, but most critically, assist those most vulnerable states dealing with adaptation challenges now," he said.
The willingness of developed countries to step up their commitments bolstered other moves that suggested nations are now determined to reach an accord.
Important among those were carbon cut pledges by almost all the nations most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.
China, the world's biggest polluter, has vowed to reduce "carbon intensity" as measured by unit of gross domestic product by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels.
The United States, the other major contributor to global warming, is looking at curbing carbon emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.
The European Union is unilaterally cutting emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, and is offering to go to 30 percent if other industrialised parties follow suit.
India, home to nearly 1.2 billion people, is the only major greenhouse gas emitting nation yet to announce figures on reining in its carbon output, with just over a week to go until UN climate talks start in Copenhagen.
"India is willing to sign on to an ambitious global target for emissions reductions or limiting temperature increase but this must be accompanied by an equitable burden sharing paradigm," Singh said in a speech, the text of which was released by his office in New Delhi.
by Marc Burleigh
Labels: carbon emissions, carbon intensity, Commonwealth, global warming news
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Friday, December 11, 2009
China to dramatically slow emissions growth
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BEIJING - China announced plans Thursday to cut its carbon emissions by up to 45 percent as measured against its economic output - a commitment from the world's largest polluter that builds momentum ahead of a widely anticipated climate conference in Copenhagen next month.
The announcement comes a day after President Barack Obama promised the U.S. would lay out plans to substantially cut its greenhouse gas emissions at the summit.
China announced earlier Thursday that Premier Wen Jiabao will take part in the Copenhagen meeting to show the country's commitment to the global effort to reduce greenhouse emissions.
The State Council announcement proposes to cut carbon intensity - carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product - by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared with levels in 2005.
The goal does not mean that it will cut its total carbon emissions by 2020. In fact, given the expected huge increases in its economy over the next decade, its global warming emissions should increase - but at a much slower pace than if China had made no changes.
India, the world's fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has proposed a similar policy to link emissions to growth in gross domestic product, defined as a broad measure of the value of the nation's total output of goods and services.
China's State Council, or Cabinet, said it "is a voluntary action taken by the Chinese government based on its own national conditions and is a major contribution to the global effort in tackling climate change."
It said the improvements would come through better research and development, clean coal technology, advanced nuclear energy and better transportation systems. Tax laws and regulations will also be changed to encourage energy efficiency.
The proposal follows closely on the heels of a White House announcement that Obama will attend the start of the Copenhagen conference to personally commit the U.S. to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.
Yu Jie, head of policy and research programs for The Climate Group China, a non-governmental group, welcomed both announcements. She described China's 45 percent target as "quite aggressive."
"For the climate community, of course we welcome so much this kind of effort. Before Copenhagen, we desperately need this good news. We got two pieces within a day," Yu said.
Still, the Dec. 7-18 conference is unlikely to produce a binding agreement. The original goal of the conference was to produce a new global climate change treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. But in recent weeks it became clear that delegates were likely to produce at best an outline for an agreement to be considered late next year.
Despite setting a target on carbon emissions, it does not mean China will accept an international treaty that sets a binding target for it.
China has said repeatedly it will seek binding pollution targets for developed countries and reject similar requirements for itself at Copenhagen.
"We hope to reach a fair and reasonable arrangement" at Copenhagen, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference Thursday. "Wen's attendance fully demonstrates the importance attached to this."
China has said it was unfair that all countries be required to play a role combating global warming since most of the environmental damage was caused by developed nations during their industrialization over the last 100 to 200 years.
China has already said renewables such as solar and wind power will supply 15 percent of its energy needs by 2020.
Yang Ailun, climate campaign manager for Greenpeace China, said that in order to meet the carbon emissions target, China will have to use more renewable energy sources like solar and wind power and look for new ways to reduce its heavy dependence on coal.
By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer
Labels: carbon emissions, global warming news, The Climate Group China
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Global economic crisis to slash carbon emissions: IEA
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BANGKOK (AFP) - – The global economic crisis will slash carbon emissions in 2009, opening a narrow opportunity to take decisive action on global warming, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.
The predicted three-percent fall in energy-related CO2 pollution compared with a year earlier would be the steepest drop in 40 years, chief IEA economist Fatih Birol said at a press conference in Bangkok.
The global carbon output up to now has on average grown three percent annually, he added.
Birol said this silver-lining drop in carbon pollution was a "unique window of opportunity" for the world to put itself on a path to limit the increase in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the scientific threshold for dangerous global warming.
The recession-driven fall would lead to CO2 emissions in 2020 being five percent lower than the IEA forecast from just a year ago, even if no further action is taken to curb global warming, he added.
The IEA estimate is part of its World Energy Outlook report, an excerpt of which was released at UN climate talks under way in the Thai capital.
It outlined how steeply countries would have to cut their energy-related carbon emissions over the next 20 years in order fix the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at a level that would ensure the two-degree threshold is not crossed.
That level, measured in parts per million, is 450 ppm, according to a benchmark scientific report issued in 2007 by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
"This gives us a chance to make real progress toward a clean-energy future, but only if the right policies are put in place promptly," said IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka in a statement.
"Every year of delay adds an extra 500 billion dollars (340 billion euros) to the investment needed between 2010 and 2030 in the energy sector," he warned.
Energy production accounts for about 65 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the IEA.
The climate talks under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been stymied for months, and are running out of time to deliver a new global climate treaty at a December conference in Copenhagen.
Rich and poor nations are divided over how to share the burden of cutting greenhouse gases, and who is going to pay for it.
Developed nations are willing to take the lead, but expect emerging giants such as Brazil, India and China to commit to mitigation measures as well -- pledges these countries have fiercely resisted.
Rich nations created the problem and should bear the brunt of the responsibility to fix it, the developing countries say.
"Continuing the current energy policies would have catastrophic consequences for the climate," said UNFCCC chief Yvo de Boer. "This is a unique opportunity... to transition the global energy system."
Tanaka confirmed that China had overtaken the United States as the world's top carbon polluter in 2007, adding that "it will be the same in the future."
While it has not announced an emission reductions target, if China fulfils its energy efficiency plans it would account for a quarter of the global effort needed by 2020 under the IEA scenario for stabilising CO2 levels, he said.
"It would put China at the forefront of the fight against climate change," Birol told AFP.
Labels: carbon emissions, CO2 pollution, global warming news
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