-Yvo de Boer fears pledges still inadequate
CLIMATE CHANGE talks in Bonn, Germany, over the last two weeks have made significant progress towards concluding what was left incomplete at the UN-led conference in Copenhagen in 2009, and it is believed that prospects are brighter for Cancun, Mexico at the end of this year.
Outgoing Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Yvo de Boer is quoted by the body as saying that a big step forward is now possible at Cancún, in the form of a full package of operational measures that will allow countries to take faster, stronger action across all areas of climate change.
The meetings, held in Bonn from May 31 to June 11, made progress in fleshing out the specifics of how a climate regime could work in practice. The Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) undertook detailed discussions on reducing greenhouse gases, adapting to the inevitable effects of climate change, the transfer of clean technology, reducing emissions from deforestation, and capacity building, along with finance and institutional arrangements.
According to the UNFCCC, the chair of the negotiating group tasked to develop a long-term response to climate change tabled a text that seeks to address the wider interests of all Parties, and was requested by Parties to compile a revised version by the next negotiating session in August.
The UN said that a second working group on future climate action, focusing on emissions reduction commitments for the 37 industrialised countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, also met in Bonn. “In this group, countries started work on turning the emission reduction pledges that developed countries made since Copenhagen into targets that can be formally compared in a UN negotiating context,” de Boer said.
He called on the negotiators to begin an in-depth consideration of the legal nature of any new agreement or set of agreements. He also said that it was essential to take a cold look at the 76 emission reduction and emission limitation pledges that have been made by developed and developing countries since the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
In Denmark, all industrialised countries had pledged emission reduction targets, and 39 developing countries had pledged voluntary actions to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. But these, de Boer said, are not enough.
“The fact remains, industrial country pledges fall well short of the -25-40 per cent range the IPCC has said gives a 50 per cent chance to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees,” he said. “Take all current pledges and plans from all countries, and we still won’t stop emissions growing in the next 10 years,” he added.
The pledges that the rich countries have so far made add up to about 12-19 per cent of emissions over 1990 levels by 2020. Industrialised countries, as a group, have indicated their willingness to take on an 80 per cent emissions reduction goal for 2050.
Said de Boer: “I believe the future will deliver this goal, but more stringent actions cannot be much longer postponed. Otherwise, the 2-degree world will be in danger, and the door to a 1.5 world will have slammed shut.”
According to the UNFCCC, the Bonn gathering was attended by more than 5,500 participants, including government delegates from 185 governments, along with representatives from business and industry, environmental organisations and research institutions.
The next UNFCCC negotiating session is scheduled to take place from August 2-6, 2010, also in Bonn, and these talks will be followed by a second one-week inter-sessional meeting — date and location yet to be agreed upon — before the UN Climate Change Conference from November 29 to December 10 in Cancún.
Speaking after the end of the Bonn meeting, Claire Parker, head of International Fund for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) delegation in Bonn, said: “Not only did the Copenhagen summit not meet its objective of adopting a legally binding agreement, it also damaged confidence in the whole process. IUCN very much welcomes the renewed spirit of cooperation and confidence governments showed in Bonn. However, the resumed efforts towards designing the architecture of the new climate regime are yet to yield concrete results.”
The IUCN said that while a final global deal on climate change is not yet in sight, climate action cannot wait. “April 2010 was the warmest month on record for land and sea temperature combined. Much deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions than the ones currently on the table are needed to keep global warming below 2°C. Failure to do so will lead to irreversible damage to livelihoods and ecosystems on which we all depend,” the IUCN said in a statement.
“Nature gives us solutions to reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Healthy ecosystems can help cope with climate impacts and store carbon,” the conservation body said.
But the IUCN is of the view that after positive movements in Copenhagen, REDD (Reducing Deforestation from Forest Degradation and Deforestation) and REDD-plus (conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) did not get the attention it deserved in Bonn.
“The adoption of a legally binding and ambitious international climate change regime is a crucial element in the global fight against climate change,” said Ninni Ikkala, IUCN Climate Change Coordinator in a release. “However, IUCN emphasizes that action on the ground, in rural communities and cities around the world, can and must be taken now, without waiting for international negotiations to reach a conclusion.”