Climate Change Highlights (No. VI)

THIS article summarises key developments over the last week in the field of climate change internationally leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference which will take place in Cancun, Mexico in December this year.

In the Region
Grenada PM makes appeal for vulnerable countries
Prime Minister Tillman Thomas has reiterated an appeal for special support for small economies like Grenada.  He put his case while meeting Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg on the margins of the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The Prime Minister elaborated on the vulnerabilities of Small-Island States, citing recent catastrophes which affected Caribbean nations, including Grenada and Haiti. He shared the view that the social, economic and natural systems of Small- Island Developing States (SIDS) are among the most vulnerable in the world and therefore, the particular vulnerabilities warrant special treatment.
International
REDD Plus…
*Forest deals push forward as climate talks lag
Noting the slow pace of climate change negotiations, tropical forest experts, including officials at the U.S.-based Rainforest Alliance, say the moves to implement forest protection deals before a new U.N. climate deal is officially negotiated may help lay the groundwork for a faster and more effective rollout of programmes down the road.
Donors and tropical forest countries are moving rapidly to set up their own systems to pay forest nations to preserve their trees as a means of curbing carbon emissions.
In 2009, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the governments of Guyana and Norway which sets out how the two countries will work together to provide the world with a relevant, replicable model for how REDD-plus can align the development objectives of forest countries with the world’s need to combat climate change.  Norway committed to providing financial support of up to US$250 million by 2015 for results achieved by Guyana in limiting emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.  Norway was also scheduled last week to sign a final binding agreement to provide Indonesia with $1 billion in exchange for boosting its forest protection.
*Forestry gains momentum in voluntary carbon market
Voluntary carbon market players could increase demand for carbon credits from the forestry sector after the first forestry investment was issued credits under an industry-backed standard last week.
The voluntary carbon market, which operates outside mandatory emissions cutting schemes, has been waiting for the news as players gear up for participation in a multi-billion U.N. deforestation emissions reduction mechanism. Last week, a Tanzanian reforestation project became the first forestry investment to earn carbon offsets under the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), which will assure investors the emissions cuts are credible and long-term.
In 2009, forestation and reforestation was among the top three most popular project types in the market.
*First improved forest methodology approved for U.S.
The first forest carbon methodology in the U.S. for improved forest management (IFM) has been approved by the American Carbon Registry (ACR) project standard. The methodology is aimed at commercial timberland enterprises and enables them to generate carbon credits from measures to increase the carbon stocks in their assets over time beyond the levels normally achieved under harvest operations.
While there have been environmental concerns over harvest plantations earning carbon credits, ACR says the methodology applies conservative assumptions throughout to ensure no crediting of non-additional activities, and has removed flaws in existing IFM methodologies. The methodology is applicable to industrial timberlands over 1,000 acres.
The methodology was submitted by project developer Finite Carbon to underpin IFM activity that it is claimed will open up hundreds of millions of acres of private forestlands to market incentives for carbon removals and emissions reductions. A report just released by ONF International into demand for forest carbon offsets in the U.S. identifies a lack of approved project methodologies as a significant factor restricting the growth of the market both in the U.S. and worldwide.
IFM has been acknowledged as an eligible carbon offset activity under both U.S. House and Senate cap-and-trade bills and ACR has followed a review and consultation process to meet the criteria for pre-compliance recognition under federal, state and regional offset programs. Offsets generated from IFM project should therefore qualify for ‘early action’ recognition under any future cap and trade scheme.
Other news
*Bilateral deals mushroom as climate treaty falters
As the prospects for swift closure of a global climate treaty cloud over, bilateral agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions are gaining traction. But experts warn they are no replacement for an international treaty. While forging consensus among more than 190 nations in the UN context has proved difficult and time-consuming, governments have been seeking bilateral partnerships to urgently cut greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change urgently.
“Bilateral agreements may become more popular as the lack of movement in the U.S., in particular, slows agreement on comprehensive international action,” said Jason Anderson, head of European climate and energy policy at WWF.
In addition to overarching bilateral climate agreements, cooperation is also being forged on strategic issues like forests. The climate negotiations already came close to a deal in Copenhagen on a mechanism for Reducing Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) by making payments to poor countries for protecting their forests. But as disagreements about other aspects of the treaty have resulted in the negotiations dragging on, donor and tropical countries have started to create their own systems for preserving forests.
*China to host next UN Climate talks
The working group meeting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in north China’s coastal city of Tianjin from October 4 – 9. It is the last such meeting before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun at the end of this year. About 3,000 delegates from party and observer countries under the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol will participate in the meeting.
*G-77 and South-South cooperation
Representatives from developing nations rapped the world’s rich nations for failing to fulfill their commitments to increase financial resources, reiterating that developed nations are responsible for challenges like global warming that the poorer nations are now grappling with. Members of the Group of 77 called for better cooperation amongst the world’s developing nations and joint action on global challenges such as climate change, food security and poverty to promote their own interests.
*G8 agrees to limit global warming
The G8 agreed to try to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent, but it failed to persuade China and India to join a bid to halve world emissions. China and India resisted signing up for a global goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Developing economies demanded rich nations commit to steeper short term reductions.
And while the 2 Celsius goal was adopted for the first time by the U.S., Russia, Japan and Canada, it had already been agreed in 1996 by the European Union and its G8 members Germany, Britain, France and Italy. The G8 statement also failed to pinpoint a base year for the 80 per cent reduction — saying it should be “compared to 1990 or more recent years” — meaning the target was open to interpretation.
The G8 backed the creation of a global carbon trading market and a fund financed by rich nations to pay for technological change, but it fell short of the $100 billion a year advocated by Britain’s Brown and non-governmental groups. Many developing nations also view two degrees as the threshold beyond which climate change will reach danger levels, with rising seas and more heat waves, floods and droughts.
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel said emerging countries appeared willing to sign up to long-term emissions goals if rich nations would agree to tough targets by 2020. The G8 statement called for “robust” medium-target cutbacks, but gave no details.
*Australia to consider carbon tax
Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet on Thursday gave a clear sign that the Australian Government is prepared to consider introducing a carbon tax. Before the election, Prime Minister Julia Gillard ruled out using a tax to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the Greens advocate a tax as an interim measure, and the chief of the mining giant BHP Billiton has also endorsed the idea.
*Obama says energy policy a top priority next year
President Barack Obama said revamping U.S. energy policy would be a top priority next year and may have to be done “in chunks” rather than through one piece of legislation, according to Rolling Stone magazine.  In an interview published on September 28, Obama lamented that more progress to fight climate change had not been made since he took office, and blamed the economy for that failure. “One of my top priorities next year is to have an energy policy that begins to address all facets of our over-reliance on fossil fuels,” Obama told Rolling Stone.
Asked whether he foresaw putting his full weight behind an energy policy push similar to the attention he gave healthcare reform, Obama said: “Yes. Not only can I foresee it, but I am committed to making sure that we get an energy policy that makes sense for the country and that helps us grow at the same time as it deals with climate change in a serious way.”
*Kremlin and the Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol will have virtually no impact on slowing global warming unless it expands to take in the U.S., China and more developing countries, Russia’s chief climate negotiator said last week.
President Dmitry Medvedev’s top climate change adviser, Alexander Bedritsky, said Russia is demanding a new deal as the 40 industrialised nations bound by Kyoto represent only 28 percent of global emissions. Twenty-eight per cent of the world cannot change anything, Bedritsky told journalists on the sidelines of an Arctic forum in Moscow. “Countries can work and fulfil their targets, but nothing will change.” Instead, the next round of U.N. climate talks in Cancun, Mexico in December should develop a non-binding agreement between countries representing 81 per cent of emissions agreed at a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen last year, he said.
*UN Climate Change Adaptation Fund Becomes Operational
A fund established by the U.N. to help developing countries cope with the impact of climate change is now operational with two projects in Africa and Latin America as its first beneficiaries. The fund’s board has approved two adaptation projects in Senegal and Honduras. The Senegal project aims to protect houses in areas along the western coast of the country from erosion, flooding and sea-level rise, while the Honduras project is focused on improving water management in the capital region of Tegucigalpa.  The projects, worth a total of approximately US$14 million, are the first projects to gain secure financing directly from the fund, Reuters reported.
Prepared by the Office of Climate Change

October 3, 2010
For additional information, please contact:
Office of Climate Change, Office of the President
Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown
Tel. 223-5205
Email: info@lcds.gov.gy , Web Site: www.lcds.gov.gy