Sustainable development and much more » Kyoto protocol

Mixed feelings about the Durban climate talks

Edouard — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:29:19 +0000

As you sure know, the Durban Climate talks ended Sunday. There are some good news, but they are mostly bad. Good news first : The Kyoto Protocol has been extended until 2017.

Another good news : the Durban agreement was the first ever to bind all countries to act on climate change. Sure, this is merely halfway through business as usual and the needed target.

But this is the further we have ever been on climate negotiation ! Even if it won’t be enough, even if it is far from what should be done at a global level, we are going forward on climate.

As The Mail & Guardian Online noted :

(g)overnments managed to find a last-minute deal that should lead to the first legally binding global agreement on climate change covering developed and developing countries, they did not discuss whether their pledges to cut emissions would prevent dangerous levels of global warming.

Under the Durban agreement, governments will now spend four years negotiating how far and how fast each country should cut carbon emissions.

The Durban agreements are not enough to keep temperatures to rise two degrees celcius above pre-industrial times, which is considered as the safe limit by most governments (scientists however have shown that it might be too much)

I am getting more and more confident. Countries that were completely reluctant are witnessing climate weirding and warming. They are thus brought to action.

It seems that these days, only the United States – as well as some others like Canada – are not moving at all on climate. Sure, China is polluting more and more, but their clean energy and efficiency targets are more and more aggressive.

Patience is key. Energy efficiency is gaining traction, renewables and cleantech in general are already making economic sense today. Even more important : they are both booming and are becoming more important than fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, some countries are moving forward, like Australia or Brazil ; meanwhile, large companies are seeing their interest is in sustainability ; meanwhile, thousands of people are changing views on climate and acting more and more.

Let’s keep on acting and advocating. I am confident we can manage this !

Here are some articles dedicated to what happened and what we can infer from Durban :

Recharge : Was Durban a climate breakthrough or disaster?
Friends of the Earth : Disastrous “durban package” accelerates onset of climate catastrophe
Climate Progress : Stavins: Assessing the Climate Talks — Did Durban Succeed?
The Energy Collective : Are Durban Outcomes Historic or Hollow
Grist : What exactly happened at Durban?

IEA World Energy Outlook 2011

Edouard — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 04:47:28 +0000

According to the IEA’s annual report, the situation is getting bleaker and bleaker. Confirming that we have five years to start decreasing our global emissions – cf. my previous post on that very matter – it is also providing several other findings.

As you can sure imagine, several websites published lengthy articles on the very matter. In today’s article we will review the main findings and the most essential parts of the World Energy Outlook 2011.

World leaders will meet again very soon in Durban, South Africa, to discuss about the future of the Kyoto Protocol. It’s time they, we, step up and heed the calls for serious actions.

The Kyoto Protocol was just the start. What we need now is major actions from all the major contributing countries to greenhouse gases emissions.

More and more fossil fuels infrastructures are being built around the world. If the trend keeps on its tracks, by 2017 all the elements needed to lock our climate in an unstoppable trend would be built. It is thus high time to increase significantly the efforts toward energy efficiency, renewables and nuclear.

On the latter, the International Energy Agency believes that countries moving away from nuclear is a bad idea. (And so do I…)

Ending the massive subsidies to fossil fuels around the world is a critical move. Giving them to renewables ( as well as efficiency and nuclear ) is another one.

As News24 notes:

( In the low-carbon scenario ) The share of fossil fuels in global primary energy consumption falls from around 81% today to 75% in 2035, while renewables increase from 13% of the mix today to 18%.

This scenario already assumes a huge boost in subsidies for renewables, from $64bn today to $250bn in 2035.

As GreenTech Media notes :

Without further action by 2017, the energy-related infrastructure then in place would generate all the CO2 emissions allowed in the 450 Scenario up to 2035.

Delaying action is a false economy: for every $1 of investment in cleaner technology that is avoided in the power sector before 2020, an additional $4.30 would need to be spent after 2020 to compensate for the increased emissions.

Deutsche Welle notes :

Current clean energy technologies are insufficient to meet carbon reduction targets, so in the nearer term improving energy efficiency should be the top priority.

You may also read the additional reporting from The Guardian and my fellows at CleanTechies.

To conclude, a few words from Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist :

If current trends continue, international agreements to cap temperatures at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels will no longer be honored. That’s the threshold beyond which some scientists have said serious climate disruption could be triggered.

I am very worried – if we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum (for safety). The door will be closed forever.

Why continuing the Kyoto Protocol is crucial

Edouard — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:30:30 +0000

To TreeHugger : ” If (the) Kyoto Protocol dies at COP17 climate talks, so does our climate “. This article reminds us that the next round of UNFCC climate talks will start in less than two months in Durban, South Africa.

It also reminds us that it is the only law we have on a global level on climate and that even if the United States are still not part of the process it is working (quite) well as developed nations decreased their emissions since 1990.

Due to end in 2012, the Kyoto Protocol might not be perfect but really got us moving on climate and energy issues.

This is why we really need to create a successor that will bring all nations to cut their emissions and truly embrace sustainable development.

Beyond pure climate, I believe the successor should also mention energy topics. We are uncertain whether we reached peak oil or not. But we know one thing : we are at the end of conventional oil.

Besides, coal is also nearing its end, albeit it will occur much more later. If China and the Appalachia have reached this point, it won’t occur on a global scale anytime soon. But this particular energy source is by far the dirtiest of them all.

In the meantime, solar energies and wind power are more and more cost-competitive. Other renewables and energy efficiency are also gaining traction.

Not only do we need to keep the ball rolling, we need it to accelerate many times over if we want to have a chance to keep living quite comfortably…

Emerging powers call for extending climate deal

Edouard — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:15:41 +0000

To the AFP : ” Brazil, South Africa, India and China said Saturday that November’s UN climate talks should aim to extend the Kyoto Protocol, the only binding global deal to cut greenhouse gases. “

” The four key emerging powers – seen as critical to the success of any future effort to combat climate change – said keeping Kyoto alive should be the “central priority” at the key UN summit in South Africa. “

” The bloc released the statement after two days of talks in southeast Brazil to prepare for the next UN climate conference scheduled to take place in Durban from November 28 to December 9. “
The article goes on as follow :

The ministers “reaffirmed that the Kyoto Protocol is a cornerstone of the climate change regime,” it said.

Xie Zhenhua, a top Chinese climate change official, said he hoped the statement would “send a sign to the international community that we are pursuing efforts to make the Durban conference a success.”

The four countries also said they hoped ministers gathered in Durban would work to get the Green Climate Fund — which aims to channel billions of dollars in aid to poor countries exposed to climate change — off the ground.

The Durban meeting is seen as the last chance to renew the Kyoto Protocol, whose initial five-year commitment period, covering 37 industrialized countries, expires at the end of 2012.

Its future is uncertain because China and the United States, the world’s top two polluters, are not subject to its constraints.

Japan, Canada and Russia have all rejected a new round of carbon-cutting commitments, and the United States and the European Union have already said there is zero chance of reaching a binding emissions deal in Durban.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said Friday that the four emerging market countries have “done a lot to combat climate change and presented ambitious objectives.”

“We demand that industrialized countries set more meaningful objectives toward CO2 reductions than what they have presented up to now,” he said.

No (good) news from the Bonn Climate Talks

Edouard — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:00:18 +0000

Here we go again… New climate talks, same disappointment. Preliminary talks took place in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol, which will end next year. To the Guardian, the negotiations aren’t progressing :

Even if they are making progress on ” technical issues “, countries are ” still nowhere near agreement in the three key areas of finance, greenhouse gas emission cuts and the future of the Kyoto protocol. “

Most if not all countries see the current financial and economic crises as excuses for delaying action when they are contrarily to what they think reasons to push the cleantech and energy revolution forward !

Meanwhile, climate is deteriorating faster and faster.

Since the beginning of the year we have had so many floods and drought on so many continents that it is absolutely scary. Here are some articles I wrote this year about the situation in Australia, the United States, continental Europe, India, China…

All these countries and regions should be doing their utmost to prevent the worst to occur. Instead, they are slowing down their action or just keep haggling…

I am generally a very optimistic person – some even think a little irrealistic – but I am getting scared. What do you think ?

Cancun meeting ends with mixed results

Edouard — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:20:11 +0000

This weekend ended the 16th conference of parties (COP16) due to prepare the future of the Kyoto Protocol. Albeit it didn’t end as badly as the Copenhagen meeting did, we are still pretty far from solving the climate / energy equation.

In today’s post I propose you a selection of the most interesting articles related to this event that lasted no less than two weeks and brought forward some progress, notably on forests with REDD+. (cf. my previous post on the matter).

This was a critical success but the road to solving the coming triple crisis (peaking fossil fuel resources, massive unemployment and climate change) is still long.

People at Business Green are cautiously optimistic. As they noted :

The central Cancun Accord outlined plans to create a framework for the proposed Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) menchanism that will see developed nations provide finance to help developing countries protect forests, but it made no explicit mention of how the scheme will be funded.

Of course, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is more optimistic :

The UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, ended on Saturday with the adoption of a balanced package of decisions that set all governments more firmly on the path towards a low-emissions future and support enhanced action on climate change in the developing world.

The package, dubbed the ‘Cancun Agreements’ was welcomed to repeated loud and prolonged applause and acclaim by Parties in the final plenary.

“Cancun has done its job. The beacon of hope has been reignited and faith in the multilateral climate change process to deliver results has been restored,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres.

“Nations have shown they can work together under a common roof, to reach consensus on a common cause. They have shown that consensus in a transparent and inclusive process can create opportunity for all,” she said.

But an article from TreeHugger points out to the fact that the official emission reduction calculations only give 50-50 chance of avoiding climate catastrophe. As they note :

With COP16 just ended and some hope of multilateral action on climate revived a new report from Friends of the Earth highlights an important point in all these discussions:

Current official calculations on emission reductions only give us a 50% chance of keeping temperature rise below 2°C. That’s not what nations have pledged to do mind you, which certainly won’t keep temperature rise below that critical threshold.

To give us a 70% of chance of avoiding climate catastrophe much deeper cuts are needed.

Here is a more balanced opinion from the Huffington Post :

Anticipation of a lackluster outcome from the climate summit gave way to near euphoria at the closing plenary here in Cancún in the small hours of Saturday morning. It marked a dramatic end to a grueling two weeks of touch talks.

(…) If the reaction from the green groups is anything to go by, then this key barometer of success appears to offer cautious approval. It was left to Bolivia, the only country that refused to support the 41-page agreement, to condemn it as acquiescence to “genocide and ecocide.”

Although not usually associated with conciliation, this turns out to be a rare occasion when environmental activists are publicly approving what amounts as a compromise.

(…) Fearing a terminal collapse in the 16-year process, the green movement frantically needed victory as well; which is why the likes of Greenpeace — who don’t normally do compromise — have been so quick to give the Cancún Agreement positive acclaim.

What do YOU think ? Can we succeed at stopping climate change before it is too late ? I look forward to reading your opinions !

Germany to cut its emissions by 40 percent

Edouard — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:04:01 +0000

To Reuters, ” Germany will stick to a more ambitious goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 even though the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen fell short of expectations, a government adviser said on Monday. “

Details of how the country will achieve such drastic cuts still remain to be defined. But like the United Kingdom and Norway I believe Germany can do it thanks to its expertise in renewable energies and efficiency.

I would like to see France increase its climate change mitigation efforts. The Grenelle is a good move but there is still plenty to do in terms of energy efficiency and low carbon alternatives.

In any case, this is another good news that make me think that we can reach a meaningful agreement on climate change in Mexico in November as the European Union increases its efforts.

The Copenhagen climate conference explained

Edouard — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:00:29 +0000

If like many people you don’t understand much about the Copenhagen climate conference which begins today, I have some posts that will help you understand what it’s all about.

TreeHugger explains in ten points how we could reach a successful agreement and Good also proposed a series of articles : a primer, the introduction, the issues, and the treaty.

Last but not least Grist published an article titled How to explain Copenhagen to a comedian that does the job brilliantly. With all this you are ready for next two weeks !

Follow the Copenhagen negotiations

Edouard — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:00:08 +0000

For the duration of the Copenhagen Climate Conference – due to prepare the future of the Kyoto Protocol – I added to the sidebar of this blog the Climate Scoreboard proposed by Climate Interactive.

To the graph the business as usual scenario would increase temperatures by 4.8°C by 2100, current proposals would bring increase in temperatures of 3.8°C while we need to limit these increases to less than 2°C. (see why there)

This means that we already did one third of what we need to do. We have less than two weeks to reach an agreement that would allow us to do the two remaining thirds.

With many developing nations stepping up and Europe keeping its role of leader, I believe a quite satisfactory agreement can be achieved.

Since the sidebar version is a tad too small, I add it here as well :

—

Many thanks to Franke James who enabled me to discover this !

Europe to go beyond its Kyoto Protocol goals

Edouard — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:30:46 +0000

The European Union 15 first members already achieved their Kyoto Protocol goals and will even go beyond. Meanwhile, the 27 members already cut their emissions by 13.6 percent.

These excellent results date of 2007. With the economic recession of the past months, the industrial activity have drastically decreased and thus the emissions and thus slashed even more the pollution.

This is a tremendous success that shows that cutting greenhouse gases emissions is possible with a real political will. If only this could inspire our representatives in Copenhagen in December.

To CleanTechnica, these excellent results are the combination of several factors :

6.9 percent reduction thanks to the various efficiency and renewables measures ;
2.2 percent reduction via the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) ;
1.4 percent reduction from the European Cap and Trade ;
One percent reduction from afforestation and reforestation.

If the European Union already cut its emissions by 13 percent, why couldn’t we go as far as 35 percent or more by 2020 ? We now have tools that work perfectly to enable this.

35 percent emissions less by 2020 compared to 1990 is feasible. The United Kingdom already planned to do so with its UK Low Carbon Transition Plan.

I also believe that after 2020 we could cut our emissions by 20 points each decade. That way our 2040 emissions would be 75 percent lower than in 1990.

This of course would require massive investments in housing, transportation, industry and agriculture.

If you want further details, please check out the following resources :

The official report (pdf format) ;
TreeHugger : Cap and Trade Works: Europe to Hit Kyoto Targets with Ease
Cleantechnica : EU on Track to Meet or Exceed Original Kyoto Goals: Estimate 13.9% Below 1990

Towards a stalemate in Copenhagen ?

Edouard — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:49:20 +0000

Even if the United States are going forward on climate change, many analysts around the world believe the COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen next month will end up in a stalemate.

As China and India are stepping up to the climate change issue and as Europe is – albeit moderately ambitious goals – still leading, the United States seem to be stalling the process.

Could America lead once again ? I dream of a speech on cleantech like the moon shot one. A decade to get rid of oil and coal. After all, Al Gore believes it can be done.

What happened in Barcelona wasn’t preparing a successful agreement, here are some posts that will convince you :

TreeHugger : Top 5 posts from Barcelona Climate Talks This Week
The global climate change lobby by the center for public integrity

It’s high time our governments react as there is a triple crises : a socio-economical one, a climatical one and an energy one. This will be the topic of a future post, so stay tuned !

UNEP urges to seal the deal

Edouard — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:04:27 +0000

For World Environment Day the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) started a great initiative to raise awareness on the absolute necessity of sealing a deal in Copenhagen at the end of the year.

What our elected representatives will sign then is the beginning of the Kyoto Protocol successor but also one of the most important global agreements in our common History as we have to fight together climate change.

Please add your name now to the 14,000+ people who already did so at www.sealthedeal2009.org. The UNEP wants millions of signatures, so pass around the word !

World CO2 emissions rose by nearly 2% in 2008

Edouard — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:50:48 +0000

We have seen last year that CO2 emissions rose by 3.1 percent in 2007. According to the International Economic Platform for Renewable Energies (IWR) they rose in 2008 by 1.94 percent to reach no less than 31.5 billion metric tons.

The document released by this institution in interesting as it provides data by country. This is useful as it enables us to see that India is now the fourth nation in terms of CO2 emissions in front of Japan.

This clearly shows that the discussions in Copenhagen to prepare the future of the Kyoto Protocol will have to include developing nations as their emissions keep on growing fast.

As the IWR notes:

Global CO2 emissions in 2008 rose to 31.5 billion metric tons, up from 30.9 billion metric tons in 2007. German renewable energy industry institute IWR announced that this is the tenth time in a row that record levels have been achieved. Yet, at the same time, worldwide more than 120 billion euros were invested in renewable energy plants (electricity, heat, fuel) last year.

“The level of direct investment in renewable energy plants worldwide needs to at least quadruple to approximately 500 billion euros each year to slow down the increasing demand for fossil fuels and stabilize global CO2 emissions,” states IWR Director Dr. Norbert Allnoch.

One way to achieve this goal is to link climate-damaging emissions to investments in renewable energies to a greater extent. “The higher the CO2 emissions, the higher the investment in renewable energies that should be put forward by the respective country,” contends Dr. Allnoch.

The comprehensive CO2 emission ranking by country and the necessary levels of investment for the individual countries can be found in the Monthly Report “Renewable Energy Industry”: Global C02 emissions 2008 and renewable energy investment plan

I personally don’t think that renewables alone would do the trick. As I wrote earlier here, massive energy efficiency and conservation campaigns are needed worldwide to cut our emissions. I also mentioned that energy conservation is the cheapest solution with regards to climate change mitigation…

I am not surprised of this speech as it comes from an institution advocating renewables, even less a German one. The country is known for its aggressive work on renewable energies, but little is known about what is often seen as a climate change mitigation paradox

The targets of the Kyoto Protocol

Edouard — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:00:38 +0000

According to several sources, out of the 39 countries under the Kyoto Protocol, only 16 are meeting their targets while 20 aren’t due to do so as only three years remain.

The United Nations issued an interesting presentation with a table (left) that sums up very well the situation at hand. Now everyone can see in a glance how partaking countries are scoring.

This occurs as in two weeks the discussions for the successor of the Kyoto Protocol will begin in Poland. I guess there will be heated debates…

As the New York Times notes :

Emissions from industrialized countries plateaued in 2006 after six years of growth, the United Nations said Monday. But the countries have not yet reported emissions from the past two years, and the new report did not include large emerging economies like those of India and China.

The United Nations report was released two weeks before the world’s environmental ministers are to meet in Poland to discuss ways to curb greenhouse gases and against the backdrop of the global financial crisis.

In presenting the latest findings, United Nations officials said they were concerned that the economic downturn would add a new layer of uncertainty to the coming talks, because many of the programs under development to curb the emissions that cause global warming require credit and financing.

While they expressed some optimism about the new data, which went through 2006, the last year available, they said the slight decline — one-tenth of 1 percent from 2005 to 2006 — was too small to indicate a significant downward trend.

Over all, among the 40 industrialized countries that reported to the United Nations, emissions had increased by 2.5 percent from 2000 to 2006, leading the climate panel to denounce what it called “continued growth.”

“This is a critical moment for ministers and politicians,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, at a news conference in Bonn, Germany. He called the coming climate negotiations “the most complicated process the world has ever seen.”

Mr. de Boer said he found some cause for hope in the figures issued Monday. “What I saw was a slowing of the increase in emission from industrialized countries,” he said.

But his statistician, Sergey Kononov, pointed out that the percentage decline had been so small that it could have been caused by either improved policies or simply the relatively warm 2005-2006 winter.

(…) But the world has changed since Bali. The United States, a reluctant participant in the United Nations meeting last year, now has a president-elect, Barack Obama, who has pledged to make climate change a centerpiece of his administration.

Perhaps more important, fallout from a global economic crisis has turned the economics of climate change upside down.

(…) “It is clear that the financial crisis and subsequent economic downturn will have implications for climate negotiations,” Mr. de Boer said. But he added that “it will take time to see how.”

In any case, Mr. de Boer said that the hoped the world would meet its climate goals by “relying on policy actions and not an economic turndown,” adding, “I hope never to be in the situation where we say we made our Kyoto target, but everyone is starving.”

Indeed, he and others have expressed hope that some nations will renew their economies by investing in green jobs and green growth, a proposal put forth by Mr. Obama during the campaign and endorsed by nongovernmental organizations like the Clinton Foundation.

United Nations officials said Monday that Mr. Obama would not attend the meeting, but expressed hope that the United States delegation would work closely with the next administration, which takes office in January.

Unlike the Bush administration, Mr. Obama supports a cap-and-trade system, similar to the one that operates in the European Union.

(…) With the new administration poised to take power in the United States, “I think everyone’s waiting for a discussion between the United States and China, the two biggest emitters and the two countries that haven’t been at the table,” Mr. Sachs said.

For more on this topic, please check out this article on TreeHugger.

Australia to ratify Kyoto, will partake in Bali talks

Edouard — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:59:53 +0000

I don’t talk about politics as opinions are personal, but when politics include climate change mitigation, I have to do so.

The victory yesterday of the Labour Party in Australia is very good news. The country will ratify the Kyoto Protocol and will also be present at the Bali talks in December to prepare the future of this protocol .

Australia was so far one of the last countries with the United States not to have ratified Kyoto which is only the first small step of climate change mitigation.

A few days before the beginning of these negotiations, this proves to be an excellent news for the fight against global warming and for this I would like to congratulate the new Australian Premier and his country.

As Associated Press states :

Newly elected leader Kevin Rudd moved quickly Sunday to bring Australia into international talks on fighting global warming, and to head off potentially thorny relations with the United States and key Asian neighbors.

The emphatic victory for Rudd’s Labor Party swings Australia toward the political left after almost 12 years of conservative rule, and puts it at odds with key security ally Washington on two crucial policy issues – Iraq and global warming.

The day after sweeping to power in general elections, Rudd went straight into work mode, holding meetings with government officials about the mechanics of signing the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

(…)

Britain, New Zealand and Indonesia noted that Rudd’s election would boost international efforts to address climate change — ousted Prime Minister John Howard had refused to sign the Kyoto pact.

(…)

Rudd, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat, also talked with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, accepting his invitation to attend a December U.N. meeting in Bali to map out the world’s next steps against climate change.

After a little research by using CARMA (see my previous article), I discovered that the country is relying very heavily on fossil fuels – mainly coal – to generate its electricity.

Indeed, the country’s electricity is generated by 88,87 percent by fossil fuels ; hydro accounts for 7.98 and other renewables for 1.68 percent.

The importance of coal can be explained by the fact that the country has huge reserves of this highly polluting material and is exporting tremendous amounts of it to China and India.

As I stated in a previous article, nuclear is not popular at all in Australia. However, replacing a few coal-fired plants by nuclear ones would be the single most effective way to cut local carbon dioxide emissions.

When I look at this CARMA page displaying the large amounts of CO2 emitted by the biggest electricity facilities of the country, I can’t but help thinking about nuclear fission to solve the problem.

The question we all have to ask ourselves is what is the most urgent topic of all in sustainable development ? The climate change threat is a huge one and could endanger Australia and all other countries in the very next years or decades.

Dividing our total emissions by a factor two before 2050 is according to the IPCC a sheer minimum. To be out of harm’s way would require more to cut them by three.

To exemplify my point of view on nuclear, I am currently reading James Lovelock‘s latest book, the Revenge of Gaïa.

In this book, the eminent ecologist explained that in front of the urgency represented by global warming, only nuclear can cut in a fast and cheap way our greenhouse gases emissions.

I will write an article on this very interesting book as soon as I finished reading it. I will edit this post and will make a quick link to the article.

To conclude, France launched last month a program called the Grenelle de l’Environnement (see article) which is due to decrease local greenhouse gases emissions and energy needs in an important way via strong energy efficiency policies.

A similar project in Australia would be a great thing… I look forward to read – and talk about – how Australia will mitigate climate change.

UN prepare the negotiations of after Kyoto

Edouard — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 07:00:11 +0000

The United Nations met last week in Vienna and agreed on recognizing the target set by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They thus made the first step toward action.

The target agreed upon mentions a decrease of 25 to 40 percent of global greenhouse gases by 2020.

This meeting was preparing the Bali discussions of December where the United Nations will begin talks for the Kyoto Protocol successor.

As the AFP states it:

Parties to the UN’s Kyoto Protocol wound up troubled talks here Friday with broad pledges, but no specific commitments, to deepen cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for global warming.

In a final document issued after hours of wrangling, they ditched a proposed text whereby industrialized countries would consider cutting their emissions by 25-40 percent by 2020 compared to their 1990 levels, diplomats said.

The goal had been spelt out in a draft statement backed by countries of the European Union but opposed by other delegations, notably Canada, Japan, Switzerland, New Zealand and Russia, they said.

Albeit the pessimistic approach of the AFP press release, I am quite optimistic as the negotiations for post Kyoto are going in the right direction, ie. countries agree on large decreases of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions.

Indeed, as the WWF notes :

“In 2007 we have seen a surge in public support for political action against climate change,” says Hans Verolme, Director of WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme. “Smart politicians will translate this tremendous public support for a clean future into action today.”

Of course, some countries are still not totally convinced by the importance of cutting GHG emissions and keep on seeking immediate profits despite the risks of huge economic recession later.

But still, more and more countries are caring about defined targets and schedule beyond the end of the Kyoto Protocol.

More than this, 25 to 40 percent of GHG reduction by 2020 would represent a good move toward the decrease of 50 percent by 2050. The latter figure was given by the IPCC as the minimum that should be reached in order to avoid massive troubles.

Only a few months ago the United States were disagreeing on cutting greenhouse gases emissions but it seems that the Federal Government is now changing its mind.

Meanwhile, it developing nations are increasingly worried by climate change and the negative effects it would have on both their populations and economies.

Indeed, Indonesia is working on a future agreement that would protect 80 percent of total rainforests.

These talks would include eight countries : Brazil, Cameroon, Congo, Costa Rica, Gabon, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. Of course, more countries could join afterward. (see related AFP news)

On this topic, the AFP states the following :

Indonesia is believed to be the world’s third largest producer of carbon emissions largely due to forest fires and massive illegal logging across the archipelago nation.

So the fact that the goverment of this country is willing to partake in the mitigation of climate change is very good news. Now remain to see if those speeches will lead to action.

Sources :

AFP : Climate talks end without clear pledge on emissions cuts

Further reading :

WWF article : Governments recognize need for deep emission cuts, says WWF
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