The UN has reported the amount of greenhouse gas in the
atmosphere rose to record levels last year, reinforcing
scientist’s warnings that the world may be on course for dangerous levels of
global warming. In the wider scientific community it is being felt that the
possibility of holding average global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius is
slipping away from mankind.
Global climate talks in Doha, Quatar have
actually been moving forward with a goal of securing a new accord in 2015. In
an interview with Yale Environmental 360 Figueres, the executive secretary of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and woman in charge of United
Nations talks about the inevitability of world economies making the transition
to a low-carbon future. Figueres discusses the need for politicians to feel the
same urgency as climate scientists about the threats posed by global warming.
However there are signs that the attitude towards climate change is shifting the
Congressional Budget Office issued a 19-page report on the different ways to
make a carbon tax less burdensome on lower income people.
The issue of climate change was
practically absent during the presidential campaign until Hurricane Sandy hit
the East Coast. Amidst a budget crisis the carbon tax idea has been revived by
some on both the right and left. The devastating hurricane and an election that
led to Democratic gains have placed global warming firmly back into
conversation. The more liberal Brookings Institution released a “modest carbon
tax” proposal that would raise $150 billion a year, with $30 billion annually set-aside for clean energy investments.
It is becoming obvious for countries such
as the United States to pursue the benefits of global climate change policy.
Firstly, from a domestic perspective, why would the United States allow other
countries to pursue the technologies of the future while current technologies
become more obsolete, hence losing its future competitiveness. From an
international perspective there is going to be increasing pressure in particular
from the private sector to move toward low-carbon technologies in order to
maintain global competitiveness.
The UN talks in Doha, Quatar involve more
than 190 nations that are working towards adopting a treaty in 2015 that would
limit greenhouse gases starting in 2020. The Kyoto Protocol is now going into
its second commitment period, whereby 10 to 12 percent of global emissions
would be under the regulation of legally binding instruments. All industrial
nations, have pledged to make emission reductions by 2020, which combined with
the pledges made by 55 developing countries puts 80% of global emissions under
a voluntary structure of mitigation.
The first outcome to be delivered by
COP-18 is the immediate implementation of the second commitment period of the
Kyoto Protocol to start on January 1, 2013. What delegates at the talks are
discussing is how this second commitment period is going to be implemented and
what the rules are going to be. COP-18 needs to take a broad array of
institutional arrangements that have been in the design phase over the past few
years and move those into implementation to support the mitigation and
adaptation that developing countries are undertaking.
COP-18 needs to clarify how governments
are going to organise their work to insure they put themselves in a good stead
to adopt the universal agreement in 2015. Furthermore the industrialised
countries need to be clear about how are they intend to implement their promise
of financial support to developing countries of up to $100 billion by 2020. In
order for countries to be on track to fulfill their initial pledges there needs
to be transparency around the exact definition of what can count toward
fast-start finance.
The European Union, U.S., Japan and other
developed nations paid out $23.6 billion of assistance to poorer countries
during the three years through 2012, falling short of the $30 billion promised
in 2009, the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development
stated this week. Envoys in Doha must also ensure aid doesn’t end next year, by
doubling pledges to $60 billion through 2015 and finding $15 billion for a new
Green Climate Fund that was set up at last year’s round of talks.
The IPCC are looking at options for countries to reach the two-degree
target, which is one of the main issues concerned in the Fifth Assessment
report. What is clear to delegates at COP-18 is that the more delayed
mitigation is; the increasing likelihood emission increases will not become
stabalised.
