DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA (Commodity Online): The 17th Conference of Parties (COP) being organised by the United Nations Framework on Climate Change to be held here from November 28 to 9th December 9th, has not raised the expectations of those keen to see mitigation of climate change and thereby curb global emissions.
Despite the KyotoProtocol and several clean energy measures being undertaken, global carbon emissions continue to rise and forecast to keep doing so,according to 'Monthly Carbon Standard'report released by Barclays Capital.
It states that US Energy Information Agency (EIA) forecasts 12.5% rise in global green house gas emission in the coming decade and by 2020 global economies would put 4Gt/C02 more than they were in 2010 with 90% of that increase coming from non-OECD countries.
The future of Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding treaty to reduce emissions the world presently has is also at stake now as it expires in 2012 although by definition the treaty was never meant to expire and could be extended beyond the period if the signatories reach a consensus. Till this time no compliance period has been agreed. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ahs stated that the decision on the future of the Kyoto Protocol will be a central part of the Durban outcome.
According to Christina Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, it is important the governments safeguard what they had worked on so long to agree and develop, and what has proven effective. "This includes, for example, the rules that guarantee transparency of effort to reduce greenhouse gases and market mechanisms that allow industrialized countries to partly achieve their emission reduction goals by investing in clean technology in developing countries. At the same time, a global climate change framework under the broader Convention - which includes all signatories - is evolving but needs more time before it can be fully operational. Resolving this involves creating robust and transparent accounting and reporting of national efforts but the decision at a policy level of when and how to participate is a political decision and that requires clear leadership from a high level. I believe that common ground can be found and the right political decisions can be made."
According to Barclays Capital, the chief problem with Kyoto Protocol stems from the strict division of the world into those parties that need to make absolute emission reductions and those that need not make absolute reductions, making the protocol dificult to implement. "Clearly, the strict division in the Kyoto Protocol (KP) between those countries that must rduce and those that do not have to has meant that the KP is held on to tightly by most of G77, while being opposed by some of the largest developed nations. The world's largest polluter, the United States of America has not ratified the treaty while European Union has agreed to a 20% reduction against 1990 levels.
"The upshot of all of this is that the KP division between the “must do” and the “need not do” is increasingly looking politically unworkable as the main tool to achieve what must be the over-riding goal of absolute global emissions reductions," Barclays Capital noted.
According to UNFCCC the two main task that that the conference can accomplish One relates to building the institutions that will help support the developing country response to climate change. At the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun at the end of last year, governments agreed the most comprehensive package ever to help developing countries build their own clean energy futures and also adapt to climate change. These institutions comprise a Technology Mechanism to promote clean energy and adaptation-related technologies, an Adaptation Framework to coordinate international cooperation to help developing countries better protect themselves from climate change impacts, and a Green Climate Fund.
The Technology Mechanism and the Adaptation Committee need to be established so that they can start working in 2012, and the first phase of the design of the Green Climate Fund needs be completed. The second pressing task for governments is to answer the question of how they will move forward together to achieve their agreed goal to limit the average global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, and how to review progress towards that goal between 2013 and 2015. In Cancun, governments agreed to make this Review as a reality check both on their progress to cut emissions and on whether an even lower global temperature rise target would have to be considered in light of emerging science, according to Christina Figueres.
Key issues
-how is the €100 bn/year by 2020, and the fast start (US 30 bn) pledged at Copenhagen (COP15) and reaffirmed at Cancun (COP16) to be raised, measured and spent; and
- what interim finance is expected in the period between the end of the fast start and the 2020 numbers.
-Trader barriers and climate change: A number of countries led by India has proposed a complete ban on ‘unilateral trade measures’ on grounds related to climate change. India proposed that such measures would have the ultimate effect of pushing the burden of climate change policies on to developing nations.
- Experts are worried that Eurozone crisis may curtail the billions of dollars of funding from industrialised countries to their poorer counterparts to adapt to climate change.
Money is expected to be a bone of contention between developing and developed countries at UNFCCC Conference of Parties 17 (COP 17) Nov 28-Dec 9.With financial crisis deepening in Europe -- spreading from Greece to Italy -- and the US economy also going through a troubled phase, the money pledged by developed countries is nowhere to be seen.
Tailpiece: Indian corporates and carbon disclosure
Leading Indian corporates have shown the vision to be part of the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index for the Carbon Disclosure Project in India. Top companies for 2011 include TCS, Wipro, Yes Bank, ACC, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Sesa Goa, GVK Power & Infrastructure, ABB and Tata Power. This was announced at a half-day event organised by the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development along with its partners WWF-India and the CDP, with the support of the British High Commission, to release the India report of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in 2011 in New Delhi.
Mr. Gregory Barker, UK’s Minister of State for Climate Change, Department of Energy & Climate Change said, “The best way to attract the attention of business leaders and investors is to give them the numbers of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Energy efficiency and resource use efficiency are of competitive interest for all businesses, and lead to sustainability.” He referred to the Global 500 report of the CDP released in September 2011; the financial performance of the climate performers under the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI) was twice as better than the average.
