Lima climate change summit: 'weak' UN deal could let countries dodge green pledges
Agreement reached to save Lima talks from collapse but critics say watered-down deal is too weak
Ed Davey, the UK energy secretary, and Ben Lyon, negotiator, hold a press conference during the Lima climate change talks. Photo: Emily Gosden
12:16PM GMT 14 Dec 2014
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UN climate change talks have been saved from the brink of collapse by a “weak”
agreement that could let countries dodge setting clear targets to cut their
emissions.
Negotiations in the Peruvian capital Lima dragged on to the early hours of
Sunday morning – a day and a half after their scheduled close - amid deep
disagreements between rich and poor nations over the steps they should take
to tackle global warming.
The divisions had threatened to derail the talks altogether but eventually
resulted in a “bare minimum” deal, thrashed out by delegates who had barely
slept in three days, that left many key disputes unresolved.
The Lima deal is intended to make countries issue national pledges next year
outlining the action they will take to cut their carbon emissions. The
pledges are then supposed to form the basis of a binding deal at talks in
Paris next year to avert dangerous levels of global warming.
Rich nations including the USA and EU members had pushed for all countries to
be bound by strict rules to ensure that their pledges gave clear and
measurable data – akin to the UK’s Climate Change Act.
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But after objections from developing nations the eventual text was watered
down so the rules are voluntary. “It’s totally up to you now whether you
provide that information or not,” Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned
Scientists said. “It’s the bare minimum we needed to come out of here with;
it’s not what we hoped for.”
Samantha Smith, of environmental group WWF, said the rules had gone from "weak to weaker to weakest".
Ed Davey, the energy and climate change secretary, insisted he was “completely relaxed” about the watered down rules, claiming that countries would have to provide the information anyway due to “political pressure”. He denied that the UK would be left going green further and faster than its neighbours, arguing some other European nations had already gone further.
But even if detailed pledges are forthcoming Mr Davey acknowledged they would fall well short of the level necessary to avert dangerous levels of global warming, of 2C above pre-industrial levels.
There would be “a gap between what the world is offering and what the science says we need to do,” he said.
Experts warned that the scale of divisions laid bare at Lima did not bode well for the chances of securing a strong and binding global deal in Paris.
Jonathan Grant, sustainability and climate change director at PwC, said the “trench warfare” mentality between different factions seen in Lima could result in the talks “falling off the cliff in Paris”.
A long list of fundamental issues remain to be resolved over the next year, including the legal status of any Paris deal and demands from poor countries for more cash from rich nations to help them to help poorer nations cut emissions and cope with the effects of global warming.
Rich countries have previously promised a vague goal of “mobilising” $100bn of “climate finance” a year for poor nations by 2020 but the concepts are ill-defined, leading to wrangling as poor countries say their wealthier neighbours have not done enough.
“The biggest thing that is really, really unresolved is the money,” said Michael Jacobs, visiting professor at the LSE’s Grantham climate research institute.
“The developed countries have got to find some way of showing they can provide the $100bn they promised, and at least some financial contribution post-2020. This is hard: this is a core demand of the developing countries but the hardest things for the developed countries, both because they don’t feel they have got so much money but also because it’s hard to budget ahead.”
Mr Davey admitted that the talks in Paris were likely to be "even more difficult than Lima" but said he remained confident of a deal. “I’m very excited by the prospects for a deal next year. It will be tough but for the first time, I think ever, the world can contemplate a global deal applicable to all.”
Samantha Smith, of environmental group WWF, said the rules had gone from "weak to weaker to weakest".
Ed Davey, the energy and climate change secretary, insisted he was “completely relaxed” about the watered down rules, claiming that countries would have to provide the information anyway due to “political pressure”. He denied that the UK would be left going green further and faster than its neighbours, arguing some other European nations had already gone further.
But even if detailed pledges are forthcoming Mr Davey acknowledged they would fall well short of the level necessary to avert dangerous levels of global warming, of 2C above pre-industrial levels.
There would be “a gap between what the world is offering and what the science says we need to do,” he said.
Experts warned that the scale of divisions laid bare at Lima did not bode well for the chances of securing a strong and binding global deal in Paris.
Jonathan Grant, sustainability and climate change director at PwC, said the “trench warfare” mentality between different factions seen in Lima could result in the talks “falling off the cliff in Paris”.
A long list of fundamental issues remain to be resolved over the next year, including the legal status of any Paris deal and demands from poor countries for more cash from rich nations to help them to help poorer nations cut emissions and cope with the effects of global warming.
Rich countries have previously promised a vague goal of “mobilising” $100bn of “climate finance” a year for poor nations by 2020 but the concepts are ill-defined, leading to wrangling as poor countries say their wealthier neighbours have not done enough.
“The biggest thing that is really, really unresolved is the money,” said Michael Jacobs, visiting professor at the LSE’s Grantham climate research institute.
“The developed countries have got to find some way of showing they can provide the $100bn they promised, and at least some financial contribution post-2020. This is hard: this is a core demand of the developing countries but the hardest things for the developed countries, both because they don’t feel they have got so much money but also because it’s hard to budget ahead.”
Mr Davey admitted that the talks in Paris were likely to be "even more difficult than Lima" but said he remained confident of a deal. “I’m very excited by the prospects for a deal next year. It will be tough but for the first time, I think ever, the world can contemplate a global deal applicable to all.”
Health & Science
Climate deal eked out in Lima advances talks as diplomats eye global pact next year
Peruvian Minister of Environment Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, left, the president of COP20, shakes hands with the Peruvian foreign affairs minister, Gonzalo Gutierrez , after the approval of the The Lima Call for Climate Action, during the plenary session of the 20th UN Climate Change Conference COP20 held in Lima, Peru. (Cop20 Handout/EPA)
Negotiators who gathered in Lima, Peru, announced an accord at 1 :30 a.m., after 11 days of often rancorous talks that ran more than 24 hours into overtime. The agreement builds on recent momentum for a global treaty, to be finalized in Paris late next year. And in a key breakthrough, it requires action from developing countries as well as the industrialized world.
“The road to Paris has begun in Lima,” Felipe Calderón, former president of Mexico and chairman of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, said after the agreement was gaveled through in a large tent packed with weary delegates. “There is still considerable work to be done. But I am encouraged that countries, all around the world, are beginning to see that it is in their economic interest to take action now.”The gains were modest — the requirements to be borne by individual countries were repeatedly watered down to ensure buy-in from more than 190 countries, ranging from established industrial powers of the West, to rising powerhouses such as China and India, to tiny island states such as Samoa and Nauru.
Under the agreement, each country will have to submit early next year a detailed plan for addressing carbon emissions. But a series of compromises Friday and Saturday stripped away specific requirements for cutting pollution and left no provisions for outside verification to ensure that the plans are carried out. The softened language was denounced by environmental groups as unacceptably weak.
“The foot-dragging in Lima is out of step with the urgent signs of climate change that are already apparent,” said Nathaniel Keohane, vice president for international climate at the Environment Defense Fund.
Western participants in the talks and independent experts said the compromises were necessary to keep the negotiations on track for next year in Paris. They noted that major industrial countries that produce most of the world’s greenhouse gases — including the United States, the nations of the European Union and China — already have committed to substantial curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, cuts that will be probably be incorporated into any pact that is approved in Paris.
“The major virtue of this agreement is that it applies to both developed and developing nations, outlines the commitment terms and keeps everyone at the table,” said Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser. “But the pressure ahead of Paris will be profound because all the thorniest issues have been left unresolved.”
The Lima meeting, which began on Dec. 1, offered an opportunity to settle technical issues underpinning next year’s global agreement, including how costs and obligations will be divided among poorer and wealthier countries. In the past, developing countries, including major emitters such as China and India, were exempted from mandatory cuts in greenhouse-gas pollution.The talks went into overtime Saturday as delegations clashed over demands by developing countries for compensation from industrialized countries for damage from climate change as well as demands for more financial assistance to pay for a transition to climate-friendly energy sources.
The slow progress prompted U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry to fly to Lima on Thursday to urge negotiators along.
“If we continue down the same path we are on today, the world as we know it will profoundly change, and it will change dramatically for the worse,” Kerry told a gathering of diplomats at the talks, which were sponsored by the United Nations.
Pope Francis also intervened, warning diplomats in a statement that “the time to find global solutions is running out.”
“We can find solutions only if we act together and agree,” the pontiff said in a message sent to environment minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal, the Peruvian official chairing the talks.
Source: Washington Post
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