Climate conference opens with calls for immediate action
Comments offThe UN climate change conference in Denmark opened with calls for effective solutions and immediate actions to address global warming, but big differences remain between the demands of developed and developing nations.
From 7-18 December 2009, some 192 countries are meeting in Copenhagen in an effort to create a new international agreement to combat climate change.
Prime Minister of Denmark Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the conference must result in a strong and ambitious outcome.
“It is our mission to come to the aid of those who already suffer, and to deliver a long term solution to the mounting problem of global warming,” he said.
Rasmussen added that for more than a year, he has been conducting intensive consultations with world leaders in preparation for the conference.
He claimed they showed strong political will to support an ambitious agreement to halt climate change.
During next week’s high-level segment of the meeting, 110 heads of state and government will come to Copenhagen to try to ensure a new climate agreement is struck.
“And they come—not to agree to just anything—but to agree to an effective deal based on our fundamental principles,” added Rasmussen.
These legal principles are outlined in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Bali Action Plan it created in 2007, and under the UNFCCC’s Kyoto Protocol.
The fact that Rasmussen mentioned the Bali Action Plan and the two negotiating tracks under the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol is noteworthy.
There have been growing concerns among the G77/China negotiating bloc of 130 developing countries that the industrialised countries are trying to junk the second commitment phase of Kyoto Protocol in favor of a new yet less ambitious climate deal.
Developed countries have yet to provide a clear target for reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions to levels that would satisfy the G77/China, nor have they pledged sufficient financial assistance for developing countries to switch to low-carbon economies and deal with the impacts of climate change.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said three elements must be agreed in Copenhagen. First, an agreement that would enable prompt action on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, capacity building and REDD — shorthand for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
Second, a list of ambitious targets for developed nations to reduce their emissions, and third, around US$10 billion in ‘start-up’ financing to help developing nations adapt to and mitigate climate change in the short-term.
In his speech, de Boer compared those elements to three layers of an “ideal Christmas cake that needs to come out of Copenhagen.”
The European Union has pledged to reduce their emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, while the United States has committed to a 17 per cent reduction below 2005 level, also by 2020.
Prior to the meeting, several developing countries also pledged to curb the growth in their emissions. China, India, Brazil, South Korea, and Indonesia were recently joined by South Africa, which says it will reduce its emission growth by 34 per cent by 2020.
Meanwhile, head of Indonesian delegation Rachmat Witoelar said in a press briefing that failure is not an option in Copenhagen. He predicts an uphill struggle for the next two weeks due to differences of opinion between developing and developed countries.
“We need to look for common ground among all parties, not to stick to an opinion on what we bring from home,” he said.
Indonesian Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta has said that Indonesia will be demanding that developed countries reduce their emissions by an average of 40 per cent.
He added that other Indonesian demands were an approval of a REDD mechanism, and that oceans are giving central prominence in the climate change talks alongside forestry.
