Climate waits for no country or future international agreement.
12 December 2011
The Durban Platform is a step towards a global agreement, but the risk of exceeding 3°C warming remains and the clock is still ticking.
After two weeks of exhausting and often frustrating talks, there was finally some cause for optimism. The establishment of the Durban Platform to negotiate a new global legally binding agreement by 2015, with big emitters like the United States and China in support, is a far more positive outcome than what many were expecting. The door to keep global warming below at least 2 degrees is still open- just. But, there are several blockades that must be cleared if we are to avoid 3 or 4 degrees C temperature rises and scientists remain skeptical of the commitments made.
Is it a Polish Presidency or a Coal-ish Presidency of the EU at this COP!?
01 December 2011
Did you really believe that Poland supports a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol just because of its promises about climate protection? If you answered “yes,” you might feel disappointed today. If not, you won’t be surprised. Nice words were spoken in Durban about the future of Kyoto and the firm Polish stance on the need to have a global, legally binding agreement. However, their speech rang hollow with the news that the Polish EU Presidency decided to sponsor the “European Coal Days” in Brussels.
As Durban starts, hopes lie with the EU to save the Kyoto Protocol
28 November 2011
Delegates to the UNFCCC today begin two weeks of climate talks at the Conference of Parties (COP) 17 in Durban. At the same time, the International Energy Agency has recently released a report warning that if the the world does not have an international agreement effectively in place by 2017, the door to limiting temperature rise below 2°C will be closed forever. Currently, there is a screaming gap between science and political will. Nature’s limits have long been known and the urgency is evident, but the negotiations have nonetheless moved into the slow lane.
Durban is not expected to be the Big Bang that would put the UNFCCC talks and science on the same page again. Most governments seem to have accepted a step-by-step approach. For Durban this means that this COP is expected to advance on three sets of issues:
1) Further elaboration of the Cancun Agreements; e.g. on transparency measures and operationalising the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Framework and the Technology Mechanism; 2) Things that were left unresolved in Cancun must be addressed, mainly mitigation (i.e., emissions reduction) ambition and sources for delivering the agreed $100 billion of climate finance; and 3) the most difficult of them all: reaching agreement about the future of the Kyoto Protocol and the legal form of the future climate treaty. It is in this third area where the EU may ride the wave of success and play a central role.
Q+A on the EU, Durban and the Kyoto Protocol -
