c li m ate c h ange
COP 16: More views “T
here remains a serious and significant greenhouse gap between the ambition of nations and science. This needs to be bridged if the world wants to have a chance of keeping a global temperature rise under 2ºC. Cancun offers the next opportunity to accelerate a transition to a low carbon, green economy,” said UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Achim Steiner, at a Business for Environment (B4E) conference in Mexico City. B4E raised the global business voice ahead of the 16th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP16), which will be held in Cancun this year. “One option is to address non-CO2 pollutants such as methane and black carbon – these represent low-hanging fruit with potentially immediate benefits for climate as well as for public health to agricultural production,” said Steiner. In a declaration to be finalised at the talks, company and civil society leaders are expected to urge the governments of the world to make the climate negotiations in Cancun a success and call for the creation of legal frameworks for a rapid transition to a low carbon economy. Gordon Shepherd, leader of the WWF’s Global Climate Change Initiative, said that governments can and must make progress on areas such as adaptation, finance and ending deforestation at COP 16 in Cancun.
“But they will have to increase their efforts now and start seeking areas of convergence in a much more serious way,” said Shepherd explaining that reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) is an example where agreements already achieved in Copenhagen have been opened up again on such basic issues as the definition of what it covers. According to Shepherd, the discussions in Bonn that moved behind closed doors did not progress issues adequately. “The mitigation discussion even went backwards and became more polarized. We cannot afford these snail-paced negotiations and they must speed up, or we’ll lose all momentum in this process,” said Shepherd.
“Parties also need to make progress in other areas such as the sources for climate finance and not just wait for the UN Advisory Group of Finance. It is important for governments to move away from the all-or-nothing approach at the UNFCCC, and seek breakthroughs for a balanced Cancun package in areas such as forest protection, adaptation to inevitable threats from climate change, and the beginning of real flows of finance for climate action,” said Shepherd. UN climate panel head expects no deal at Cancun In August, the head of the UN’s climate science panel, Rajendra Pachauri, said there was little prospect of a breakthrough in efforts to forge a global agreement on climate change in Cancun. Pachauri told an Indian news agency, The Press Trust of India, that a deal in Cancun “is not possible, particularly considering the situation in some countries”. He said that Mexico needs to be realistic and concentrate on pushing rich nations to provide funds to developing countries to help them adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions. “For heaven’s sake, please get the commitment on funding,” said Pachauri. The European Union’s Climate Action Commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, has also said that reaching an agreement will be tough and sights might be more realistically set on South Africa in 2011.
Before last year’s COP was officially over, organisations and governments already started to discuss their strategies for this year’s COP in Mexico. Although the UN may have its flaws, it is the only feasible venue that the world has to reach an agreement. Officials from all over the world will be debating, strategising and negotiating at COP 16 from 29 November to 10 December 2010. Keep reading 25º in Africa and visit our website (www.25degrees.net) to find out whether a concrete agreement will be reached this year! Sources: www.unep.org, www.wwf.org.za, www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com. 2 5 o i n Af r i c a
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