Finding a global solution to Climate Change: 26 January 2009

The Policy Team this afternoon attended a seminar organised by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) on ‘Brokering a global deal on climate change’. Speakers Joan Ruddock MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Climate Change, and Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, discussed the steps needed to secure assent to a comprehensive, truly global treaty on climate change in Copenhagen later this year.

The Copenhagen treaty, successor to the Kyoto agreement, could be judged a success if it contained the following, according to Mr de Boer:

• Clarity on quantifying emission limitation for developed countries.
• Clarity on nationally appropriate mitigation strategies in developing countries.
• Clarity on financial and technological support for mitigation and adaptation, involving innovative new methods of funding outwith carbon markets.
• Clarity on an institutional framework to deliver support for mitigation and adaptation measures.

The Minister stated that the UK Government was under no illusions about the size of the task as hand but stressed that Government’s commitment to tackling climate change would not falter in the face of the global economic crisis. The global economic downturn did present a challenge to this agenda, said Mr de Boer: in Copenhagen, a method of making climate change mitigation ‘pay for itself’, without the need to mobilise extra finance from Government, should be found.

The Minister defended the Government against comments from the audience that campaigns relying on individual voluntary, rather than society-wide mandatory, action did not go far enough. She stressed that as an elected body, the Government could not realistically impose radical measures upon voters if it wished to retain their support. The Government would instead proceed through consensus building amongst the public, whilst introducing legislation to necessitate business taking action to mitigate climate change which it would not previously have done. She noted that the UK Climate Change Act: to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% of 1990 levels by 2050, is groundbreaking legislation.

Mr de Boer viewed accurate pricing as the key to tackling climate change. The price paid for goods and services should adequately reflect the pollution created through their manufacture or consumption. The effect of this would be to stimulate innovation: to bring renewable energy solutions to the market and so drive down the price of using them relative to fossil fuels.

The commitment to tackling climate change was palpable from both The Minister and Mr de Boer and both were optimistic that a deal could be reached in Copenhagen, particularly given the willingness of the new Obama administration to engage with negotiations. Mr de Boer stressed that further refinement would be needed post-Copenhagen, but that it was vital to reach initial agreement this year.

Progress Towards Copenhagen as Officials Meet in Ghana

The latest round of UN climate change negotiations began yesterday in Accra, Ghana, and will conclude on 27 August. The talks mark an important step between the negotiations in Bali last year and the 2009 convention on climate change, to take place in Copenhagen, aimed at negotiating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

Writing in this week's Climate-L.ORG Bulletin, the Executive Secretary to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Yvo de Boer, outlines his hopes for the Accra conference, stating that "careful progress" has been made since 2007, with meetings in Bangkok in March this year and in Bonn, Germany, in June.

Mr de Boer says that the Ghana meeting will provide an opportunity for work on the "rules and tools" that will be available to developed countries to meet future emissions reduction targets. Work will also continue on the main elements of the Copenhagen agreement through two focussed workshops. The first will be on policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in developing countries, encouraging sustainable forest management. The focus of the second will be on "cooperative sectoral approaches", exploring the expansion of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism to cement and steel manufacture, and power generation: rolling out the sectoral approaches adopted in some countries within a universal agreement.

Mr de Boer stresses that the Accra talks are a significant step towards Copenhagen, with Governments having the opportunity to put concrete proposals on the table as to what could eventually be included in the 2009 agreement.

Link to original article: With the global house on fire, there is no time to lose at the UN Climate Change Talks in Accra

Link to official UNFCCC site: Accra Climate Change Talks 2008