Related Posts
' src='http://gf2.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/2551.jpg' alt='copenhagen-climate-change-conference-fourteen-days-to-seal-historys-judgment-on-this-generation' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' />Copenhagen climate change conference: ‘Fourteen days to seal history’s judgment on this generation’*from yesterday (December 7th, 2009) This editorial calling for action from world leaders on climate change is published today...
Europe not despairing: Cancun is step forward towards a worldwide climate treaty – with or without the U.S.
European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard spoke during the opening day of the COP16 Climate talks in...
EU prepares for Copenhagen climate talks
Leaders of the European Union have reached an agreement to aid poor nations in their efforts against climate...
Bonn climate talks news: 10 more years to seal the deal; row over logging
The UN climate talks taking place in Bonn, Germany this week are not proving to be a source...
Copenhagen 2009 – The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeWhat are the UNFCC and the Kyoto Protocol?
Unofficially known as ‘Earth Summit,’ the UNFCC first gathered in Rio...
Tip of the Day
Go grocery shopping locally to help reduce your carbon footprint
Copenhagen Climate Conference: Just one more day to seal the deal
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
The European Union is going for a reduction of 20 percent of carbon emissions by 2020 (the reference year being 1990). If a strong agreement is reached at Copenhagen that number increases to 30 percent reduction. The European Union is ready to seal the deal but skeptics tend to argue that it’s not “such a heroic act” to go for 20 percent reductions considering the strong climate legislation already in place. Add to that the “positive” consequences of the economic crisis on carbon emissions as well as the current carbon trading structures and Europe is “almost there”. So in my opinion the European Union should not stick to 20 but definitely go for 30 percent reduction, full stop!
The United States is currently looking at a reduction of carbon emissions of 17 percent by 2020. Although the reference year is 1990, the US is looking at 2005 as a reference for carbon reductions. This in fact comes down to a reduction of 4 percent (yes you read it right!) and not the 17 they’re bragging about. In reality the US in not ready to seal the deal as the Senate has not passed President’s Obama’s carbon reduction proposal yet.
Brazil is the most prominent voice of the G77 (developing nations) and is ready to go for 30 percent carbon reduction. Apart from the difficulties surrounding the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, Brazil is ready to seal the deal. And even where the rainforest is concerned, Brazil is looking into the possibilities of reducing the deforestation by 80 percent. In my opinion they are willing to go a long way.
India is not doing too bad either. Ready to cut carbon emissions with 20 to 25 percent by 2020 and working hard to invest in renewable energy. India is ready to seal the deal where it not that Saudi Arabia is – as usual and for obvious reasons – doing everything it can to prevent a climate deal to be signed.
China is ready to reduce its carbon emissions with 35 to 40 percent by 2020. A bit like India, China is investing a lot in renewable energy and has come up with a very ambitious energy-efficiency five-year plan. China is ready to seal the deal.
Japan is very straightforward and is ready to cut emissions with as much as 25 percent by 2020. The only prerequisite for Japan to seal the deal is to have a strong binding agreement on the table. But I guess that goes for all parties.
Africa is a little different. Their primary reason for being present at the Copenhagen conference is not to propose such or such reduction of their carbon emissions. The goal of Africa is to go home with financial support to deal with the consequences of climate change (adaptation). The African countries are ready to seal the deal, especially because this would mean that the agreements of the Kyoto protocol would remain in place and that financial support would keep on coming to the countries that are most affected by climate change but did almost nothing to contribute to it. I think that’s only fair.
There are a couple of hick-ups though.
The developed nations are ready to reduce carbon emissions but are using tricks like carbon trading and already saved “hot air” (emission levels they didn’t reach in the past and thus “saved” and that they now want to profit from – really it’s more mathematical than ecological) to reach their proposed targets. On top of that most of them won’t hear about a slow-down of their economies, which is in my opinion a big problem: how can you cut emissions if you continue “business as usual”? What they are saying is that if they where to continue to grow like they are doing now (without a climate deal) they would emit X amount of carbon by 2020. They are ready to cut by X percent but based on the forecast of what would be emitted, not on what is actually being emitted today!
There is of course the Kyoto hurdle as well. As we all know the US and China never signed the Kyoto protocol. The European Union is trying to go for a global binding agreement (a replacement for Kyoto) while the US is still not ready (and I think will never be ready) to step into Kyoto. The developing nations on the other had are going for no less than a good and strong Kyoto follow-up, hoping to retain their position and advantages as “non polluters” (as opposed to the “climate debt” of the developed nations).
With only one more day to go that makes for a lot of problems to solve and numbers to agree upon. And basically the discussion is not – and has never been – going in the right direction. I understand the activists outside the Copenhagen doors. What we are seeing is developed nations trying to protect their economies. Especially in this time of economic crisis, I would like to see the leaders of our nations question the world economy instead of trying to figure out how to make everybody “sort of” happy while protecting the one thing that caused all this mess in the first place. Economy – and more particularly brainless consumerism – should have been the premise of the Copenhagen Conference.
By Priscilla Lorenzo
Tags: Climate change, cop15, copenhagen conference
2 Comments
You can also log in to post a comment.
Other Greenfudge.org posts
Deadly record: 950 natural disasters killed 295.000 people in 2010
2010 was a record-breaking year for natural disasters. According to Insurance ERM, a website dedicated to enterprise risk management, this makes 2010 the second-highest year of natural catastrophes since 1980. With a current yearly average of 785 natural catastrophes, 2010 saw in increase of more than 20% in occurrences of natural disasters. Furthermore, the high number of weather related natural disasters like storms and floods, about 90% of all reported catastrophes in 2010, is a further indication of advancing climate...
The magic of seduction: what a little bit of tape can do!
Check out this Dutch video showing a seduction experiment in which people are influenced to use the stairs instead of the elevator. The results are AMAZING. Or how a little bit of tape can account for gigantic energy savings! ...
Ecosia search engine donates 80% of profits to Brazilian rainforest
A few years ago I changed my browser’s homepage to blackle.com because the search engine claimed to save energy by using a black background and mostly grey text as opposed to Google’s stark white backdrop and blue text. At the time of writing this Blackle counts “2,518,394.132 Watt hours saved”. I don’t really know exactly what that means in terms of real benefit, but it sounds a heck of a lot better than zero hours saved. However, Blackle’s claims are disputed. Techlogg...
Endangered Species of the Week: Trumpet-mouthed hunter snail
Species: Trumpet-mouthed hunter snail (Gulella salpinx) Status: Critically Endangered (CR) Interesting Fact: The trumpet-mouthed hunter snail does not lay eggs but ‘gives birth’ to miniature juvenile snails! The rather flamboyant common name of the species refers to the flaring, trumpet-like opening of its distinctive shell. As a recently discovered species, relatively little is known about the trumpet-mouthed hunter snail’s biology. It is endemic to a single limestone outcrop of the Marble Delta in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The ‘hunter’ part of...
The Stupid Show is pretty smart
Here's something good that came out of COP15: The Stupid Show I could spend hours watching these snippets and interviews from Franny Armstrong and company. They are both alternately and simultaneously interesting, depressing, amusing and sometimes even inspiring. Armstrong is the filmmaker responsible for the eco-documentary The Age of Stupid. During the climate change conference in Copenhagen last December she and her crew were on site talking to politicians, activists, journalists, celebrities and 'climate witnesses' – ordinary people who have already suffered...
Is this UK man the savior of the honeybees?
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), aka the widespread disappearance of honeybees, is a worrying and mysterious threat to the European honeybee population, which we are dependent on for much of our food supply. Honeybee colonies pollinate many monoculture crops such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, flowers, seeds, beans and spices. If we lose them, the farming economy suffers, as does our food production. Though the cause of CCD are not certain, studies have linked the decline in honeybee populations to certain pesticides and even...
Stopping deforestation – Something we actually CAN do?
The international effort to halt the destruction of rainforests and biodiversity loss is considered to be far behind the fight to stop or mitigate man-made climate change. Since the later has been more or less a total failure so far, how can we hope for the former? Representatives at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan will attempt to put a price tag on the preservation of natural resources such as forests, coral reefs and wetlands. What is hoped for...
Breaking: Iceland volcano erupts again, millions still stranded
Just as areas of European airspace was set to reopen for air traffic, Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano began erupting anew, sending more ash into skies over Europe. According to a CNN report, half of European flights were set to resume, with major airports in France and Germany operating significant amounts of flights. Norway briefly allowed flights from Bergen and expects Gardermoen airport (near Oslo) to remain open all day, while Finland's airports will stay closed. From a Guardian report: Eurocontrol, Europe's intergovernmental air traffic...
So really, no more plastic bags in Los Angeles?
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a ban on plastic grocery bags in unincorporated areas of the county. “No store shall provide to any customers a plastic carryout bag”. That’s what the official measure reads. Now how much people live in Los Angeles? According to the Wikipedia page for Los Angeles, the city holds 3,83 million people, while the surrounding urban area of greater Los Angeles extends to an added 14,8 million people. The county is home to 88...
Biofuel from garbage
So-called ‘second generation’ biofuels are fuels derived from biomass which do not come primarily from food sources and thus attempt to avoid the ‘food vs. fuel’ dilemma that has tainted biofuels like corn ethanol. A second generation biofuel can come from the non-edible residual byproducts of crops, like leaves and husks, from non-edible crops like switchgrass or jatropha, or other industrial waste biomass such as wood chips or fruit peels. UK firm TMO Renewables’ genetically modified bacteria turns compost and other waste...
View all articles
As individuals we also have to walk the walk if we want to talk the talk… small changes = big impacts.
Obama is certainly in a pickle. At least he’s getting the US back in global climate talks – that’s obviously a step
in the right direction. Speaking of -we shouldn’t stop working at our local level just because world leaders are
making speeches
TicTacDo The web is filled with great
suggestions on how we can help on the microlevel.