Climate Change: UN adopts extension of Kyoto amid protests
Climate Change: UN adopts extension of Kyoto amid protests
-From DR. ABDUL RUFF
[Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal, Specialist on State Terrorism ;Chancellor-Founder of Centor for International Affairs(CIA); Commentator on world affairs, Analyst on Middle East, Chronicler of Foreign occupations & Freedom movements (Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Xinjiang, Chechnya, etc.) Former university Teacher; website: http://
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UN climate talks in Doha have closed with a historic shift in principle but few genuine cuts in greenhouse gases. The summit established for the first time that rich nations should move towards compensating poor nations for losses due to climate change. Developing nations hailed it as a breakthrough, but condemned the gulf between the science of climate change and political attempts to tackle it. The deal, agreed by nearly 200 nations, extends to 2020 the Kyoto Protocol. It is the only legally-binding plan for combating global warming.
The major task of this two-week conference has been untangling of the diplomatic spaghetti from climate agreements that have grown piecemeal over the past 15 years. It is widely agreed that a useful house-keeping job was done to help the UN move towards the next phase, which aims at a globally-encompassing agreement.
Preliminary discussions were held on this, and it was quickly evident that making a global agreement fair to all parties will be monumentally difficult. The talks were chaired by Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, a former head of the oil cartel Opec. He was widely criticised for his laid-back style earlier in the week but at the last there was the unlikely spectacle of environmentalists cheering the ruthlessness of the chair in crushing the Russian revolt.
Climatic negotiations
A report of UN said thawing permafrost covering almost a quarter of the northern hemisphere could "significantly amplify global warming" at a time when the world is already struggling to reign in rising greenhouse gases. Permafrost is one of the keys to the planet's future because it contains large stores of frozen organic matter that, if thawed and released into the atmosphere, would amplify current global warming and propel us to a warmer world
The U.N. said the potential hazards of carbon dioxide and methane emissions from warming permafrost has until now not been factored into climate models. It is calling for a special U.N. climate panel to assess the warming and for the creation of "national monitoring networks and adaptation plans" to help better understand the threat.
In the past, land with permafrost experienced thawing on the surface during summertime, but now scientists are witnessing thaws that reach up to 10 feet deep due to warmer temperatures. The softened earth releases gases from decaying plants that have been stuck below frozen ground for millennia.
Many developing countries rejected the deal as insufficient to put the world on track to fight the rising temperatures that are shifting weather patterns, melting glaciers and raising sea levels. Some Pacific island nations see this as a threat to their existence.
Implementation of
Christiana Figueres,
The outcome of the conference agreeing to extend the commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and creating a new international pact by 2015 is a step forward.
Negotiators haggled through the night in Doha to finalize details of a deal that allowed Kyoto to live on for another commitment period. However, the second phase only covers about 15 per cent of global emissions after Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Russia opted out.
The package of decisions also included vague promises of financing to help poor countries cope with climate change, and an affirmation of a previous decision to adopt a new global climate pact by 2015.
A dispute over money clouded U.N. climate talks Friday, as rich and poor countries sparred over funds meant to help the developing world cover the rising costs of mitigating global warming and adapting to it.
The deal covers Europe and Australia, whose share of world greenhouse gas emissions is less than 15%. But the conference also cleared the way for the Kyoto protocol to be replaced by a new treaty binding all rich and poor nations together by 2015 to tackle climate change. The final text "encourages" rich nations to mobilise at least $10bn (£6bn) a year up to 2020, when the new global climate agreement is due to kick in.
There was last-minute drama as the talks were thrown into turmoil by the insistence of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus that they should be allowed extra credit for the emissions cuts they made when their industries collapsed. Russia bitterly objected at what it said was a clear breach of procedure. After a long delay, the chairman lost patience, re-started the meeting and gavelled through the agenda so fast there was no chance for Russia to object. A cheer exploded into prolonged applause.
The proposed new Loss and Damage mechanism is held up as an example of the success of the diplomatic process. Until now rich nations have agreed finance to help developing countries to get clean energy and adapt to climate change, but they have stopped short of accepting responsibility for damage caused by climate change elsewhere. In Doha that broad principle was agreed. This agreement really opens a can of worms - it might be applied to countries damming transboundary rivers, for instance. It could be very significant in future.
As the top most polluter of atmosphere, the unilateral USA has been blamed on finance and on failure to cut its emissions more aggressively. The EU has also been under fire for failing to raise its promised cuts from 20%, which it is reaching easily, to 30%. (Scientists say it should be 40%.) The EU has been held back by Poland, which insists on its right to burn its huge reserves of coal. Warsaw was refusing to sign the extension to the Kyoto climate protocol until it had a reassurance from the EU that it would receive flexible treatment on emissions cuts.
The US had been adamant that this measure would be blocked, and the EU nearly vetoed it, too. The key to US agreement was the positioning of the Loss and Damage mechanism under an existing process promising to mobilise $100bn a year for poor nations to adapt to climate change. Facing tough budget decisions at home over the "fiscal cliff" it was essential for the US to avoid the impression that it was giving away more cash at this time.
Russia, Belarus and Ukraine then further delayed the endgame of the conference with an argument over so-called "hot air" - the pollution permits they were given to allow their heavy industries to thrive. Those industries collapsed but Poland and Russia insist that - as they suffered economic pain during the collapse - they should be allowed to use up the pollution permits as their economies grow again. In effect, they want to be able to increase their emissions as other nations are obliged to cut theirs.
Seeking to control global warming, nearly 200 countries agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that limits the greenhouse gas output of some rich countries, but will only cover about 15 percent of global emissions. The extension was adopted by a U.N. climate conference despite objections from Russia.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which controls the emissions of rich countries, is considered the main achievement of the negotiations, even though the U.S. rejected it because it didn't impose any binding commitments on China and other emerging economies. Kyoto was due to expire this year, so failing to agree on an extension would have been a major setback for the talks. Despite objections from Russia, which opposed rules limiting its use of carbon credits, the accord was extended through 2020 to fill the gap until a wider global treaty is expected to take effect.
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized nations to make efforts to reduce CO2 emissions by an average 5.2% from the 1990 level during a set 5-year period between 2008 and 2012. In the 17th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17), state parties agreed to set another period calling for international commitment to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions after the current period ending in 2012. 39 nations and regions, including European Union nations, announced their commitment during the new period.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires this year. In its current form, a pact that once incorporated all industrialized countries except the United States would now only include the European Union, Australia and several smaller countries which together account for less than 15 per cent of global emissions.
The USA is the lone industrialized country not to join the original Kyoto pact, partly because it didn't include other big greenhouse gas emitters like China and other fast-growing developing countries. "We want to send a very clear message. We will not accept a second commitment period that is not worth the paper that it's written on," Asad Rehman of the Climate Justice Now! network told delegates. "We will not collude in a lie if that locks us into eight years of inaction and that condemns people and planet to a climate catastrophe."
Many rich countries such as Japan, Russia and Canada have refused to endorse the extension, and talks are expected to be heated. The United States was the lone industrialized country not to join the original pact because it did not include like China.
The Japanese delegation defended its decision not to sign onto a Kyoto extension, insisting it would be better to focus on coming to an agreement by 2015 that would require all countries to do their part to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), compared to preindustrial times. Japan announced its disagreement with the Kyoto extension of the Kyoto Protocol on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2015.by the U.N. conference on climate change and to adopt a new international accord, arousing worldwide criticism. Explaining its stance, Environment Minister Hosono Goshi said that nations bound by the Kyoto pact emit greenhouse gasses which account for only a quarter of the total amount of global emissions and thus the pact is useless for the future framework in which “all nations would be obliged to cut CO2 emissions.”
The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) which also controls the Japanese government seeks Japan’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol. Nippon Keidanren urges the government to abandon its target to cut CO2 emissions by 25% from the 1990 level that former PM Hatoyama Yukio vowed to the world because such a target is an obstacle to its growth strategy, which includes the export of nuclear power plant technology.
The Japanese government is reluctant to conclude any international pact if such a pact does not require all states releasing greenhouse gasses to reduce emissions. The government also aims to defang the Kyoto Protocol by abandoning it and making the excuse that only a few nations are joining in the accord.
Chief of Chinese delegation to the UN climate conference Xie Zhenhua said that the extension of the Kyoto Protocol and implementation of finance support by rich countries are of central importance for the negotiations. He said a ratifiable and legally binding amendment of the Kyoto Protocol needs to be worked out in Doha so that the treaty can enter an extension right after its first commitment period expires at the end of 2012.
China also stressed that finance
Real implementation of the $
The negotiations on the
The two-decade-old U.N. climate talks have so-far failed in their goal of reducing the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that a vast majority of scientists says are warming the planet.
Countries aim to adopt in 2015 a wider treaty that would apply to all countries and enter force when the Kyoto extension expires.
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sets binding obligations on industrialised countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC is an international environmental tr
The Protocol was adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, and entered into force on 16 February 2005. As of September 2011, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol. The United States signed but did not ratify the Protocol and Canada withdrew from it in 2011.[2] Other United Nations member states which did not ratify the protocol are Afghanistan, Andorra and South Sudan.
Under the Protocol, 37 industrialized countries and the then European Community (the European Union-15, made up of 15 states at the time of the Kyoto negotiations) commit themselves to limit or reduce their emissions of four greenhouse gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride) and two groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perflu
Official debates on climate change began long ago when signs of climatic disorders were observed. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) is an international environmental treaty
The treaty itself set no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms. In that sense, the treaty is considered legally non-binding. Instead, the treaty provides a framework for negotiating specific international treaties (called "protocols") that may set binding limits on greenhouse gases.
The UNFCCC was opened for signature on May 9, 1992, after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report following its meeting in New York from April 30 to May 9, 1992. It entered into force on March 21, 1994. As of May 2011, UNFCCC has 194 parties.
The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.[2] The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 °C (3.6 °F) relative to the pre-industrial level.[3]
One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions. Updated inventories must be regularly submitted by Annex I countries.
Observations
Capitalist countries that view profits by all means more important than security of people, like Japan, India and USA should stop moving in the opposite direction of world opinion. All governments must firmly maintain minimum 25% reduction target as the mid-term goal.
Climate change diplomacy makes strange bedfellows. The Earth's atmosphere contains 'greenhouse gases', such as water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane and when sunlight strikes the Earth's surface some of it is reflected back as infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases absorb some of this radiation and trap the heat in the atmosphere - this is known as the greenhouse effect.Without the greenhouse effect Earth would be an extremely cold, inhospitable place.
What is important is for the world is to formulate a new framework which is fair and effective and which all parties will join. If rich countries which have the financial means, have technology, have a stable population, already have a large middle class, if these countries think they cannot reduce and work to fight climate change, how can they ever think that developing countries can do it? That is why the Kyoto Protocol has to be kept alive. It's the bar. If world takes it out, we would have what people call the Wild West. Everybody will do what they want to do. With everyone doing what they want to do, you are not going get the reductions necessary.
The position of Japan and other developed countries has the potential to reignite the battles between rich and poor nations that have doomed past efforts to reach a deal. So far that hasn't happened, but countries like Brazil are warning that it will be difficult for poor nations to do their part if they continue watching industrialized nations shy away from legally-binding pacts like Kyoto.
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