Reaching new climate change deal in Durban

A global deal must be the aim of a future climate change pact said British Ambassador Martin Uden.

“I don’t need to tell you that climate change is a tremendous challenge,” said Uden.

The United Kingdom has committed to deep carbon cuts.

“In 15 years our emissions will be half of what they were in 1990,” he said. “No other country has binding targets that far ahead or that ambitious.”

Uden explained that by working together, the United Kingdom and Korea can demonstrate the advantages of green growth and build greater public and political support for rapid action to reduce carbon emissions.

“But we must have a whole-world solution,” said Uden. “We need a global legally binding deal that covers emissions from all the major emitters, and the only way to achieve that is through the United Nations.”

Many diplomatic insiders were surprised at the lackluster agreements achieved during the Copenhagen and Cancun meetings during the past two years but cited that the biggest achievement of those two meetings was a consensus that something needs to be done.

Yet the reality of the situation is far greater than everyday expectations due to the complexity of such an international accord.

For decades before the Copenhagen conference in 2009, it was virtually unheard of that developing countries pledged to cut greenhouse gases. Instead, the world looked toward developed countries for answers and responses.

But the rules of the game changed at the run-up for Copenhagen when countries like Brazil, Korea, Mexico and South Africa made eye-opening pledges that would equal about 30 percent or more reduction cuts.

What was even more surprising came from China and India who pledged to intensify their emission reduction goals and took the lead with plans on how to tackle the issue.

Looking ahead towards the United Nations Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9, Uden noted that first and foremost, “we need to reinforce the momentum achieved at Cancun last year and continue to lay the foundations for a binding deal by continuing the progress on climate finance and the rules for measuring and verifying emissions.”

Secondly, Uden said there needs to be a focus on the delivery of the commitments made at Cancun.

“We must put the rules in place to ensure that the emissions pledges are robust, rigorous and quantified,” he said.

Last but not least, the toughest issue of all, a legal form of a future deal needs to move ahead, he noted.

It is widely believed that the Kyoto Protocol cannot deliver the action needed to avoid dangerous climate change because it covers about a quarter of all emissions today and does not include the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions, the United States, who is the only remaining signatory not to have ratified the deal.

Adopted at the end of 1997 and entered into force in 2005, the Protocol was criticized by many diplomats as a patchwork because it did not include any national-level programs in the developing world.

To be fair, the Obama administration including various U.S. states, local, and regional governments have attempted some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis, something that was opposed by the former Bush administration who opted against any Kyoto-type policies.

“We must find ways of bringing the rest of the world into a legal framework. We need to work toward a truly global, legally binding treaty to limit emissions ― and concrete, measurable actions to deliver it. Nothing else can do, or will do,” he said.

(yoav@heraldcorp.com)