*[Enwl-eng] Copenhagen Accord Falls Short of Need
ENWL.Bellona
A Copenhagen Climate Accord, Not Nothing, But Not Enough
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, December 19, 2009 (ENS) -
After a marathon all night session at the UN
climate summit in Copenhagen, talks aimed at
reaching a deal to limit greenhouse gases warming
the planet ended with what UN Secretary-General
Ban ki-Moon called an "essential beginning" that
contains progress on all key fronts.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2009/2009-12-19-02.asp
Early this morning, delegates representing 194
countries agreed to "take note" of the Copenhagen
Accord - the result of two weeks of talks and two
years of negotiations. The document, drawn up
Friday by leaders from the United States, China,
India, Brazil and South Africa, is not legally
binding and it was not voted upon or signed, but
simply noted.
Illustration Omitted
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
consults with UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de
Boer, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen
and UNFCCC Deputy Executive Secretary Richard
Kinley (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations
Bulletin)
Ban's assistant later explained that the words
"take note of" and "accept" are nearly equal in
legal terms.
"Finally we sealed the deal. And it is a real
deal," Secretary-General Ban told journalists at
the summit today. "Bringing world leaders to the
table paid off. We have the foundation for the
first truly global agreement that will limit and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support
adaptation for the most vulnerable and launch a
new era of green growth."
The Copenhagen climate change conference was
scheduled to end on Friday, but talks continued
until today because of the disagreement of
several developing countries, including Bolivia,
Cuba, Sudan, Tuvalu and Venezuela. These
countries said they could not accept the
Copenhagen Accord draft because it lacked
ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions.
After persuading the parties to "take note of the
Copenhagen Accord," Ban urged them to translate
it into a legally binding treaty as soon as
possible in 2010.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who
hosted the climate summit, said, "I am satisfied.
We have achieved a result. Now nations will need
to sign on, and if they do so, they will support
what has been agreed. This will have effect
immediately."
Under the Copenhagen Accord, developed countries,
including the United States, will outline a range
of emission reductions targets up to 2020 by
February 1, 2010. This will be the first time the
United States has committed itself to a formal
emissions reduction target.
Both commitments and intentions in terms of
greenhouse gas reductions will be subject to
international monitoring and verification.
Countries accepted to work towards limiting the
rise in global temperatures to below two degree
Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Illustration Omitted
In Copenhagen, from left, President Lula
da Silva of Brazil, President Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela, President Evo Morales of Bolivia
(Photo courtesy ENB)
But there was no agreement on a long-term target
of a 50 percent cut in global greenhouse gas
emissions by 2050 to avert dangerous climate
change, and no agreement that global emissions
should peak by 2015-2020.
Both of these conditions are, according to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
necessary to achieve stabilization of greenhouse
gas concentrations at 450 parts per million and
to avoid global temperature rises of more than
two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The Copenhagen Accord does outline support for
technology transfer and capacity building for
developing economies while putting forward a
financial package aimed at assisting developing
ones adapt to climate change and to begin
de-carbonizing their economies.
A Copenhagen Green Climate Fund of $30 billion,
covering the period 2010-2012, will be available
immediately, and developed nations also supported
a "goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion a year
by 2020 to address the needs of developing
countries."
The Copenhagen Accord recognized the crucial role
of forests in addressing climate change saying
their was a need to recognize reduced emissions
from deforestation and forest degradation plus
conservation (REDD+) through the immediate
establishment of a mechanism to enable the
mobilization of financial resources from
developed countries.
Ban said results were achieved on all four of the
benchmarks for success that he set forth during
the special leaders' summit on climate change
held at UN Headquarters in New York in September.
Illustration Omitted
In Copenhagen, French President Nicolas
Sarkozy pats President Barack Obama on the
shoulder during a briefing with European leaders.
(Photo by Pete Souza courtesy The White House)
"All countries have agreed to work towards a
common long-term goal to limit the global
temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius;
many governments have made important commitments
to reduce or limit emissions; countries have
achieved significant progress on preserving
forests; and countries have agreed to provide
comprehensive support to the most vulnerable to
cope with climate change," Ban said, enumerating
the four benchmarks.
"This was perhaps not the big breakthrough some
had hoped for, but neither was it a breakdown
which at times seemed a possibility," said Achim
Steiner, UN under-secretary general and executive
director of the UN Environment Programme.
"I would have liked more. This will not solve the
threat of climate change. But it is a first step,
an important step," said Swedish Prime Minister
Fredrik Reinfeldt in Copenhagen.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to
lead an international campaign to turn the
agreements established at the Copenhagen into a
legally binding treaty. "This is the first step
we are taking towards a green and low carbon
future for the world, steps we are taking
together. First steps are difficult, but they are
also necessary. Having taken that first step, I
hope that we can move quickly to the next step
which is to get a legally binding treaty."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that all
nations had signed up to a plan to provide
developing nations with up to $100 billion per
year in climate change-related aid by 2020 and
that follow up meetings to Copenhagen would be
held in the German city of Bonn in six months.
Back in Washington after a 24 hour trip to
Copenhagen, President Barack Obama said, "For the
first time in history, all of the world's major
economies have come together to accept their
responsibility to take action to confront the
threat of climate change. After extremely
difficult and complex negotiations this important
breakthrough lays the foundation for
international action in the years to come."
Illustration Omitted
In Copenhagen, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao and U.S. President Barack Obama in a
bilateral meeting December 18, 2009. (Photo by
Pete Souza courtesy The White House)
"At home, that means continuing our efforts to
build a clean energy economy that has the
potential to create millions of new jobs and new
industries," Obama said. "It means passing
legislation that will create the incentives
necessary to spark this clean energy revolution."
"This progress did not come easily and we know
that progress on this particular aspect of
climate change negotiations is not enough," the
President said, emphasizing it is "necessary
ultimately to get" a legally binding agreement.
In Copenhagen on Friday, Obama said, the most
important result of the summit is that large
emerging economies began "for the first time" to
open up to taking on responsibility for limiting
growth of greenhouse gas emissions.
"If you look at a country like India, they still
have hundreds of millions of people that don't
even have electricity, hundreds of millions that
live in dire poverty. For them to, even
voluntarily, say that they will be willing to
reduce their carbon intensity by a given
percentage is a huge step. We applaud them for
that," Obama told journalists.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in
Copenhagen late Friday, "We have all worked hard
to reconcile our different points of view. The
outcome may well fall short of expectations.
Nevertheless, it can become a significant
milestone. I therefore support calls for
subsequent negotiations towards building a truly
global and genuinely collaborative response to
climate change being concluded during 2010."
Illustration Omitted
In Copenhagen, from left South African
President Jacob Zuma, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao,
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian
President Lula da Silva hold an informal
consultation. (Photo courtesy ENB)
"Our targets include installation of 20,000 MW of
solar energy capacity by 2022, improving energy
efficiency by 20 percent by 2020 and adding an
additional six million hectares of forests over
the next several years."
"As responsible citizens of the globe, we have
agreed to take on a voluntary target of reducing
the emission intensity of our GDP growth by
around 20 percent by 2020 in comparison to 2005,"
said Singh.
It is this type of commitment that will be
inscribed in the Annex to the Copenhagen Accord
by February 1, 2010.
Citizens groups reacted to the Copenhagen Accord
from a wide variety of viewpoints.
From a scientific perspective, Martin Rees,
president of Britain's Royal Society, said,
"Anyone who understands risk will know that the
potential effects of a significant increase of
global temperatures are not something that we can
afford to gamble with."
"As a global community, we now move one step
closer to a humanitarian crisis, where those
least able to adapt will be worst affected," said
Rees. "It is essential that world leaders put
aside their differences and come together once
again, make the difficult choices and commit to
taking effective action with firm and binding
targets."
The International Union for the Conservation of
Nature, the world's oldest and largest global
environmental organization, called the Accord "a
first and useful step to slow the course of
climate change - a threat that is already
affecting people, ecosystems and biodiversity in
many parts of the world."
"IUCN urges all countries to build on the
Copenhagen Agreement and to find the common
ground necessary to deliver an equitable,
comprehensive and legally binding agreement by
the end of 2010," said IUCN Director General
Julia Marton-Lefevre.
Dr. Fred Boltz, head of Conservation
International's Copenhagen delegation, said, "The
UN process has not delivered the goods. The
Copenhagen Accord, while better than nothing, is
not enough."
Illustration Omitted
Delegates at the UN climate summit Copenhagen (Photo courtesy UNFCCC)
"We face the challenge of preserving a planet
suitable for humankind. We must regroup and act
decisively in 2010 to forge a proper global
agreement with adequate emissions cuts and
financing to tackle climate change," said Boltz.
"The clock is no longer just ticking - it's
ringing an alarm, and if we don't listen the
consequences for people and biodiversity will be
catastrophic."
From Delhi, the Centre for Science and
Environment called the Copenhagen climate summit
"a failure."
The Accord will not only be disastrous for the
climate, it will freeze the inequity in the world
for perpetuity," said CSE Director Sunita Narain.
She said the Copenhagen Accord "will instantly
forgive industrialised countries' historical
responsibility for climate change, eliminate the
distinction between developed and developing
countries, prevent effective action to curb
global warming, and fatally undermine efforts to
renew the Kyoto Protocol."
"This will be disastrous for the climate, and for
India's most vulnerable communities," said Narain.
The largest Australian environmental group called
the Copenhagen deal "disappointingly weak."
"This is a wing and a prayer deal. While it does
commit to keep warming below 2 degrees, it leaves
all the hard decisions on how to get there to the
fate of ongoing negotiations next year," said Don
Henry, executive director of the Australian
Conservation Foundation.
Illustration Omitted
In Copenhagen, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
hold a bilateral meeting. (Photo courtesy ENB)
The Australian Parliament earlier this year
turned down a bill to limit greenhouse gas
emissions. Henry said Australian lawmakers must
take action now. "It's clear many world leaders
here are moving forward to cut emissions and
transition to low carbon economies - regardless
of the outcome at Copenhagen. Australia is at
risk of being left behind," he said. "We urgently
need a comprehensive set of national climate
laws."
"This is a important moment. Much more is needed,
but today marks a foundation for a global effort
to fight climate change," said Jonathan Lash,
President of the World Resources Institute, a
Washington, DC-based think-tank.
"Victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat. As
a small group of countries threatened to block
the deal, the vast majority of countries elected
to go ahead without them," said Lash.
"In the end, countries recognized that this is an
issue of survival," Lash said. "Rather than let
their survival be held hostage by a handful of
obstructionists, they concluded an agreement with
significant emission cuts and financial pledges."
Illustration Omitted
Civil society demonstrators inside the
Bella Center Wednesday. They were excluded from
Thursday on. (Photo courtesy ENB)
Taking the opposite view, Kate Horner for Friends
of the Earth United States said, "This is the
United Nations and the nations here are not
united on this secret backroom declaration. The
U.S. has lied to the world when they called it a
deal and they lied to over a hundred countries
when they said would listen to their needs. This
toothless declaration, being spun by the U.S. as
an historic success, reflects contempt for the
multilateral process and we expect more from our
Nobel prize winning President."
The TckTckTck campaign, which brought together
millions of people and more than 250 partner
organizations from the environment, development,
human rights, religious, youth, trade union and
media organizations, called the outcome a
"climate shame."
"The Copenhagen climate summit has ended and no,
we do not have the fair, ambitious and legally
binding agreement that millions around the world
hoped that the more than 120 world leaders
gathered here would deliver," the organization
said in a statement on its website and posted on
Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam, Amnesty, Avaaz, and
350.org sites.
"Despite overwhelming scientific evidence and
massive popular support from citizens in
countries North and South, world leaders chose
national political self-interest over the fate of
future generations and failed to resolve the
issues blocking the road towards a just outcome.
While this deal cannot be judged as a success, it
is impossible to be without hope," the coalition
statement says.
"The world's leaders still have a chance to get
it right. They must realize that we expect, and
will not accept, anything less. They're not done
yet. Neither are we."
The next annual United Nations climate conference
will be held in December 2010 in Mexico City.
South Africa has offered to host the following UN
climate conference in December 2011.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.
* * *
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/science/earth/20accord.html?ref=science
A Grudging Accord in Climate Talks
Illustration Omitted
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations
secretary general, spoke at a press conference in
Copenhagen on Saturday Olivier Morin/Agence
France-Presse - Getty Images
By ANDREW C. REVKIN and JOHN M. BRODER
Published: December 19, 2009
COPENHAGEN - After two weeks of delays, theatrics
and last-minute deal-making, the United Nations
climate change talks concluded here early
Saturday morning with a grudging agreement by the
participants to "take note" of a pact shaped by
five major nations.
Illustration Omitted
Recent developments on the politics of
global warming with background, analysis,
timelines and earlier events from NYTimes.com and
Google.
A delegate from China read a final pact - shaped
by five major nations - during a plenary session
on Saturday in Copenhagen.
The final accord, a 12-paragraph document, was a
statement of intention, not a binding pledge to
begin taking action on global warming - a
compromise seen to represent a flawed but
essential step forward.
Robert C. Orr, the United Nations assistant
secretary general for policy and planning, said
that virtually every country had signaled that it
would back the accord, and that "take note" was
shorthand for acceptance.
But many delegates of the 193 countries that had
gathered here left Copenhagen in a sour mood,
disappointed that the pact lacked so many
elements they considered crucial, including firm
targets for mid- or long-term reductions of
greenhouse gas emissions and a deadline for
concluding a binding treaty next year.
Even President Obama, a principal force behind
the final deal, said the accord would take only a
modest step toward healing the Earth's fragile
atmosphere.
Many participants also said that the chaos and
contentiousness of the talks may signal the end
of reliance on a process that for almost two
decades had been viewed as the best approach to
tackling global warming: the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change and a
series of 15 conventions following a 1992 climate
summit meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
The process has become unworkable, many said,
because it has proved virtually impossible to
forge consensus among the disparate blocs of
countries fighting over environmental guilt,
future costs and who should referee the results.
"The climate treaty process isn't going to die,
but the real work of coordinating international
efforts to reduce emissions will primarily occur
elsewhere," said Michael Levi, who has been
tracking the diplomatic effort for the Council on
Foreign Relations.
That elsewhere will likely be a much smaller
group of nations, roughly 30 countries
responsible for 90 percent of global warming
emissions. It was these nations that Mr. Obama
rallied in a series of dramatic encounters on
Friday to finally ink a deal that starts a flow
of financing for poor countries to adapt to
climate change and sets up a system for major
economies to monitor and report their greenhouse
gas emissions.
This smaller group of nations will meet
periodically to tackle a narrower agenda of
issues, like technology sharing or the merging of
carbon trading markets, without the chaos and
posturing of the United Nations process. A
version of this already exists in the 17-nation
Major Economies Forum, which has been a model of
decorum and progress compared with what the world
saw unfold at the climate talks.
The deal worked out in Copenhagen is a political
agreement forged by major emitters to curb
greenhouse gases, to help developing nations
build clean-energy economies and to send money
flowing to cushion the effects of climate change
on vulnerable states. But even if countries live
up to their commitments on emissions, a stark gap
remains - measured in tens of billions of tons of
projected flows of carbon dioxide - between
nations' combined pledges and what would be
required to reliably avert the risks of
disruptive changes in rainfall and drought,
ecosystems and polar ice cover from global
warming, scientists say.
The chances of success substantially hinge on
whether Mr. Obama can fulfill his promises to
reduce American greenhouse gas emissions and
raise tens of billions of dollars to help other
countries deal with global warming. That in turn
depends in large part on whether Congress takes
action on a bill that puts a price on carbon and
devotes a large part of the proceeds to foreign
aid. And that is no sure thing.
Yvo de Boer, the United Nations official who
manages the climate negotiations, said that
though the Copenhagen accord was "politically
incredibly significant," it hardly moved the
treaty process from where it was in 2007, when
the world's countries pledged to complete a
binding agreement here this year.
"We have a lot of work to do on the road to
Mexico," he said, in a reference to the next
climate meeting to be held in Mexico City next
year.
Even reaching the tenuous accord in Copenhagen
was a tortuous path, culminating in an
impassioned debate on the floor of the plenary
meeting that lasted into the wee hours of
Saturday morning.
Speaker after speaker from the developing world
denounced the deal as a sham process fashioned
behind closed doors by a club of rich countries
and large emerging powers. The debate reached
such a pitch that the Sudanese delegate likened
the effect of the accord on poor nations to the
Holocaust.
That set off a backlash and many of the smallest
and most vulnerable nations, while continuing to
express reservations, began falling in line
behind the deal. Ultimately, all but a handful of
countries - Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan and Saudi
Arabia among them - went along with the decision
to accept the document.
Before the parties gathered in Copenhagen, the
United States and China had been sniping at each
other over various aspects of the proposed
agreement, particularly over American demands
that Beijing agree to a system of international
monitoring, through which its public promise to
reduce the carbon intensity of its economy - the
rate of emissions per unit of economic activity -
could be verified. But as that friction was
growing, there was also significant progress on
sharing clean energy technology and even
exchanges between American and Chinese
environmental officials over ways to accurately
measure greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr. Obama and Premier Wen Jiabao of China
conducted a productive summit meeting in Beijing
last month. On Thanksgiving Day, the Chinese
government announced its pollution reduction
target and said it would enforce it with domestic
law. American officials privately said the target
was too low and raised questions about the
reliability of Beijing's reporting methods,
saying that some form of international monitoring
would be necessary. China protested and declared
that it would not sacrifice its sovereignty to an
outside verification scheme.
The friction boiled over on Friday, as Mr. Obama
arrived at the Copenhagen meeting.
Twice during the day, Mr. Wen sent an underling
to represent him at the meetings with Mr. Obama.
To make things worse, each time it was a
lower-level official.
It was bad enough, said officials, describing the
atmosphere later, that Vice Foreign Minister He
Yafei was sitting at the table with President
Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and
other world leaders. But Friday afternoon, after
what administration officials believed had been a
constructive one-on-one meeting between Mr. Obama
and Mr. Wen, the Chinese premier sent his special
representative on climate change negotiations, Yu
Qingtai, to a meeting of the leaders of major
countries, including Mr. Obama.
The White House made a point of noting the snub
in a statement to reporters. Mr. Obama, for his
part, said to his staff: "I don't want to mess
around with this anymore. I want to talk to Wen,"
according to an aide.
The White House set up an evening meeting between
Mr. Obama and Mr. Wen. It also set up a separate
meeting with Jacob Zuma, the president of South
Africa, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of
Brazil, and Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime
minister. The approval of those was needed to
seal any climate deal.
Shortly before the appointed time of the meeting
with Mr. Wen, Denis McDonough, the national
security council chief of staff, and Robert
Gibbs, the White House press secretary, arrived
and were startled to find the Chinese prime
minister already meeting with the leaders of the
three other countries.
They alerted Mr. Obama and he rushed down to the site of the meeting.
"Mr. Premier, are you ready to see me?" Mr. Obama
called from the doorway. "Are you ready?"
Despite its tense start, the meeting led to an
accord that settled a number of issues, including
a compromise on wording on the issue of
monitoring and verification that satisfied Mr.
Wen.
Mr. Obama then took the proposed text to a group
of European nations whose representatives
grumbled but signed off.
As his motorcade idled in front of the conference
center, Mr. Obama took to a rostrum emblazoned
with the presidential seal.
"This progress did not come easily, and we know
that this progress alone is not enough," the
president said, with no note of triumph in his
voice.
He added, "We've come a long way, but we have much further to go."
Reporting was contributed by Helene Cooper,
Elisabeth Rosenthal, Tom Zeller Jr. and James
Kanter.
* * *
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091219/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingscience
Climate scientists underwhelmed by Copenhagen Accord
AFP
Illustration Omitted
Climate scientists underwhelmed by
Copenhagen Accord AFP/File - An aerial view of
buildings standing out amid haze engulfing Wuhan,
central China's Hubei province S
by Marlowe Hood Marlowe Hood - Sat Dec 19, 11:15 am ET
COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Top climate scientists said
Saturday that the eleventh-hour political deal
hammered out at UN talks in Copenhagen falls
perilously short of what is needed to stave off
catastrophic global warming.
What many had hoped would be a planet-saving
treaty locking major economies into strong
commitments to shrink their carbon footprints
came out as a three-page political accord with
key numbers yet to be filled in.
"The easiest yardstick to evaluate is the two
degree target," said Andrew Watson, a professor
at the University of East Anglia in Britain.
"This agreement will almost certainly not be
sufficient to enable that target to be met --
legally-binding tough limits in place over the
next few years would be needed for that," he told
AFP by email.
The Nobel-winning UN science panel warned in a
benchmark 2007 report that if average
temperatures increase by more than 2.0 degrees
Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on
pre-industrial levels, it could lead to runaway
climate change and severe impact.
We have already travelled 0.7 C along that path.
More recent studies suggest the planet could hot
up by a devastating 6.0 C (10.8 F), and that sea
levels could rise by more than a metre (3.25
feet) by 2100 unless we slash CO2 concentrations
in the Earth's atmosphere.
Such a hothouse scenario would create hundreds of
millions of environmental refugees.
"Strictly speaking, it is a disappointment. We
expected more," French climate scientist Herve Le
Treut said of the new accord.
"What we have seen is the diverging interests of nation states and the planet."
Part of the problem is that most of the key
mitigation targets have yet to be finalised.
"There is not much here to analyse. The accord
doesn't have specific emissions targets for
industrial countries, it doesn't have deviation
from 'business as usual' goals for developing
countries," said Alden Meyer of the
Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists.
"If you look at what is likely going to be listed
in the annexes, you are going to be well over a
3.0 C," he told AFP. "The accord also fails to
set a target for 'peak year' for global CO2
emissions, ideally around 2015.
"It is very critical that you get a peak and a
decline starting soon," he added.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer made much the same
point in closing out the 13-day marathon meeting:
"The opportunity to actually make it into the
scientific window of opportunity is getting
smaller and smaller."
The deal does contain a few silver linings, the scientists said.
"At least it may signal that there is some
willingness to take action, so that we might have
a hope of limiting the rise to 3.0 C - 4.0 C, and
avoid the really unknown territory that lies
beyond that," Watson said.
Le Treut agreed.
"It is too early to say it is a failure," he told
AFP. "The scientific community had set the bar
very high: halving global CO2 emissions by
mid-century will be very tough."
That goal, embraced by rich nations, was dropped
from early drafts of the accord due to objections
from China and India, the world's number one and
number three carbon emitters.
"From the evidence of the last two weeks, I would
say we have a heck of a long way still to go if,
as a species, we are to avoid the fate that
usually afflicts populations that outgrow their
resources," said Watson.
* * *
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/healthscience/story/979628.html
Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009
Climate reality: Voluntary efforts not enough
By SETH BORENSTEIN - AP Science Writer
COPENHAGEN -- Around the world, countries and
capitalism are already working to curb global
warming on their own, with or without a global
treaty.
In Brazil more rainforests are being saved, and
in Chicago there's a voluntary carbon pollution
trading system. People recycle, buy smaller and
newer cars, and change lightbulbs.
But the impact of such piecemeal, voluntary
efforts is small. Experts say it will never be
enough without the kind of strong global
agreement that eluded negotiators at the U.N.
summit this past week in Copenhagen.
Illustration Omitted
Photo - A delegate rests his head, after
a 24-hour period of plenary sessions at the UN
Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Saturday, Dec.19,
2009. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "we
have a deal" after a climate conference in
Copenhagen decided to recognize a political
accord brokered by President Barack Obama with
China and other emerging powers.
Emissions of greenhouse gases keep rising and so do global temperatures.
Dozens of countries - including the top two
carbon polluters, China and the United States -
came to the climate talks with proposals to
ratchet down pollution levels.
But analysis by the United Nations and outside
management systems experts show that those
voluntary reductions will not keep temperatures
from increasing by more than 1.3 degrees Celsius
(2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with now.
That's the level that scientists, the United
Nations, the European Union and the Obama
administration have said the world cannot afford.
Good intentions aren't enough. The deal forged by
President Barack Obama with China and several
other countries sets up the first major program
of climate aid to poorer nations to help them
deal with climate change. But it offers few
specifics and goes no farther than emissions
curbs already pledged. More negotiations are
planned for next year.
"It just underlines the heroic effort here that
the science says needs to be done; it's not
easy," said Alden Meyer, policy director at the
Union of Concerned Scientists. "If it were easy,
it would have been done. This is a daunting
effort."
And no one knew that more than a weary Obama, who
14 hours after arriving in Copenhagen, unveiled
the political agreement by saying "more
aggressive" emission cuts were needed and so were
still-unseen scientific breakthroughs.
"But this is going to be hard," Obama said in a
news conference late Friday. "This is hard within
countries; it's going to be even harder between
countries."
"Hard stuff ... requires going ahead and making
the best of the situation that you're in at this
point, and then continually trying to improve and
make progress from there," Obama added.
Upon announcement of the deal, a team of experts
led by an MIT professor made quick calculatons:
The average global temperature is likely to rise
3.2 degrees Celsius (5.7 degrees F.) above
current temperatures.
So the response from many, but not all,
environmental activists and poorer nations was
"not enough."
That's not for lack of trying.
The U.S. private sector already has invested
hundreds of billions of dollars to cut emissions,
and that is probably just the beginning no matter
what happened in Copenhagen.
Between 2007 and 2008, energy-related carbon
dioxide emissions in the U.S. fell 2.8 percent,
though part of that was related to the recession.
A study this year by McGraw Hill Construction
said between $36 billion and $49 billion of
eco-friendly buildings are under development.
That figure is expected to triple by 2013.
The owners of New York's Empire State building
spent $13.2 million on environmental retrofits to
draw new tenants.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. retrofitted about 500
buildings this year. Part of the project included
installing skylights with the goal of cutting up
to 75 percent of the energy used to light stores.
In Chicago, a company started a voluntary
commodities market to trade credits for reducing
carbon pollution. It has reduced carbon dioxide
pollution by the equivalent of 400 million metric
tons in the six years since 2003. That sounds
like a lot, but the U.S. emitted 7.05 billion
metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent last
year alone.
AP writers Dina Cappiello, Joseph Hebert and
Steven Manning in Washington, Frank Bajak in
Bogota, and Chris Kahn and Anne D'Innocenzio in
New York contributed to this report.
Read more:
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/healthscience/story/979628.html#ixzz0aIP66pBa
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From: "Yahoo News Groups" <ashwani....@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 2:58 PM
Subject: News: Copenhagen Accord Falls Short of Need
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