The EU’s demand – supported by vulnerable small island states and most developing countries, including the poorest – that Durban needed to produce a mandate to launch negotiations with a view to concluding an “agreed outcome with legal force” by 2015 so that it could enter into force in 2020.
The world is running out of time, as recent reports by the UN Environment Programme, the International Energy Agency and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have made abundantly clear. In summary, a massive “gigatonne gap” needs to be rapidly closed between what’s already on the table in terms of voluntary pledges and what the scientists say is needed if we are to have any chance of achieving the agreed target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. The EU is the only major developed country bloc to agree to a continuation. Japan, Canada and Russia have all refused, and the US has never ratified the pact.
China and India, the other principal obstacles to a more credible deal in Durban, also have cases to answer. In fact China and India, which have become carbon emitters #1 and #3 respectively in last decade, heatedly opposed the EU’s plan. The Indians had all along been the main objectors to the idea of a legally-binding agreement. They suggested that the new treaty should have "a legal outcome"; but EU negotiators were convinced this could refer merely to decisions of future meetings of the UN Climate Convention such as the Durban one. India’s Environment Minister said this would undermine the Kyoto principle, which shared responsibility for atmosphere pollution. As the industrialized countries had a head start of 150 years, their duty should not be re-evaluated, he said. Chinese negotiator Xie Zhenhua added the industrial nations have not lived up to their promises while China and other developing countries had launched ambitious green programs.
The European Union roundly rejected it, threatening the talks with collapse. Eventually the chief Brazilian negotiator, Luiz Figueiredo Machado, suggested another form of wording – "an agreed outcome with legal force".
The USA, coming in as largest man-made carbon emitter #2, was included into the Kyoto protocol’s list of countries obliged to curb their greenhouse gases emissions. So far, the US went along reluctantly with the EU’s demand.
Hard negotiations forced the delegates into overtime at the weekend to continue bickering, line by line, over the 200 pages of negotiating texts even after talking for two whole weeks. EU negotiations in the conference were led by Britain's Energy and Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne, and his German opposite number, Norbert Roettgen – although it was Ms Hedegaard who finally clinched the deal. Ms Hedegaard and Ms Natarajan then argued the toss, with the Indian minister eventually giving way, accepting the revised text, and making agreement possible.
There is no doubt that the outcome was a notable success for the European Union as a corporate body acting together, as all member states had maintained a completely united front over their quest for a new climate treaty which for the first time would bind all nations legally.
Mr Huhne said last night: "It shows that when the European Union is united, we can play an absolutely critical role in protecting our national interests. This is a very good example of how the European Union actually can act very crucially in the British national interest, in a way we could not possibly achieve on our own."
The outcome of the UN climate change conference in Durban shows how difficult it is going to be to reach any meaningful agreement on tackling by far the most challenging problem that the world faces in the years and decades ahead – global warming. Despite clear warnings from scientists that carbon emissions must peak soon if we are to have any chance of limiting the increase in average surface temperatures at 2 degrees Celsius. A UN emissions control marathon has finally brought hope to avoid climatic Wild West worldwide. The conference in South African Durban has approved a deal to fill in a decade-long gap between the expiring Kyoto Protocol and a future climate accord.
The approval of the new accord, seen as the main tool to fight climate change, is deemed by 2015. The conference expects its participants to ratify the pact by 2020 as the latest. After that the signees will be legally bound to carry out any pledges they make. The extension of the Kyoto Protocol came as a big relief to many ecologists and developing nations which suffer most from the climate change.
The Durban Climate Conference also resulted in creation of a Green Fund, which will be sponsored by developed countries to assist the developing countries in adoption to climate change, Slivyak told RT. He exposed that the Green Fund’s bourse will hold as much as $30 billion within the next several years.
“By 2020 the Green Fund will have $100 billion at its disposal and this is a great forward, though for Russia this move does not mean much, because Russia will neither take, nor give its money to the fund,” the ecologist mentioned.
So, what about emission control targets? To what extent they were met?
While some developing nations and ecologists sighed with relief over the extension of the Kyoto protocol, the others were frustrated the meeting in Durban failed to move faster and deeper in cutting carbon emissions. The conference has not provided new emission control targets. “They haven’t reached a real deal,” said Samantha Smith, of WWF International. “They watered things down so everyone could get on board."
A couple more years of power generation and industry fuming with carbon dioxide and the Earth will be set on a possibly irreversible path of rising temperatures that lead to ever greater climate catastrophes – more severe droughts, floods and storm, the scientists said
Scientists and environmental groups warned that urgent action was still needed to rescue the world from climate change, despite the deal sealed on Sunday morning in Durban after two weeks of talks. Andy Atkins, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: "This empty shell of a plan leaves the planet hurtling towards catastrophic climate change. If Durban is to be a historic stepping stone towards success the world must urgently agree ambitious targets to slash emissions." Although governments managed to find a last-minute deal that should lead to the first legally binding global agreement on climate change covering developed and developing countries, they did not discuss whether their pledges to cut emissions would prevent dangerous levels of global warming.
"What is positive in Durban is that governments have reopened the door to a legally binding global agreement involving the world's major emitters, a door which many thought had been shut at the Copenhagen conference in 2009," said Bill Hare, director at Climate Action Tracker.
"What remains to be done is to take more ambitious actions to reduce emissions, and until this is done we are still headed to over 3C warming. There are still no new pledges on the table and the process agreed in Durban towards raising the ambition and increasing emission reductions is uncertain in its outcome."
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