COP 18 - viewed from Mercosur - vista desde el Mercosur

COP 18 viewed from Mercosur

Mauricio López Dardaine

La COP 18 vista desde el Mercosur

Desde la conferencia de la COP 15 que se reunió en Copenhague en diciembre de 2009, nuestras expectativas respecto de la capacidad y el talento de los líderes mundiales para ponerse de acuerdo sobre medidas efectivas para controlar los efectos del Cambio Climático, al menos aquellos efectos de los que todos nosotros somos responsables, no se han cumplido. Hay, no obstante, cada día más gente en el mundo entero dedicada a esta misión. Todavía falta voluntad y en especial falta verdadero liderazgo político. ¡Dicen que cuando hay voluntad hay siempre un camino!  Así que seguimos el lanzamiento de cada nueva COP con renovadas esperanzas. Pero habiendo sido parte de estos esfuerzos durante los últimos quince años, no podemos sino ser muy cautos con aquello que esperamos en cada una de estas ocasiones.

Del lado del “vaso lleno” podemos contabilizar que los fenómenos climáticos que ha experimentado el mundo en tiempos recientes ha creado una nueva y dolorosa conciencia en casi todos los sectores. Aún estamos siendo demorados en esta lucha por los escépticos climáticos que emplean ese escepticismo como disfraz para sus intereses económicos de corto plazo. Como consecuencia nos vemos hoy frente a los impactos producidos por el cambio climático, y así la necesidad de ADAPTACIÓN crece en nuestra lista de prioridades, a causa del tiempo que hemos perdido para coordinar y financiar los esfuerzos de Mitigación.

Probablemente estamos frente a un escenario mundial donde veremos un considerable número de países y grupos de países que han de redoblar la lucha para controlar los efectos del cambio climático, aún si el resultado de esta COP 18 cae debajo del nivel de nuestras expectativas más realistas.

En ausencia de un régimen multi-lateral de cumplimiento obligatorio, esta situación ha de llevar a escenarios donde se susciten controversias. No obstante, como ocurre en el mundo del comercio internacional, los acuerdos bi-laterales y pluri-laterales relacionados con el Cambio Climático, más los progresos que se logren en Doha a principios de diciembre, constituirán la plataforma sobre la cual habremos de continuar construyendo a partir de 2013.

Cuando se trata de nuestra existencia como raza sobre el sufrido Planeta Tierra, mal podemos pensar en abandonar la lucha.

 

On November 28^th, the United Nations issued the press release we attach bellow (in its essential paragraphs).

We again owe this information to our Chamber of Exporters in Argentina, from where the Observatorio de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable del Instituto de Estrategia Internacional has been following Climate Change negotiations and the nexus between Climate Change and International Trade for some years now.

However, let me say the views expressed through our blog are exclusively our own views. We do mention the source of this information because we tend to be in debt with the Export Chamber, owing to the fact that they do divulge the right information rather promptly each time, and we feel noblesse oblige.

*     *     *

Since COP 15 met in Copenhagen in December 2009 our expectations regarding the ability and talent of world leaders to agree on effective means to curb the effects of Climate Change, at least those effects we are all responsible for, have certainly not been fulfilled. There are however more and more people the world over devoted to this endeavour. We still lack sufficient will power and we specially lack strong political leadership. They say that when there is a will, there is always a way! So we follow the launching of each new COP with renewed hope. But having been involved in this battle for almost fifteen years, we cannot but be very careful regarding what to expect each time.

On the “bright” side of the picture, let’s say that the climate phenomena the world has been experiencing in recent times have created new and painful awareness in almost every quarter. We are still slowed down in our efforts by those who use climate-scepticism as a disguise to cover their short term economic interests. Thus we are now faced with the impacts of climate change, and ADAPTATION is rising in our list of priorities, because we have lost a great deal of time through not providing enough financing and coordination regarding our Mitigation efforts.

We are probably looking at a world where a considerable number of countries and groups of countries will continue to fight the battle to curb the effects of Climate Change, even if the result of COP 18 falls bellow the more realistic expectations people in the know have at the beginning of this week.

This will probably lead to controversy in the absence of a multi-lateral system of compliance. However, as happens in the sphere of world trade, bi-lateral and pluri-lateral agreements regarding Climate Change, plus what progress can be achieved in Doha by early December, will be the available platform from which to launch our renewed efforts at the beginning of 2013.

When we are dealing with the future of our global habitat there is hardly room for thoughts of giving up the fight.

What follows is the essential part of the initial UN report on COP 18: 

About the UNFCCC

“With 195 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 193 of the UNFCCC Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.”

“ At COP 18/CMP 8 in Doha, governments successfully launch work as scheduled

Doha, 28 November, 2012 – Governments at the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar, (COP 18/CMP 8) have successfully launched negotiations and will work to get decision texts ready or as complete as possible for the attention of the high-level ministerial part of the meeting from December 4.

“Work has been launched as scheduled in all the negotiating bodies and governments have shown commitment here to achieve the objectives of this important conference, which must set the stage for a new leap in global ambition to respond to climate change,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“Let us remind ourselves again, here in Doha, that international commitments to cut greenhouse gases and deal with the impacts of climate change are higher than they have ever been yet are still not sufficient to prevent the global average temperature rising beyond the 2 degree centigrade target that governments themselves have agreed to,” she said.

In Doha, governments are expected to usher in a renewed commitment under the Kyoto Protocol (KP), move the broad infrastructure of support they have been building for action in the developing world into firm implementation, and decide how to resolve policy issues that remain outstanding under the UNFCCC.

In the opening plenary of the Kyoto Protocol, on Tuesday, governments expressed commitment to leaving Doha with the necessary amendments to the KP.

Governments will also decide how to stick to the task and timetable they set themselves to reach an effective, fair and ambitious universal climate agreement that is to be adopted in 2015 and to enter into force in 2020, and to raise the current inadequate global ambition to address climate change and its impacts before 2020. The new body negotiating this is the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP).

In addition, countries meeting in Doha need to reach a better understanding on how to mobilize long-term finance to support action in developing nations, which they have agreed must reach a level of USD 100 billion a year by 2020. Details on the negotiating bodies and new institutions can be found in the UNFCCC COP 18/CMP 8 media kit on the UNFCCC website:

<http://unfccc.int/meetings/doha_nov_2012/meeting/6815/php/view/press.php>

The key objectives that governments have set themselves for COP 18 in Doha:  

1) To ensure the seamless continuation of the Kyoto Protocol as of

1 January 2013

The Kyoto Protocol is the only existing and binding agreement under which developed countries commit to cutting greenhouse gases. The treaty underwrites international political trust that developed nations remain responsible to lead emission cuts, and it preserves the important accounting and legal systems inside the Protocol as working models which may inform future agreements.

Key issues under the Protocol that need to be decided in Doha include:

(a) the length of the second commitment period and how to convert targets into so-called "quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives" (QELROs), the unit of binding reduction commitments.

(b) the legal formulation of the amendment to the Protocol, including how to carry over unused emission credits of economies in transition into the second phase of the Protocol.

2) To plan the work under the Durban Platform

Given that much more effort will be needed to cut emissions than is captured under the many existing national pledges to cut and limit emissions, governments decided last year in Durban to reach a universal climate change agreement covering all countries from 2020, to be adopted by 2015, and to find concrete ways before 2020 to increase efforts beyond the existing pledges. In Doha, their objective is to plan the work so that:

a) this task is delivered and the timetable is met; and

b) different national circumstances are addressed in an effective, fair, ambitious agreement.

3) To complete the Bali Action Plan

Governments decided in Durban at the end of last year to complete the 2007 Bali Action Plan, covering the areas of mitigation (curbing greenhouse gas emissions), adaptation to climate change, and the finance, technology and capacity-building which developing countries require to build their low-emission, climate-resilient futures.

In Doha, governments need to decide which elements of the Bali Action Plan have been achieved and/or implemented, what additional decisions can be taken in Doha and which elements may need to continue to be further addressed.

4) To complete new infrastructure and chart the way forward on long-term climate finance.