Fifty- five nations have met a Jan 31 deadline to submit pledges to the United Nations for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
While UN officials said goals announced by major industrialised nations are a step forward, they are not enough to forestall the disastrous effects of climate change by mid-century.
Janos Pasztor, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon’s top climate adviser, said the goals - submitted to the UN as part of a voluntary plan to roll back emissions - make it highly unlikely the world can prevent temperatures from rising above the target set at the Copenhagen climate conference last December.
The 55 nations included China, the United States and the 27-member European Union, and together they produce 78 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases stemming from fossil fuel burning. Some other nations signed up were Australia, Indonesia, Canada, Japan and India, according to national governments and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is compiling the pledges.
The deadline had been set at the Copenhagen conference. More such commitment letters were expected to continue trickling in over the next several days.
‘It is likely, according to a number of analysts, that if we add up all those figures that were being discussed around Copenhagen, if they’re all implemented, it will still be quite difficult to reach the two degrees,’ Mr Pasztor told AP.
The ‘two degrees’ refers to the Copenhagen target of keeping the Earth’s average temperature from rising two degrees Celsius above the levels that existed before nations began industrialising in the late 18th century. It would be no more than 1.3 degrees C above today’s average temperatures.
‘That is the bottom line, but you can look at it negatively and positively,’ Mr Pasztor said. ‘The negative part is it’s not good enough. The positive side is that, for the first time, we have a goal - a clear goal we’re all working towards.’
The commitment letters, which largely reaffirm previous pledges, were intended to get an idea of how far the nations most responsible for global warming might be willing to go, towards a legally binding pact at the climate conference planned for Mexico City at the end of the year.
China has pledged to reduce its emissions growth - not make absolute cuts - by up to 45 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020. India also pledged to reduce emissions growth by up to 25 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020. The United States stuck to President Barack Obama’s pledge to cut its absolute carbon emissions by about 17 per cent by 2020 below 2005 levels.
The EU has pledged to cut its carbon emissions 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and to cut 30 per cent if other nations deepen their reductions.
The Copenhagen Accord, brokered by Mr Obama and more than two dozen other world leaders, fell far short of the legally binding treaty sought from the two-week conference.
The accord, however, included collective commitments by developed countries to provide billions of dollars to help poor countries adapt to climate change. Nations also were encouraged to formally ‘associate’ themselves with the accord after the conference, but no deadline for that action was set.
UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said the pledges sent in by Jan 31 should at least help to reinvigorate negotiations towards a stronger agreement on climate - a legally binding treaty. The hope is that such a treaty can be completed at the UN climate conference in Mexico City at the end of this year.
‘The commitment to confront climate change at the highest level is beyond doubt,’ Mr de Boer said. He said the pledges were ‘clear signals of willingness to move negotiations towards a successful conclusion’.
Alden Meyer, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the ‘political commitment’ a breakthrough of sorts. ‘This is the first time countries are committed to this goal - that’s the good news,’ he said. ‘The bad news, of course, is the pledges that have been put on the table to date don’t put us on track to meet that goal.’ - AP, Bloomberg
