The Office of Tony Blair and The Climate Group today launched “Doing the Deal: key elements for a Copenhagen Climate Agreement”, the latest report from their joint Breaking The Climate Deadlock initiative.
The report, aimed at heads of government and ministers as they arrive in Copenhagen to seal a new climate agreement, outlines three elements that will need to be at heart of the accord - emissions reduction targets, finance and the basic architecture. It argues that countries should lock in the most ambitious pledges they have made already and then use the time between now and signing a formal treaty to ratchet up commitments.
In particular, countries should agree to:
- a review mechanism that allows automatic scaling up of ambition by 2015
- commit now to deeper cuts beyond 2020
- prepare low carbon growth plans that will identify new abatement opportunities
- put money down for a fast start mechanism that starts cutting emissions immediately
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “What countries have pledged already is a major step in the right direction. We need to bind these pledges together and get on with implementation. I’m convinced that once we get going and unleash the creativity of business, we’ll quickly find that it’s easier than people thought and be able to scale up our ambition. “
The Climate Group CEO Steve Howard agreed: “The businesses we work with need a long-term signal from Copenhagen. With the deal we outline we will see an unparalleled wave of investment and innovation: a clean energy and technology revolution. It is right for the planet and the right for the economy - we just need our leaders to seal the deal.”
The group also published three other major reports as part of this initiative:
- Cutting the Cost: The Economic Benefits of Collaborative Climate Action – Using economic models, Cutting the Cost shows that a concerted global effort on climate change yields greater benefits for all major economies, than if nations were to go it alone.
- Technology for a Low Carbon Future – The report shows that we can achieve 70% of emission reductions needed by 2020 by using technologies that already exist and by addressing deforestation.
- A Global Deal for Our Low Carbon Future - Global Deal for Our Low Carbon Future targets policy makers, business leaders and opinion formers in the major industrialized and rapidly developing economies.
All reports can be found here.
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