First official draft
on climate deal
The world should at least cut its
total greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050,
says the document from a key UN working group. 12/12/2009
- A key working group under the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came up with a six-page text
Friday. The draft may form the core of a new global agreement
to combat climate change beyond 2012, when the present
framework, the Kyoto Protocol, expires. However, most
figures in the text are shown in brackets – meaning
that there is not yet agreement on these specifics. Most
importantly, the draft states that emissions should be
halved worldwide by 2050 compared to 1990 levels, but
it also suggests 80 percent and 95 percent reductions
by that year as possible alternative options.
The draft is produced by Michael
Zammit Cutajar, Chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term
Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA).
Even the core goal of the deal
is in brackets. Throughout 2009, a number of scientific
and political conferences have called for global warming
to be kept below two degrees Celsius. Still, the new draft
mentions 1.5 degrees Celsius as a possible alternative
goal.
Besides the ultimate target of
cutting emissions by 50 percent (or 80 percent, or 95
percent respectively) by 2050, the paper also puts forth
an interim target by 2020 to be set. For emissions generated
by developed nations, a target of 75 percent in reductions
(or more – ranging up to 95 percent) is suggested.
As for developing countries, the text calls for “substantial
deviations” from present growth rates in emissions.
Comments from climate groups vary:
“There are many holes - the text displays diversions.
Still it (the draft) clearly shows that it is possible
to reach a deal. The holes need to be filled through political
will and specific political commitments. We still do not
know how much money will be paid and by whom,” Kim
Carstensen, head of global conservation organisation WWF’s
climate campaign, tells Danish daily Berlingske.
More critical is Erwin Jackson
of the Australian Climate Institute: “It would be
a huge backwards step if this is adopted. There is no
mandate for a legally binding treaty that would take in
the US or the big developing countries like China and
India,” Erwin Jackson tells The Sydney Morning Herald.
(Photo: UNFCCC/IISD)
Do UNFCCC
