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)
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