Posted on 23 November
2010
Brussels, Belgium: European Union member
states are collectively putting in just
one third of the effort required to curb
climate change causing emissions
to safe levels, according to a climate policy
analysis issued today by global environment
organisation WWF and leading energy and
climate analysts Ecofys
The Climate Policy Tracker
for the European Union, which analyses climate
policy country by country across key considerations
that include energy, building and transport
efficiency and support for renewable energy,
found no states yet had the overall policy
frameworks needed to meet the target of
an 80-95% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
by 2050.
Even combining current
best in class policies across all sectors
would still leave a hypothetical European
country reducing emissions by only two thirds
of the required levels.
“The Climate Policy
Tracker is a powerful tool that measures
the impact of policies and their effectiveness.
It allows people to easily identify the
policy sectors which need more attention
and where action is most effective in reducing
emissions”, says Niklas Höhne, Director
of Energy & Climate Policy at Ecofys.
“There are success stories
in each country and policy makers should
learn from best practices across Europe.
Overall, however, the ratings are low. Support
for renewable energy is most widely implemented
across Europe and shows the most progress,
whilst energy efficiency, transport and
industry are lagging behind.”
The Climate Policy Tracker
reveals large differences in levels of ambition
and best practices across EU countries when
it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
however the report shows that overall the
results are weak.
One key benefit of the
Climate Policy Tracker is that it clearly
shows how and why the EU is failing to meet
its targets.
“Every country and the
EU as a whole, needs 2050 decarbonisation
legislation otherwise we are rudderless,"
said Jason Anderson, Head of Climate &
Energy Policy at WWF European Policy Office.
“The deep cuts needed
for 2050 have to happen across the economy.
Member States need to scan their full policy
portfolios to address weaknesses. They also
need to commit to improving their implementation
of EU policies, since 40% of results hinge
on European legislation.”
"Now we can also
clearly see that the mid-term 2020 climate
target needs a boost and that calling for
20% reduction is not good enough – it will
never allow us to reach a low-carbon economy
by 2050.”
The Climate Policy Tracker
for the European Union is compiled from
publicly available information and WWF and
Ecofys are committed to periodically updating
the analysis.
All sectors which influence
and increase greenhouse gas emissions across
the European Union are covered by the comparative
policy analysis. The presence and adequacy
of a General Climate Policy heads the list,
which also covers measures which serve to
reduce or increase emissions in Electricity
Supply, Industry, Buildings, Transport,
Agriculture and Forestry policies.
In the scale of A to
G, the best performing European States are
rated D and need to about double their current
commitments to meet the 2050 targets. The
average overall performance is rated as
E.
"Support for renewable
energy is most widely implemented,"
the report notes. "Countries have developed
and implemented comprehensive strategies
to support renewable energy and have gained
experience with the removal of barriers.
"Renewable energy
policies are best developed for electricity
produciton with an average of a D rating.
However these are moderate for buildings
and transport (average E), and particularly
weak for energy (average F)."
By contrast "the
area of energy efficiency is less well covered
and the actions are far less comprehensive"
with an average rating of F.
+ More
Copenhagen commitments
not nearly enough, UNEP tells Cancun
Posted on 23 November
2010
Gland, Switzerland: A United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) assessment finding the
Copenhagen Accord commitments insufficient
to reduce climate changing emissions to
safe levels is yet another warning the world
needs to do more, WWF said yesterday.
The UNEP Emissions Gap
Report: Are the Copenhagen Accord pledges
sufficient to limit global warming to 2°C
or 1.5°C , issued on the eve of the
UN Climate summit in Cancun, Mexico shows
that “lenient” implementation of the lowest
ambition pledges made under the Copenhagen
Accord would lead to a 20 per cent over-run
in carbon emissions in 2020, compared to
the levels required to limit global warming
to 2°C.
"This authoritative
study amply confirms that there is an alarming
'gigatonnes gap' between the emission pledges
put on the table at Copenhagen and the much
lower levels needed to secure a safe climate
future,” said Gordon Shepherd, leader of
WWF’s Global Climate Initiative.
“Governments meeting
for the UN climate negotiations in Cancun
in just a few days time need to fully recognize
the scale of this gap, and kick off a process
that can start to close it. As a no-brainer,
delegates need to agree text that will close
the various loopholes that, though dubious
accounting tricks, threaten to turn a large
gap into a yawning gulf."
The UNEP finding of
a gap of around 9 gigatonnes of emissions
of CO2 equivalent between what science shows
is needed to keep the planet below 2°C
warming and what governments are promising
to do, is comparable to a WWF “gigatonne
gap” analysis published in October this
year, estimating a gap of around 10 gigatonnes
of CO2e.
“Industrialized countries
have a leadership role to play but are fulfilling
this part badly,” said Shepherd, referring
to the publication, also today, of an climate
policy tracker for the European Union, showing
that EU member states are collectively putting
in only one third of the effort required
to reduce their emissions while the best
performing countries shift this level to
only half.
"The EU is currently
stuck on a 20 per cent emission target for
2020 that is now essentially business as
usual,” said Shepherd. “The EU urgently
needs to move to its long proposed target
of at least 30% - by doing so it could help
close the gigatonne gap, lay the foundations
for its own transition to a green economy
and help to re-energise the international
climate talks."
World leaders back tiger summit rhetoric
with recovery plan, seed money
Posted on 23 November 2010
St. Petersburg, Russia: World leaders and
countries that have wild tigers today endorsed
a major plan to double the number of tigers
in the wild by 2022 underscoring their commitments
at the historic International Tiger Conservation
Forum.
Hosted by Russian Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin, governments capped
a year-long political process with about
USD 127 million in new funding to support
the plan, known as the Global Tiger Recovery
Programme.
In addition, the World
Bank has offered a USD 100 million loan
package to three tiger range countries for
conservation work, and the Global Environment
Facility offered to provide up to USD 50
million in grant funding for tiger habitat
conservation.
“Too often, conservation
efforts languish for lack of political will,”
said WWF Director General Jim Leape. “At
the Forum here in St. Petersburg we have
seen political will at the highest level
- heads of government committing themselves
to saving the tiger, and laying out concrete
plans to turn those commitments into action
on the ground.”
“We have never before
seen this kind of political support to save
a single species,” Leape said. “We now have
the strategy needed to double tiger numbers
and real political momentum.”
“Initial funding commitments
offered here will help get action underway.
Much more funding must be mobilized in the
months ahead."
"I am confident
that we will look back on this day as a
turning point in the effort to save one
of the world's best-loved animals,"
Leape said.
Most urgent priority
The 12-year-plan is
an amalgamation of national tiger conservation
actions and global targets costing an estimated
USD 350 million during the next five years
to halt the decline of tigers.
The USD 350 million
is the remaining cost of the overall plan,
not covered by countries holding wild tigers
in their individual national plans.
There are as few as
3,200 tigers left in the wild, putting the
species on the brink of extinction.
New funding commitments
made as a result of the summit process included:
The U.S. will allocate
an additional USD 9.2 million to tiger conservation
to combat illegal poaching and trafficking
Germany will allocate an additional USD
17.2 million for tiger landscape conservation
in Russia, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam
WWF has committed to spend USD 50 million
over the next five years on tiger conservation,
and set a goal of increasing that to USD
85 million
Today Leonardo DiCaprio announced a donation
of USD 1 million to WWF to support tiger
conservation work across WWF’s twelve priority
landscapes
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
will spend a minimum of USD 50 million during
the next 10 years on tiger conservation
The Global Tiger Forum announced a grant
of approximately USD 250,000 to support
tiger conservation in Nepal
The World Bank offered a USD 100 million
loan package to Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh
to support tiger conservation work
Global Environment Facility offered to provide
up to USD 50 million in grant funding for
tiger habitat conservation
“We hope these historic
commitments from world leaders will turn
into immediate action on the ground for
tigers,” said Michael Baltzer, head of WWF’s
Tigers Alive initiative.
“What we really need
is immediate action on the ground, meaning
stepped up anti-poaching and anti-trafficking
work, from the 13 tiger range countries.
This must be matched by financial support
from the international community.”
“We hope rich countries
will mirror our funding efforts, or ultimately
we’re going to keep losing tigers.”
On Tuesday, world leaders
also heard by video link from the WWF Youth
Tiger Forum which took place simultaneously
in Vladivostok.
Youth delegates from
all 13 tiger range countries who participated
in the forum presented a special appeal
to the leaders to save wild tigers and support
the recovery plan.
“What we wanted is for
world leaders to hear from young people
about the importance of saving tigers, and
not from us or bureaucrats,” said WWF-Russia
CEO Igor Chestin. “This gave a voice to
the public to lend their support to help
save wild tigers.”
The Global Tiger Recovery
Programme was developed by countries that
have tigers, which took more than a year
to put together, and lays out a comprehensive
set of actions to help tigers recover from
decades of poaching and destruction of their
forest homes.
The cost of the initial
stage of the recovery programme, prepared
by the tiger range countries with support
from the Global Tiger Initiative of the
World Bank, the Global Environment Facility
and other tiger conservation partners including
WWF, has been largely covered by the tiger
range countries themselves, but USD 350
Million is needed from the international
community.
Of this total, the most
urgent and critical to the recovery is the
need for USD 35 Million to fill the current
funding gap required to protect and monitor
the last remaining refuges of tigers, based
a on recent study published in PLoS Biology.
