Copenhagen, 19 December
2009-After a marathon all night session,
talks aimed at injecting new and more wide-ranging
momentum into the international effort to
combat climate change ended with a positive
outcome.
Countries attending
the UN climate convention's summit in the
Danish capital agreed to 'take note' of
a document entitled the Copenhagen Accord.
For the first time in
the history of climate change cooperation,
developing countries including Brazil, China,
India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and
the small and threatened Republic of the
Maldives outlined intentions to decouple
emissions from economic growth.
Developed countries
including the United States will also outline
a range of emission reductions targets up
to 2020 by 1 February 2010. Both commitments
and intentions in terms of greenhouse gas
reductions will be subject to international
monitoring and verification.
Countries accepted to
work towards limiting the rise in global
temperatures to below 2 degree Celsius above
pre-industrial levels. However, emission
reduction commitments by 2050 were in the
end not included in the final document.
Importantly, the Accord
outlines support for technology transfer
and capacity building for developing economies
while also putting forward a financial package
aimed at assisting developing ones adapt
to climate change and to begin de-carbonizing
their economies.
Additional resources
of US$30 billion, covering the period 2010-2012,
will be available immediately and developed
nations also supported a "goal of mobilizing
jointly US$100 billion a year by 2020 to
address the needs of developing countries".
The Accord recognized
the crucial role of forests in addressing
climate change, saying their was a need
to recognize reduced emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation (REDD+) via the immediate
establishment of a mechanism to enable the
mobilization of financial resources from
developed countries.
The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agricultural
Organization and the UN Development Programme
are spearheading the UN REDD programme which
is already assisting close to a dozen developing
countries prepare for a REDD regime.
UN-REDD dovetails with other initiatives,
including the World Bank's Forest Carbon
Partnership Facility.
The culmination of two
weeks of talks and two years of negotiations,
today's outcome was welcomed by UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, who said: "The U.N. system
will work to immediately start to deliver
meaningful results to people in need and
jump-start clean-energy growth in developing
countries."
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director of UNEP,
said: "This was perhaps not the big
breakthrough some had hoped for, but neither
was it a breakdown which at times seemed
a possibility. The litmus test of developed
countries' ambitions will in a sense come
immediately. If the funds promised in the
Accord start flowing swiftly and to the
levels announced, then a new international
climate change policy may have been born."
He said that the outcome
represented a compromise of a myriad of
differing national and economic interests
including developed, developing, least developed
and small-island developing states.
"Trying to take
over 190 countries through the same door
towards a more cooperative global warming
policy has proved challenging but, ultimately
possible and do-able. Time will be the true
judge as to whether 19 December 2009 was
indeed an historic date for accelerating
a response to combating dangerous climate
change and for more sustainable management
of economically important ecosystems, such
as forests," said Mr. Steiner.
He said he hoped the
outcome would also restore certainty to
global carbon markets by demonstrating a
scaled-up international commitment to climate
change while assisting to focus and to catalyze
the investments -including private sector
ones-towards a low carbon economy.
Mr. Steiner said the
aim of limiting a global temperature rise
to below 2 degrees Celsius had fallen short
of the calls of many countries, including
ones in Africa and small-island developing
states who had been urging for temperatures
to be pegged no higher than 1.5 degree Celsius.
But he said hoped that
with the Accord underway, it may be possible
to accelerate the international response
and ambition on reducing greenhouse gases
in order to achieve a far lower overall
temperature rise in 40 years time than below
2 degrees Celsius. Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson
Notes to Editors:
United Nations Climate Change Conference
http://www.unep.org/climatechange/CopenhagenCOP15/Day12/tabid/2658/language/en-US/Default.aspx
UN-REDD www.un-redd.org
Seal the Deal 2009 http://www.sealthedeal2009.org/
The UN-led Seal the
Deal campaign, working with various civil
society groups, coalesced around 13 million
signatures from all around the world asking
for a fair, equitable and ambitious deal.
These signatures were
collected, along with people's stories,
videos, photos and testimonies citing the
impact of climate change upon their livelihoods
and health, and placed on an electronic
data stick within a silver "people's
orb". The Orb having been present throughout
various events during the two-week climate
summit to represent civil society, has been
taken to New York with UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon.
Speaking on Saturday,
Mr. Ban said he welcomed the deal. "It
may not be everything we hoped for, but
this decision of the Conference of Parties
is an essential beginning and we must transform
this into a legally binding treaty next
year. The importance will only be recognised
when it is codified into international law,"
he said.
