Cash Seen Key To U.N. Climate Deal

Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 26 May 09;

PARIS - Tens of billions of dollars are likely to be needed to help poor nations curb greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change under a new U.N. treaty, European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.

"Everybody agreed that additional money is needed and without money an agreement in Copenhagen will not be possible," Dimas told Reuters after the first day of a two-day meeting of 17 major greenhouse gas emitters in Paris on Monday.

The talks among environment ministers, the second in an initiative by U.S. President Barack Obama, are working on a new U.N. treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

"We didn't discuss this (issue of cash) but the sooner we have this discussion the better," he said of the talks which included the world's top greenhouse gas emitters led by China, the United States, the EU, Russia and India.

The EU will debate climate finances at a summit on June 18-19 after delays partly caused by recession that has hit state coffers. EU leaders have previously agreed to contribute their fair share to developing nations, Dimas said.

Asked how much cash he reckoned was needed to help curb emissions, Dimas noted a European Commission document in January quoted independent researchers' estimates of net global incremental investments of 175 billion euros ($245 billion) by 2020.

Half of that total would be needed in developing nations.

And he noted the same report quoted a U.N. estimate that costs of helping developing nations adapt to impacts of climate change -- ranging from drought-resistant crops to coastal barriers against rising sea levels -- would be between 23 and 54 billion euros a year by 2030.

Part of that cash could be raised by carbon markets, some by public finances, some by other sources.

LOW-CARBON

Dimas said developing nations also needed cash, for instance, to help train officials to work out strategies to avert dependence on fossil fuels. "Money is urgently needed ... to help develop low-carbon national strategies," he said.

Many developing nations are refusing to outline what they plan to do to slow their rising greenhouse gas emissions, saying they need first to know how much aid will be available. Rich nations want to see poor nations' plans first.

But Dimas also said some actions to curb climate change in poor nations, such as replacing an inefficient coal-fired power plant, could save money by cutting energy consumption.

"There are quite a lot of projects, especially energy efficiency, which will pay for themselves," Dimas said.

France, Germany Urge More Flexible Climate Pact
Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 26 May 09;

PARIS - France and Germany suggested on Monday that rich nations should collectively guarantee deep cuts in greenhouse gases by 2020 while giving flexibility to laggards such as the United States to catch up later.

France said the idea, floated at talks among 17 top greenhouse gas emitters including China, United States, Russia and India, could help toward a new U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen in December.

"There can be more flexibility among us," French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told a news conference on the first day of the two-day talks among ministers, called by U.S. President Barack Obama to help work out a new climate treaty.

He said France and Germany reckoned that developed nations could collectively sign up to cut their overall emissions by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 -- the level outlined by a panel of U.N. scientists to avoid the worst of global warming.

"There may be some who act faster and others who do more later," he said. A collective goal would undercut criticisms by developing nations, led by China and India, that the rich are not serious in fighting climate change.

Countries which have said they cannot reach such deep 2020 goals, led by the United States, could contribute to a new pact in other ways, for instance via a bigger share of financing or green technologies for developing nations, Borloo said.

"There may be constraints on such and such a developed nation -- but we must reach this 2020 objective of 25 to 40 percent," he said. Nations meeting in Paris emit 80 percent of world greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels.

HEATWAVES

"We have to find a compromise," he said, noting scientists' forecasts that global warming would bring more heatwaves, rising sea levels, extinctions, floods and droughts. Rich nations might need a meeting to discuss the idea, he said.

Obama has promised to cut U.S. emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020, a cut of 14 percent from 2007 levels. A bill approved by a key congressional panel last week would cut U.S. emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

By contrast, the European Union has promised deeper cuts, of 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 30 percent if other rich nations follow suit

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday that he wanted Washington to do more, saying it was lagging the European Union in promises to fight global warming. Obama's plan are for far tougher curbs than by his predecessor, George W. Bush.

"I don't think it's correct to say that Europe is proposing a lot and the United States little," Todd Stern, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, told Tuesday's edition of the French daily Le Monde.

"If you look at things from the point of view of the progress that each nation will have to make to reach its objectives, the U.S. level of effort is probably equal, or superior, to that of Europe," Stern said.

Analysts say the Major Economies Forum (MEF) talks at the French Foreign Ministry, the second of three preparatory meetings before a summit in Italy in July, are a chance to air differences away from the public gaze.

"The U.N. negotiations have somewhat fallen back to North-South finger-pointing," said Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. "The MEF is a crucial place where you can make progress on some of the difficult issues out of the limelight."

(Editing by Charles Dick)

Climate change: World's destiny at stake
Jerome Cartillier Yahoo News 25 May 09;

PARIS (AFP) – Ministers from economies accounting for 80 percent of the globe's greenhouse gases met Monday to warnings that "the world's destiny" may lie in the outcome of a mooted pact on climate change.

The so-called Major Economies Forum (MEF) met in Paris ahead of a new round of UN talks aimed at culminating in a sweeping global treaty in Copenhagen in December.

"The world's destiny will probably be at stake in Copenhagen," French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said as he opened the two-day meeting in Paris.

He spoke out against skeptics who predict the accord will cripple the world's economy.

"Copenhagen is not a retrograde vision, it's not the start of negative growth, but a new start for strong, sustainable, sober carbon development," he said.

The 192-nation process under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims at securing cuts in emissions of heat-trapping carbon gases and building defences for poor countries most exposed to changing weather patterns.

It would take effect after 2012, when the current provisions of the convention's Kyoto Protocol run out.

But the negotiations -- due to resume in Bonn on Monday -- are extremely complex and have been hampered by many differences.

The MEF's role is to try to identify common ground among the world's biggest emitters and then hand this consensus back to the UNFCCC for approval.

The Paris meeting will cover financing and the transfer of clean technology, Borloo said.

In Copenhagen, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso admitted the climate negotiations would be "extremely difficult" but argued momentum was building.

"There is now a new situation that would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago," he said, referring to commitments signalled by China and the United States.

"Some of our partners who a few years ago denied the existence of the climate change problem are now discussing the texts for a possible agreement."

One of the stumbling blocks is a demand by developing countries that rich economies, which are chiefly to blame for today's warming, pledge deep cuts in future carbon emissions.

China has demanded reductions of at least 40 percent by 2020, as compared to a benchmark of 1990.

Supporters say a cut of this order will encourage the big developing countries -- led by China, now the world's number-one emitter by some estimates -- to give ground.

But the only advanced economy making concessions on such a scale is the European Union, which is unilaterally targeting a 20 percent cut by 2020 over 1990 levels, and offering 30 percent if other advanced economies follow suit.

By comparison, US President Barack Obama has proposed reducing America's greenhouse gas emissions by 14 percent by 2020 compared to their 2005 level. Analysts say this roughly translates to a three percent cut from 1990 levels.

US climate envoy Todd Stern told AFP on Sunday that China's demand of 40 percent "is not realistic" and cautioned that domestic US politics meant the Obama administration could only go so far with its concessions.

"We are jumping as high as the political system will tolerate," he added.

At a press conference on Monday, Borloo said "there can't be any compromise over assuring others that we will do" a 25-to-40 percent reduction.

The essential thing was to "work in a very imaginative fashion" to achieve a consensus among rich countries so that a 25-to-40 package was put on the table, he said.

"We can have flexibility between us, some of us will do more, more quickly, and others a bit later... there could be commitments that take effect two, three years later, there could be other commitments in other areas," he said.

He spoke of the possibility of "sectoral" agreements in industries that are big carbon emitters, such as electricity or steel.

The MEF was launched by Obama last month on the back of a similar initiative by his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Its participants include Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States, as well as the 27-nation European Union.