Factbox: Big emitters signal support for Copenhagen Accord

Reuters 28 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE - Restated plans to cut emissions by 7-11 percent below business as usual levels by 2020 on January 11. It would expand the offer to a 16 percent cut "when a global agreement on climate change is reached."

(Reuters) - The United States, the world's top industrial emitter of greenhouse gases, on Thursday joined other countries in support of the "Copenhagen Accord" on combating climate change.

Governments are meant to tell the United Nations by Sunday if they want to be associated with the accord, worked out last month, and submit their plans for curbing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The deadline is flexible.

The accord, falling far short of many countries' hopes, seeks to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times, with the prospect of an annual $100 billion in climate aid for the poor from 2020.

Worked out by big emitters led by China and the United States, the deal was not formally adopted by the U.N. summit on December 19 after objections by a few developing nations. That triggered a demand for all to take sides by the end of January.

Following are plans announced since Copenhagen (followed by percentage of world emissions in brackets -- based on U.S. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center data of emissions from fossil fuels and cement production):

CHINA (22 percent), INDIA (6), SOUTH AFRICA (1), BRAZIL (1) -- known as the BASIC group. Environment ministers said after a meeting in New Delhi on January 24 they would respect the deadline to submit plans for 2020 emissions and challenged donors to deliver on aid promises.

Their past pledges are:

-- China said on November 26 it would cut the amount of carbon produced per unit of economic output by 40 to 45 percent below projected growth levels by 2020 from 2005. The "carbon intensity" goal would let emissions keep rising, but more slowly than economic growth.

-- India said on December 3 it would cut "carbon intensity" by between 20 and 25 percent by 2020 from 2005.

-- South Africa offered on December 6 to slow the growth of its emissions by 34 percent below projected levels by 2020, conditional on a broad international deal and aid.

-- Brazil reaffirmed on December 28 a goal announced before Copenhagen of reducing emissions by between 36 and 39 percent below projected levels by 2020. At the most ambitious end of the range, it said emissions would fall by 20 percent from 2005 levels back to 1994 levels.

UNITED STATES (18) - U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said on Thursday that the country will aim to cut emissions about 17 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels, confirming a goal set by the White House late last year. Earlier in the month he said, "We have an accord that is lumbering down the runway and we need for it to have enough speed to take off.

The target -- 4 percent below 1990 levels -- may be harder to achieve after the Democrats lost a key Senate seat.

EUROPEAN UNION (15) - Reiterated on January 27 an offer of a unilateral goal of a 20 percent emissions cut by 2020, from 1990 levels, and 30 percent if other nations deepened their reductions.

JAPAN (4) - Japan's foreign ministry said on January 26 that it was reiterating an offer to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 -- on condition other emitters led by China and the United States agreed an ambitious deal.

AUSTRALIA (1) - Australia reaffirmed its 5 to 25 percent emissions cut range, below 2000 levels and corresponding to 3-23 percent under 1990, the government said on January 27. A decision to move beyond a unilateral 5 percent would not happen until the "level of global ambition becomes sufficiently clear."

Smaller emitters:

NORWAY - Reiterated on January 28 a unilateral promise to cut emissions by 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 40 percent if other nations set tougher goals.

SINGAPORE - Restated plans to cut emissions by 7-11 percent below business as usual levels by 2020 on January 11. It would expand the offer to a 16 percent cut "when a global agreement on climate change is reached."

MALI - Said on January 22 it wanted to be associated with the deal.

CUBA - Wrote to U.N. Secretariat expressing opposition to the accord.

The U.S. Climate Action Network also published letters from BANGLADESH, SAMOA, THE MARSHALL ISLANDS and MACEDONIA expressing support for the accord. THE PHILIPPINES said it will back the deal if rich nations in the next few months make "deep and early cuts" in emissions.

(Compiled by Alister Doyle in Oslo, additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington, editing by Michael Roddy)

U.S. Formally Embraces Copenhagen Climate Deal
Richard Cowan, Planet Ark 29 Jan 10;

WASHINGTON - The United States on Thursday formally notified the United Nations that it has embraced the Copenhagen Accord setting nonbinding goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that was negotiated last month.

Todd Stern, the top U.S. climate negotiator for the Obama administration, also gave notice that, as expected, it will aim for a 17 percent reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming by 2020, with 2005 as the base year.

A final emissions reduction target will be submitted, the U.S. said, once the U.S. Congress enacts domestic legislation requiring carbon pollution cuts. But such legislation has an uncertain fate in the Senate.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

US recommits to climate goals
Shaun Tandon Yahoo News 29 Jan 10;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States Thursday officially told the United Nations it will cut carbon emissions, predicting Congress would move ahead on fighting climate change but pressing other countries to do likewise.

President Barack Obama's administration outlined US climate goals in a submission to the United Nations, which was requested of all nations by January 31 as part of the Copenhagen summit held last month.

The United States, long the industrial world's main holdout from climate change agreements, said it would cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming "in the range of 17 percent" by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.

"The US submission reflects President Obama's continued commitment to meeting the climate change and clean energy challenge," US climate envoy Todd Stern said in a letter to Yvo de Boer, head of the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Stern said that robust action "will strengthen our economy, enhance our national security and protect our environment."

However, Stern said that the US pledges were made "on the assumption" that major developed and developing nations would make similar submissions.

"We expect that all major economies will honor their agreement in Copenhagen to submit their mitigation targets or actions," he said.

The summit had asked nations to report by January 31 whether they would associate themselves with the accord and join efforts to draft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose legal obligations run out at the end of 2012.

The United States appears to be one of the first to formally submit its papers. The UNFCCC has indicated that it did not consider January 31 a strict deadline amid rancor around the world over how to battle rising temperatures.

The submission came hours after Obama made his first State of the Union address, where he urged a joint session of Congress to move ahead on climate legislation.

But Obama's Democratic Party last week suffered a stinging upset in which a Republican who opposes restrictions on carbon emissions won the seat held for decades by late liberal icon Ted Kennedy.

The Senate has yet to vote on climate legislation, which squeaked through the House of Representatives in June.

In the State of the Union address, Obama did not specifically ask the Senate to approve the House vision of a "cap-and-trade" system -- in which companies must curb emissions and have an economic incentive by trading credits.

Instead, Obama focused on building a green economy and supported nuclear power and offshore drilling for oil and gas -- measures opposed by many environmentalists but offered as a compromise to woo Republicans.

The two-week Copenhagen summit was marred by discord between wealthy nations and several developing countries, which have pressed for more action from nations historically responsible for climate change.

Only a handful of nations have submitted their papers to the UNFCCC including Bangladesh, the Marshall Islands, the Philippines and Samoa, according to a running list by the US Climate Action Network, which supports action against global warming.

However, other key players have indicated that they are in the process of submitting the papers.

The United States is the only major industrialized nation to shun the Kyoto Protocol. Former president George W. Bush argued that it was too costly and unfair by making no demands of fast-growing emerging economies such as China and India.

Australia to put forward unchanged carbon cuts to UN
Yahoo News 27 Jan 10;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia on Wednesday said it would cut greenhouse gas emissions by between five and 25 percent of 2000 levels by 2020, depending on the commitments of other nations.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the proposal, consistent with that taken to global climate change talks in Copenhagen last month, would be submitted to the United Nations.

"Consistent with our commitment to do no more and no less than the rest of the world, we are today submitting our existing target range: five percent unconditional, with up to 15 percent and 25 percent both conditional on the extent of action by others," Wong said in a statement.

The minister said Australia's target range was in step with that expected from other nations.

The non-binding Copenhagen Accord noted in the global talks committed nations to limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), but it failed to set targets for greenhouse gas emissions cuts.

Experts say Australia's proposed cut of up to 25 percent of 2000 levels would be roughly equivalent to cuts of up to 24 percent of 1990 levels because record land-clearing allowed up until 1990 no longer occurs.

EU maintains pledge for deeper emissions cuts, if others follow
Yahoo News 27 Jan 10;

BRUSSELS (AFP) – EU nations decided Wednesday to maintain their pledge to make 30 percent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions if other industrialised nations do the same, diplomats said.

Representatives of the 27 European Union countries, meeting in Brussels decided to stick to the conditional pledge to make the deep cuts by 2020, an offer that was on the table at international climate talks in Copenhagen last month which failed to fix binding targets.

The EU has already agreed unilaterally to cut emissions by 20 percent, compared to 1990 levels, a pledge which puts Europe at the forefront of the fight against climate change.

The letter of agreement called for "comparable offers" from the industrialised world and "adequate contributions" from emerging nations.

The Copenhagen Accord set a broad goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) but did not specify the staging points for achieving this goal or a year by which greenhouse-gas emissions should peak.

At the end of the Copenhagen conference, the United Nations asked industrialised nations to formalise their offers on paper by January 31.

Several European countries, including Italy and coal-dependent Poland, were reluctant at first to maintain the 30 percent reduction offer, a diplomat said.

They argued that one reason for the stalemate in Copenhagen was that other major polluters had made markedly inferior offers to cut emissions, in particular the United States.

They also argued that an obligation to make a 30 percent cut would be extremely painful as their nations attempt to emerge from the global economic crisis.

However the doubters were finally persuaded to accept the common EU position, the source said.

In its letter to the United Nation, the EU said it "remains determined to negotiate a legal and binding agreement," during future international talks, notably at the end of the year in Mexico.

Environmental activists argue that even 30 percent cuts would not be enough to mitigate the effects of global warming.

Some countries, with France to the fore, are calling for the introduction of a 'carbon tax' to penalise imports from countries where there are lax industrial restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.