Alister Doyle, Reuters 31 Jan 10;
OSLO (Reuters) - Nations accounting for most of the world's greenhouse gas emissions have restated their promises to fight climate change, meeting a Sunday deadline in a low-key endorsement of December's "Copenhagen Accord."
Experts say their promised curbs on greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 are too small so far to meet the accord's key goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.
The U.N. Climate Change Secretariat plans to publish a list of submissions on Monday. That may put pressure on all capitals to keep their promises.
Countries accounting for at least two-thirds of emissions -- led by China, the United States and the European Union -- have all written in. Smaller emitters, from the Philippines to Mali, have also sent promises or asked to be associated with the deal.
The Secretariat says the January 31 deadline is flexible.
"Most of the industrialized countries' (promises) are in the 'inadequate' category," said Niklas Hoehne, director of energy and climate policy at climate consultancy Ecofys, which assesses how far national commitments will help limit climate change.
"The U.S. is not enough, the European Union is not enough. For the major developed countries it's still far behind what is expected, except for Japan and Norway," he said.
Some developing nations, such as Brazil or Mexico, were making relatively greater efforts, he said.
FLOODS, DROUGHTS AND WILDFIRES
The accord's goal of limiting warming to below 2 C -- meant to help limit floods, droughts, wildfires and rising seas -- is twinned with promises of $28 billion in aid for developing nations from 2010-12, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020.
Ecofys reckons that the promised curbs will set the world toward a 3.5 degrees Celsius rise in temperatures, not 2.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said that on current projections the world would exceed an estimated "carbon emissions budget" for the first half of this century by 2034, 16 years ahead of schedule.
The European Union plans to cut emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 30 percent if others make deep cuts. The United States plans a cut of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, or 4 percent below 1990 levels.
"Carbon prices look set to remain relatively low until economic growth picks up or until a more ambitious target is adopted," Richard Gledhill, a climate expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said of the EU goal.
"This will continue to delay major capital investment in low carbon technology," he said in a statement.
The Copenhagen Accord, reached after a summit on December 18 in Denmark, was not adopted as a U.N. plan for shifting from fossil fuels after opposition by a handful of developing nations such as Venezuela and Sudan.
One possible complication is that some countries, including China and India, have written to the United Nations giving 2020 targets but without explicitly backing the Copenhagen Accord. The U.N. has asked all to take sides by January 31.
An Indian document sent to the U.N. Secretariat does not mention the accord, for instance, but says it is giving details of plans to 2020 "in view of the current debate under way in the international climate negotiations."
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
India Reiterates Carbon Goals For Climate Accord
Krittivas Mukherjee, PlanetArk 1 Feb 10;
NEW DELHI - India has reiterated a goal of slowing the rise of its carbon emissions by 2020 as part of pledges due by Sunday under a "Copenhagen Accord" to fight climate change, an official statement said.
Many other nations have also reiterated existing goals for slowing global warming before a Sunday deadline for making commitments under the "Copenhagen Accord," which sets an overriding goal of limiting a rise in world temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F).
The statement said India will "endeavor" to reduce its carbon emission intensity by 20 to 25 percent by 2020 in comparison to the 2005 level.
Carbon emissions intensity refers to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each unit of gross domestic product.
The statement said India's actions will be legally non-binding and its carbon intensity cut target will not include emission from the agriculture sector.
Last week, China reiterated a voluntary domestic target to lower its carbon emissions intensity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 from 2005 level while also stepping up the use of renewable energy and planting more trees.
The non-binding accord was described by many as a failure because it fell far short of the Copenhagen conference's original goal of a more ambitious commitment to prevent more heat waves, droughts and crop failures.
So the more top emitters such as China and India there are committing numbers to the accord, the better its chances of survival.
China, India, South Africa and Brazil met in the Indian capital on January 24 and expressed support for the "Copenhagen Accord," while urging donors to keep promises of aid.
(Editing by David Fox)
India reaffirms opposition to binding carbon cuts
Yahoo News 31 Jan 10;
NEW DELHI (AFP) – India reaffirmed to the United Nations that it would reject any attempt to impose legally binding climate change goals, but pledged to reduce emissions intensity.
In an endorsement of December's much-criticised Copenhagen Accord, the environment ministry in New Delhi said it had submitted plans to reduce emissions intensity by 20 to 25 percent by 2020 compared to 2005 levels.
India's proposal, first made in parliament in December ahead of the Copenhagen summit, came before a UN deadline on January 31 for nations to re-state their climate change policies.
In a statement late Saturday, India said its UN submission "clarified that its domestic mitigation actions will be entirely voluntary in nature and will not have a legally binding character."
The cut in emissions intensity means that each dollar of gross domestic product (GDP) in India -- a rapidly developing economy -- must generate 20 to 25 percent fewer emissions by 2020 compared to 2005.
India is part of a coalition including Brazil, China and South Africa which lobbied successfully at the Copenhagen meeting against any binding emissions caps.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh hailed the accord and said the country had emerged from the negotiations a winner.
But environmentalists condemned the failure to agree on any measures that would force countries to reduce emissions.
India -- one of the world's top-five carbon emitters in terms of volume -- has insisted that rich countries, which are responsible historically for global warming, should bear the burden of mitigating the future problem.
Only a handful of nations, including the United States, have submitted their papers ahead of the deadline to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Canada matches US carbon emissions target
Yahoo News 31 Jan 10;
OTTAWA (AFP) – Canada has aligned itself with the United States in setting a 2020 carbon emissions target of 17 percent below 2005 levels, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Sunday.
The target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under last month's Copenhagen Accord was submitted to the United Nations on Saturday, two days after the United States announced its objective.
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.
"This is in keeping with our commitment, as I indicated in the days leading up to Copenhagen and afterwards, to align our policies with those of our continental partner," Prentice told a press conference.
"We'll deal specifically with the oil sands, we'll deal specifically with all sources of emissions," he said.
"We know we can achieve that target, we're prepared to stand behind it and other countries will now have to do the same."
Environmentalists panned the plan, saying it would lead to a 2.5 percent increase in Canada's CO2 emissions from 1990 levels, in contrast to Ottawa's previous plan announced in 2006 to cut emissions by three percent.
"The new target will lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions rather than reduce them," Greenpeace said in a statement. "This new target is thus even worse than the one previously adopted by Canada."
"Furthermore, Greenpeace has no reason to believe that the target, as mediocre as it is, will be met by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, which reneged on its Kyoto Protocol obligations and allowed Canadian greenhouse gas emissions to rise."
Prentice said Canada wants a comprehensive and binding international treaty that builds on the framework agreement reached in Copenhagen and "that applies to all carbon emitters, including China and the United States."
In the meantime, he said Canada and the United States would harmonize their strategies and roll out piecemeal emissions cuts.
"In terms of motor vehicles, starting in 2011, we will have continental tailpipe emissions standards that will deal with carbon emissions for passenger vehicles," Prentice said.
"We're also moving forward on harmonization with air transport emissions, marine emissions, as well as those from heavy vehicles, all on a concerted continental basis."
The United States, long the industrial world's main holdout from climate change agreements, said Thursday it would cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming "in the range of 17 percent" by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.
The European Union meanwhile has pledged to cut emissions 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 and agreed to raise its target to 30 percent if other large emitters pledge similar CO2 cuts.
