Durban climate talks: Hidden costs of annual negotiations

A member of Oxfam protesting against the use of coal-based energy on Durban's beachfront yesterday. The UN said it would offset some 1,844 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from delegates? journeys to and from the conference. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Grace Chua Straits Times 10 Dec 11;

DURBAN: It is a time-honoured irony that each year, thousands of people must travel from all over the world to take part in the annual United Nations climate change negotiations.

And each instalment of the talks involves reams of paper, water and energy. Each day, a small forest's worth of documents and fliers are distributed, including, on Wednesday, a 138-page tome that was only a draft.

So greening the two-week COP-17 meeting in Durban, South Africa, is not without challenges as many solutions have hidden costs.

On Thursday, the UN said it would offset some 1,844 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from 398 secretariat staff and 369 supported delegates' journeys to and from the conference. 'Offsetting, using quality credits, is an important part of the secretariat's efforts to reduce its emissions,' said Ms Christiana Figueres, executive secretary for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The carbon credits come from a South African brick factory, which switched from using coal to natural gas.

Directly burning natural gas emits half as much carbon dioxide as coal burning. But the extraction of natural gas can result in leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that lingers in the atmosphere and has far more global warming potential than coal.

What's more, there are more than 22,000 participants and observers at the meeting. That works out to over 90,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from their travel, going by UN figures.

There are other solutions, such as shuttle buses that transport participants from their hotels to the international convention centre (ICC). But these run on fuel that is likely to be derived from coal, as South Africa continues to be a coal-producing nation.

Finally, a telepresence centre has been set up outside the ICC for ministers and non-governmental organisation representatives to hold virtual press conferences. It is used nearly every day and is free for the summit's duration. But its small rooms can seat just a few participants.

'It will take a few years before we can make the COP meetings completely virtual,' explained Cisco senior manager Henrik Kjaer who is in charge of the telepresence facility. He added that the UN negotiations are 'very tough' and not all participants will be amenable to a virtual discussion.

While greening a major event is challenging, it has been tried before. Last year's Vancouver Winter Olympics tried to be sustainable, monitoring buildings' energy use and handing out medals made from recycled metal.

UNFCCC's Ms Figueres said: 'Climate change is a shared responsibility. We all have to take stock, and then look for ways to do our part, to walk the talk.'

Talks drifting towards failure
Bid to keep Kyoto Protocol alive is doomed without support of US, China, India
Straits Times 10 Dec 11;

DURBAN (South Africa): The US, China and India appeared poised to scuttle attempts to save the only treaty governing global warming, Europe's top negotiator said last night, hours before a 194-nation UN climate conference was to close.

After two weeks of negotiations, talks went through the night with delegates struggling to keep Durban from becoming the graveyard of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

'If there is no further movement from what I have seen until 4 o'clock this morning, then I must say I don't think that there will be a deal in Durban,' said Ms Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action.

The proposed package would see the European Union extend its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, but only if all other countries agree to negotiate a new treaty with legally binding obligations for everyone, not just the wealthy Kyoto group.

The EU has said it will not renew its emissions reduction pledges, which expire in one year, without agreement to begin work on a treaty to replace the Kyoto accord that would compel all countries to control their emissions, including the US and China - the world's two largest polluters. The United States never ratified the protocol, though it has made voluntary efforts to reduce emissions.

The EU won critical support late on Thursday from an alliance of small islands and the world's poorest countries - about 120 nations all in - for its proposal to start negotiations now on a deal to take effect in 2018 or possibly after 2020.

Brazil and South Africa also said they would accept binding emissions limits under a new agreement. The two are among the countries in the so-called developing world that emit the most greenhouse gases.

Ministers or senior negotiators from 28 countries then worked late through the night to try to bring the US, China and India on board.

Ms Hedegaard said these three countries are still not on board and could scuttle the deal. Both China and the US have said they would be amenable to the EU proposal to negotiate a post-2020 agreement, but each attached riders that appeared to hobble prospects for unanimous acceptance.

The US, whose Congress is generally seen as hostile on the climate issue, is concerned about conceding any competitive business advantage to China.

China, too, is resisting the notion that it has become a developed country on a par with the US or Europe, saying it still has hundreds of millions of impoverished people.

Rich countries are legally bound to reduce carbon emissions while developing countries take voluntary actions.

Three UN reports released in the last month show time is running out to achieve change. They show a warming planet will amplify droughts and floods, increase crop failures and raise sea levels to the point where several island states are threatened with extinction.

South African President Jacob Zuma has said Durban will be a failure if a Green Climate Fund, designed to help poor nations tackle global warming and nudge them towards a new global effort to fight climate change, is not put into force.

If the discussions hold to form, envoys will extend discussions and release their decisions today.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS