Climate talks: Much more needs to be done

Syed Yamin Bakht The outcome of the just concluded UN climate conference in Durban, South Africa could at best be termed a 'necessary compromise'. It will not immediately help reduce greenhouse gas or carbon emissions, which the planet desperately needs at this very moment to avoid further damage to the climate, but it provides a roadmap for setting a more elaborate and legally binding limit on such emissions in the near future. Given the complex nature of such global negotiations, some progress on this vital issue is better than no progress at all. Global warming is one of the most critical issues facing the world today, generating perhaps the most contentious and complicated international negotiation process to reduce the global greenhouse gas emissions aimed at protecting the planet. The tussle is between the developed countries--which have historically been the worst polluters-- and the developing countries--many of which are likely to bear the brunt of the impact of climate change--over who should do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also over helping the most climate-vulnerable developing nations cope with the changing forces of nature. And that is at the heart of the intense international debate on tackling climate change. Arriving at a solution, particularly when it has economic and financial implications, has become more complicated now because of the global economic slowdown. The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework of Climate Change (UNFCC) in the South African city of Durban, participated by 194 countries, narrowly averted a collapse through the last-minute compromise by agreeing to approve a roadmap of an accord for bringing all the major greenhouse gas emitters under a legally binding limit for the first time. The final accord will become effective from 2020, if approved by 2015 as planned. It also approved the setting up of the Green Climate Fund to provide up to US $100 billion a year in aid to the climate-vulnerable developing countries by 2020. The Durban Platform also includes, among other issues, rules for monitoring and verifying emission reductions, protecting the forests, transferring clean or carbon-neutral technologies to developing countries and setting up bodies that will collect, govern and distribute aid to the developing countries affected by climate change. As sought by developing countries, the forum also agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol, which is scheduled to expire in 2012, for another five years. Signed in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol is currently the only treaty regulating carbon emissions. Under the treaty, legally binding emissions targets were set only for the developed countries. However, the US, historically the largest polluter, refused to even sign the treaty. The final text of the agreement averted the use of the term "legally binding", relating to carbon emissions cuts, following objections by the US and includes that the parties would "develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force". Meanwhile, global carbon emission levels continue to rise, in spite of the curbs placed on most of the developing countries under the Kyoto Protocol. In fact, global carbon emissions increased by a record level last year. The United Nations agencies and others say that the current pledges to reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are not enough to prevent the planet from heating up beyond the 2.0 degree Celsius threshold, risking an unstable climate in which weather extremes are common. The UN Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in a report last month warned that an increase in heat waves is almost certain, while heavier rainfall, more floods, stronger cyclones, landslides and more intense droughts are likely to occur across the globe this century. "It is virtually certain that increases in the frequency and magnitude of warm daily temperature extremes.will occur in the 21st century on the global scale," it warned. The IPCC urged countries to make disaster management plans to adapt to the growing risk of extreme weather. Thus, the immediate need for a faster and deeper cut in global greenhouse gas emissions sadly remained unaddressed at the Durban colloquy, a fact criticised by both developing countries and environmentalists. Nevertheless, the world must boldly move ahead towards implementing the roadmap agreed upon after 14 days of marathon negotiations in Durban. Agreed that it would be an even more arduous road ahead with much more complex negotiations, but we must tackle the issue to save the planet. The aim should be to agree on a legally binding target to reduce global carbon emissions well before the 2015 deadline. And as the adverse impact of climate change is already coming upon us, disbursement of the Green Climate Fund to the vulnerable developing countries to deal with the situation should start as soon as possible. yaminbakht58@gmail.com