Climate conference approves landmark deal
11 December, 2009 | The Associated Press
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) — The president of a U.N. climate
conference has announced agreement on a program mapping out a
new course by all nations to fight climate change over the coming
decades.
The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new
accord that would put all countries under the same legal regime to
enforce their commitments to control greenhouse gases. It would
take effect by 2020 at the latest.
Currently, only industrial countries have legally binding emissions
targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Those commitments expire
next year, but they will be extended for another five years under the
accord adopted Sunday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for
further information. AP's earlier story is below.
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) — Diplomats frazzled by
sleeplessness debated into the early hours of Sunday at a U.N.
conference over a complex and far-reaching program meant to set a
new course for the global fight against climate change for the coming
decades.
South Africa's foreign minister and chairman of the 194-party
conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told delegates that failure
to agree after 13 days of work would be an unsustainable setback
for international efforts to control greenhouse gases.
"This multilateral system remains fragile and will not survive another
shock," she told a full meeting of the conference, which had been
delayed more than 24 hours while ministers and senior negotiators
labored over words and nuances.
The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems that
have bedeviled global warming negotiations for years about sharing
the responsibility for controlling carbon emissions and helping the
world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations cope with
changing forces of nature.
The package must be approved by consensus, and no vote will be
called. Determined opposition from even a small group of countries
would unravel the deal put together after hundreds of hours of
contentious negotiations.
Speakers from many developed countries said the package of
documents more than 100 pages thick did not go far enough to help
poor nations and did not require industrial countries to make more
immediate and serious cuts in their carbon emissions. But most said
they would accept it for lack of a better option.
But not Venezuela. "We all know this is a very bad agreement, that
it will require more work next year and it cannot be adopted," chief
delegate Claudia Solerno said.
After weeks of being accused of obstructionism and delay, U.S.
climate envoy Todd Stern voiced surprisingly strong support for the
deal.
"This is a very significant package. None of us likes everything in it.
Believe me, there is plenty the United States is not thrilled about,"
Stern said. But the package captured important advances that
would be undone if it is rejected.
Saturday afternoon, as negotiations dragged on with no sign of
breakthrough, some ministers and top negotiators left Durban with
no assurance of an agreement.
European Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, drawn and fatigued
after two nights with minimal sleep, warned that failure in Durban
would jeopardize new momentum in acting against global warming.
Introducing the package late Saturday, Nkoana-Mashabane said its
four documents, which were being printed as she spoke, were an
imperfect compromise, but they reflected years of negotiations on
the most central political responses to global warming.
The package would give new life to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol,
whose carbon emissions targets expire next year and apply only to
industrial countries.
A separate document obliges major developing nations like China
and India, excluded under Kyoto, to accept legally binding
emissions targets in the future, by 2020 at the latest.
Together, the two documents overhaul a system designed 20 years
ago that divide the world into a handful of wealthy countries facing
legal obligations to reduce emissions, and the rest of the world
which could undertake voluntary efforts to control carbon.
The European Union, the primary bloc falling under the Kyoto
Protocol's reduction commitments, said an extension of its targets
was conditional on major developing countries also accepting limits
with the same legal accountability. The 20th century division of the
globe into two unequal parts was invalid in today's world, the EU
said.
The package also would set up the structure and governing bodies
of a Green Climate Fund, which will receive and distribute billions of
dollars promised annually to poor countries to help them adapt to
changing climate conditions and to move toward low-carbon
economic growth.
But the document made no specific mention of how those funds
would be mobilized. Wealthy countries have pledged $100 billion a
year by 2020 to poor countries, scaling up from $10 billion today.
The remaining document of more than 50 pages lays out rules for
monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests,
transferring clean technologies to developing countries and scores of
technical issues.
In the final hours, talks focused on unresolved differences on a
clause encouraging countries to pledge greater reductions of
greenhouse gases and to close what is known as the "ambition gap."
More than 80 countries have made either legally binding or
voluntary pledges to control carbon emissions. But taken together,
they will not go far enough to avert a potentially catastrophic rise in
average temperatures this century, according to scientific modeling
and projections.
Hedegaard said a lack of ambition could derail progress made on a
host of other issues.
Countries had made concessions that they had resisted for years,
and it would be "irresponsible" to lose that momentum now, she said.
Strong language on curbing emissions is of prime importance to
small islands endangered by rising ocean levels and by many poor
countries who live in extreme conditions that will be worsened by
global warming.
Throughout the talks, the U.S., China and India remained stubbornly
opposed to the EU's plan to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto
accord by 2020 that also would put them under legal obligations.
The talks would conclude by 2015, allowing five years for it to be
ratified by national legislatures. The plan insists the new agreement
equally oblige all countries — not just the few industrial powers —
to abide by emission targets.
Hours were devoted to arcane but diplomatically important
questions of whether the objective of the talks was a legal
"framework," an "outcome," or an "instrument."
The expiring of Kyoto's targets have hung over the U.N. process for
years, and was the most contentious issue dividing rich and poor
nations.
Developing countries were adamant that the Kyoto commitments
continue since it is the only agreement that compels any nation to
reduce emissions. Industrial countries say the document is deeply
flawed because it makes no demands on heavily polluting
developing countries. It was for that reason that the U.S. never
ratified it.
Agreement by developing countries to accept binding targets
essentially redraws the map. "That's a very big deal," said Samantha
Smith, of WWF International. "That reflects a major
macroeconomic and geopolitical change" in climate negotiations.
Courtesy
11 December, 2009 | The Associated Press
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) — The president of a U.N. climate
conference has announced agreement on a program mapping out a
new course by all nations to fight climate change over the coming
decades.
The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new
accord that would put all countries under the same legal regime to
enforce their commitments to control greenhouse gases. It would
take effect by 2020 at the latest.
Currently, only industrial countries have legally binding emissions
targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Those commitments expire
next year, but they will be extended for another five years under the
accord adopted Sunday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for
further information. AP's earlier story is below.
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) — Diplomats frazzled by
sleeplessness debated into the early hours of Sunday at a U.N.
conference over a complex and far-reaching program meant to set a
new course for the global fight against climate change for the coming
decades.
South Africa's foreign minister and chairman of the 194-party
conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told delegates that failure
to agree after 13 days of work would be an unsustainable setback
for international efforts to control greenhouse gases.
"This multilateral system remains fragile and will not survive another
shock," she told a full meeting of the conference, which had been
delayed more than 24 hours while ministers and senior negotiators
labored over words and nuances.
The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems that
have bedeviled global warming negotiations for years about sharing
the responsibility for controlling carbon emissions and helping the
world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations cope with
changing forces of nature.
The package must be approved by consensus, and no vote will be
called. Determined opposition from even a small group of countries
would unravel the deal put together after hundreds of hours of
contentious negotiations.
Speakers from many developed countries said the package of
documents more than 100 pages thick did not go far enough to help
poor nations and did not require industrial countries to make more
immediate and serious cuts in their carbon emissions. But most said
they would accept it for lack of a better option.
But not Venezuela. "We all know this is a very bad agreement, that
it will require more work next year and it cannot be adopted," chief
delegate Claudia Solerno said.
After weeks of being accused of obstructionism and delay, U.S.
climate envoy Todd Stern voiced surprisingly strong support for the
deal.
"This is a very significant package. None of us likes everything in it.
Believe me, there is plenty the United States is not thrilled about,"
Stern said. But the package captured important advances that
would be undone if it is rejected.
Saturday afternoon, as negotiations dragged on with no sign of
breakthrough, some ministers and top negotiators left Durban with
no assurance of an agreement.
European Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, drawn and fatigued
after two nights with minimal sleep, warned that failure in Durban
would jeopardize new momentum in acting against global warming.
Introducing the package late Saturday, Nkoana-Mashabane said its
four documents, which were being printed as she spoke, were an
imperfect compromise, but they reflected years of negotiations on
the most central political responses to global warming.
The package would give new life to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol,
whose carbon emissions targets expire next year and apply only to
industrial countries.
A separate document obliges major developing nations like China
and India, excluded under Kyoto, to accept legally binding
emissions targets in the future, by 2020 at the latest.
Together, the two documents overhaul a system designed 20 years
ago that divide the world into a handful of wealthy countries facing
legal obligations to reduce emissions, and the rest of the world
which could undertake voluntary efforts to control carbon.
The European Union, the primary bloc falling under the Kyoto
Protocol's reduction commitments, said an extension of its targets
was conditional on major developing countries also accepting limits
with the same legal accountability. The 20th century division of the
globe into two unequal parts was invalid in today's world, the EU
said.
The package also would set up the structure and governing bodies
of a Green Climate Fund, which will receive and distribute billions of
dollars promised annually to poor countries to help them adapt to
changing climate conditions and to move toward low-carbon
economic growth.
But the document made no specific mention of how those funds
would be mobilized. Wealthy countries have pledged $100 billion a
year by 2020 to poor countries, scaling up from $10 billion today.
The remaining document of more than 50 pages lays out rules for
monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests,
transferring clean technologies to developing countries and scores of
technical issues.
In the final hours, talks focused on unresolved differences on a
clause encouraging countries to pledge greater reductions of
greenhouse gases and to close what is known as the "ambition gap."
More than 80 countries have made either legally binding or
voluntary pledges to control carbon emissions. But taken together,
they will not go far enough to avert a potentially catastrophic rise in
average temperatures this century, according to scientific modeling
and projections.
Hedegaard said a lack of ambition could derail progress made on a
host of other issues.
Countries had made concessions that they had resisted for years,
and it would be "irresponsible" to lose that momentum now, she said.
Strong language on curbing emissions is of prime importance to
small islands endangered by rising ocean levels and by many poor
countries who live in extreme conditions that will be worsened by
global warming.
Throughout the talks, the U.S., China and India remained stubbornly
opposed to the EU's plan to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto
accord by 2020 that also would put them under legal obligations.
The talks would conclude by 2015, allowing five years for it to be
ratified by national legislatures. The plan insists the new agreement
equally oblige all countries — not just the few industrial powers —
to abide by emission targets.
Hours were devoted to arcane but diplomatically important
questions of whether the objective of the talks was a legal
"framework," an "outcome," or an "instrument."
The expiring of Kyoto's targets have hung over the U.N. process for
years, and was the most contentious issue dividing rich and poor
nations.
Developing countries were adamant that the Kyoto commitments
continue since it is the only agreement that compels any nation to
reduce emissions. Industrial countries say the document is deeply
flawed because it makes no demands on heavily polluting
developing countries. It was for that reason that the U.S. never
ratified it.
Agreement by developing countries to accept binding targets
essentially redraws the map. "That's a very big deal," said Samantha
Smith, of WWF International. "That reflects a major
macroeconomic and geopolitical change" in climate negotiations.
Courtesy
| Wild Horses endanger of extinction " ..A Wildlife Exploratory Team composed of Italian researchers proved the existence of wild horses at a-not-so-easily accessible area atop Kundido Mountain in East Hararghe zone of the Oromia State, near the City of Harar.". More |
| All rights reserved. |
| Ethio Quest News Together We Can Make It! |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
| Environment |
| Race to save world's rarest wolf Nov.10 ( BBC ) - Scientists in the remote Bale mountains of southern Ethiopia are in a race against time to save the world's rarest wolf. More Vanishing African wildlife threatens livelihoods: Scientists |
| Ethiopian elephants, lions face extinction "...A thousand rare black-mane lions -- an Ethiopian national symbol -- and some 300 elephants are in danger after a swathe of forest that was part of their sanctuary was cut down, a wildlife expert said...More |
| Environmental Journalists Form Association "...Ethiopian environmental journalists working with private and government media outlets have got together to form an association,...." More |
| Related Stories Another climate summit, another chance goes up in smoke New Zealand Herald U.S. Publicly Shifts Climate Stance in Face of Widespread Criticism — Then Quietly Backtracks Democracy Now US embassy cables: US urges Ethiopia to back Copenhagen climate accord The Guardian WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord Damian Carrington Ethiopia Fossil Find Could Shed Light on Climate Change By Peter Heinlein (VOA) Ethiopia PM accused of genocide is top African negotiator By Alexander Kelly The Mouse That Roared In Copenhagen By Prof. Alemayehu G/Mariam |
| Ethio Quest News: For latest Ethiopian News, views, Reviews and More |
| Useful Links Akababi Ethiopia Environment News Environment of Ethiopia Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority Environmental issues in Ethiopia Geography & Environment |
