Earth and Space News: COP21 negotiations

Showing posts with label COP21 negotiations. Show all posts

Friday, December 4, 2015

Laurent Fabius: COP21 Negotiations Are Still Not Enough

Summary: COP21 negotiations are still not enough to realize a global warming limit of 2 degrees Celsius, COP21 president Laurent Fabius reports Friday, Dec. 4.

At 1:15 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, Laurent Fabius, COP21’s president and executive secretary of COP21’s host organization, the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, reported COP21 negotiations are still not enough, with unresolved issues floundering from unwillingness to compromise.

On Thursday morning, the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) presented a new version of the document that the group has been refining since issuing the first draft in October 2015. The working group was created in 2011 in Durban, Africa, with the express mission of producing a viable document, due at noon on Saturday, Dec. 5, from which a final, realistic agreement is hoped to emerge by COP21’s ending date of Dec. 12.

Thursday’s draft comprises 50 pages, with 26 pages of agreements and 24 pages of decisions. The text concerns the agreement’s implementation in 2020 and includes intervening measures prior to 2020.

Negotiators representing 195 countries have been thrashing such controversial topics as climate mitigation finance and emissions cut targets in intensive meetings since the conference’s second day, Tuesday, Dec. 1. COP21’s first week of meetings, which are organized as contact groups and as spin-offs, are meant to be complementary. Spin-offs are detailed and themed, with focuses on such topics as climate change finance and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Contact groups guide discussions and summarize spin-off negotiations. Ministers from the different countries are scheduled to tackle the political aspects of negotiations beginning Monday, Dec. 7.

Despite “slight progress made since Wednesday evening,” Fabius emphasized the urgency of moving forward in crafting a realistic agreement for limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial mean temperature levels. Numerous heavily bracketed entries in the most recent draft reveal underlying difficulties in agreeing to compromise language.

“Let me be clear: this is still not enough. The text remains too long and complex. Not enough compromises have been reached on unresolved issues,” noted Fabius, whose position as International Development Director for the United Nations’ 21st annual climate change conference caps a stellar political career, including current service, since May 16, 2012, as France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Every country is a stakeholder in the climate change agenda unfurling during COP21’s first week. Blending each country’s stake into the global scenario of effectively tackling climate change is the conference’s objective.

“No country, small or large, will be left behind” is the assurance repeatedly maintained throughout COP21 by UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, whose diplomacy skills were honed in early childhood as a First Daughter during the last two of her father’s three terms as President of Costa Rica.

COP21 President Laurent Fabius emphasizes urgency in limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius: C à vous @cavousf5, via Twitter Dec. 3, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

COP 21 president Laurent Fabius with Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna at pre-COP21 meeting, Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, 13:15: Environment and Climate Change Canada, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laurent_Fabius_and_Catherine_McKenna_(22913103711).jpg;
Environment and Climate Change Canada (environmentcan), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/environmentcan/22913103711/

COP21 President Laurent Fabius emphasizes urgency in limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius: C à vous @cavous, via Twitter Dec. 3, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/cavousf5/status/672476680016044034

For further information:

COP21.
Available @ http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/

C à vous @cavousf5. "#COP21 'On doit aboutir à un texte pour que le réchauffement climatique n'aille pas au dessous de 2°' @ LaurentFabius." Twitter. Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/cavousf5/status/672476680016044034

Lyman, Eric J. "Climate targets may not be enough to avert catastrophes." USA Today > News > World > Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/12/03/paris-united-nations-climate-conference-2-degrees-celsius/76709712/

Marriner, Derdriu. "COP21 Opening Day Showcased World Leaders and Now Negotiations Begin." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/cop21-opening-day-showcased-world.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "India Will Reduce Coal Emissions If COP21 Guarantees Financial Assist." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/india-will-reduce-coal-emissions-if.html

Thursday, December 3, 2015

India Will Reduce Coal Emissions If COP21 Guarantees Financial Assist

Summary: India will reduce coal emissions if COP21 guarantees financial assist for green energy development, senior negotiator Dr. Ajay Mathur tells COP21.

India will only relinquish reliance on coal if COP 21 gives firm guarantee of international funding for India's switch to green energy sources; Jharia Coal Field in eastern India's Jharkhand state has an underground fire which has been burning unremittingly since first detection in 1916: TripodStories- AB (1984abhionwiki), CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

On day two of formal negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21, Dr. Ajay Mathur, senior negotiator in India’s delegation, affirmed India will reduce coal emissions if COP21 agrees to a firm package of international support for India’s green energy development.

Coal-rich and population-rich India’s overriding goals, noted also on COP21 opening day, Monday, Nov. 30, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are to grow the economy and to provide access to electricity for 300 million electricity-less Indians, almost one-quarter of the country’s population of 1.25 billion. With coal as a major, inexpensive energy source for the world’s second most populous country, India plans to expand coal production to 1.5 billion tonnes by 2020. Dr. Mathur stated that solar energy, despite a 75 percent decline in cost in four years, still doubles coal in cost.

“We are very clear that solar and wind is our first commitment. Hydro and nuclear, all of these non-carbon sources, are what we will develop to the largest extent we can,” Dr. Mathur explained, but added: “What cannot be met by these will be met by coal.”

India’s determined path to development requires customized, unique strategies. Paradigms of the greenest European countries do not apply to India’s high population and newly industrialized status.

Dr. Mathur noted: “What I am truly fearful about is, say, if India moves onto a path of Denmark, and even has two cars for 10 people, we will be swamped. Even the Denmark paradigm does not work for us.”

India’s delegation at COP21 has adhered to the view expressed in the country’s pre-conference Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), an emissions reduction statement pledged in October. India holds to the stance that, to be fair and just, the COP21 agreement must require more from industrialized countries and less from newly industrialized countries. Allowances and climate finance assistance should be extended to newly industrializing countries in their mitigating navigation of the global warming landscape of greenhouse gases, a landscape created by already industrialized nations in their own historical course of rapid development.

India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution interweaves emissions reductions of 33 to 35 percent below 2005 levels with 40 percent reliance on non-fossil fuels via expansion of renewable energy and forest cover enlargement. The price tag for India’s climate change pledge is estimated at around $2.5 trillion.

Dr. Mathur, who also serves as director of India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency, expressed that “We look forward to an agreement that enables financial support from the countries that have developed on the backs of cheap energy, to those who have to meet their energy with more expensive but low carbon energy.”

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

India seeks financial support for developing non-carbon energy sources to meet goal of providing electricity to 300 million electricity-less Indians: India@COP21 @India4Climate, via Twitter Dec. 3, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/India4Climate/status/672472839035994113

For further information:

Coca, Nithin. "COP21 Challenge: The Climate Finance Gap." Triple Pundit. Dec. 2, 2015.
Available @ http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/12/cop21-challenge-climate-finance-gap/

India@COP21 @India4Climate. "Positive voices for a just #climateagreement. Ban Ki Moon endorses India's need to development. #COP21 @UN_Spokesperson." Twitter. Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/India4Climate/status/672472839035994113

Iyengar, Rishi. "India Says It Will Cut Back on Coal if Paris Deal Pays for More Renewable-Energy Sources." Time > World > Climate Change. Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ http://time.com/4134234/india-coal-paris-climate-talks/

Kumar, Nikhil. "India's Need for Coal-Fueled Growth Complicates Paris Climate Summit." Time > World > India. Dec. 1, 2015.
Available @ http://time.com/4131236/india-coal-climate-change-paris-summit/

PTI. "$2.5 trillion required for India's climate change actions." The Economic Times of India > News > Politics and Nation. Dec. 1, 2015.
Available @ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/2-5-trillion-required-for-indias-climate-change-actions/articleshow/50002518.cms

"Statement by Prime Minister at COP 21 Plenary Paris, 30 November 30, 2015." UNFCCC > Files > Meetings > Paris November 2015.
Available @ http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/paris_nov_2015/application/pdf/cop21cmp11_leaders_event_india.pdf