Copenhagen Conference Sees Eagerness to Reach Deal on Carbon Emissions

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Related subjects: Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Diplomacy & Politics, Energy Supply, Environment & Ecology, J.E. Robertson, Sustainable Development, U.S. Environment Comments Off

11 December 2009 :: J.E. Robertson

The United Nations Copenhagen Conference on emissions-linked climate destabilization is reported to be progressing toward a new global framework for regulating carbon emissions and mitigating the breakdown of global climate systems. According to the UN website, “The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has noted an eagerness among the parties to the talks to sit down and complete as much work as possible before the arrival of high-level government officials next week.”

Yvo de Boer, head of the UNFCCC, told the press this week that “this conference can even decide what mechanism will be put in place, first of all, to mobilize those financial resources, and secondly to spend them once they’ve been mobilized in a way that countries see as being equitable”. He said the issue of financing for adaptation and mitigation policies would be key to securing a deal.

There are tentative pledges from industrialized nations to create a new global financing mechanism that would be oriented toward helping developing countries transition away from carbon-intensive fuels. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, says the future of humanity, and of the planet, will depend on the outcome of the Copenhagen conference. That fact appears to be driving an interest in global cooperation, which sets this conference apart from past efforts to secure a global compact.

Among the key issues to be dealt with:

• how far emissions should be cut;
• whether emissions cuts should be voluntary or mandated and closely regulated;
• whether a UN agency will have a role in overseeing compliance;
• whether developing economies will be subject to the same cuts as industrialized nations;
• whether cuts should be administered nation by nation, or globally;
• whether cap-and-trade is the best policy to secure cuts without harming economic activity;
• how to fund major investment in clean energy technologies worldwide;
• how quickly major emissions reductions can be implemented…

There are also issues to be hammered out that are not specifically related to emissions, but to other means of mitigating the effects of global climate destabilization, and to adaptation to its effects, some of which are already observable. With the scientific consensus showing strong evidence that we are already in the midst of significant climate destabilization, there is concern that any global climate pact must begin implementing aggressive mitigation and adaptation strategies without delay.

According to the UN News Centre:

The Secretary-General [on Tuesday] expressed optimism that an immediately effective “robust” agreement – which will include specific recommendations on mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology – will be reached.

“Copenhagen can and must be a turning point in the world’s efforts to prevent runaway climate change,” he underscored.

2009 has already been touted in the US as the year when the government finally took decisive action and committed the nation to the vital work of reducing emissions and addressing global climate destabilization. The period 2007-2009 has seen a sea change in global attitudes, with far more information available, and far more cooperation among leading nations, to help reach agreement not only on the truth of the science but on the means to respond to the mounting crisis.

The conference is also coming at a time when unprecedented breakthroughs are occurring in science and technology, with new energy sources and energy-saving options that could help transform the global economy, while creating overall savings and a new wave of prosperity. ScienceDaily reported on Wednesday that:

Energy efficiency technologies that exist today or that are likely to be developed in the near future could save considerable money as well as energy, says a new report from the National Research Council. Fully adopting these technologies could lower projected U.S. energy use 17 percent to 20 percent by 2020, and 25 percent to 31 percent by 2030.

Such efforts help to secure the progress on emissions reductions and change of economic behavior that are necessary to effect a rapid and sweeping overhaul of the global energy economy. Lester Brown, a leading ecological researcher, pioneer of ecological economics, and president of the Earth Policy Institute, says the transition to a zero-emissions energy economy needs to take place globally and at “wartime speed”, a reference to the United States’ success in converting its entire industrial infrastructure to prepare for WWII in just a few months in early 1942.

One of the specific targets Brown lays out in Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization —the latest update to his series of books on ecology and economics and the smartest, most comprehensive approach to solving the climate crisis— is an 80% cut in “net carbon emissions”, below 1990 levels, by the year 2020. That gives us just 10 years to do it, and the Copenhagen framework is shaping up to be significantly slower than that, though unprecedented cuts are proposed for 2020.

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