The lead-up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP 17) has been drowned out by the drama of the eurozone debt crisis. To be fair, the back of Berlusconi does make for more compelling viewing than the circles in the climate change debate. Speaking at a conference of climate-vulnerable countries in Bangladesh on Monday, UN. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, "We are in the middle of a serious economic crisis. But even in these difficult times, we cannot afford delays. We cannot ask the poorest and the most vulnerable to bear the costs."
Expectations of COP-17 have dwindled. So low is the current expectation of the Durban conference that global justice activists in Durban have dubbed the event the “conference of polluters".
Reports so far indicate that there has been a severe lack of progress in pre-conference negotiations. In the preparatory round of talks in Panama last month, ambassador Jorge Arguello of Argentina, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, said, "although there has been indubitable progress in the work in Panama", the group had "concerns over the uneven progress in the negotiations and called for decisive leadership to ensure that all submissions from the parties are discussed and that there is a positive basis for successful negotiations in Durban."
According to Article 2 of the United Convention on Climate Change, the objective of international climate change policy is the “stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system". To this end, the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in December 1997, and later amended at several COPs, originally required 39 developed countries to bring about an average 5.2% cut in greenhouse emissions by 2012 relative to their 1990 levels.
The emission cuts required vary from country to country. The EU, for example, which accounts for roughly 21% of current global emissions, must reduce its emissions by 8%, while Russia, which accounts for 17% of global emissions, is permitted to emit the same amount in 2012 as it did in 1990. It all makes sense to the UN.
The principle distinction between the Kyoto Protocol and other well-meaning UN-sponsored climate conventions is that instead of exhorting the developed world to cut emissions of greenhouse gasses, Kyoto commits them to do so. While the protocol has been ratified by 140 countries, its scope remains limited. Read the full report here.
Source: by Khadija Patel, Daily Maverick.
