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Durban Summit 2011 - EnVM Project Report - Sec.G
Durban Summit 2011 - EnVM Project Report - Sec.G
Table of Contents
1.
The Event............................................................................................................................3
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Sources of Data:.........................................................................................................................8
1. The Event
The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, was held from 28
November - 11 December 2011. The conference involved a series of events, including the
seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the seventh meeting of the Conference of the
Parties serving as the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 7)1.
To understand the difficulties in the negotiating process, one needs to appreciate the fact that
there were two separate non-technical and multilateral negotiating streams in existence prior
to Durban. One was a Working Group on emissions reduction commitments and only
included developed countries that had ratified the Protocol and therefore excluded the US. A
The Kyoto Protocol - due to expire at the end of 2012 has been extended to 2017.
Negotiators agreed to start work on a new climate deal (to replace the Kyoto Protocol)
that would have legal force and require both developed and developing countries to cut
their carbon emissions. The conditions for this new legally binding agreement need to be
agreed by 2015 and will come into effect from 2020. The Durban Platform for Enhanced
Action is now in charge of developing the new legally binding protocol which will be
applicable under the U.N. climate change convention (UNFCCC) 5.
China, the world's biggest emitter, agreed to be legally bound to curb their
greenhouse gases
The US, the second biggest emitter, also agreed the new agreement should be
legally binding
A REDD-plus scheme to help preserve the rainforests of the Amazon Basin and
Indonesia. It will create financial incentives for developing countries to reduce carbon
emissions from deforestation and invest in conservation and sustainable management
efforts.
Technology The Technology Mechanism will become fully operational in 2012. The
full terms of reference for the operational arm of the Mechanismthe Climate
Technology Centre and Networkare agreed upon, along with a clear procedure to select
the host. The UNFCCC secretariat will issue a call for proposals for hosts on 16 January
2012.
One
Other developments
o The creation of the Adaptation Committee, which will provide advice and ensure
coherent action on adaptation; The establishment in 2012 of the Technology
Executive Committee, to facilitate the development of low-carbon technologies;
o Further details of the framework for reducing emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation; a process for establishing new market-based mechanisms to
deliver effective reductions in emissions at least cost.
4. Those with their thumbs up say:
Getting 194 nations to agree on anything with legal force is a huge achievement6.
The agreement includes China, India and the US, the major emitters in the world (the EU
emits roughly around 14-15% of total world CO2 emission). Previously, poorer nations
have insisted that they should not bear any legal obligations for tackling climate change.
And given the US failed to ratify the Kyoto agreement, this is a historical outcome.
Although a modest outcome, it paves the way forward and removes important obstacles.
As Lord Stern, former World Bank chief economist and author of the landmark 2006
review of the economics of climate change, said: "...(the platform) could allow, for
example, the US to play a more participative and constructive role in the future."
All that was achieved in Durban was a pact that in four-year time we will have achieved
something that was deemed critical to achieve four years ago (but crashed and burned at
the Copenhagen Summit 2009).
Governments failed to address the warnings from the scientific community that stronger
and more urgent action is needed to cut emissions, instead spending crucial time
negotiating over wording. There was little talk of the actual scale of emissions cuts
required to avert disaster.
Whilst the worlds biggest emitters already have targets to reduce their greenhouse gas
emissions, and these will continue to apply until the new treaty takes over, they are not
legally-binding and scientists say they are not enough to hold global temperatures to 2C
above pre-industrial levels, which, according to scientists, is the limit before climate
change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.
Experts warn that a 4C change would result in a world crippled by drought. It would call
for the shifting of agriculture to new areas, impinging on wild ecosystems. It would mean
dramatic sea level rises, widespread disease and an increase in extreme weather events.
In such a 4C world, the limits for human adaptation are likely to be exceeded in many
parts of the world", said Rachel Warren, climate expert at the University of East Anglia.
6.
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne, who led the UK delegation
at COP17 in Durban, gave a statement to the House of Commons on Monday 12 December
on the outcomes of the Conference. The key points of the statement are summarised below.
"The Durban conference represents a significant step forward. It has re-established the
principle that climate change should be tackled through international law, not through
national voluntarism. It has persuaded the major emerging economies to acknowledge, for
the first time, that their own emissions commitments will have to be legally bound7.
"It has encouraged all countries, also for the first time, to admit that their current climate
policies must be strengthened. It has established the Green Climate Fund to support the
poorest countries in tackling and responding to climate change.
"And it has preserved the invaluable legal framework of the Kyoto Protocol, while at the
same time opening the path to a new, more comprehensive and more ambitious global
agreement. It was a clear success for international cooperation.
"We still have much to do. Durban alone will not limit global warming to 2 degrees above
pre-industrial levels. But we have taken a clear and vital step toward our goal."
Sources of Data:
How
Big
a
http://www.c2es.org/blog/diringere/durban-how-big-a-deal
Deal?
4.
Durban
Blues
With
a
Hint
http://m.uk.mercer.com/articles/1446125?detail=D
of
Green
Durban
Key
Achievements
http://ukinhongkong.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/working-with-hongkong/climate-change/durban-summit/cop17-key-achievements