NEWS: U.N. climate talks end with bare minimum agreement

December 20, 2009
Reuters

COPENHAGEN - U.N. climate talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement on Saturday when delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China and other emerging powers that falls far short of the conference's original goals.

"Finally we sealed a deal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "The 'Copenhagen Accord' may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this ... is an important beginning."

A long road lies ahead. The accord -- weaker than a legally binding treaty and weaker even than the 'political' deal many had foreseen -- left much to the imagination.

It set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times -- seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms and rising seas. But it failed to say how this would be achieved.

It held out the prospect of $100 billion in annual aid from 2020 for developing nations but did not specify precisely where this money would come from. And it pushed decisions on core issues such as emissions cuts into the future.

"This basically is a letter of intent ... the ingredients of an architecture that can respond to the long-term challenge of climate change, but not in precise legal terms. That means we have a lot of work to do on the long road to Mexico," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat.

Another round of climate talks is scheduled for November 2010 in Mexico. Negotiators are hoping to nail down then what they failed to achieve in Copenhagen -- a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. But there are no guarantees.

NON-BINDING ACCORD

A plenary session of the marathon 193-nation talks in the Danish capital merely "took note" of the new accord, a non-binding deal for combating global warming finalized by U.S. President Barack Obama, China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

Work on the pact had begun in a meeting of 28 leaders, ministers and officials, including EU countries and small island nations most vulnerable to climate change.

The European Union, which has set itself ambitious emissions cuts targets and encouraged others to follow suit, only reluctantly accepted the weak deal that finally emerged.

"The decision has been very difficult for me. We have done one step, we have hoped for several more," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In the final hours of the talks, which began on December 7 and ended early on Saturday afternoon, delegates agreed to set a deadline to conclude a U.N. treaty by the end of 2010.

At stake was a deal to fight global warming and promote a cleaner world economy less dependent on fossil fuels.

The accord explicitly recognized a "scientific view" that the world should limit warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius -- although the promised emissions cuts were far short of the amount needed to reach that goal.

"We have a big job ahead to avoid climate change through effective emissions reduction targets, and this was not done here," said Brazil's climate change ambassador, Sergio Serra.

A final breakthrough came after U.S. President Barack Obama brokered a final deal with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and leaders of India, South Africa and Brazil that they stand behind their commitments to curb growth in greenhouse gases.

Obama said the "extremely difficult and complex" talks laid the foundation for international action in the years to come.

"For the first time in history, all of the world's major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action on the threat of climate change," Obama said at the White House on Saturday after returning from Copenhagen.

The outcome underscored shortcomings in the chaotic U.N. process and may pass the initiative in forming world climate policy to the United States and China, the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases.

STORMY

In a stormy overnight session, the talks came to the brink of collapse after Sudan, Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia lined up to denounce the U.S. and China-led plan, after heads of state and government had flown home.

Sources close to the talks told Reuters the Danish hosts and U.N. lawyers had not obtained formal backing from the conference for a smaller group of leaders and ministers to agree a final text, leading to chaos when this was finally presented to a plenary meeting of all 193 countries.

U.N. talks are meant to be concluded by unanimity. Under a compromise to avoid collapse, the deal listed the countries that were in favor of the deal and those against.

An all-night plenary session, chaired by Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, hit a low point when a Sudanese delegate said the plan in Africa would be like the Holocaust.

The document "is a solution based on the same very values, in our opinion, that channeled six million people in Europe into furnaces," said Sudan's Lumumba Stanislaus Di-aping.

"The reference to the Holocaust is, in this context, absolutely despicable," said Anders Turesson, chief negotiator of Sweden.

The conference finally merely "took note" of the new accord.

This gives it the same legal status as if it had been accepted, senior United Nations official Robert Orr said. But it is far from a full endorsement, and it was also condemned by many environmental groups as showing a failure of leadership.

 

FACTBOX: What was agreed and left unfinished in U.N. climate deal

COPENHAGEN ACCORD

1. A NEW TREATY?

* No decision on whether to agree a legally binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

* No agreement on whether to sign one new treaty replacing Kyoto, or two treaties.

* Kyoto limits the emissions of nearly 40 richer countries from 2008-2012, but the United States never ratified the Protocol and it does not bind the emissions of developing nations.

* Rich nations prefer one new treaty including all countries; developing countries want to extend and sharpen rich nation commitments under Kyoto, and add a separate deal binding the United States and supporting action by poorer countries.

* No agreement on whether a new pact would run from 2013-2017 or 2013-2020, or any another time frame.

2. LONG-TERM GOAL TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE

* Recognizes "the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius."

* Agrees that "deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science."

* Agrees to stop global and national greenhouse gas emissions from rising "as soon as possible."

* No agreement on goals for global emissions cuts in the long-term, such as by 2050.

* Implementation of the accord would be reviewed in 2015 to ensure the world was avoiding dangerous climate change, to "include consideration of strengthening the long-term goal," for example to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees.

3. 2020 EMISSIONS CUTS BY DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

* Rich countries would "commit to economy-wide emissions targets for 2020" to be submitted by 31 January 2010.

* Rich nation parties to the Kyoto Protocol would strengthen their existing targets.

* No agreement on a base year for 2020 goals, for example compared with 1990 or 2005.

* Rich nations have so far offered 2020 targets of cuts about 14-18 percent below 1990 levels.

* Developing nations including China want collective rich nation cuts of at least 40 percent by 2020 versus 1990.

4. CLIMATE ACTION BY DEVELOPING NATIONS

* Developing nations would "implement mitigation actions" to slow growth in their carbon emissions, submitting these by January 31 2010.

* Developing countries would report those actions once every two years via the U.N. climate change secretariat.

* Actions which rich nations paid for would be recorded in a registry.

4. FINANCE

* Establishes a "Copenhagen Green Climate Fund."

* Agrees a "goal" for the world to raise $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries cut carbon emissions and adapt to climate change.

* The funding would come from a "a wide variety of sources."

* Developed countries would raise funds of $30 billion from 2010-2012 to help developing nations fight climate change.

* No agreement on how much individual countries would contribute to or benefit from any funds.

* "A significant portion" of the funds would flow through the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund, which would support projects to slow deforestation, help countries adapt to climate change and fund the development and sharing of clean technologies.

5. SAVING TROPICAL FORESTS

* Recognized the "crucial role" of reducing carbon emissions from destroying forests, and to raise funds to achieve that.

OTHER OUTCOMES, DECISIONS

1. EXCLUDED SECTORS, LOOPHOLES

* No agreement on whether to include emissions from aviation and shipping in climate targets, and make it mandatory to include farming and forestry.

* Kyoto excludes greenhouse gases from aviation and shipping, responsible for at least 5 percent of global emissions.

* Under Kyoto, rich countries do not have to include in their targets emissions from land use, including forests and farming.

* Combined, farms and deforestation account for a third of all global greenhouse gases.

2. ADOPTED DECISION ON CARBON MARKETS

* No agreement on how to scale up carbon finance under Kyoto's existing $6.5-billion clean development mechanism (CDM).

* Under the CDM rich nations pay for emissions cuts in developing countries through trade in carbon offsets.

* The European Union wants the scheme to invest tens of billions of dollars annually in developing nations by 2020.

* Agreement to allow developers to appeal against U.N. panel rejections of CDM projects.

* No agreement on whether to include carbon capture storage in the CDM, a technology which cuts carbon emissions from coal plants.

* No agreement on including forest preservation in CDM.

3. ADOPTED DECISION ON CONSERVING TROPICAL FORESTS

* Agrees to ensure indigenous peoples are involved in measures to curb deforestation.

* Asks developing countries to identify drivers of deforestation and to start measuring emissions from destroying trees.

* No agreement on specific funds for forest preservation.

 

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