Climate pact significant, Shaw says
Agreement weaker than hoped
KATOWICE: New Zealand Climate Change Minister James Shaw says momentum will start to build now that the Paris climate accord has been agreed.
Nearly 200 countries overcame political divisions yesterday to agree on rules for implementing a landmark global climate deal.
The accord, reached after marathon talks in the Polish city of Katowice, will seek to limit global temperature rises to below 2degC.
Mr Shaw was in Poland for the negotiations, and said it was a big step to have the accord agreed.
‘‘The Paris Agreement said what we wanted to do, it didn’t say a great deal about how we wanted to do it,’’ Mr Shaw said.
‘‘Now that we’ve got this, and that it applies to everyone in the world, it should increase momentum.
‘‘You know, we’ve got a deadline of 2020 to increase the commitments that all countries are making and I think this is quite a big breakthrough in terms of ensuring that we get the momentum towards that.’’
Mr Shaw said New Zealand played a big part.
‘‘I think that New Zealand is quite highprofile here,’’ Mr Shaw said.
‘‘We are part of a group of countries called the high ambition coalition who are really committed to that 1.5degC temperature goal and doing everything that we can domestically in order to live within that temperature boundary. I think that is significant.’’
Of particular interest to Mr Shaw was what the deal meant for New Zealand’s Pacific Island neighbours.
‘‘This is a major breakthrough for them, because this really starts to operationalise the Paris Agreement,’’ Mr Shaw said.
‘‘If countries do what they say they’re going to do — and I know that is a big if — that basically ensures the survival of the most vulnerable Pacific islands and countries in the world, so I think it’s a significant win for them.’’
Not everyone is sold on the agreement, however.
Russel Norman, the former Green Party leader and now executive director of Greenpeace New Zealand, said it was positive the rulebook governing the agreement had been put in place.
But Mr Norman said there was no commitment from nations to significantly cut their emissions.
‘‘I mean, it was great that Donald Trump and co didn’t manage to completely destroy the Paris Agreement, but if we don’t actually cut our emissions, it does just remain a set of rules on a book.’’
Mr Shaw remained positive about the agreement, but said it was now up to individual countries to deliver.
Before the talks, many expected the deal would not be as robust as needed. The unity which underpinned the Paris talks has fragmented, and United States President Donald Trump intends to pull his country — one of the world’s biggest emitters — out of the pact.
‘‘It is not easy to find agreement on a deal so specific and technical. Through this package you have made a thousand little steps forward together. You can feel proud,’’ Polish president of the talks Michal Kurtyka told delegates.
At the 11th hour, ministers managed to break a deadlock between Brazil and other countries over the accounting rules for the monitoring of carbon credits, deferring the bulk of that discussion to next year, but missing a chance to signal businesses to speed up their actions.
Still, exhausted ministers managed to bridge a series of divides to produce a 156page rulebook, which is broken down into themes such as how countries will report and monitor their national pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions and update their emissions plans.
During the two weeks of talks in Katowice, in the mining region of Silesia, a focus on the fossil fuel industry provided an unwelcome distraction for some who wanted to focus on cleaner energy.
The US Administration’s only event in Katowice was seen as trying to rebrand coal as a potentially clean energy source. — RNZ/Reuters