‘Breakthrough’ in putting accord into action: Shaw
Green Party co-leader James Shaw says the newly agreed rulebook on global climate change is a “breakthrough” and will help to build momentum in putting the landmark Paris agreement into action.
The rulebook, signed by almost 200 countries after days of tense negotiations in Poland’s COP24 conference, established the rules on how to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Shaw, who was co-facilitating some of the talks, said it would help “galvanise action” as it puts every country in the Paris treaty on the same playing field.
“The Paris agreement said what we wanted to do; it didn’t say a great deal about how we wanted to do it.”
The 2015 Paris accord put a 2020 deadline on countries to increase their commitment on lowering net emissions. “I think this [the rulebook] is quite a big breakthrough in terms of ensuring we get the momentum towards that.”
Shaw said one of the greatest parts of the rulebook was around transparency. Now, countries would be accountable for doing what they said they would do in terms of policies put in place to cut emissions.
National’s climate change spokesman Todd Muller, who was also at the conference, agreed the gains around transparency were important and said the rulebook was a “solid step forward”.
“New Zealanders are keen to see that we do our proportional effort . . . but it’s important we see other countries put their shoulder to the wheel too in terms of genuine change.”
One of the major sticking points in the talks was agreeing on how developed countries would help developing countries meet the goal.
Shaw said it was “challenging” to hammer out a rulebook with so many different countries at the table.
“Given how long we have overrun and how difficult it got, the fact that [the rulebook] is as good as it is, is a very pleasant surprise.” Notably, the US did not sign on to the rulebook — given President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris accord.
“I know the US has a problematic relationship with the Paris agreement, but pretty much everyone else in the world is just getting on with it,” Shaw said.
But not everyone is happy with the result. Greenpeace NZ executive director and former Green Party coleader Russel Norman said although the rulebook was agreed, there was no clear collective commitment to enhance climate action targets.
He called on the Government to bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme — something it is in the process of considering.