‘Huge step’ as world signs up to climate deal
Global leaders hail agreement on ambitious cap on rising temperatures and cutting emissions
THE world last night agreed the first universal, legally binding deal to tackle global warming, in a move that David Cameron said marked “a huge step forward in helping to secure the future of our planet”. The deal, agreed at UN talks in Paris, commits countries to try to keep global temperature rises “well below” 2C, the level that is likely to herald the worst effects of climate change.
It also commits them to “pursue efforts” to limit warming to 1.5C – a highly ambitious goal that could require the UK to take even more radical action than under its existing Climate Change Act.
Amber Rudd, the Energy Secretary, admitted that the world did not “have the answers yet” as to how it would meet the long-term goals of the Paris deal, which would require carbon to be extracted from the atmosphere by the second half of this century.
President François Hollande, the summit host, last night welcomed “the most beautiful and peaceful revolution” and said the deal was a “major leap for mankind”.
The Prime Minister said: “Britain is already leading the way in work to cut emissions and help less developed countries cut theirs and this global deal now means that the whole world has signed to play its part in halting climate change.” Last night’s deal requires countries to set increasingly ambitious targets for cutting their national emissions and to report on their progress – but, crucially, leaves the actual targets, which are not legally binding, for countries to decide for themselves.
The deal also requires developed nations to continue to provide funding to help poorer countries cut their carbon emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change – but does not set a legally binding level of money.
An accompanying, non-binding agreement requires developed countries to continue a goal of “mobilising” $100billion (£65.9billion) of public and private finance for developing countries each year after 2020.
It also calls on them to pledge a higher sum by 2025 – potentially pressuring the UK to increase its contribution beyond the £5.8 billion it has pledged over the next five years.
The UK’s Climate Change Act already legally commits it to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050. This – and interim targets set by the Government’s official advisers, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) – are designed to be compatible with a goal of no more than 2C warming, and it is estimated will require £10billion a year in green energy subsidies by 2030.
Michael Jacobs, of the New Climate Economy organisation and a former adviser to Gordon Brown, said: “The new ambition to keep global warming to only 1.5C will require more action, certainly after the next decade.”
However, it was “unlikely” that the Conservative government would choose to do so, he said.
The CCC has already said it will review the Paris deal to see if the UK needs to change its targets.
Environmental and campaign groups were divided on the details of the deal, with Christian Aid describing it as “a new era which has the potential to transform the global economy to address climate change” while Friends of the Earth criticised it as a “sham” that failed to go far enough. The agreement was thrashed out over two weeks of talks that saw ministers negotiate into the early hours for the final three nights, amid deep divisions over the relative responsibilities and needs of rich nations, emerging economies, and poor countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Such divisions scuppered a hopedfor treaty six years ago in Copenhagen but the summit’s French hosts produced a compromise text that won the backing of key potential objectors.
Financing had been a stumbling block throughout the talks. Developing nations had demanded legally binding commitments for developed nations to give more cash. Earlier drafts had proposed such a deal but this was scrapped after the US made clear it would never ratify such an agreement.
The UK and other developed nations had also been calling for an end to the crude distinction between “developed” and “developing” nations, as defined in 1992 – under which six of the 10 wealthiest countries in the world are classed as “developing” and under no obligation to contribute, even though several already are doing so voluntarily.
However, hoped-for wording requiring other nations “in a position to do so” to contribute was replaced with a much weaker call that “encouraged” other nations “to provide or continue to provide such support voluntarily”. Ahead of the Paris talks, 185 countries submitted voluntary pledges setting out the action they plan to take in the 2020s to cut their domestic emissions. The UK’s pledge was covered as part of a joint EU pledge to cut emissions by 40 per cent on 1990 levels by 2030.
However, the pledges still leave the world on track for warming of 2.7C this century. A key demand of the UK, EU and many of the countries most vulnerable to climate change was for a fiveyear review process to encourage countries to improve on their pledges and commit to deeper emissions cuts in future, in the hope of meeting the 2C, or 1.5C, goals.
The text of the deal asks countries to come back before 2020 to revisit the pledges they have made, and then make new pledges every five years thereafter. Each country’s pledge must “represent a progression” on their previous one “and reflect its highest ambition”.