‘Mutual mistrust’ mars climate talks
People should do own part to fight global warming and not rely on their governments, UN chief says
DOHA, QATAR— The United Nations climate chief is urging people not to look solely to their governments to slow global warming, and instead to consider their own role in solving the problem.
Approaching the halfway point of two-week climate talks in Doha, Christiana Figueres, the head of the UN’s climate change secretariat, said Friday she didn’t see “much public interest, support, for governments to take on more ambitious and more courageous decisions.”
“Each one of us needs to assume responsibility. It’s not just about domestic governments,” she said.
Her comments came as negotiators from nearly 200 countries were struggling to prepare draft agreements on how to move forward on greenhouse emissions cuts and climate aid for poor countries.
Some delegates worried that gains made at last year’s climate talks in Durban, South Africa, were at risk of unravelling as rich and poor nations bickered over how to pull the world away from a path of potentially dangerous warming.
“There is a mutual mistrust that is very clear,” said Brazil’s chief negotiator Andre Aranha Correa do Lago. “We need to get back to the spirit of Durban.”
The slow-moving UN process has failed to deliver a global pact to rein emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. Such emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, have grown 20 per cent since 2000, according to a recent UN report, which showed the gap is growing between what governments are doing and what science indicates must be done to contain warming. Research presented on the sidelines of the conference Friday indicated that some countries, including the U.S., are unlikely to meet their current, voluntary, emissions pledges unless they step up their climate efforts.
The Obama administration has al- ready taken steps to rein in emissions, such as increasing fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks and investing in green energy. But the study from Climate Analytics, Ecofys and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said U.S. policies won’t be enough to meet its stated goal of reducing emissions by 17 per cent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels. Others said the U.S. will come close to that goal with new standards for emissions from coal-fired power plants. “I think we can get within spitting distance of the17 per cent,” said Jake Schmidt, of the Natural Resources Defense Council. In Doha, delegates are expected to extend the expiring Kyoto Protocol, an agreement limiting greenhouse emissions of some industrialized countries. The U.S. never ratified that agreement because it didn’t include fast-growing developing countries including India and China, the world’s top carbon emitter. Delegates are also supposed to agree on a work plan for a wider pact that would include all countries. It’s supposed to be adopted in 2015 and take effect five years later. Figueres predicted the conference would end with countries agreeing on a package of compromise decisions, “fully recognizing that whatever comes out of Doha is not at the level of ambition we need.”