Carbon price tipped to rise as NZ locked out
‘It was not an easy ride. It was not a fast ride, but we managed to cross the bridge and hopefully we can increase our speed.’
CLIMATE CHANGE talks have ended with agreement to extend the landmark Kyoto protocol and a pledge by Western countries to pay developing nations for damage caused by climate change.
But the agreement has left the protocol with a greatly reduced number of signatories, 37, including Australia and the EU, but not New Zealand, Japan or Russia.
It doesn’t include the two largest emitters, the United States and China.
The deal does prevent countries such as New Zealand from buying cheap international carbon credits. And a cap was placed on countries’ ability to sell surplus ‘‘hot air’’ credits generated from undershooting national targets.
The Doha talks also failed to secure a commitment by countries to increase cuts in greenhouse gases in the face of growing scientific evidence that the rate of emissions growth is making it unlikely that global warming will be kept below two degrees. Instead, the deal ‘‘urges’’ developed countries to increase emission targets and for signatories to report back by April 2014 on whether they will be increased.
‘‘It was not an easy ride. It was not a fast ride, but we managed to cross the bridge and hopefully we can increase our speed,’’ European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said.
Australia’s climate change parliamentary secretary Mark Dreyfus said the agreement to renew the Kyoto protocol from January 1, 2013 was important as it was the first global treaty to set binding obligations on countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Doha had also laid the foundations for the new global agreement and set a timetable for achieving agreement by 2015, he said. ‘‘This was the first year of a four-year negotiation on the new agreement and progress was encouraging,’’ Dreyfus said.
Peter Hardstaff, a World Wildlife Fund climate change campaigner said New Zealand negotiators went to Doha seeking unhindered access to carbon markets. However, being shut out of these will have significant cost implications for the ‘‘ineffective’’ Emissions Trading Scheme.
‘‘Without access to international carbon credits, the price of carbon in New Zealand will go up – creating an incentive to pollute less,’’ he said.
‘‘While this was not the government’s intention, WWF-New Zealand believes that locking New Zealand out of the international carbon markets would have a positive impact on our national efforts to tackle climate change.’’
International aid agency Oxfam said poor countries had left the negotiations with little more than when they arrived.
It is not clear whether the commitment of developed countries is in addition to funding they have already agreed for international aid. Nor was there any agreement on how developed countries would meet their promise to provide US$100 billion ($120b) in funding by 2020 to developing countries.