-calls on US, China to step up
President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday defined four issues which he said the climate summit in Copenhagen must resolve – including a $100B per annum fund for developing countries up to 2020 and he piled pressure on the US and China to cut through the gridlock.
With only hours to go now before the historic climate summit in Denmark is scheduled to end, Jagdeo delivered his presentation to the 15th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework on Climate Change urging renewed commitment in four areas.
He called for a reconciling of differences on the pivotal issue of temperature rise saying that he supported the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) target of stabilizing the temperature at 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial limit.
The developed world is more inclined at a 2 degrees target and Jagdeo said that this difference should not stand in the way of agreement.
“We should commit here to a maximum 2 degree rise above pre-industrial levels, and use the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) process to translate scientific evidence into a revised set of targets when necessary. We should also commit to a specific review of the evidence for a 1.5 degree target by a particular date.”
Second, the President, who has spearheaded a Guyana initiative to have forests valued for the purposes of fighting climate change, called for the developed world to agree to “ambitious, binding cuts in emissions” that cannot be reversed. This has been a major sticking point in the years leading up to the Copenhagen summit as both developed countries and big developing ones like China and India have baulked at committing to radical cuts.
“If the commitments made here are still not enough to reach the stabilisation targets we set, we need to finalise the commitments in a legally binding agreement within six months”, Jagdeo recommended, according to the text of his address released by the Government Information Agency.
The third problematic area he homed in on is the question of fiscal transfers to the developing world. This has also been a longstanding source of controversy and Jagdeo, who has piloted the Low Carbon Development Strategy here, appealed for a Fast Start Fund of US$10B per year from 2010 to 2012 along with a mechanism to make it work seamlessly. More importantly he implored the conference to cement funding commitments up to 2020 of at least US$100b per annum. “Not only to finance the adaptation needs of the developing world, but also because if we are to defeat climate change, we need to unleash the biggest wave of innovation the world has ever seen to stimulate energy efficiency, catalyse a global move to clean energy, and to redesign the agricultural and forestry economies in the developing world”, the President asserted.
The president’s appeal came on a day when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bolstered hopes in the developing world by committing Washington to working with others in the bid to mobilizing US$100b for the developing world by 2020.
The fourth issue identified by President Jagdeo was the nature of the long-term agreement and the reporting and verifying of the commitments made by countries. He proposed that this could be achieved in a manner that ensures the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol’s provisions for countries that have ratified it and the procedures for Annex I countries which are to commit to goals.
He argued that these four agreements can be sealed by the end of today in Copenhagen and he then set about pressing for the US and the China to discharge their obligations.
“The world is now looking to two countries for leadership: the United States of America and China. We understand the reality that President (Barack) Obama’s progressive domestic agenda and international military commitments both require immense political capital and administrative effort. We also recognize the justice in China’s argument that it bears little responsibility for the accumulation of pollution in our atmosphere, and that in the absence of action from others, it does not bear the responsibility for acting first.
“But at this point in history, we need leadership that transcends these realities, and a generosity of national commitment that matches the greatness of these two nations. The United States needs to recognise that a 4% reduction on a 1990 baseline is simply not enough to stabilise our climate. The so-called realities of domestic politics do not change this scientific truth. Recent policy shifts concerning the US Environmental Protection Agency are welcome. Yesterday’s announcement of support for addressing deforestation, and today’s announcement that the United States will play its part in generating US$100 billion globally per annum by 2020 are both significant steps forward. But cumulatively, the people of the world need the United States to do more, especially to commit to deeper emissions reductions.
“China has been a true friend to the developing world, and has consistently given us a powerful voice against the vested interests of those who seek to hold back the poorer countries of the world. We, the developing countries of the world, now need China’s help to defend us against an even bigger threat. China’s ability to solve problems of immense scale and complexity has been shown again and again, as they have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. The world now needs China to apply this ability to stop us from racing to climate disaster. I hope that China will do this, not because anybody is telling them to, but because they are the world’s indispensible actor and the future of developing countries everywhere is dependent on their action.”
Earlier in his presentation he said: “Our job is to cut through invented complexity, and to instruct our negotiators to quickly translate our decisions into operational language that can then be codified into a legal agreement. This is the best way to isolate those who would stand in the way of progress.” (See other story on page 4.)