Two weeks of negotiations at the UN climate talks in Qatar has resulted in a ‘package deal’ dubbed the Doha Climate Gateway.
The key points of this are:
- Second commitment period of the Kyoto pact will run from January 1, 2013 to the end of 2020, binding the 27-member European Union and 10 other industrialised nations, including Australia and Switzerland, to emission cuts.
- A call for Kyoto Protocol countries to review their emissions reduction target in line with the 25-40% range by 2014 at the latest.
- An agreed work program on ‘Loss and Damage’ from climate change to aid poorer countries to start immediately and a decision “to establish institutional arrangement, such as an international mechanism, at COP19” – Doha deal urges developed countries to announce pledges “when their financial circumstances permit”.
- Parties reiterated their intention to draft a new, global pact by 2015 to replace the Kyoto Protocol from 2020.
- Developed countries failed to agree a method to account for their carbon in a comparable way.
The deal has met with disappointment by environmental groups. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) condemned a small number of western countries for reneging on their commitments, claiming that negotiators in Doha had “failed to deliver even the minimum expectations for the UN climate negotiations.”
WWF’s global climate and energy initiative leader Samantha Smith said: “Some developed countries have made a mockery of the negotiations by backing away from their past commitments and refusing to take on new ones.
“And to make matters worse, it was only a handful of countries – such as Poland, Russia, Canada, the US and Japan – who held the negotiations to ransom.
“What science tells us and what millions of people experienced this year is that fighting climate change is now extremely urgent. Every year counts, and every year governments do not act increases the risk to us all.”
Echoing this sentiment, Friends of the Earth executive director Andy Atkins said:
“Rarely has so little been achieved by so many powerful people gathered together in one place – the failure to agree any meaningful international action to slash emissions leaves the world teetering on the edge of catastrophic climate change.
“Wealthy nations must shoulder the blame – they’ve put their short-term interests ahead of the well-being of billions of people around the globe.”
European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard admitted that the negotiations had been difficult, and would remain so in the future, but insisted that the outcome of the talks laid the basis for more ambitious international action against climate change in the short term and paved the way for a new global climate agreement to be finalised in 2015.
She said: “In Doha, we have crossed the bridge from the old climate regime to the new system. We are now on our way to the 2015 global deal.
“It was not an easy and comfortable ride. It was not a very fast ride either. But we have managed to cross the bridge. Very intense negotiations lie ahead of us. What we need now is more ambition and more speed.”
Commenting on Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan’s speech to the UN climate conference in Doha, Oisin Coghlan, Director of Friends of the Earth Ireland said: “Fine words at far away conferences are easy. The real test for the Minister will be the publication of the draft climate change Bill, due before Christmas.
“To have any credibility it must set an emissions target for 2050 in line with EU plans for 80-95% reductions. And it must give our EU 2020 target the force of national law. Only a strong climate law will ensure the fine words are followed with real action.”
On the issue of climate finance, trumpeted as an Irish success story, Friends of the Earth was scathing. The minister is playing a three card trick on climate finance. The Government promised “new and additional” money for fast start finance. And in 2010 and 2011 €33 million was indeed allocated from the Minister’s own Environment Fund. This year, however, the Minister has taken all the money from the already declining overseas aid budget.
“The Government is taking money meant for clean water and teacher training in Africa and switching it to pay for flood defences. To hear the minister tout this as ‘exceeding our commitment’ turns the stomach.”
Climate & Knowledge Development Network CEO, Sam Bickersteth, said: “The United Nations climate talks in Doha, Qatar show a subtle, unsettling shift in the global climate change debate. Just four or five years ago, the debate was sharply focused on how much we should cut greenhouse gas emissions to avoid dangerous climate change, and how society could adapt to modest climate change impacts. Now, the most vulnerable countries are discussing how they will cope when climate change causes unavoidable losses of crops and fisheries, infrastructure and homes – and human lives.”
Oxfam International Climate Change Policy Advisor, Tim Gore said: “Developing countries have come here in good faith and have been forced to accept vague words and no numbers.”
Frank McDonald of the Irish Times was in Doha following the talks. See www.irishtimes.com to read his articles.