The UN climate summit in Cancun has agreed a modest plan to combat climate change, including a new fund to help poor nations.
“This is a new era of international co-operation on climate change,” Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa told delegates at the end of two weeks of talks overshadowed by disputes between rich and poor countries.
The deal comprises a “Green Climate Fund,” reaffirms a goal of raising $100 billion in aid by 2020 and has measures to protect tropical forests and new ways to share new clean energy technologies.
Ms Espinosa banged down her gavel on the deal despite objections by Bolivia, which said the deal demanded too little of developed nations in cutting greenhouse gases. Applause by weary delegates drowned out any possible objections by Bolivia, which has been isolated at the meeting in opposing the deal.
The plan was unlocked after delegates simply put off until 2011 a dispute between rich and poor nations over the future of the UN’s Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto obliges developed nations to cut emissions until 2012.
The deal does not include a commitment to extend Kyoto beyond 2012, when it is due to expire, but it would prevent a collapse of climate change negotiations and allow for some modest advances on protecting the environment.
Earlier, the United States, China and dozens of other countries rallied around the plan for a modest package of measures including a new “Green Climate Fund” to help poor nations cope with climate change.
The proposal, brokered by Mexico, would also help share clean technologies such as wind and solar power, help protect tropical forests, and help poor nations adapt to impacts such as floods, droughts and rising sea levels.
Progress was undoubtedly made at Cancun but too many issues were left unresolved for the talks to be deemed an unqualified success.
The Observer editorial on 12th December was headlined “A muted cheer for the Cancun agreement”, which probably sums it up well.
“It would be rash to hail the conclusion of this month’s climate talks in Cancún as an unqualified success,” states the editorial. “Too many issues that affect the fate of our overheating world were left unresolved at the end of negotiations. In particular, the prospects that an emissions deal to tie both developing and developed nations to binding targets – replacing the present Kyoto agreement which runs out in 2012 – remain worryingly remote. Many months of hard negotiation lie ahead.
“Nevertheless, enough was agreed by delegates in Mexico to raise hopes that climatic disaster can be avoided in the long term. The failure of the Copenhagen climate summit last year dealt a worrying blow to the idea that humanity could control its output of greenhouse gases and if delegates had also left Cancún without any kind of progress, the whole multilateral process for dealing with climate change would have been at risk. The fact that delegates this time had found the will to compromise suggests lessons have been learned over the past 12 months and that hopes for successful outcomes, at future talks, are not misplaced.”
To read the rest of the editorial, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/12/leader-climate-change-cancun.
