The Nature Conservancy

A new high-speed magnetic-levitation train covers the 120 kilometers between Beijing and Tianjin in just 25 minutes. But workers in the Beijing office of The Nature Conservancy took a more satisfying, if slightly slower, means to get to the United Nations climate talks last week in Tianjin. Their bicycle ride, along highways and through many tree-lined avenues, took six hours.

Much like that impressive and eco-friendly effort, Chinese non-profit organizations held exceptional public awareness-raising activities, using this early-October preparatory meeting to bring attention back to the crucial issue of climate change, in anticipation of the big UN climate conference held each year in December, this year in Cancun, Mexico.

The UN negotiations stood in stark contrast to the dynamism in the sustainable development industries that one feels in China. As negotiators inside the conference center argued over minute details of the decision text, hundreds of entrepreneurs gathered elsewhere in Tianjin to consider clean energy opportunities that can emerge under the carbon markets being contemplated by the Chinese government. While China, now the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, faces enormous challenges in reducing emissions, this entrepreneurial spirit — combined with aggressive policies to promote clean energy and transportation, and protect and restore forests that capture carbon dioxide — will be essential to meeting the challenges.

Tianjin has one of the most dazzling, intelligently designed conference centers ever to host the global climate talks. The conference center was christened last month when it hosted the World Economic Forum, and the climate negotiations were its second major event.  Built in just eight months, it is a symbol of both the pace of change in China and the modernism in this northeast city, one of China’s model cities of the “green economy”.  There is much entrepreneurial dynamism in products and services that tap into the Chinese peoples’ interest in low-carbon development. Tianjin Municipality, for example, recently introduced a program allowing commuters to purchase one ton of carbon emissions reductions when they buy their electronic swipe cards for buses and subways. In its first week the program has issued 5,000 of these cards for only 50 RMB (US$ 7.50) each.

China’s role in hosting this meeting is significant.  Now the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, China is implementing major initiatives in renewable energy and energy efficiency and has become the world’s leading producer and consumer of many of these technologies.

And on October 10, communities around the world, from Indonesia and Brazil (where responsibly managing forests can play a major role in fighting global warming) to the US and China joined in “10/10/10.” This was a globally linked set of events joining thousands of climate-change awareness actions in 183 countries.  One hopes this kind of built-up energy and optimism will permeate through the rest of the year and into the Cancun negotiations.

While last year’s Copenhagen Accord contained a number of meaningful advances in terms of pollution-reducing pledges, financing, transparency, and monitoring, it was a let-down after expectations had been so high before the conference that a major, comprehensive agreement would be signed by most of the world’s leaders.

And the Accord did not contain the legally binding agreement and detailed rules that the world needs to have a full system of cooperative action on climate change.  Unfortunately, some of the differences between countries seem just as strong as they were before their leaders agreed to the Copenhagen Accord.  

There is concern that a collapse of talks in two months in Cancun could further erode faith in the UN’s role in alleviating the ills of global warming.

One hopes this concern, which was being openly acknowledged by negotiators in Tianjin, may in fact galvanize delegations to bridge their differences and work even harder to position an agreement in Cancun that keeps the world moving toward stronger action on climate change and a major increase in adaptation efforts worldwide to provide us all with a safer, healthier, and less risky place to live.  

As a starting point for the Cancun outcome, it is essential that governments participating in the Copenhagen Accord honor what has already been agreed upon last year. Following through on financing to developing countries and a commitment to transparency by all countries, as well as taking decisions in Cancun that are consistent with the Accord, are crucial to building international goodwill and trust.  

In rapidly growing China, and in many of the most ecologically valuable places around the world, we are already observing the real and disturbing impacts of climate change. The urgency to deal with the climate change threat is clear.  At the same time, we know that nature-based solutions, including the protection of the world’s tropical forests, can help significantly reduce global emissions.

Adapting to climate change will also rely on the safeguards provided by healthy ecosystems, which must be enhanced through an increase in protection of coastlines, watersheds and mountainous forests.  

Action on climate change must protect — and use — these ecosystems for the valuable services they provide. (Duncan Marsh, International Climate Policy)

Source: The Jakarta Post

Some rights for the image is reserved under Creative Commons license

Observations from the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank

October 12, 2010 — Last week, while climate policy watchers had their eyes on Tianjin—where the UNFCCC negotiators were making halting progress in their final meetings before the upcoming negotiations in Cancun—another debate on climate was being held in Washington. Ministers of finance and development, as well as representatives from the private sector, civil society and other development agencies, gathered for the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. World Bank President Robert Zoellick’s opening speech set the tone by highlighting the increased impact on developing countries from climate-related natural disasters and other environmental and social stress factors. Zoellick also re-affirmed the World Bank’s global priority on tackling climate change.

The backdrop to the meetings was not encouraging. There is a wide disparity between what science tells us, that global warming should not exceed 2 degree C (3.6 degree F), and the ambition of commitments under the Copenhagen Accord. Further, the gridlock in U.S. legislation makes it difficult to reach our own commitments, weakening our ability to serve as a leader. There are challenges to international cooperation given the increase in global imbalances and tensions over currency, with tension between the U.S. and China on these issues mirroring the tone in Tianjin. And there are fiscal constraints in the OECD countries that challenge the ability to finance the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy in the developing world.

But there was room for some optimism. The delegates were purposeful in their discussions, and pressed for continued action within, and in parallel to, the UNFCCC talks to keep up momentum to reach a positive outcome in Cancun.

Five key messages for addressing the climate change challenge emerged from the annual meetings:

Go for building blocks. With UNFCCC officials clear that there are no prospects for a comprehensive global agreement in Cancun, the goal has shifted to Plan B: to reach agreement on a number of building blocks that were framed in the Copenhagen Accord that could ultimately shape an eventual global agreement. Likely candidates for agreement include: mechanisms for supporting reductions in emissions from forestry (REDD+), building on the recent partnership forged by 58 countries at the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference; technology, including the setting up of regional innovation centers; a framework for adaptation, focusing on capacity building; and the principles of, and processes for designing, the Copenhagen Green Fund. But while convergence on these issues seems possible, the “building block” strategy may not advance due to the trickiest parts of the Copenhagen Accord—provisions for transparency about monitoring, reporting and verification of emission reduction targets and actions, and their linkages to the commitments on longer-term climate finance. At the annual meetings, some participants were quietly discussing a “Plan C”—that no formal agreements on these building blocks will be created in Cancun, but there will be continued movement through bottom-up activities supported by coalitions of interested countries.

Make climate finance a reality. The Copenhagen Accord included climate finance commitments of $30 billion in Fast Start financing to 2012, with long-term financing reaching $100 billion a year by 2020. Delegates acknowledged that meeting the Fast Start financing objective was critical to building trust, and countries are racing to demonstrate by Cancun that they are meeting these commitments. But the scope for the public sector to finance significant parts of the longer term $100 billion commitment has finance officials worried. They will also be looking for the kind of leverage achieved by the Clean Technology Fund, with some $4 billion leveraging $40 billion in investment in clean technologies. And, while we wait for the report on possible sources of innovative finance from the U.N.'s high-level group on climate finance due by the end October, the message is that we should not expect a recommendation on how to raise this level of finance but rather a menu of possibilities to inform the debate on economic and political tradeoffs.

Focus on strategies for leveraging the private sector. Climate negotiators are divided on the role that public versus private finance should play in meeting the Copenhagen Accord ambitions. But OECD delegates to the annual meetings were clear that achieving the $100 billion per year in longer-term finance would require significant private sector flows. There was a strong push for the continuation of carbon markets beyond 2012. So, extension of the Kyoto Protocol in Cancun will be critical. Even then, the Clean Development Mechanism needs substantial reform to reduce transaction costs, support investment at scale through programmatic schemes, and become more accessible to a broader range of countries, including the least-developed countries. Other ideas included public-private partnerships with private capital; leveraging multilateral development bank risk mitigation capabilities; and using innovative public policy tools, like cross border feed-in tariffs, to support regional renewable investments.

Get ready for many channels of public sector climate finance. In Tianjin, the focus was on the often-contentious intricacies in the design of the governance arrangements for the Copenhagen Green Fund and its links to other issues, like transparency. In Washington this past weekend, the message from contributing countries was that while the Copenhagen Green Fund will be important, there will be many channels for climate finance, including: existing funds like the Global Environment Facility and the Adaptation Fund, leveraging of the MDBs, and bilateral support. The link to MDB and bilateral funds to the UNFCCC continues to be a debatable point, with developing countries asserting the primacy of the Copenhagen Green Fund as a key part of any financial mechanism, guided by and accountable to the UNFCCC. Also underscored during the annual meetings was the key element of transparency—to reassure developing countries that money is flowing and balanced across different constituencies, and to assure taxpayers that funds are achieving results.

Don’t forget the most vulnerable. There was a call for structuring new funding to also reach least-developed countries. Capacity building to help these countries access the many funding channels will be critical. A focus on special constituencies with significant climate challenges (small island states, sub-Saharan Africa and mountain nations) was also on the agenda. Further, some emphasized the need to ensure that funds, whatever their source or delivery channel, adhere to strong social and environmental standards so that benefits reach the poorest, including indigenous peoples. The productive dialogue on opportunities for the most vulnerable, which has surfaced as part of the REDD+ partnership, may set the path for the broader climate finance architecture.

While global agreement on tackling climate change is not in the cards for Cancun, the Conference of Parties will have the opportunity to move forward on the building blocks to set action in motion. Climate financing will be at the top of the agenda—including leveraging strategies for the private sector and debating the role and impact of public financing options. Ultimately, the least-developed countries, which have been, and will continue to be, hit hardest by climate-related natural disasters as President Zoellick emphasized at the annual meetings, need to see action, particularly financing, sooner rather than later. (By Katherine Sierra)

Editor’s Note: Katherine Sierra is the former vice president for sustainable development at the World Bank. She participated in this year’s Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank as a member of civil society.

Source: BROOKINGS

Some rights for the image is reserved under Creative Commons license

(Reuters) - Rich nations must spell out their plans for cutting greenhouse gases more clearly to enable U.N. talks in Mexico to agree the cornerstone of a pact to slow global warming, the U.N.'s climate chief said.

Christiana Figueres said the annual November 29-December 10 meeting in Mexico would fall short of a U.N. treaty to combat climate change, saying countries learnt there was no "magic bullet" for a quick new U.N. accord at a Copenhagen summit last year.

She urged rich nations to clarify promises to cut greenhouse gases, many of which have not been written into domestic laws, and also admit they were too weak to avert damaging climate change.

"It is absolutely critical that these mitigation pledges that are on the table be formalized and recognized as a first and necessary but insufficient step," she told the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit on Wednesday.

"Governments do need to double their efforts between now and Cancun," she said of the talks among environment ministers to be held in the Mexican Caribbean resort.

She said promises so far for cuts in emissions fall short of those needed to limit a rise in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times, a ceiling set at the U.N. summit in Copenhagen last December.

Figueres noted that many developing states wanted temperature rises limited to below 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid more floods, droughts, mudslides and rising sea levels.

Many promised curbs on greenhouse gases, mainly by cutting emissions from fossil fuels, are hedged. The European Union plans a cut of 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 with a cut of 30 percent if others act. Japan plans a cut of 25 percent, but only if there is an ambitious U.N. deal.

The U.N. talks are meant to agree a successor climate deal to the Kyoto Protocol whose first round ends in 2012.

U.S. CURBS

Some rich nations, notably Japan and Canada, say they can only agree new binding emissions cuts when the United States -- which never ratified the Kyoto Protocol -- does the same.

Figueres, who heads the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said Washington could bring plans in Cancun even though the Senate has failed to enact President Barack Obama's call for a law for cuts of 4 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

She said Cancun could agree elements of a deal, such as a fund to help poor nations curb emissions and adapt to global warming, a system to protect tropical forests or ways to share green technology.

A set of decisions in Cancun would be "the cornerstone on which (nations) may choose to build" in coming years. She said it was unclear they would try to set a deadline for a treaty.

She said among good news was that studies showed that rich nations had collectively promised about $28 billion in fast-start aid for developing nations from 2010-12.

But she said some of it fell short of being "new and additional" under a pledge in Copenhagen to provide funds approaching $30 billion for the three years, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020.

She also said that only the United Nations, not alternative groups or bilateral deals, could drive a global fight against climate change since it comprised all nations. "The multilateral process is...cumbersome and necessarily a slow process...but absolutely indispensable." (By Alister Doyle and Gerard Wynn; Additional reporting by David Fogarty in Singapore; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Source: Reuters

Some rights for the image is reserved under Creative Commons license

SEOUL — The United Nations panel of climate change scientists agreed Thursday to push for reforms after coming in for strong criticism over errors in a 2007 report.

But Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made it clear he plans to stay in the post despite calls before the meeting for him to step down.

"I look forward to working with the panel to continue the process of reform," he said in a statement at the end of a four-day IPCC meeting in the southern South Korean city of Busan, with some 400 delegates taking part.

The IPPC and Pachauri came under fire after the report three years ago predicted that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035 -- a forecast found to be scientifically impossible.

The group admitted its mistakes but insisted its core conclusions about climate change were sound.

A five-month probe ordered by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the IPCC should have a stronger scientific basis for making its predictions and recommended an overhaul of the position held by Pachauri.

The inquiry carried out by the InterAcademy Council (IAC), grouping experts from national science academies, called on August 30 for major reform of the IPCC's management and said its top leaders should serve only one term.

"The IPCC is taking decisive action to respond to these recommendations in a way that is transparent and open, and ensures the highest-quality assessments are produced and made available to the international community," its statement said.

The panel said it would immediately implement many recommendations including guidance on uncertainty, "non-peer-reviewed literature" and addressing potential errors.

It announced a special group to consider other IAC recommendations on procedures for preparing assessment reports.

The IPCC said work on its fifth assessment report, to be published in 2014, "remains on course and will benefit from the panel's decisions".

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

Source: AFP/Google

Some rights for the image is reserved under Creative Commons license