Archive for December 2009
UN document shows Copenhagen summit falling short
COPENHAGEN — Carbon emissions cuts pledged at U.N. climate talks would put the world on “an unsustainable pathway” toward average global warming 50 percent higher than industrial countries want, a confidential U.N. draft document showed Thursday.
The document, obtained by The Associated Press, forecast that the average global temperature would rise in coming decades by 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels.
The world has already warmed a bit, so that would mean an additional 2.3 degrees Celsius (4.1 degrees Fahrenheit) warming from the present day.
Scientists say such rises in average temperatures could lead to catastrophic sea level rises, which would threaten islands and coastal cities, kill off many species of animals and plants, and alter the agricultural economies of many countries.
U.N. climate officials’ internal tally of rich and developing nations’ targets, both required and voluntary, shows they must cut emissions 10.5 billion tons a year by 2020. This would enable the world to prevent average temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — the target most industrialized nations use at Copenhagen.
“All the pledges to date do not add up to what the science requires,” said Robert Orr, a U.N. assistant secretary-general for policy, confirming the document’s preliminary figures.
But Orr said the pledges “will create significant carbon markets (and) significant funding streams that will change the equation that we currently see today.”
Environmental groups said the leaked document offered a reality check for measuring the conference’s success.
“The stark message for world leaders at Copenhagen is that the proposals on the table — especially from industrialized countries — fall far short of what the world needs,” said Keith Allott, head of climate change for WWF in Britain.
Rajendra Pauchauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.N.-sponsored science network, said he didn’t know about the U.N. document. But he said emissions growth must peak before 2015 to avoid the Earth heating up 2.3 degrees Celsius.
The world is pumping about 38 billion tons a year of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and that is projected to grow to about 54 billion tons by 2020. The internal draft says that must be kept to 44 billion tons to limit climate change to below 2 degrees Celsius.
Even if rich and developing nations fulfill the pledges they have made in Copenhagen, they still would have to reduce emissions by another 4.2 billion tons a year by 2020 to keep from putting themselves on “an unsustainable pathway” that could dangerously increase atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, the document said.
contd http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlGHAdFJT08vITVmmhI0OwHKl8ZgD9CLA77O2
Climate change talks enter ‘important moment’
COPENHAGEN — Global warming talks entered what the top United Nations climate official described as “a very distinct and important moment in the process” Tuesday, as top ministers searched for a way to ensure the commitments nations made here would stand up over time. Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, told reporters both large and small countries will have to make concessions in the coming days because “there is still an enormous amount of ground to be covered if this conference is to deliver what people around the world expect it to deliver.”
The United States and other industrialized nations are still pressing for a way to verify that China, India and other emerging economies will make the greenhouse gas emissions cuts they’ve promised to make in the context of a new agreement, while developing countries argue these rich nations have not provided the financing and ambitious climate targets that would be commensurate with their historic responsibility for global warming.
contd.. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121501253.html?hpid=topnews
Walkout heightens failure fears for climate marathon
| COPENHAGEN, December 15, 2009 (AFP) – Negotiators worked through the night Tuesday to prevent a UN climate summit from ending in catastrophic failure after developing nations staged a five-hour walkout and China accused the West of trickery. |
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| As the White House said Barack Obama wants a deal that imposes “meaningful steps” to combat global warming, ministers admitted they had to start making giant strides before 120 heads of state arrived for the summit’s climax Friday. But their hopes were hit when Africa led a boycott by developing nations of working groups, only returning after securing guarantees the summit would not sideline talks about the future of the Kyoto Protocol.That core emissions-curbing treaty ties rich countries that have ratified it to binding emissions curbs, but not developing nations. It does not include the United States, which says the Protocol is unfair as the binding targets do not apply to developing giants that are already huge emitters of greenhouse gases. The walkout delivered another blow to the summit, which has already been marred by spats between China and the United States.
The White House said President Obama, who is due to address the conference on Friday, was “committed to pursuing an accord that requires countries to take meaningful steps,” but acknowledged there was a great deal of work to be done. “There’s no doubt that there are issues that will remain outstanding for quite some time,” spokesman Robert Gibbs said. |
| In Copenhagen, Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren, whose country is the holder of the revolving EU presidency, said everyone was aware the clock was ticking. “We are running against time. The world has waited long enough,” he said.UN chief Ban Ki-Moon, speaking to reporters in New York before he was to leave for Copenhagen, also warned that “time is running out. “If everything is left to leaders to resolve at the last minute, we risk having a weak deal or no deal at all. And this would be a failure of potentially catastrophic consequence.” In an apparent concession, China said it might not take a share of any Western funding for emerging nations to fight climate change.
But in a pointer to the tensions backstage, Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said China would not be the fall guy if there were a fiasco. “I know people will say if there is no deal that China is to blame. This is a trick played by the developed countries. They have to look at their own position and can’t use China as an excuse,” he told the Financial Times. The G77 group of developing nations said they were being excluded from key negotiations by the conference chair Denmark. “We are faced with a process in which we have no hand. We are very concerned,” Bernadita de Castro Muller, coordinator of the G77, told reporters, charging that the process was “totally undemocratic, totally untransparent”. From Brussels, EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso voiced fears of a failure. “How are we going to look on Friday or Saturday if there are more than 100 heads of state and government from all over the world and that what we say to the world is that it was not possible to come to an agreement?” he said. Campaigners were even blunter, with Greenpeace saying the summit had five days “to avert climate chaos”. Emissions targets so far offered by Western leaders such as Obama amounted to “peanuts,” the group added. Danish police meanwhile Monday tear-gassed and arrested “between 150 and 200” demonstrators who had set alight barricades outside a giant Copenhagen squat. Demonstrators threw petrol bombs at police who tried to move in and put out the fires, who responded by launching tear gas and entering the Christiania refuge with dogs to make the arrests. The summit’s daunting goal is to tame greenhouse gases — the invisible by-product derived mainly from the burning of coal, oil and gas that traps the Sun’s heat and warms the atmosphere. Scientists say that without dramatic action within the next decade, Earth will be on course for warming that will inflict drought, flood, storms and rising sea levels, translating into hunger and misery for many millions. The stakes were underlined when a new UN report said that some 58 million people have been affected by 245 natural calamities so far this year, more than 90 percent of them weather events amplified by climate change. And climate guru Al Gore warned Monday that the record melting of glaciers worldwide could deprive more than a billion people of access to fresh water. |
968 detained at climate rally urging bold pact
COPENHAGEN – Tens of thousands of protesters have marched through the chilly Danish capital and nearly 1,000 were detained in a mass rally to demand an ambitious global climate pact, just as talks hit a snag over rich nations’ demands on China and other emerging economies.
The mostly peaceful demonstrations in Copenhagen on Saturday provided the centerpiece of a day of global climate activism stretching from Europe to Asia. Police assigned extra officers to watch protesters marching toward the suburban conference center to demand that leaders act now to fight climate change.
Police estimated their numbers at 40,000, while organizers said as many as 100,000 had joined the march from downtown Copenhagen. It ended with protesters holding aloft candles and torches as they swarmed by night outside the Bella Center where the 192-nation U.N. climate conference is being held.
There have been a couple of minor protests over the past week, but Saturday’s was by far the largest.
contd.. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091213/ap_on_sc/climate
Copenhagen: Leaked draft deal widens rift between rich and poor nations
Three hours after the “Danish text” had been leaked to the Guardian, Lumumba Di-Aping, the Sudanese chairman of the group of 132 developing countries known as G77 plus China, spelt out exactly why the poor countries he represents were so incensed. “The text robs developing countries of their just and equitable and fair share of the atmospheric space. It tries to treat rich and poor countries as equal,” said the diplomat.
The text is a draft proposal for the final political agreement that should be signed by national leaders including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown at the end of the Copenhagen summit on 18 December. It was prepared in secret by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” but understood to include the US and Denmark.
Five hours later, the UN’s top climate diplomat had responded. Yvo de Boer said: “This was an informal paper ahead of the conference given to a number of people for the purposes of consultations. The only formal texts in the UN process are the ones tabled by the chairs of this Copenhagen conference at the behest of the parties [involved].”
But the representatives of developing nations felt betrayed by the intent of the proposals in the draft.
contd… http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/09/copenhagen-summit-danish-text-leak
Road to Copenhagen to seal the deal
What will Sri Lanka’s official stance be at the Copenhagen Climate summit that will begin on December 7? Malaka Rodrigo reports Climate change is simply the greatest collective challenge we face as a human family,” United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said recently emphasizing the importance of the forthcoming Copenhagen climate change summit. The world is talking about Copenhagen and an important climate deal, but what really can we expect from it?
In 1997 world leaders gathered in Kyoto, Japan and signed the first climate deal to reduce emissions. Thirty-nine developed countries identified as Annexure I countries were given mandatory limits to which they should reduce their Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. But key industrial countries, the USA, Canada and Australia among them, who jointly emit nearly 36% of the world’s Green House Gases did not sign the Kyoto Protocol, casting doubts on its effectiveness.
The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Agreeing on a viable mechanism to control emission of Green House Gases for the period after 2012 is on the agenda of the Copenhagen summit. “We need to understand that what is going to be discussed in Copenhagen is mainly political and economical. Scientists’ debate on climate change is much over with IPCC’s 4th assessment report pointing out that climate change is truly happening,” says Prof. Mohan Munasinghe, Vice Chairman of the UN’s climate change agency- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace prize for its efforts in promoting understanding of the climate change phenomena.
Sri Lanka’s delegate Dr.Sumathipala
Setting up emission cuts for each country is the ultimate aim of the Copenhagen gathering. But there is already a rift between developed countries and emerging economies such as India and China.
The Kyoto Protocol did not set any mandatory emission cuts for these developing countries in 1997, but the developed countries now want all countries to share the burden. However, cutting down emission means that either developing countries need to reduce their energy-consuming manufacturing or start using clean but expensive energy. The lobby led by India and China sees this as a denial of their right to develop, considering developed countries reached that status after emitting billions of tons of GHG in the past which is still accumulated in the atmosphere contributing to global warming. This has caused a deadlock in climate talks in recent months.
The Copenhagen summit begins on December 7 and will go on until the 18th. The first week will be dedicated to discussions between negotiators from each country who are yet to arrive at an agreement. What will be Sri Lanka’s official position in this important round of talks?“We will participate in the Copenhagen climate talks as an independent nation,” says Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Patali Champika Ranawaka, whose ministry will represent Sri Lanka at the negotiations. However, Sri Lanka’s stance would be mostly in line with the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Group that comprises a distinct group of developing low-lying coastal countries. These countries are vulnerable to climate change, even though their contribution to global green house gas emissions is minimal. Sri Lanka has a 1700 km sea front and taken together with the islands in the north, this increases to 2400 km. So the predicted sea level rise would affect Sri Lanka too. Sri Lanka’s suggestions that will be tabled at Copenhagen cover many aspects.
The country wants to make the Adaptation Fund created under the Kyoto Protocol more active with adequate financial commitments from developed nations. Sri Lanka believes adequate, predictable and sustained level of financial resources on a grant basis and technology transfer for adaptation and mitigation is essential for developing countries to survive climate catastrophes and their effects. For example it is expected that Sri Lanka’s dry zone where most of the paddy cultivation is done will be worst hit by climate change as the region will get drier. Extreme weather events too will disturb farming, making climate change a socio-economic crisis coupled with poverty. Finding new hybrids of paddy that will survive changing climate may require technological support from other countries. Dr. Sumathipala The Lankan delegates will table the suggestion for technological and financial support for enhancing the capacities to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change at Copenhagen. Sri Lanka will also suggest that the 37 developed countries identified by the Kyoto Protocol should contribute 1% of their GDP to the Climate Change Adaptation Fund.
Addressing the International Forum of Environmental Journalists held in Colombo a few weeks ago, the Environment Minister revealed Sri Lanka’s position on Green House Gas Emission targets emphasizing that developed countries would have to target 49% cuts by 2020 and at least 85% cuts by 2050.
A few weeks ago, Sri Lanka also became a partner to the UN initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) Programme. Sri Lanka is only the 14th country to be enlisted in REDD and our delegates will keep their eye on getting the relevant benefits during the Copenhagen summit.
“The climate talks are complex and tedious. There were several rounds of talks previously but many ended up with differences,”said Dr. W.L. Sumathipala, the key Sri Lankan representative at these climate talks adding that the first few days would be crucial to get out of the deadlock at the negotiating tables.
Dr. Sumathipala is also Director of Climate Change Secretariat established last year aiming at providing a platform to address climate change issues at the national level. The secretariat is currently preparing the Second Climate Assessment Report for Sri Lanka which is an obligation for countries that are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol. Once published, this report will provide an overview of effects of the impact of climate change in Sri Lanka.
Published on 29.11.2009 on the SundayTimes
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/091129/Plus/plus_10.html
Climate change: Heed the birds
With the Copenhagen summit beginning this week, the world will focus on climate change. Experts predict that 1/3 of the world’s bird species are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Birds in Sri Lanka too could be affected, but we lack sufficient data to analyse the adverse effects triggered by climate change and other environmental issues.
“Birds are sensitive to changes in their environment. Hence they can be among the first group of animals warning us about a changing climate,” says ornithologist Prof. Sarath Kotagama. Birds have long been used as indicators of the state of the world’s ecosystems, providing insights into habitat loss, deterioration and pollution. Climate change has been the latest addition to that list.
Increased temperature, altered rainfall patterns, more extreme weather events which are the effects of climate change will have a direct impact on birds. Climate change will also affect populations of birds indirectly by altering their habitats via sea level rise, changes in fire regimes, and changes in vegetation or land use etc. For example, the sea level rising by a fraction of a millimetre will bring in salt water to important bird habitats like the Bundala lagoon in Sri Lanka. This will change the lagoon’s salinity and cause an imbalance in the whole ecosystem putting thousands of birds at risk. Bundala has already lost its star attraction, the Lesser Flamingo due to a change in water salinity.
“In Sri Lanka, the data deficiency is one of the major drawbacks in identifying changes to bird populations, says Prof. Kotagama . People can play a role in collecting data, he says stressing that Sri Lanka needs a baseline set of data to analyse the trends of bird population changes.
The Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) which is also the BirdLife International’s local affiliate declared December as the Bird Counting Month and Prof.Kotagama invites the public to participate in bird counting and be citizen scientists.
Start counting
The Bird counting month is an opportunity to pay attention to the birds around you, count them and record them. Here’s how it’s done.
Observe birds in as many places as you can. This need not necessarily be a wilderness – your home garden, school premises, workplace too are good starting points.
Keep a note of the birds you see. The list should include the date, time, location, weather at the time, the habitat that the bird observation is carried out, and the name and contact details of the observer.
You can also include the number of each species seen at the location, so that this number can be used roughly to compare the population next year.
If you have participated in last year’s bird month, compare the results with this year. Valuable data can be highlighted through this exercise.
Feed the data directly to the Sri Lankan section of World Bird Database http://www.worldbird.com email to fogsl@slt.lk or post your records to FOGSL, Department of Zoology, University of Colombo, Colombo 3. Contact FOGSL Secretariat on 5342609 or 0773589392 for any clarifications.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/091206/Plus/plus_15.html
Climate change talks start with a victory – South Africa joins nations with pledge
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Delegates converged Sunday for the grand finale of two years of tough, sometimes bitter negotiations on a climate-change treaty, as United Nations officials calculated that pledges offered in the last few weeks to reduce greenhouse gases put the world within reach of keeping global warming under control.
Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate official, said on the eve of the 192-nation conference that despite unprecedented unity and concessions, industrial countries and emerging nations need to dig deeper. “Time is up,” De Boer said.
South Africa became the latest country Sunday to announce an emissions target.
Copenhagen Climate Conference to Create ‘Huge’ Carbon Footprint
Thursday, December 03, 2009 | Joshua Rhett Miller
Talk about your global warming . . . When an estimated 16,500 delegates, activists and reporters descend upon Copenhagen Monday for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, a lot of hot air will follow. The U.N. estimates the 12-day conference will create 40,584 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, roughly the same amount as the carbon emissions of Morocco in 2006. Those greenhouse gas emissions are comprised of two parts: international travel and local emissions from hotels and transportation venues. Organizers will also reportedly lay 900 kilometers of computer cable and 50,000 square miles of carpet, along with more than 200,000 meals to be served and 200,000 cups of coffee. The conference will leave an enormous carbon footprint, says Patrick Michaels, senior fellow for environmental studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington.
“It will be huge,” Michaels said of the environmental toll. “Where is video conferencing when we need it? An equally important question is what will be accomplished here?” Approximately 140 aircraft carrying world leaders, heads of state and VIPs will land in Copenhagen, the U.N. estimates — although 95 percent of departures from Copenhagen Airport will be “green departures,” which allow airplanes to climb continuously to their optimal operating level, enabling them to reach planned routes sooner than usual. The result, according to the U.N., is saved time, fuel and carbon emissions. But Michaels wonders why attendees, particularly those in Europe, can’t ride the rails into Copenhagen. “That’s the way I get to New York,” Michaels said. “There’s nothing new here. There’s always been a lot of hypocrisy amongst the climate change political community. “Prince Charles goes around the world in a private jet, telling everyone else they need to ration their carbon dioxide. Please.”
Herb London, president of the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank, acknowledged the “level of hypocrisy” regarding the conference and its emissions, but he said living in modernity mandates some sort of measurable carbon footprint. The question, he said, is if the carbon footprint left behind is desirable and efficient. “It is ironic that you’ll have all these pronouncements made and very little action,” London told FoxNews.com. “What are [China and India] going to do? So what are we talking about here?” To minimize the conference’s carbon footprint, the U.N. says the main venue, The Bella Center, aims to reach a 20 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. To reach that goal, delegates have been urged to use public transportation to the site, to drink water from the tap instead of plastic bottles, and to minimize paper waste. Hotel owners have been asked to offer rooms that have been certified as environment-friendly. Despite those efforts, Michaels said he expects little if any firm proposals to come out of the conference, which aims to produce a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. “It will not produce a concrete agreement on climate change, meaning a universally-accepted international agreement with targets and timetables,” Michaels said. “It will, however, produce a statement that there’s been a breakthrough even though there will not have been.”
President Obama will travel to the Danish capital on Dec. 9 to offer his goal of cutting emissions 17 percent by 2020, in line with a bill passed by the House in June and slightly less than a 20-percent decrease proposed in the Senate. “The president going to Copenhagen will give positive momentum to the negotiations,” Michael Froman, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for international economies, told reporters last month. “We think it will enhance prospects for success.” Joined by up to seven cabinet members, Obama will also propose reducing emissions by 83 percent by 2050 and a 30 percent reduction in 2005 levels by 2025. China and India have said industrialized countries like the United States — the biggest greenhouse gas producer among developed nations — must be willing to slash carbon output 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels if it expects poorer economies to agree to long-term goals.
Sri Lanka proposes GHG emission cut
Chamikara Weerasinghe | http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/11/26/news35.asp
Sri Lanka will participate in Copenhagen Climate Change Summit with seven proposals to achieve a proposed target for reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by industrialized countries by establishing an Adaptation Fund. The industrialized countries need to contribute one percent of the GDP Environment and Natural Resources, Minister Champika Ranawaka said Tuesday. He was speaking at a press conference at the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry to explain what Sri Lanka would do by participating in the Copenhagen Climate Conference to be held in the Bella Centre near the Copenhagen Airport in Denmark. Minister Ranawaka said adapting to adverse effects of climate change is an urgent need.
Sri Lanka will propose an Adaptation Fund with adequate finance as opposed to the existing Adaptation Fund that is in place under the Kyoto convention as the latter cannot meet the needs of adaptation in developing countries.
In 2012 the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate change and global warming runs out. A new climate protocol is an urgent need. The Climate Conference in Copenhagen is essential for the worlds climate stability.
The Danish Government and UNFCCC is making efforts to make the conference a success by framing a renewed convention which may be called the Copenhagen Protocol on climate change. Over 300,000 people die in the world annually due to various effects of climate change, said the Minister.
Speaking on the proposals the Minister said the proposals are based on GHG emission reduction target for Annex I countries, adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer, capacity building, financial mechanism and reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation.
Kalagune's Blog on Climate Change 