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Old rich-versus-poor divide is crumbling when it comes to tackling global warming
Talks in Paris starting on Nov. 30 to agree a new U.N. accord to curb climate change and deal with its impacts will take place amid fast-shifting new global alliances.
China and France, for instance - once on opposite sides of a negotiating divide between developed and developing countries - on Monday issued a joint statement calling for any new agreement to be updated each five years, a move seen as key to racheting up the ambition of climate protection policies.
The United States, once viewed as a major roadblock to efforts to build global action on climate change, is “step by step being seen more as a force for good” in the talks, says Jennifer Morgan, global director of the Washington-based World Resources Institute’s climate programme and an experienced watcher of the negotiations.
Brazil and Germany in August promised a common stance on climate change, and Latin American nations such as Colombia and Chile increasingly find their interests more aligned with the European Union and the United States than some of their neighbours, Morgan says.
And China is now among the countries donating funds to help poorer nations adapt to climate change and adopt cleaner energy systems – even as it also finances coal-fired power stations in countries like Pakistan.
LAGGARDS ISOLATED
As the impacts of climate change worsen around the planet, “national interests are overriding old interests”, says Morgan, and negotiating alliances are changing.
“It’s no longer rich versus poor anymore. It’s much more complicated than that,” she says. The change “reflects a greater understanding of climate risk and that the shift to a clean, low-carbon economy is not as burdensome as some people thought”.
So how might the shifts play out in Paris?
For one thing, the focus on building a global deal by melding together the plans most countries have developed to deal with climate change – including all the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases – means the dwindling few countries that still balk at acting on climate change are in an ever-more isolated position.
“Hopefully after Paris there will be no longer an excuse that others aren’t acting,” Morgan says.
But to achieve the level of emissions reductions and preparations for climate extremes needed to protect us from the worst, “it will take everyone to do everything”, she warns.
Growing recognition of the real risks associated with climate change – and the potential financial payoff for those who lead in the shift to cleaner energy and resilient economies – is also driving more committed engagement with the talks, she added.
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