×

Our award-winning reporting has moved

Context provides news and analysis on three of the world’s most critical issues:

climate change, the impact of technology on society, and inclusive economies.

Deals on adaptation, technology, forests possible at Cancun - European climate chief

by Laurie Goering | @lauriegoering | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Tuesday, 11 May 2010 16:17 GMT

LONDON (AlertNet) Â? The next major international climate negotiations, at the end of the year in Mexico, could deliver agreements on curbing deforestation, addressing climate adaptation and sharing technology, though not a binding agreement to reduce emissions and curb climate change, Europe's climate commissioner said Tuesday.

Delivering short-term "fast track" financing to help the most vulnerable developing nations adapt to and prepare for climate change will be crucial at Cancun, said Connie Hedegaard, the European Commissioner for Climate Change.

"The credibility of the developed countries will be measured by the degree to which we deliver" on that promise, she said.

The other key task facing negotiators in Cancun will be figuring out how to incorporate the Copenhagen Accord Â? a last-minute climate agreement forged outside the United Nations process Â? into the formal negotiations toward a binding new global climate treaty, said Hedegaard, who led last year's controversial climate talks in Copenhagen before surrendering the job to Denmark's president in the last days of the negotiations.

As Copenhagen proved, getting such an agreement will be a challenge, particularly while the United States continues to struggle to pass domestic climate legislation needed to underpin any international commitment, she said.

But U.N.-led talks, despite their failings, remain the best chance for forging such an agreement, maintained Hedegaard at a lecture in London organized by the International Institute for Environment and Development.

A deal will be "very very difficult with, but probably impossible without," the contentious and often frustrating talks, said the former Danish environmental minister.

She warned that without a binding agreement, efforts to close the "disconnect" between the limited voluntary emissions curbs promised so far and the more ambitious cuts needed to hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius were likely to fail.

Already, "the frightening reality is that on current trends we could be at 2 degrees as early as 2035," she said, noting that "it is the worst case scenario we are heading for".

Europe, for now, is pressing ahead with its own independent plans for emissions cuts, driven in part by a desire to hold onto a leading position in businesses such as solar and wind power and electric cars, she said.

Europe has promised a unilateral 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020, and next year will lay out a long-term plan to reduce emissions 85 to 90 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, she said.

But the economic downturn, which last year helped drive a 10 percent drop in European emissions and a 7 percent drop in U.S. emissions, has made even more ambitious short-term reductions suddenly more affordable, she said.

Cutting European emissions by 20 percent by 2020 was projected in 2007 to cost $70 billion. Now, thanks to the downturn, the bill will be closer to $48 billion. That means Europe could afford a 30 percent reduction in its emissions by 2020 for just $81 billion, she said.

That extra $11 billion won't be easy to come by, largely because it's "not an easy time to discuss any money to come out of public budgets" in Europe, Hedegaard said. But her commission will lay out details on how the more ambitious cuts might be achieved in the coming months, she said.

"The bottom line is we cannot afford not to" make deeper cuts, she said. "Sitting on our hands and letting climate change reach dangerous levels will cost the world economy at least 5 percent of GDP and, in the worst case, as much as 20 percent or more" per year, she said.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

-->