Bellona: Rich and poor countries both must take responsibility for climate change

Part of: Climate change , COP15
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Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (shown here at the Climate Change Conference held in Bali in December 2007), reminded negotiators in Bangkok there was little time left before the defining climate conference in Copenhagen, slated to take place this December.
Svend Soeyland
As the UN completes climate talks in Bangkok, Thailand, Bellona’s Svend Søyland sums up with cautious optimism the world’s progress toward climate solutions, saying responsibility lies with the world’s richest countries, called upon to help poorer ones adapt to climate change and cut emissions. But poorer nations, too, have a lesson to learn: It is time everyone realised action must be taken globally. Andreas Kokkvoll Tveit, Tone Foss Aspevoll, 12/10-2009 - Translated by Maria Kaminskaya Last Friday marked the conclusion of the two-week climate change talks in Bangkok, Thailand, where envoys from 192 countries negotiated a draft agreement to serve as the blueprint for the global climate deal the international community is expected to reach at the crucial Copenhagen conference in December this year.

The Bangkok negotiations are seen as an important milestone in achieving an understanding about what goals may be accomplished with the future Copenhagen treaty. It is hoped that the world agrees to commit to significant reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions as the new treaty replaces the outgoing Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
 
North vs. South
The talks in Bangkok put in stark contrast an apparent clash of interests as the developed countries of the Northern Hemisphere and the poorer nations of southern latitudes found they were in staunch opposition on a whole range of problems negotiated at the conference. Not of the least importance was the issue of who will get to call the shots with regard to funds channelled toward emission reductions and adaptation to climate change in southern countries.

Many southern nations believe it is the recipients of climate funding that must have the authority to make the ultimate decisions on how this money should be spent. The richer countries hold to just the opposite view. Bellona’s position is that a compromise is the most sensible way to go:

“It is important to let recipient countries have a hand in steering the wheel, while at the same time, it is reasonable that those that give the money are able to have a say in that this funding is actually spent the way that it has been agreed it will be spent,” said Sven Søyland, Bellona’s international adviser.
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Svend Søyland, Bellona's international advisor.
Jo Straube

China revisits its climate policies
Søyland’s is a cautiously optimistic outlook as he reviews the efforts invested by climate negotiators in coming to an agreement in Bangkok. That, in part, is due to the new initiative undertaken by China. Beijing has lately demonstrated it is more open toward global cooperation on climate issues, most notably, at the UN summit that took place in New York at the end of September.

“The initiatives shown by China are indicative of a future change in course, one that implies that they are more willing to take upon themselves certain commitments and adopt nation-wide emission-reduction measures,” said Søyland.

He believes China has evidently started to take the threat of climate change seriously.

This change of heart at Beijing, Søyland explains, has to do with the fact that environmental problems in China are acute enough to have evolved into severe health concerns. The country’s need to establish its energy security is another reason, Søyland said.
 
A break in the fold
One of the notable developments at the Bangkok talks was that several countries left the so-called G77 bloc – or the Group of 77 – which includes most of the states that are not part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and which approached the negotiations as a united front. The Group of 77 describes itself as the largest intergovernmental organisation of developing states in the UN with the goal of providing “the means for the countries of the South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues.” The break-off nations came up with their own, constructive proposals.

“It is especially interesting that the small island states in the Pacific recognize [Carbon Capture and Storage] technology as a solution to reduce emissions,” Søyland said.

The US position
The 180-degree turn in both domestic and international climate and environmental policies initiated by the new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama – a complete departure from what was previously viewed largely as a hold-out stance hampering global climate agreement – is also seen as a harbinger of better news to come, promising that climate negotiations will now take a smoother course. In a recent development on that front, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stepped up its greenhouse-gas emission policies, proposing emission-standards regulations on biggest pollution sources such as power plants, factories, and oil refineries – effectively taking a tally on far more polluters than are currently included in similar rosters in Europe.

“This gives us reason to hope that we will achieve a better oversight over American carbon dioxide emissions, and gradually, get a price on CO2 in the U.S.,” said Søyland.

Of special significance is also whether the U.S. will make progress with its new cap-and-trade legislation – the general perception is that chances in Congress are slim for this highly divisive new agenda, which causes the public to bicker over how tough new emissions standards should be and whether environmental benefits prove too costly an achievement for average Americans – and how it might eventually affect further climate negotiations. It is for now unclear whether Congress manages to pass the new legislation before the UN climate talks in Copenhagen.

According to Carol Browner, Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama Administration, the U.S. will come to Copenhagen with what it may have at that point.

“The worst would be for the U.S. to pass a weak climate bill before the [Copenhagen] conference. If no bill is passed before Copenhagen, we can hope that the pressure [on the U.S.] that comes after it will strengthen the already 1,200-page draft so that it is ready to be passed as new climate law in the United States,” said Søyland.

Norway’s Carbon Capture and Storage proposal
Norway has made its own constructive contribution to the Bangkok talks by floating a proposal meant to improve the new climate deal’s financing mechanisms for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) – a suggestion that will make it easier for less developed countries to acquire and adopt this emission-curbing technology in their industries.

“Brazil is the key state in this issue. Brazil is an oil nation that could adopt CCS technology, but insists that it should be a supplementary mechanism and not become part of the existing [Clean Development Mechanism],” said Søyland.

The issue of whether CCS should be endorsed as part of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) – one of the carbon dioxide emission reduction schemes codified by the Kyoto Protocol – has been a contentious one in the recent global climate debate.

Brazil opposes projects that may put a dent in the assistance it receives toward the efforts in protecting and rehabilitating its forests. But if CCS technology is supported in the negotiated climate deal with funding coming from a source other than CDM, Brazil may well come on board with such a solution.

Next stop: Barcelona
Before the defining moment comes to agree on the new global climate deal at the December climate change conference in Denmark, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will hold its last pre-Copenhagen session at a November meeting in Spain’s Barcelona.
 
“The signals we [were] getting from Bangkok give us reason to hope for the new climate deal, but what is truly critical here is that world leaders come
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