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The UN Climate Change Conference in Bali
The UN Climate Change Conference in Bali concluded on December 15, 2007 with an agreement
between nearly 190 countries to take "active" measures against global warming.
The agreement, reached after several days of talks, calls on developing nations to take "actions" to mitigate climate change in a
"measurable, reportable, and verifiable" manner. Developing countries, such as China and India, as well as developed countries like
the United States, will face a new level of accountability and pressure to reduce emissions under the next global climate-change pact.
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For the first time in the history of climate change talks, the United States has come to the table collaborative in negotiating a viable solution.
Paula Dobriansky, deputy U.S. secretary of state and a leader of the American delegation, called the accord "a new chapter in climate diplomacy" and said the U.S. is "very committed to developing a long-term global
greenhouse gas reduction emission goal."
More than 200 leading climate scientists have warned the United Nations Climate Conference of the need to act immediately to
cut greenhouse gas emissions, with a window of only 10-15 years for global
emissions to peak and decline, and a goal of at least a 50 per cent reduction by
2050. Top climate researchers includes five University of East Anglia
scientists: Prof Corinne Le Quéré , Prof Andrew Watson, Dr Dorothee Bakker, Dr Erik Buitenhuis and Dr Nathan Gillett.
The scientists warn that if immediate action is not taken, many millions of
people will be at risk from extreme events such as heat waves, drought, floods
and storms, with coasts and cities threatened by rising sea levels, and many
ecosystems, plants and animal species in serious danger of extinction.
Prof Le Quéré said: "Climate change is unfolding very fast. There is only one
option to limit the damages: stabilise the concentration of CO2 and other
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. "There is no time to waste. I urge the negotiators in Bali to stand up to the
challenge and set strong binding targets for the benefit of the world
population."
The Bali Declaration endorses the latest scientific consensus that every effort
must be made to keep increases in the globally averaged surface temperature to
below 2 degrees C. The scientists say that "to stay below 2 degrees C, global
emissions must peak and decline in the next 10 to 15 years". The critical
reductions in global emissions of greenhouse gases and the atmospheric stabilisation target highlighted in the Bali Declaration places a
tremendous responsibility on the Bali United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change. Negotiations at Bali must start the process of reaching a new global agreement
that sets strong and binding targets and includes the vast majority of the nations of the world.
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The agenda for the conference covers:
Timeline: for the conference and for getting the treaty in place and radified
Mitigation: how much to reduce emissions for the rich countries and for this round include the developing economies in the targets
Adaptation: what needs to be done to help those countries and people that will suffer from the climate change already appearing
Technology: could the richer countries help developing countries with more technology - such as technology that could help track their emissions.
Deforestation: there's an increasing recognition that the developing world has no real
incentive to not cut their tropical forests and many incentives to cut, so there needs to be something that allows them to prevent deforestation because deforestation is an ever increasing part of the increase in carbon emissions.
Carbon Trading: now that Europe has a functioning carbon market, the there is desire to see if this market can be extended to the rest of the world.
INDA: India played a key role in negotiations at the United Nations climate change talks
as 190 countries
finally agreed on a road map for the future fight against climate change, following a last-minute collapse of opposition from the United States. The “Bali road map” will guide negotiations over the next two years to shape the global fight against climate change in the period after 2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which requires 36 industrial nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent below
1990 levels, ends. The U.S. is the only rich nation which has not ratified the Protocol. Science and
Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, who led the Indian delegation here, described the road map as a “historic breakthrough,” especially since it brought the U.S. on board the global effort to mitigate climate change, which was already causing rising temperatures, melting glaciers and extreme weather events across the world.
The agenda for the journey to 2009 now includes action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to help
developing countries adapt to the impact of climate change, to deploy climate friendly technologies and to finance both adaptation and technology measures. However, it does not include any target range of emission reduction goals for developed countries, a measure aggressively pushed by the European Union and bitterly opposed by the U.S.
There were intense debates at Bali and 190 countries chalked out the Bali roadmap. But the toughest battle was for developing countries like India and China.
The IPCC report on climate change says India's coastlines are the most
vulnerable and so are its glaciers in the Himalayas where the meltdown has been alarming in recent years. Mumbai faces danger, as a large part of it is on reclaimed land and the mangroves of the
Sundarbans in West Begnal are losing chunks of landmass to the sea.
President George Bush, after years of holding out against proposals to combat climate change,
signed into law an energy bill this week establishing higher fuel-economy standards for new cars and other conservation measures. Bush described the bill as "a major step toward energy independence and easing global warming". The White House claimed it went part of the way to fulfilling promises made at the
environmental conference in Bali last week. The legislation, though limited in scope, represents the biggest fuel efficiency push by the US since the 1970s oil crisis. |
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