Yvo de Boer: No climate treaty in Copenhagen

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 12:21

According to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Yvo de Boer, no new climate change treaty will be agreed on in Copenhagen. Instead the meeting should focus on setting out the political framework for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, he said to the Financial Times. It is necessary to be realistic and focus on what can actually be done. Therefore, the focus of the climate change conference in Copenhagen should be to set individual targets for industrialized countries, to decide how major developing countries should engage in curbing emissions by 2020, and at the same time hopefully put this in the context of the long-term goal of cutting global emissions by 2050. Furthermore, the ministers meeting in Copenhagen should set a deadline for the negotiations of a legally binding treaty into something concrete.

In the interview, Yvo de Boer stressed the importance of the US in the climate negotiations, and called for Barak Obama to come to Copenhagen for the conference and set clear emission targets for the US. “The effect of President Obama would be an enormous increase in the chances of finalising agreement at Copenhagen, as he could put his personal political backing behind it,” said Yvo de Boer. He furthermore stressed that the US have to set its targets for cutting emissions by 2020 for an agreement to be reached, and that an agreement in Copenhagen without the US would be meaningless.

The US House of Representatives has approved a cap-and-trade bill mandating a 17 per cent cut in emissions and the Senate bill aimed at a 20 per cent cut compared with 2005 levels. These commitments have been condemned too weak by politicians from Europe, but according to Yvo de Boer, they are acceptable. Because the US has a lot of catching up to do, it can take on a lower target and still make efforts that are comparable to those of other industrialised countries.

If a deal is to be reached, it is important that emission targets are finalised, otherwise other countries will not agree.

“Failure at Copenhagen really means ending up with nothing, because it will mean less confidence in this multilateral process and it will mean that new political priorities emerge on the horizon. I can just see it getting more and more difficult, not easier”

Source: the Financial Times