Friday, 14 December 2012

UN Climate Change Negotiations 2012: No firm commitment from rich countries


DOHA: The absence of a commitment by rich industrialised countries to give any firm commitment on climate finance and increase their efforts to reduce emissions reduction by industrialised countries for the pre-2020 period continues to cast its shadow over the negotiations at Doha."The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have asked nearly $83 billion from Washington (in the wake of superstorm Sandy) not in a year but in one stroke. Tell me then are we asking for lot money when talking about $100 billion," asked Ronny Jumeau, a senior negotiator from Seychelles.
Representatives from nearly 200 countries at Doha are in the second week of their efforts to build consensus over details of a global response to climate change. Their big task is to bring to a successful close the ongoing negotiations as set out in the road map agreed to in Bali in 2007 and to agree on the second phase of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. This would enable countries to move on to negotiating the post 2020 global regime to limit the adverse impact of climate change.
The availability of finance between 2013 and 2020 is one of the key issues that needs to be resolved before countries leave Doha. The fast start finance committed by developed countries at Copenhagen in 2009 was for a three-year period ending 2012. Without adequate funds, it would be difficult for developing countries, particularly vulnerable and least developed countries, to deal with climate change. So far, the industrialised countries have been less than forthcoming, with the sole exception of the United Kingdom.
"The current discussions on finance commit us to look at the 2020 figure of $100 billion. The industrialised countries gave a good faith down payment of $30 billion as fast start finance. We have done more than that," said Jonathan Pershing , deputy special envoy for climate change for the United States. The EU has said that it "find money for climate finance in the interim period" but that there would be "no announcement of a single funding by the EU-27".
The lack of clarity on finance doesn't help bridge the trust deficit between developed and developing countries hampering the possibility of a successful outcome at Doha. "We agreed in Cancun to fast start finance and there would be $100bn for 2020. This is our interpretation. We want to see finance on the table before we leave here. It's part of a package that we're expecting in Doha," Pa Ousman Jorju, chair of the least developed countries said.
The developing country bloc, G-77 and China, comprising 132 countries have asked for $60 billion between 203 and 2015. Industrialised countries are loathe to commit. Instead, they argue that the commitment was to provide $30 billion between 200n and 2012, then $100 billion a year by 2020, and that there has been nothing about the period in between.

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