[Updated 2 February 2010]
The deadline for notification of nations' emissions reduction pledges under the Copenhagen Accord has passed with the world’s major emitters – both developed and developing – putting their commitments on the table. The UNFCCC confirmed that 55 countries in all had formally submitted their pledges, accounting for 78 per cent of the world's grenhouse emissions from energy.
The Accord set January 31 as the day by which countries should lay down their 2020 emissions targets for inclusion in the schedules that accompanied the accord text, the political agreement struck by the US, China, India, South Africa and Ethiopia, with input from 20 or so other nations, at the Copenhagen climate conference.
Under that deal, the 194 countries signed up to the UN climate convention (UNFCCC) had a choice over whether to embrace it and place on record their own national commitments to tackle emissions. But UNFCCC chief Yvo de Boer has already made clear the cut-off date is only a soft deadline with nothing to stop nations choosing to table commitments beyond at a later date. He also underlined that the accord had no legally binding status.
de Boer said in a press release on Monday that the number of pledges "represents an important invigoration of the UN climate change talks under the two tracks of Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol".
China, India, South Africa and Brazil, the big developing world emitters and now known as the BASIC bloc, have simply restated their pre-Copenhagen targets for greenhouse intensity cuts or reductions below what emissions would otherwise be under business as usual (BAU) by 2020:
China - 40 to 45 per cent cut in emissions/GDP from 2005 levels
India - 20 to 25 per cent cut in emissions/GDP from 2005 levels
South Africa - 34 per cent below BAU
Brazil - 36 to 39 per cent below BAU
Indonesia, another big developing world emitter due to deforestation, also restated to the UN on Sunday its goal to cut emissions by at least 26 per cent below BAU by 2020.
Two of the more industrialised of what are classed as developing nations under the UN climate convention have also lodged pledges;
South Korea restating a target to cut emissions 30 per cent below BAU and
Singapore recently announcing 7-16 per cent.
The
United States restated its Copenhagen position to the UN via climate envoy Todd Stern last week. That is for a cut of 17 per cent below 2005 levels, in line with the cap laid down in the climate bill passed by the House of Representatives last year. But the target remains subject to a final Congress bill, should it emerge, and other countries committing reductions to the accord.
Canada announced on Saturday a 2020 target in line with the US at 17 per cent from 2005 levels, in line with government policy to harmonise climate action with its big neighbour.
After some testy internal debate since Copenhagen, the
European Union forwarded its previously stated target position to the UN, for a 20 per cent cut below 1990 levels, to be increased to 30 per cent if matched by other major emitters. Some member states had called for the 30 per cent target to be unilaterally raised and submitted to the UN at 30 per cent, but it wasn’t to be.
Norway, the most influential European nation outside the EU on climate action, restated its target to the UN – for cuts of 30 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, or 40 per cent if the ambition was matched by other big emitters.
Japan too has reiterated a target of 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, but conditional on a strong global agreement.
Australia has simply restated its target range of potential cuts of 5 to 25 per cent (below 2000 levels in most circumstances). The government has declined to set a firm target yet until the extent of global commitment is clearer.
New Zealand has at the last minute tabled its target range announced last year, 10 to 20 per cent below 1990 levels - the final number depending on the strength of international commitment. It had said in mid January that it would not commit to the Copenhagen Accord while major questions remained over forestry rules under any new global agreement.
Reuters reports that
Mali, Bangladesh, Philippines, Samoa, Marshall Islands and
Macedonia are among smaller developing nations declaring their support for the accord.
The question now is whether or not the tabled commitments to the accord make it substantial enough to generate new impetus towards a comprehensive and binding global treaty, still being sought under UN negotiations this year culminating in the next annual climate conference in Mexico in December.
Other components of the accord also remain to be finalised including climate funding commitments from the developed nations to the developing world, how its envisaged Green Climate Fund will operate, and how emissions commitments from developing countries will be verified.
Reuters, Agence France Presse, CBC News, NZPA, National Business Review
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