The Cancun climate change conference 2010

The Cancun climate change conference 2010 

Vulnerable countries probably some good news could finally be heard from Cancun, the Mexican tourist resort where the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or in short, UN climate change conference, was held between November 29 and December 11 to reach an international deal on cutting carbon emissions by the member countries. 

The COP is the highest body of the UNFCCC and comprises environment ministers from 193 countries. Since the first summit on Climate Change, known as Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, this is the 16th time that such conference was organised by ministers and other senior officials from these countries. But why are the nations committed to reduce the emission of the Green House Gases, (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2) methane (CH4), nitrous oxide(N2O), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) as well as the chlorofluorocarbons [hydrofluorocarbons (HFC)and perfluorocarbons (PFC)] -- the gases to blame for Global Warming -- are taking so long to reach a consensus on the deal? 

It may be recalled here that on December 11 1997 ministers and other high-level officials from 160 countries reached an agreement in Kyoto of Japan on a legally binding Protocol under which 37 industrialised countries were to reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% from the 1991 level. The agreemen, termed Kyoto Protocol, came into force on February 16, 2005. 

Though the protocol set the target of lowering overall emissions of the six GHGs over a five-year period between 2008 and 2012, little progress could be made so far in achieving the set targets of collective carbon emissions. Rich countries, including Japan, which hosted the conference, and Russia showed their unwillingness to enter a second term of the protocol after 2012 at the Cancun climate change summit. At a stage, Canada also refused to renew the legally binding protocol.

The situation turned for the worse as United States backed out on the agreement to constitute a Green Fund. It insisted on progress on all the issues in the talks, including reducing de-forestation (Redd) and technology, and threatened to withhold support for the agreement unless conditions on verifying emissions reduction by emerging economies like China and India are met. 

Finally, after two hectic weeks of negotiations a modest deal could be reached, paving the way for the next round of talks (COP17) in South Africa in December next year to decide whether the already frayed Kyoto protocol could be extended further. However, the progress made at Cancun, though not ambitious, if only due to the sobering impact of last year's Copenhagen summit (COP15) that began with high hopes but ended in a whimper, did at least set the course for future climate talks. Not surprisingly, the chairman of the Cancun climate talks, Mexican foreign minister Patricia Espinosa, declared with a positive note that the deal has ushered in a new era of international cooperation on climate change. 

* The most important achievement is the agreement on creating the Green Climate Fund for the poorest and worst-affected countries to adapt to the harmful impacts of climate change. The wealthiest nations such as the European Union, Japan and the United States have pledged $100 billion a year from 2020 to the Green Climate Fund, with a rapid fund of $30 billion to start with,

* Next comes the new mechanism to transfer low carbon technology and expertise to poor countries,

* The Forest deal with provision of compensation for preserving tropical forests by countries that would avoid emissions from deforestation;

* The urge for deep cuts in carbon emissions so that the global temperature may not rise over 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over the pre-industrial level. It also made a call to carry out a study on the possibility of limiting the rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius;

* To study new market mechanisms that would help developing nations to reduce carbon emissions and discuss the proposals at the next climate talks in South Africa;

* Ensuring that all major emitters including USA and China have their actions inspected;

* Arrange scientific review of the progress made after five years.

All the major powers, who are also the bigger emitters of GHGs -- the USA, the European Union, China, Japan and India -- except the least developed Bolivia extended their support for the deal. Bolivia's contention was that the agreement was not binding on the wealthiest nations to cut their emissions and as a result the global temperature might rise further, even above 4 degrees Celsius, thereby leading to near-death situation for more humans. Bolivia's resistance was finally overcome as it had no veto power to torpedo the climate deal. a

As noted earlier, the Cancun deal is a modest one in that it has no mechanism to measure how far the overall global omissions could be cut. What is more, there are a lot of loopholes in the agreement through which deep cuts in carbon emissions could be avoided. Ironically, such drastic cuts in the emission of climate altering gases were the sine qua non for containing global warming, as argued by scientists and it is also for this very purpose that the climate talks were initiated. 

What was agreed:

•  All countries promised to cut emissions, but no binding targets

•  Funding for countries which don’t cut down forests

•  Promise to provide up to $100 billion a year to help poor countries cope

•  A new UN climate fund to be run largely by developing countries

•  Easier transfer of low-carbon technology to poor countries

• A system for inspecting emissions from major polluters

•  Scientific review of progress after five years