What we need from Paris, then, is an agreement that includes all countries and leaves no one behind.
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Seven of the 10 richest countries measured in GDP per capita identified by the World Bank are considered developing countries in the United Nations climate negotiations and would not have an obligation to provide climate aid to poorer countries.
At the COP21 Climate Change Summit in Paris, finance is one of the most hard topics facing ministers here.
Helen Clark joins James Carleton on RN Breakfast from Paris. As a long-time climate activist and the President and CEO of The Climate Reality Project-one of the world’s leading organizations dedicated to mobilizing action around climate change founded by former US Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore-I personally have been eagerly awaiting this moment for years.
The talks are formally known as the Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP21. They are constantly opposing carbon emissions limits because they think it could hurt the country’s industry and jobs.
“On the big crunch issues there’s no real sign of progress”, said Tim Gore, climate policy chief at Oxfam, a global charity active on the issue. Ban Ki Moon declared that the hands of the clock are turning towards climate catastrophe in a speech delivered to all world leaders.
From Lalit K Jha Washington, Dec 9 (PTI) US President Barack Obama and Prime Minster Narendra Modi during their telephonic conversation emphasised their “personal commitment” to secure a strong climate change pact this week, the White House has said. I hope that we can keep this positive momentum going through this week when the government ministers take over the negotiations, and that the result will be a lasting agreement that makes sense on a global scale.
“We would like to see developed countries fulfill their pledges to provide funds and to support the various mechanisms for tech transfer, adaptation and capacity building”.
Though it has submitted national targets for emission – seemingly more of a team player than in the past – Saudi Arabia has actively pushed against any mention in the deal of a more ambitious 1.5 Celsius limit to the rise in global average temperatures.
As the negotiations entered their second and final week, diplomats said that the European Union appeared ready to forge a compromise. The draft had multiple options on that issue – everything from who should pay for a global transition to clean energy to what happens to countries that miss their targets to fight climate change.
Many of them, including China, have done so but they want any Paris deal to clearly state that their contributions would be voluntary, rather than something that should be expected of them. A 3°C global average increase could mean a more than 6°C temperature increase scenario in Africa and more than six-fold increase in the frequency climate-induced calamities that are already ravaging climate vulnerable countries.
“We want the bear to represent everyone hoping in the next 72 hours” for a robust climate deal, said Greenpeace’s Ben Stewart.
He also said developed countries need to shun their apprehensions about sharing technology with developing countries that need technological support from the developed world. The point they are trying to make is quite simple, as Joe Elan from Brandalism points out: “By sponsoring the climate talks, major polluters are promoting themselves as part of the solution – when actually they are part of the problem”.
A number of natural disasters and other events that have been put down to global warming have been reported across the world.
He says: “Developed countries must agree to lead, and developing countries need to assume increasing responsibility in line with their capabilities”.
Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters that rich countries “have not made much headway” toward the $100 billion that they pledged in 2009. “But what we are also seeing here now is cities with their mayors, businesses with entrepreneurs, insurance companies and banks… an enormous amount of actors that are now beginning to look into a low-carbon economy”.
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There were still discussions with the US about how to deal with climate finance for developing nations, the negotiator said.
