United Nations play down affect of leadership changes on climate deal

The United Nation’s climate change chief has dismissed claims that leadership changes at a number of the world’s heaviest polluting countries will affect the progress of a legally blinding climate deal by 2015.

In 2012, elections and polls are scheduled in the United States, Russia, Japan and China, some of the largest contributors to the emission of greenhouse gases.

The November elections in the United States are likely to draw keen interest from environmental campaigners where the Republican Party stands every chance of ousting the Democrats and President Barack Obama, fueling speculation that the climate agreed in Durban could be damaged. A large number of Republicans have not held back in their opposition to both climate change policies and science. Many feel that if the Republicans returned to power many policies directed at mitigating climate changed would either be scrapped or scaled down.

“It is up to the US electorate to choose the kind of leadership it wants for the next term,” the Executive Secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figueres, told Reuters. “Yet it is not only the US, but many industrialized countries are having important leadership changes. We will see new blood come on board, hopefully new visions, and a reinvigorated commitment to a topic which is not a partisan issue,” added Figueres.

At the United Change Climate negotiations in Durban last month delegates from nearly 200 nations agreed to establish a legally binding treaty by 2015 to combat global emissions, to be enforced from 2020. An interim agreement was also reached to extend the Kyoto Protocol. However, just days after the event the Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent announced that Canada was to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, a decision that will save the nation an estimated C$14 billion in penalties that would have occurred from missing emission targets set within the 1997 agreement. At the time of the referral Kent blamed an “incompetent liberal government” for setting unrealistic targets. Figueres though sees this as a minor set back and that Canada’s decision should not undermine future progress of a new deal. “It's like all the race horses are behind the starting gates and one bolts out. The loss of that horse will only delay the country's own economic transformation and make it less competitive in the future,” she said. “Durban did not solve the climate change problem but no single conference will do that,” she added.

With the Kyoto protocol due to expire at the end of this year and the new accord set to begin on January 1st 2013, world leaders will have their work cut out during 2012 to draft a treaty that not only suits all parties but determines whether the length of the second phase will be five or eight years. “This year countries have given themselves the longest and most ambitious set of tasks. Some may call it an 'administrative' year but I call it doing the necessary foundation work to allow countries to enter constructive discussions for a new legal instrument, added Figueres. “Since Kyoto's (second phase) starts on January 1, 2013, we have to define the length of that this year - obviously the sooner the better.”

 

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Image 2: Climate Action Stock Photos

Image 3: Climate Action Stock Photos