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Petersberg | Credit:
BBR, Bonn
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The
'Petersberg Dialogue'
BY
JAYA RAMACHANDRAN (IDN)
Cochabamba
in Bolivia, Thimphu in Bhutan and Petersberg in Germany are milestones
on the bumpy road to Cancun in Mexico where climate diplomats hope not
to have to suffer an unsavoury taste of Copenhagen.
The Copenhagen UN climate change conference in December 2009 ended up in
a fiasco, accompanied by avoidable dissensions across country group
barriers.
The latest milestone is Petersberg near Bonn that will host environment
and climate ministers from about 45 countries, including UK, USA,
France, Australia, India, Brazil, China and South Africa as well as the
European Commission.
The so-called Petersberg Dialogue from May 2-4 has been convened by
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Felipe Calderón.
According to WWF International, the Petersberg Dialogue is a welcome
initiative after the disappointing outcomes of the Copenhagen UN climate
summit at the end of 2009 and the UN climate preparatory meeting in
April 2010 – and ahead of the next round of formal negotiations under
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, also taking place in Bonn
from May 31 to June 11, 2010.
WWF is encouraged to see signals from the EU and BASIC countries –
China, Brazil, South Africa and India – that they continue to seek
progress under the UNFCCC, expecting a finalized legally-binding outcome
at the latest at the Conference of Parties scheduled to take place in
South Africa in 2011.
“Governments need to urgently give political guidance to put the UN
climate negotiations back on track and end the vicious cycle of lack of
trust and ambition” said Kim Carstensen, leader, WWF Global Climate
Initiative.
“Ministers in Petersberg should direct negotiators to resolve
important issues such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Forest Degradation (REDD), adaptation, finance, technology and the
outlines of a mitigation framework by Mexico. This can create the trust
needed to tackle the more difficult issues to put in place a final fair
and ambitious legal framework in 2011."
Participants in the meeting in Petersberg need to also recognise the
'dangerous gap' between the emission reduction pledges made by countries
since Copenhagen compared to the reductions needed to keep the world
below 2°C warming and stabilize at 1.5°C in the long term. The
emission reduction pledges by countries are all too low, says WWF.
Recent analysis by researchers show that current pledges would in fact
lead to warming of above 3°C and possibly even close to 4 °C.
THE GAP
“The governments should acknowledge the gap between proposed emission
reduction pledges and what is needed to keep warming below the danger
zone. Governments should start a process that will look into how this
gap should be filled. In particular more action has to be done by
developed countries starting with the U.S. finalising their climate
legislation.”
According to The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), the
European Union member states should boost the credibility of their
leading role in climate policy by developing the 20-20-20 Agenda into a
30-20-20 Programme – that is, by committing to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by at least 30 percent, increase the share of renewables in
primary energy consumption to 20 percent, and achieve 20 more energy
efficiency, all by 2020.
The stated aim of 100 percent energy provision from renewable sources
for Europe, a pro-active energy efficiency strategy and the resulting
greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 80-95 percent by the year 2050
would generate important new momentum in the international climate
process over the long term, the WBGU said in a policy paper submitted to
the German government on April 29, 2010.
The Council is also of the view that local-level initiatives involving
the cities and municipalities in climate alliances, along with
engagement by the business community and change agents, should receive
more intensive support and encouragement from politicians.
To speed up strategic innovation processes and cut the costs of
Europe’s energy system, the Council recommends a Europe-wide system of
feed-in payments for renewable energies. This would target financial
support on locations with the best availability of each renewable
resource.
"If global warming increases by more than 2 degrees Celsius, a
situation that the 'Copenhagen Accord' could lead to, there is a 50
percent probability that the damages caused to our Mother Earth will be
completely irreversible," stated the Peoples Agreement emerging
from the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of
Mother Earth in Cochabamba on April 22.
Between 20 and 30 percent of species would be in danger of disappearing.
Large extensions of forest would be affected, droughts and floods would
affect different regions of the planet, deserts would expand, and the
melting of the polar ice caps and the glaciers in the Andes and
Himalayas would worsen. Many island states would disappear, and Africa
would suffer an increase in temperature of more than 3 degrees Celsius.
Likewise, according to the text of the Peoples Agreement, the production
of food would diminish in the world, causing catastrophic impact on the
survival of inhabitants from vast regions in the planet, and the number
of people in the world suffering from hunger would increase
dramatically, a figure that already exceeds 1.02 billion people.
"The corporations and governments of the so-called 'developed'
countries, in complicity with a segment of the scientific community,
have led us to discuss climate change as a problem limited to the rise
in temperature without questioning the cause, which is the capitalist
system," the Agreement noted.
"We confront the terminal crisis of a civilizing model that is
patriarchal and based on the submission and destruction of human beings
and nature that accelerated since the industrial revolution," it
warned.
The conference in Cochabamba was attended by over 10,000 people from 135
countries and dozens of social organizations to what Bolivian President
Evo Morales declared to be an alternative to the United Nations climate
talks.
The main objective was to 'Save the Planet' by resorting to multifaceted
actions: analyzing the structural causes of climate change, proposing
alternative models for living more harmoniously within the ecosystem,
discussing the Bolivian Government's proposal for a Universal
Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth, building a mechanism on an
international referendum on climate change, and developing a proposal
for an international Climate Justice Court.
FROM COCHABAMBA TO THIMPHU
Compared to Cochabamba, the Thimphu conference had set itself modest
targets. It aimed at formulating a joint position of the SAARC (South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries on tackling global
warming that could be voiced effectively at the Cancun climate talks in
December.
This was after leaders from India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal had finalised a regional
convention on environment.
The desire to have a common SAARC position at the 16th Conference of
Parties (COP) in Cancun, Mexico, was reflected in speeches of several
leaders at the summit of the eight-nation grouping in the Bhutanese
capital on April 28.
“While we have been deliberating on environment as a priority issue
for a number of years, it will be a sad commentary on SAARC if we cannot
present a well negotiated unified position at COP-16,” Bhutan Prime
Minister Lyonchhen Thinley told the summit participants.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced ‘India Endowment for Climate
Change in South Asia’ to help member states meet their urgent
adaptation and capacity building needs. He also proposed setting up of
climate innovation centres in South Asia to develop sustainable energy
technologies based on indigenous resource endowments.
Singh offered services of India’s Mission on Sustaining the Himalayan
Ecosystem to the SAARC member states saying that the initiative could
serve as a nucleus for regional cooperation in this vital area. He also
lauded Bhutan’s efforts in combining development with conservation of
the environment.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pitched for a unified approach
to climate change. “There is now need to lock in the key global
players in COP16 at Mexico later this year for concrete commitments
covering greenhouse gas emission cuts and guaranteeing fund and
technology,” Hasina said.
Hasina also called for SAARC to establish a Himalayan Council modelled
on the Arctic Council for assisting the affected countries in the
region.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the South Asian voice
on this issue guided by the principle of common but differentiated
responsibilities must be strongly heard in all international fora.
“Those in the developed world who have historically contributed to the
climate change must now bear the lion share of the burden to mitigate
this phenomenon,” Rajapaksa said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said: “we must also
evaluate and take requisite steps to preserve the region’s eco-system
and precious water resources". He also called for a Joint SAARC
Study on Himalayan Glaciers to be commissioned.
On April 27, the SAARC Council of Ministers had agreed to seek observer
status at the Cancun climate talks in December to better articulate the
concerns of the region which is vulnerable to global warming.
[Source:
IDN-InDepthNews
| Analysis That Matters]
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