Warnings of climate science - again - written in Doha sand
Climate Action Tracker Update, 8 December 2012
Niklas Höhne, Marion Vieweg, Bill Hare, Michiel Schaeffer, Joeri Rogelj, Marcia Rocha, Johannes Gütschow, Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Felix Fallasch, Julia Larkin, Hanna Fekete,
Summary
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While the official UNFCCC negotiations made some limited progress, encouraging developments on the margins give hope that faster progress is possible.
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On the official side, minor steps were made towards more emission reductions, including the agreement of a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, continuation of climate finance and initiation of a discussion on raising the ambition level before 2020.
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On the margins of the negotiations, numerous actions provide encouraging signals, including new pledges by countries, significant policy activity to meet the pledges and increased support for additional complementary initiatives to raise the ambition level.
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All in all, the world is still set to warm well above 3°C with current action.
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Second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol provides continuity - but at a high price
The conference agreed on a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol from 2013 to 2020 with quantified emission reduction commitments for Australia, Belarus, the EU and its member states, Kazakhstan, Monaco, Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine. This second commitment period is a very important step for continuity, particularly for the accounting system that has established over the years - and the clean development mechanism. However, the second commitment period will have a very limited impact on emissions by 2020:
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The participation of countries with emission reduction commitments is small.
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The reduction commitments are less ambitious than needed, but a process is foreseen that the countries increase their ambition by 2014.
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Allowances not used in the first commitment period can be carried over to the next commitment period where they replace actual emission reduction efforts. Countries will be able to use carried-over units to comply with their targets in the second commitment period and will be allowed to trade up to 2% of these. A number of countries - Australia, the EU, Japan, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway and Switzerland - have signed a declaration that they will not purchase these units.
Continued climate financing – small steps to build trust
Climate financing is a necessary condition to implement the conditional pledges. While it is agreed that 100bln US$ per year should be mobilised by 2020, the path towards it is unclear. New pledges were made by members of the EU, but other countries have not come forward with concrete numbers. The Doha decisions reinforce the need for a long-term plan for climate finance. It remains uncertain whether it will be sufficient in scale.
Ad-hoc Durban Platform on a slow start to raise ambition
The Ad-hoc Durban Platform discussed raising the ambition level of action before 2020, a prerequisite to still meet the 2°C limit. It has taken its first steps to be able to tackle the issue next year with new submissions, a series of workshops and a technical paper to be discussed in September 2013. However, after one year of negotiations the ADP has not yet taken operational decisions to increase the ambition. The risk is high that the more it waits, the less options are still open to really close the gap.
Updates on pledges
Pledges of all major economies remained unchanged. Many had expected the host, Qatar, or some of its neighbours to come forward with a pledge, but this did not happen. Only a few countries made new pledges for emission reductions by 2020 or modified their pledge: Monaco
- announced its unconditional target of reducing emissions by 30% below 1990 levels by 2020, which is ambitious.
Ukraine
- submitted a proposed target for the second commitment period, which is in line with their pledge to reduce emissions by 20% below 1990 by 2020. Current emissions are around 60%
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below 1990 levels. The target represents a substantial increase of emissions above current levels and remains inadequate.
Kazakhstan
- submitted their target in the first week of the Conference, proposing to reduce average annual emissions for the second commitment period (2013-2020) by 10% below the 1990 level. Over the course of the negotiations this target was corrected upwards and now is 5%. Kazakhstan’s current emissions are around 27% below 1990 emissions levels. The target represents a substantial increase of emissions above current levels and remains inadequate.
Lebanon
- now officially submitted the pledge to reach 12% renewable energy in the energy mix by 2020. This target was first mentioned at the Copenhagen summit in 2009. Its implementation will require a substantial effort.
Dominican Republic
- made a pledge to reduce its emissions by 25% below the 2010 level in 2030. This is substantial, as it requires a reversal of the trend.
Some move faster than the official negotiations
Beside the official negotiations, many activities at the margins provide encouraging signals. A small number of countries have made new pledges, including Monaco, Lebanon and Dominican Republic. For all of them this would be a significant deviation from past trends. We see more and more countries are implementing national policies to meet their pledges. The pledges - though inadequate in total – have incentivised national action. There has been more action to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions than ever since the start of international climate negotiations. Focus is in particular on electricity generation from renewable energy and energy efficiency in buildings and transport. In addition, increased activity is focussing on international initiatives that could raise the ambition level in support of - and complementary to - the emission reduction pledges under UNFCCC. Such initiatives include sectors outside of current pledges, such as international aviation, or other actors, such as cities or sub-national governments. Statements of many countries included reference to such initiatives. Two papers on the concept were discussed widely.
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Blok et al. 2012: Bridging the greenhouse gas gap, Nature Climate Change Weischer et al. 2012: Climate Clubs: Can Small Groups of Countries make a Big Difference in Addressing Climate Change? Review of European Community & International Environmental Law, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/reel.12007/abstract