The United Nations is meeting for its
latest round of talks on climate change in the oil and gas-rich nation Qatar.
About 17,000 people from 194 countries will
attend the meeting at the Qatar National Convention Centre, making it Doha’s
largest ever conference.
The aim of the two week meeting (26
November to 07 December 2012) is to cut global carbon emissions.
Hang on, the most polluting state per head
in the world is holding a climate change conference?
Yes, that’s right. Qataris use five times
the amount of carbon than the average Briton, at 44 metric tonnes per person
per year. This is largely because of energy intensive air conditioning and
desalination plants for water. Because water and electricity is free, there is
little incentive to cut usage.
What is the carbon footprint of all these
delegates?
The Project Developer Forum, a group
campaigning on behalf of green energy developers, estimate the conference will
generate at least 25,000 tonnes of carbon. This is the carbon generated by
10,000 people flying into Qatar from around the world and staying in hotels for
15 nights. The total is more than the small island state of Niue in the South
Pacific uses in a year.
The UN encourages all countries to offset
their emissions by CERs (Certified Emissions Reductions) such as contributing
to renewable energy schemes or reforestation in a developing country.
The UK is sending out about 40 people to
the conference and has promised to offset emissions.
What is the carbon footprint of the
conference itself?
The emissions from the conference itself
have not been calculated yet, but according to the hosts will be kept to a
minimum and also offset through CERs. Previous UN conferences generated about
15,000 tonnes of CO2. The Qatar National Convention Centre is certified by the
US Green Building Council’s as a Leader in in Energy and Environment Design
(LEED). It used sustainably logged wood and some 3,500 meters of solar panels
can provide up to 12.5 per cent of the building’s energy needs. Skylights built
into exhibition halls bring in natural light. More than 400 buses will be laid
on to reduce emissions from transport, including some run on biofuels. The
website claims that materials and items used at the conference will be
“disposed of responsibly, through reuse, donation to charitable organisations,
recycling, and composting or energy recovery”. Paper use will be minimised
through the ‘PaperSmart’ system that means documents are only printed out on
request.
Who will be there?
Christiana Figueres is the President of the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that guides the process each
year.
His Excellency Abdullah Bin Hamad
Al-Attiyah, former OPEC President & Petroleum Executive of the Year Award
in 2008, is the President of the conference itself.
Leaders from other Middle Eastern countries
and some developing nations will turn up but it will mostly be environment
ministers.
Ed Davey, the Climate Change Secretary, and
Greg Barker, the Climate Change Minister will represent the UK.
What will happen to the Kyoto Protocol?
The Kyoto Protocol, drawn up in 1997,
committed all rich countries to cut carbon emissions.
It has not been the most successful global
treaty. The US never ratified and Canada failed to keep its promise on cutting
emissions.
Nevertheless it is the only global treaty
on climate change that we have and needs to be replaced when it runs out at the
end of 2012, otherwise the world will have no legally-binding deal to limit
emissions.
It is also a totemic point for developing
countries who refuse to take part in negotiations unless richer countries
continue to cut emissions.
The EU, Australia, Norway, Switzerland,
Lichenstein, Croatia, Ukraine and Iceland have all said they will sign up to a
second commitment period.
This should be enough to ensure the
developing countries remain at the table.
The second commitment period runs from 2012
to 2020. Targets for emissions have yet to be decided but it is likely the EU,
including the UK, will sign up to a target of 20 per cent on 1990 levels by
2020.
But ‘KP2’ or ‘CP2’, as the second
commitment period is known, covers less than 25 per cent of the world’s carbon
emissions.
The world is also a very different place
than 1997. Former developing countries are now among the world's biggest
emitters.
So what about the rest of the world?
At the last UN meeting in Durban the world
agreed to work towards a new global deal for 2015 that will commit all
countries to cutting emissions, rather than just rich nations, from 2020.
This is important for the US that refuses
to sign up to any treaty, unless China, the world’s biggest emitter, also cuts
emissions.
However there is a lot of detail that needs
to be thrashed out before 2015.
In Doha negotiators will argue how the new
global deal will be set up. The most important issue is pushing for ambitious
climate change targets. 'Side issues' will include agreeing how to measure
carbon, share green technology and halt deforestation.
There will also be pressure on countries
not commiting to targets as part of the Kyoto Protocol to cut emissions between
now and 2020.
Sticking points?
One of the concerns is over "hot
air". Several European countries have managed to save more carbon than the
2012 KP targets and want to be able to ‘carry over’ these valuable ‘carbon
credits’ to 2020. However this would make the commitment to new targets
meaningless and could lead to a big internal fight within Europe.
Europe is also divided over whether to
increase its target from 20 to 30 per cent by 2020.
If Europe cannot sort itself out and pulls
out of KP then negotiations will collapse.
Europe may also pull out of KP2 if it feels
that other countries are not moving fast enough towards the global treaty.
Small island states and developing countries always threaten to walk out if
enough action is not taken.
Progress towards the global treaty could
reach stalemate if the two big players, the US and China disagree. China wants
the US to make deeper cuts in emissions, while the US wants China to be more
transparent about the action it is taking.
How much will this all cost?
The world has already spent $30bn as part
of ‘Fast Start Finance’ to help poorer countries adapt to climate change.
However Oxfam point out that much of this
money is either a loan, stuck in banks without actually helping anyone or taken
out of aid money elsewhere.
The world has committed to build up money
for climate change adaptation and the move to greener energy to $100bn per year
by 2020.
A Green Climate Fund has been set up based
in South Korea but is empty at the moment. In Doha countries will discuss how
to manage and raise the money and how to distribute it
How much has it cost me?
The UK Government has pledged £2.9bn to
climate finance. So far £1.5bn has been spent on fast start finance, leaving a
further $1.4bn to spend by 2015.
Oh, and the cost of our 40-strong
delegation, that the Government will release in due course.
Does our Government care?
Yes. Ed Davey, the Climate Change
Secretary, is campaigning for the EU to increase its target to 30 per cent by
2020 and for all countries to promise more ambitious targets as part of a
global treaty.
However at home in the UK, our own goals
are in question after a target to decarbonise electricity by 2030 failed to
make it into the Energy Bill.
Is it worth it?
Domestic targets to cut emissions are
greater than any targets on the table during these negotiations. The United
States – through regulation and using shale gas – is likely to hit its target
for reducing emissions by 17 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020. China is
committed to cutting its carbon intensity, the measure of carbon dioxide
emissions per unit of GDP, by 45 per cent.
The question is whether any countries would
be making these efforts without the UN pressure in the background?
Why should I care?
Scientists say global warming will cause
more extreme weather events and in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and with the UK
currently suffering floods, this is more prescient than ever.
Despite efforts over the last decade to try
and reduce emissions, concentrations of warming gases like carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere are up 20 per cent since 2000.
Levels CO2 were at more than 390 parts per
million (ppm) in 2011, compared to 280ppm before the start of the era of the Industrial
Revolution in 1750, an increase of around 40 per cent.
The un-alarmist World Bank recently
reported that a temperature rise of 4C would be “devastating” for the world.
Yet, the latest analysis by the UN found that even if the most ambitious targets
for cutting carbon are met, the world is still behind the cuts needed to avoid
this scenario.
However, the same report said there is
still a chance the world can limit climate change to 2C if more is done to
switch to renewable energy, green transport and stop deforestation.
Most agree, the UN talks remain the best
chance of achieving this.
What about the World Cup?
Qatar was recently awarded the 2022
football World Cup, largely on the grounds it will be sustainable. The plan is
to hold matches in the height of summer in air conditioned stadiums powered by
solar panels. Many are cynical.
The climate change conference will be an
opportunity to prove the Qataris are serious when it comes to climate change.
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