Nearing climate accord in Poland

Katowice Climate gas emission Paris AccordFactories contributing to the smog. Photo: Pixabay.com

Nearing climate accord in Katowice, Elvestuen says

Only the last pieces still remain before the countries at the climate summit in Poland agree on common emission rules, says Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment, Ola Elvestuen (Liberals).

 

Around 2 pm on Saturday, the climate negotiations in Katowice, Poland continues. An accord is much closer one day after the deadline.

At the heart of the negotiations, a 144-page agreement is drafted, which at 8 am was delivered to representatives of the nearly 200 countries attending the meeting. Elvestuen tells NRK that the draft looks promising.

– In our opinion, this is a good basis for reaching a decision and a strengthened Paris Accord. The text contains a clear regulatory framework, on reductions and reporting of emissions as well as funding, the Cabinet Minister clarifies.

– Now we are waiting for a plenary session. I will not be surprised if there is going to be discussions but we will be close to a joint statement and the job is now to put the last pieces in place. This in order to achieve good rules regarding the Paris Accord and a world that assumes responsibility for the emissions, Elvestuen elaborates.

A lot of disagreement

The agreement after the COP24 climate summit will contain a common global framework for implementing the Paris Accord. The aim is to keep global warming below two degrees Celcius and try to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees.

According to a recent report from the UN Environment Program (UNEP), efforts must be tripled if the goals are to be achieved, but disagreement is huge among the world’s countries about how this effort is to be distributed. This is very prominent during the negotiations in Poland.

Poverty-ridden developing countries believe that the richer developed economies need to shoulder more of the burden as they have accounted for most of the historical emissions. The more climate change threatened countries also believe that the world must increase its ambitions, cut half of the climate gas emissions by 2030 and commit to keeping the temperature increase below 1.5 degrees centigrade.

– If we do not increase our ambitions, we will not survive. In that case, we will die. I’m sure nobody thinks this is an appropriate outcome,   President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed emphasises.

the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait have opposed this and watered down the wording of the draft, the news agency AFP writes.

Demands financing

In addition to the quarrel about the more general objectives, there have also been intense discussions regarding several individual measures.

The developing countries are, among other measures, advocating so-called «loss and injury» measures. Those measures involve schemes for financial support for climate gas vulnerable countries that have too weak an economy to handle the consequences of climate change – which many of them already are affected by.

The development of a common global system for so-called carbon markets, as well as a regulatory framework for how individual countries must report their actual climate gas emissions, are also controversial issues.

The aim is to prevent the climate gas cuts from being reported twice. This can happen when a country takes measures to reduce climate gas emissions, for example, by investing in the planting of trees in another country, resulting in both countries claiming the benefit thereof and believe that they are closer to fulfilling the goals of the Paris Accord by it.

Compromise

The draft for an agreement now on the table is described as a compromise. The details of what it contains are not yet public knowledge, but the developing countries seem to be content.

– I think we have found a landing zone. It’s a compromise, says Chairperson of the negotiation group that represents the least developed countries, Gebru Jember Endalew, to the AFP news agency at noon on Saturday.

– But it’s a bit difficult to make compromises when more than 190 countries are gathered, Endalew establishes.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today