EUROPE WOULD only be prepared to agree to renew the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change if the US, China and other major economies agreed to a “roadmap” leading towards a legally binding international agreement, the EU has warned.
On the eve of the UN climate conference in Durban, which opens today, chief EU negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger said new reports warning the world was heading for warming of up to 4.5 degrees underlined the need for urgent action.
He added: “We will only be politically able to enter a second commitment period [under Kyoto] if there is at least a roadmap. Others need to tell us how they are going to come into this fight against climate change and when are they going to do that.” There was no point in the EU signing up for a renewal of the protocol, as it only accounted for about 11 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, he said. As a result, 89 per cent of these emissions would be outside the ambit of a new Kyoto.
Renewal of the protocol, due to expire at the end of next year, has been a key demand by developing countries. But Japan, Canada and Russia have said they will not renew. The US never ratified it, and China was not obliged to sign up for Kyoto.
“The EU is not the problem. EU emissions have gone down, but all the others have gone up. We are not ditching something, it’s the others who are ditching something,” he said – a pointed reference to major economies walking away from Kyoto.
Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, said the argument the US must be part of a global agreement was “increasingly looking like an excuse for inaction” on the part of the EU and emerging economies such as China and India.
Noting the Durban conference was being held in Africa, “which bears the greatest social injustices due to the impacts of climate change”, he called on South Africa, the continent’s highest emitter, to show “climate leadership”.
“To be clear, Africa is already bearing the brunt of the climate gone awry, but that’s not enough for the US government. When the Mississippi basin turns to dust they can hang their heads in shame for letting this opportunity slip through their fingers,” Mr Naidoo said.
Oxfam Ireland chief executive Jim Clarken said: “From the Horn of Africa to South East Asia, a year of floods, droughts, and extreme heat has helped push tens of millions of people into hunger and poverty. This will only get worse as climate change gathers pace.”
UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said reports showing global emissions had reached a record level of 30.6 gigatonnes last year and forecasting the average rise in temperatures would exceed 2 degrees were “sounding alarm bells for urgent action”.
She was “confident very important decisions” would be made in Durban on a review of the adequacy of efforts by governments to cut emissions – due to start in 2013 – and on establishing the Green Climate Fund to help developing states cope with climate change.