Results of UN Climate Change Conference

by Silvia Lucero

January 30, 2012

On Thursday, January 19th I went to the Institute for Policy Studies to learn what came about from the UN Climate Change Conference. The panelists were:
Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council
Kari Fulton, acting director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative
Janet Redman, co-director of IPS’s Sustainable Energy & Economy Network

This is a brief summary of what they spoke about that day.

The United Nations Climate Change conference took place in Durban, Africa, in November 2011. 194 countries come together to discuss climate change issues and how we can all come together as nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases are the pollutants that cause global warming.

While droughts, floods, food and water scarcities, and other disasters cannot be blamed on climate change directly, they have been exacerbated because of climate change.

Last year was a record as the United States spent $53 Billion on weather-related disasters such as tornados, wildfires, heat waves, and flooding. Again we cannot pin any weather-related event on climate change, but this is what scientists have been saying for years. We will see more as the planet’s temperature continues to warm.

The Kyoto Protocol is the only international legally binding treaty that regulates greenhouse gases.  Almost all countries signed the treaty back in 1992. The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of this year, stated that developed countries must drop their emissions by 5.2%, below the 1990 level.

The conference was to create the second commitment period, which will expire in 2020. The major discussion topics were: what countries will commit to the next period, what countries will opt out, and what the impact will be on the people of the global south?
Unfortunately, Canada is exercising its right to opt out after the third year of the Kyoto protocol. Japan, Russia, and the U.S. will not agree to a second commitment period and are requesting a new international treaty to restrain greenhouse gas emissions.

The second commitment period has been agreed to, but the document that was created has only been referenced and has not been decided upon. Therefore, there is very little to implement in the second commitment.
Another topic that was discussed was climate finance, which is the money that developed countries would give to poor countries. By 2020, this will amount to approximately $100B/year. The global north needs to pay the global south since they have been the main cause of global warming.

A positive result from the meeting is the adoption of the Green Climate fund that would move climate finance forward.  This fund will hold the global north accountable to the global south regarding their greenhouse contributions. It is a new institution because others, like the World Bank, global environment facility and various UN funds weren’t meeting the needs of the global south due to the lack of democracy in these institutions and creation of real solutions to the climate change problem such as supporting communities into the transition of new kinds of low carbon energy economies.

To summarize, the three major discussion areas were:

1. A second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol
2. As a solution to climate finance, a work program was developed; however, the only definite plan was to write a report and conduct workshops on sources of climate finance.  Unfortunately, there are already plenty of reports. However, there was a renewed commitment to revisit this subject in the future.
3. Green Climate Fund was created

This is just a reminder that sometimes real change comes from grass root levels rather than from waiting for the authorities to develop solutions. In future blogs, I will write about real communities that have worked together to reduce their carbon footprint!

Institute for Policy Studies

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I am pleased to introduce Silvia Lucero as our new guest contributor. She and I share a passion for learning about the things that are happening locally related to environment. She will be writing about many of the related events she attends and interesting people and organizations she meets along the way. Silvia is a salesperson for the Residence Inn in Herndon and is currently the chairperson for the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce Environmental Committee. Welcome Silvia!