Brussels, 26/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - At the start of the UN climate conference of Doha (Qatar, COP 18, 26 November-7 December), many calls were made, on Monday 26 November, for the international community to make this meeting a decisive step towards a global agreement to be concluded in 2015 for entry into force in 2020 (see EUROPE 10737).
In order to make this a reality the Doha conference “must build on the breakthrough we achieved in Durban and make progress in preparation of the 2015 legally binding global climate agreement. Equally important will be agreeing on further measures to reduce emissions so we can stay below a 2°C increase”, said Connie Hedegaard, European Climate Action Commissioner. She stressed that the EU was standing by its commitments to participate in the second period of the Kyoto Protocol and to continue providing major financial support to help developing countries tackle climate change, but, she warned that “the world is losing precious time”.
Speaking on behalf of the President-in-exercise of the Council, Sofoclis Aletraris, the Cypriot Minister for agriculture, natural resources and the environment, said that the EU is prepared to examine, with our partners in the developing countries, concrete ideas on how to tackle losses related to climate change, and the damage caused to economies and living conditions.
Under the banner of Climate Justice, civil society organisations consider that if the EU were really taking a lead, it would call for the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, together with legally binding objectives for science, “instead of continuing to act as an apologist for the carbons markets, which have discredited themselves with their loopholes”. Greenpeace International is calling on Doha to provide a second period of Kyoto Protocol commitments without the possibility of transferring surplus credits of hot air (13 billion tons of CO2, two and a half times greater than Europe's annual emissions quota), “which would allow governments to trade in it outside any genuine climate action framework”. (AN/transl.fl)