Brussels, 05/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - In Doha, the UN climate conference (COP 18) has entered a crucial phase with the informal ministerial round table chaired on Wednesday by Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, president of COP 18, to try to raise the bar in the parties' level of ambition (see EUROPE 10743). We can save the banks. We can save the states but nobody can save the climate if we do not act together. Europe wants a fair and inclusive new regime, said Connie Hedegaard, European Climate Action Commissioner, at the start of the brainstorming session. She was echoing Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, who warned that “no one is immune to climate change - rich or poor”.
Sofloclis Aletraris, president-in-exercise of the Environment Council, put the message across by saying that we must protect the climate system whilst guaranteeing all the citizens of the world fair access to clean water at affordable prices, to clean air, to energy, transport, to food and to shelter. We share this vision with the countries which are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. We need to be able to prove that the most powerful countries also share this vision. At an event on the carbon market organised with the Chinese on the sidelines of COP 18, Hedegaard welcomed the new members of the ETS family (California on 1 January 2013, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland, which will soon be joined by Canada and South Korea). But it pointed out that the countries contributing up to 85% of global emissions are currently refusing to commit to a second Kyoto period. This is why it is so important to focus on the ambition gap - an objective pursued by the round table. But this is not enough, we have to ask these countries to commit to a second period, she stressed.
Financing, make or break time. For the developing countries, the financing (the $100 billion pledged per year as from 2020 to support their efforts) is the crux of the matter. In the view of Matthias Groote (S&D, Germany), who heads up the delegation of members of the European Parliament to Doha, this is also the factor which will decide whether it is make or break in Doha. Groote therefore launched an appeal to the member states of the EU to move. Hedegaard welcomed the fact that the United Kingdom - the first member state to commit to post-2012 funding - had pledged €2.2 billion in Doha. And more to come, she said, pointing out that the EU has committed to pay its share. Oxfam International lamented the fact that rich countries spend five times more on fossil fuel subsidies than climate finance. (AN/transl.fl)