Brussels, 15/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Although many observers have been disappointed by the minimalist agreement hammered out on Sunday 14 December in Lima by the 195 parties to the international climate negotiations (COP 20), the European Union sought to interpret this result as, “a step towards the conclusion of a global climate agreement in Paris next year” (COP 21), which would enter into force in 2020 by replacing the Kyoto Protocol but which would have all the different countries on board this time.
Gian Luca Galletti, the acting president of the EU Environment Council thanked Peru, which is currently chairing the COP, for its, “leadership during these difficult negotiations”.
Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Commissioner for Climate and Energy, who, together with Galletti, was negotiating on behalf of the EU, shared this feeling and provided assurances that “The EU came to Lima to lay the ground for negotiations in Paris. Now, we are on the way to Paris. And although the EU wanted a more ambitious outcome from Lima, we believe that we are on track to agree a global deal in Paris next year”.
National level contributions in March 2015. For the most part, signatory parties to the COP 20 agreed that national contributions on the future Paris agreement ought to be on the table by March 2015, “for those that can” as planned. The combination of offers will be made in November 2015, very shortly before COP 21 (30 November-mid-December 2015), in the absence of an evaluation mechanism that would allow for the respective efforts promised to be compared. China is opposed to such a mechanism.
The Lima agreement requests, however, that all countries submit their respective contributions by describing their objectives in a clear, transparent and understandable way, so that we are able to know whether everyone is on the right track for maintaining average temperature rises at a planet surface level to below 2°C.
The different parties are also committed to reducing global emissions from 40 to 70% by 2050 (which is much less than the 80-95% recommended by scientific experts) but no progress was accomplished for meeting the goal of making good the gap between the commitments made for the period leading up to 2020 and the level of commitments required to remain below the 2°C benchmark, much to the disappointment of developing countries. Work will continue on this issue.
The draft text recognises that developing countries now have to make efforts to adapt, which require support, a concession that the US has agreed to make.
On the issue of capitalising “Green Climate Fund”, which is supposed to help adaptation and mitigation efforts made by developing countries, the Lima conference managed to increase the amount to more than $10.2 billion (of which almost 50% was promised by EU member states). Nothing, however, was said about how they would manage to earmark up to €100 billion a year according to the commitment made in 2009 in Copenhagen.
Lowest common denominator. According to Giovanni La Via (EPP, Italy), who headed the European Parliament delegation in Lima, European diplomats will have to face an unprecedented challenge if they are to facilitate the international process at the UN conferences in March and June at an experts' level, in preparation for Paris. La Via said that the agreement reached represents the lowest common denominator but it is important to keep the process alive to attain a global agreement in Paris and that “The most problematic question, climate finance, will remain open in 2015. While it is clear that developed parties want to act on a voluntary basis, developing countries want higher financial commitments before taking themselves the necessary steps and reducing their emissions… We will have to continue to work from tomorrow morning”.
Jo Leinen (S&D, Germany) lambasted the fact that “despite some progress, there are still a lot of stumbling blocks. The European Union should build bridges between developing countries and others. The EU should seek a compromise for overcoming the lack of confidence between the two groups, whether this involves mitigation, support for adaptation or global funding for climate policy”. He added that after the Copenhagen fiasco, the EU could not afford to fail for a second time.
Summit of missed opportunity. For Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, Germany) the Lima summit has turned out to be the “summit of missed opportunity, because even the China-US agreement couldn't bring any progress at global level” (our translation). She did, however, hail “one piece of good news: nobody put in question the need for a global agreement in Paris”.
The NGOs are disappointed. Greenpeace regrets that, despite the fact that the science remains clear, governments have again failed to move towards a clean energy future. “Governments have just kicked the can further down the road by shifting all the difficult decisions into the future. Time is running out and solutions must be delivered before climate chaos becomes inevitable”, said Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace International. The NGO nevertheless was pleased that “a total phase-out of carbon emissions by 2050 is already supported by almost 50 countries” and notes that, if all countries agree to a carbon-free future in Paris, “it can catalyse a rapid transition away from dirty energy … towards a 100% renewable future for all”.
Remedying climate injustice. Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) describes the progress made at the Lima summit as “pitiful”, failing to address the scale of the planetary emergency. Governments were unable to match “the conviction, solidarity and ambition expressed at the Peoples' Summit”, regrets FoEE, and the EU is severely lambasted. “The European Union has come here claiming to be committed to very ambitious action, but the truth is that Europe and other industrialised countries are at the root of climate injustice. People around the world, especially the poorest, are already suffering from the changing climate, yet rich country governments refuse to quit dirty energy and embrace a clean renewable future”, laments climate justice and energy campaigner Susann Scherbarth. (AN)