Chancellor Merkel to Attend UN Climate Change Conference
Chancellor Angela Merkel will be attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December in Copenhagen. Germany will thus be represented at the highest possible level in the moves to bring the climate change mitigation negotiations of recent years to a successful conclusion.
-
- Enlarge image
- In 2007, Chancellor Merkel visited the Eqi glacier in Greenland to get a first-hand look at the consequences of climate change.
- (© dpa - Report)
The Climate Change Conference will be held from December 7 to 18. The aim is to agree on a new comprehensive climate protection agreement for the post-2012 period. Until then the Kyoto Protocol applies. It requires the industrialiZed states to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent of the 1990 levels.
Since November 15 some 40 environment ministers have again been meeting in Copenhagen to prepare the December conference, among them Germany’s Minister for the Environment Norbert Röttgen.
Little progress was made at the conference of the Asian-Pacific states last weekend or at the meetings of the UN working groups on climate change over the last few months. The international community does not seem to be in a position yet to make any far-reaching resolutions.
Over the last few months the Chancellor has pushed for a strong common approach to tackle global warming in numerous meetings with international partners. The focus must be on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and beyond. Agreement must also be reached on how the international community can support those nations that are already suffering the consequences of climate change.
Europe leads the way
The European Union (EU) has made several proposals to further international climate change mitigation. Firstly it has declared its willingness to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020. If other states agree to make similar reductions, the Europeans have even undertaken to slash emissions by 30 percent.
Europe will be shouldering one-third of the annual costs to the public purse of adjusting to climate change, which are put at between 22 and 50 billion euros. The same applies to the start-up financing for climate change mitigation measures in developing countries as of next year. Other states too, including Japan and Brazil, have taken a clear line on reduction targets in negotiations to date.
-
- Enlarge image
- Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen
- (© www.norbert-roettgen.de)
New goals for Copenhagen
It seems highly unlikely that a binding agreement under international law can still be achieved in Copenhagen. The new aim of the conference will then be to reach a firm agreement on all the major elements of a future agreement, as well as the form and structure thereof. These will include:
- Keeping global warming down to a two degree Celsius rise, and on this basis
- Medium-term reduction targets (up to 2020) and long-term reduction targets (up to 2050)
- Regulations for global emissions trading
- A financing mechanism for supporting developing countries
- Standards for reporting, monitoring and verification
- Technological cooperation.
In Copenhagen the international community will also be attempting to agree on a way of achieving a binding international agreement as a second step.
It is hoped that this agreement can be reached in 2010, so that it can then be ratified by the individual states. The new agreement must come into force by 2013 so that it can take over directly from the Kyoto Protocol, which is due to expire at the end of 2012.
