Piss poor effort and is not going to make a difference.
However, the final text noted with “grave concern the significant gap” between existing pledges to cut emissions and the reduction needed to avoid dangerous climate change.
The deal said countries “may” announce detailed new emissions targets next year. An earlier draft had said all countries “shall” announce such targets but many developing nations objected to this, saying it was unfair to ask them to make commitments which could hamper their economic growth.
Big difference legal between "shall" and "may". May means SFA. No commitment really. It's just a joke. and a failure of the world uniting to addres this issue.
Last-minute deal on UN climate change scorned as half-baked
More than 190 countries agreed a deal today paving the way for a global treaty to tackle climate change.
The deal was watered down in a tense final 40 hours of negotiations in Lima after many developing countries refused to sign earlier drafts. A loophole was inserted which countries could exploit to avoid following Britain by adopting tough, economy-wide emissions targets.
The deal sets the framework for a treaty due to be signed in Paris next December which is meant to limit global warming to 2C above preindustrial times.
However, the final text noted with “grave concern the significant gap” between existing pledges to cut emissions and the reduction needed to avoid dangerous climate change.
The deal said countries “may” announce detailed new emissions targets next year. An earlier draft had said all countries “shall” announce such targets but many developing nations objected to this, saying it was unfair to ask them to make commitments which could hamper their economic growth.
A proposal to allow countries to review each other’s targets was also scrapped after China objected to being scrutinised. This means there will be no official assessment of whether the targets are fair and comparable before the treaty is due to be signed.
Key issues remain unresolved and were deferred until the summit in Paris, including how responsibility for reducing emissions by the required amount should be divided between developed and developing countries
Ed Davey, the energy and climate change secretary, said the deal “unlocked the door to the world’s first global climate deal in Paris next year”.
He played down the significance of the loophole, saying all large countries “will have to [adopt targets] because they will be exposed if they don’t. It’s about political pressure.”
He admitted that the national targets, which countries are due to submit to the UN by June next year, were unlikely to add up to enough of a reduction to meet the 2C target.
“Paris is going to have to have a review mechanism for ratcheting up ambition,” he said.
Alden Meyer, policy director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a US lobby group, said: “It’s definitely watered down from what we expected. It’s now totally voluntary whether countries choose to provide information [about their emissions targets]. Any comparison is left to outside bodies, such as think tanks, weakening the ability of countries to scrutinise each other.”
The final text restored a reference to “loss and damage”, which poor countries, including small island states, hope will allow them to claim compensation from rich countries for damaging impacts such as rising sea levels.
However, the wording is vague and several delegates from rich countries said compensation would never be paid.
Lord Stern of Brentford, author of the influential review of the economics of climate change, said: “It is vital that countries put forward before the Paris summit [pledges] that are both ambitious and credible. However, it is already clear that the scale of action to control and reduce annual emissions of greenhouse gases will collectively not be consistent with a pathway that will mean a reasonable chance of avoiding dangerous global warming.”
Asad Rehman, Friends of the Earth’s international climate campaigner, said: “Once again poorer nations have been bullied by the industrialised world into accepting an outcome which leaves many of their citizens facing the grim prospect of catastrophic climate change.”
Jonathan Grant, director of climate change at PwC, said: “Brinkmanship is normal in these negotiations, but there’s concern that the talks will fall off the cliff in Paris, like they did in Copenhagen [in 2009].”
The UN has begun discussions over halving the frequency of its climate conferences to once every two years. The conferences, which have been held annually for 20 years, have been criticised for achieving little but having a large carbon footprint, with more than 10,000 people flying to each one.
Mr Davey, who led a British delegation to Lima of about 40, said: “If Paris is successful we may not need such frequent conferences.”
Lord Lawson, the former chancellor and chairman of the Global Warming Policy Forum, a climate sceptic think tank, said the weakness of the deal meant Britain should rescind a law binding itself to cut emissions.
“The UK’s unilateral Climate Change Act is forcing British industry and British households to suffer an excessively high cost of electricity to no purpose,” he said. “Following Lima, it is clearer than ever that the Act should be suspended until such time as a binding global agreement has been secured.”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/environme ... 296885.ece