本帖最后由 lilyma06 于 2011-12-12 16:23 编辑
Obama Winning Climate Debate on China Move http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-12/obama-winning-argument-on-global-warming-pushes-pollution-curbs-for-china.html
President Barack Obama speaks on payroll tax cuts in Washington on Monday. Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Mark Spelman, global head of strategy at Accenture Ltd., discusses the outlook for the United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa, and expectations for an agreement on the Green Climate Fund. He speaks from Johannesburg with Linzie Janis and Owen Thomas on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown." (Source: Bloomberg)
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- David McCauley, Philippines-based lead climate change specialist at the Asian Development Bank, talks about the agreement reached at the United Nations climate conference in Durban, South Africa. Developing nations led by China and India pledged they’d work toward an agreement that would limit their fossil fuel emissions for the first time, the biggest advance in the fight against global warming in 14 years. McCauley speaks with John Dawson on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move Asia." (Source: Bloomberg)
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Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said a global warming treaty may be "beyond our reach" at talks this week in Durban, South Africa, as India and China rejected pressure for developing nations to adopt mandatory pollution targets. Linzie Janis and Alex Morales report on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown." (Source: Bloomberg)
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The US climate change envoy Todd Stern (left) talks with an advisor on December 10, 2011 during the final discussions of the last day of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa. Stern won support from India and China for voluntary pledges inCopenhagen in 2009 and last year in Cancun, Mexico. Photographer: Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images
The U.S., long accused of blockingprogress in international climate talks, is winning a two-decadeold debate about how to curtail global warming.
The decision yesterday by China and India to move toward anagreement with the “legal force” to limit their fossil fuelemissions marked the first step toward treating developingnations the same as industrial ones when it comes to reducingpollution.
President Barack Obama, and George W. Bush before him, hadpushed for that parity after the Senate refused to ratify theKyoto Protocol, which limits greenhouse gases for industrialnations. Developing nations such as China and India had nocommitments under Kyoto.
“The U.S. saw an opportunity to push China into acceptingthe same rules as everyone else and took it,” said AndrewLight, coordinator of climate policy at the Center for AmericanProgress, a research group in Washington with White House ties.
Obama’s envoy approved the accord yesterday at UnitedNations climate talks in Durban, South Africa. Bringingdeveloping countries into the system is important because Kyotoregulates only a third of greenhouse gas emissions, and Chinaand India have become two of the world’s three biggest polluterssince the pact was agreed in 1997.
“The Durban climate talks have brought us to an importantmoment where all nations will be covered in the same roadmaptoward a long-term solution for the climate crisis -- thegreatest challenge facing our planet,” House Democratic leaderNancy Pelosi said in a statement.
Rich and Poor The division between rich and developing economies has beenenshrined in the UN talks since 1992, allowing the poorestnations to escape commitments on burning coal and oil whilerequiring industrial nations to clean up the atmosphere. Thatsplit prompted the Senate in 1997 to pass a resolution saying itwouldn’t adopt Kyoto. No president ever made a formal proposalto bring the treaty into force in the U.S.
“You can run around and pretend that behind this firewallyou are going to take 30 or 35 percent of global emissions andfix the problem. But you know what? You’re not,” Todd Stern,the U.S. envoy in Durban, said Dec. 8. “What the U.S. has beendoing over the last two years has been showing the leadershipnecessary to try to drag this process into the 21st century.”
State Department officials initially rejected the EuropeanUnion’s push to start talks for a climate treaty to replaceKyoto, whose emissions limits expire at the end of 2012. Sternsaid last week he was skeptical China and India wouldparticipate on the same level as industrialized nations. Hemoved when developing nations gave assurances they would agreeto the same sort of language industrial nations adhere to.
Voluntary vs. Mandatory
The agreement in Durban is a victory for the U.S. becauseit strengthens Obama’s effort to steer the climate talks towardvoluntary pledges on emissions instead of a top-down system oftargets written into the Kyoto Protocol, said Robert Stavins,director of Harvard University’s Environmental Economics Programin Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Kyoto sets a goal meant to spur emission-reducing policiesand provides an international system of mechanisms such as theglobal carbon market to help nations comply. U.S. has pushed a“bottom-up” approach of allowing each nation to fix its ownpolicy and from there determining how much emissions will fall.Stern won support from India and China for voluntary pledges inCopenhagen in 2009 and last year in Cancun, Mexico.
‘International Framework’ “In the Copenhagen Accord, more than 90 countries signedup to do something domestically, so now we are working with thisinternational framework while countries are starting to dothings on the ground,” European Union Climate CommissionerConnie Hedegaard said in an interview yesterday in Durban afterthe negotiations ended. “It’s moving, too slow, but it’smoving.”
Stavins from Harvard said the vague legal language comingfrom Durban helps validate the “wisdom of giving more attentionto bottom-up, decentralized approaches.”
For companies looking for guidance on how regulations willshape energy demand, the Durban framework may provide lesscertainty because it leaves the policy decisions to individualnations, and there’s nothing to drive policy immediately. Envoysat the talks agreed to develop a process leading to a treaty in2015 that would come into force starting in 2020.
Renewable-energy investment rose to a record $243 billionlast year as solar and wind energy subsidies increased orders atsuch companies as LDK Solar Co. and Vestas Wind Systems A/S.,though both companies have said increasing competition willshrink margins in the coming months.
‘Legally-Binding Agreement’ “We want a legally-binding agreement that sets long-termtargets,” Jeff Moe, director of global policy at Ingersoll-RandPlc (IR), which sells heating and ventilation equipment, said in aninterview in Durban. “We want to see an enabling policy thatgoes global.”
By signaling their willingness to take on emissions cutslater, China and India won backing to extend Kyoto’s curbs past2012. That supports the Clean Development Mechanism, a pillar ofthe global carbon market established by the treaty. Prices ofCDM certificates have fallen 54 percent in the past year as theweaker economy cut demand for the offsets and concern mountedabout the continuation of the program.
The Durban deal “is like a Viagra shot for the flailingcarbon markets” and may boost prices today, said Abyd Karmali,head of carbon markets at Bank of America in London.
Still, the Durban agreement is a fragile compromise thatalmost came apart just as ministers were adopting it. Just after1 a.m. yesterday, India fought to include language calling for a“legal outcome,” a phrase rejected by the EU as too soft.
Compromise Language A couple hours later, with help from Brazil and the U.S.,the EU and India agreed on compromise language that says“agreed outcome with legal force.” The government in Delhi hasindicated it’s more comfortable with the voluntary frameworkthan a legally-binding requirement.
“We aren’t talking about lifestyle sustainability thatmany of the children of more fortunate countries than ours have,we are talking about livelihood sustainability,” India’sEnvironment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said in a speech to atthe meeting in Durban, winning thunderous applause. “How do agive a blank check and give a legally binding agreement to signaway the rights of 1.2 billion people and many other people inthe developing world? Is that equity?”
China spoke in Durban about taking on mandatory targetsonly after 2020 and only if certain conditions are met. It hasbeen more willing to take on voluntary measures and supportedboth the Cancun and Copenhagen accords.
‘New Arrangement’ “This is a new arrangement, and we all support the seriousdecisions made at this conference which demonstrated that amultinational mechanism is functioning to address climatechange,” Chinese envoy Xie Zhenhua told reporters yesterdayafter the talks finished.
Among people involved in the talks, there’s a concern thatneither Durban nor the Kyoto rules seem to be having much effecton global warming, said Elliot Diringer of the Center forClimate and Energy Solutions in Arlington, Virginia.
“We all believed 15 years ago that binding commitmentswere the answer,” he said. “They are an important piece of theanswer, but it’s going to take time to get there. We keepwaiting for the magic moment. There are no magic moments.”
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发表于 2011-12-12 17:47
