Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
point a 450-550ppm target. Stern warned that “it would already be very
difficult and costly to aim to stabilise at 450ppm CO
2
e. If we delay, the
opportunity to stabilize at 500-550ppm CO
2
e may slip away.” Stern was
writing in 2006.
Current international climate-change negotiations are very much
focused on reductions in the annual flow of new emissions. With the
advent of the Obama administration, the US has now joined other devel-
oped countries in agreeing to aim for an eighty percent cut in annual
emissions by 2050, as was agreed at the July 2009 Group of Eight sum-
mit. But it is worth remembering that it is only these G8 countries of
Opinion differs as to who is more to blame for the disappointing
inconclusiveness of the Copenhagen conference in 2009. It was China's delegate
who insisted that a target of an eighty percent cut in carbon emissions by 2050
for the rich, industrialized nations be dropped from the deal. (China would not
have even been included in this target.) China also objected to the target of
2020 as the year in which global emissions peak.
On the other hand, Barack Obama faced criticism for brokering the eventual
non-binding deal amongst a coalition that did not include, or negotiate with,
poorer nations. Obama was also criticized for pushing for concessions from
China while offering little, if anything, from the US.
