Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The EU laid down its demands: all major emitters to back the completion of a legally
bindingglobalclimatetreaty,perhapsby2015,intowhichtheProtocolcouldbesubsumed.
'That iswhat aroadmap shoulddo:describe some principles, the process andthe timetable
for what should come next', declared the EU environment commissioner Connie
Hedegaard. 'Without a roadmap, no second commitment period.' 18 Hedegaard was backed
up by Britain's climate and energy secretary Chris Huhne who underlined that the EU
would not agree to a second Kyoto commitment period without 'hard, bankable'
commitments from other large nations. 19 To act in isolation 'makes no sense', Huhne told
the conference. It would not control 85 per cent of global emissions and it would not give
green energy investors the certainty they needed.
The roadmap and the second commitment period are part of the same package, the same route towards a legally binding
global deal. They cannot be separated from one another, and we will not let them be. 20
This was delusory. The Bali Road Map was to have ended with a Copenhagen climate
treaty.Countriescouldnotbeexpectedtocommitingoodfaithtotheformofanagreement
before knowing what was in it.
Like the US, the EU also wanted to knock down the climate change Berlin Wall. 'We
need to discuss whether we can continue to divide the world in the traditional thinking
of the North and the South, where the North has to commit to a binding form whereas
the South will only have to commit in voluntary form', Hedegaard told reporters. Here
she ran into opposition from the new convention executive secretary, Christiana Figueres.
'The North-South divide over historical responsibility still has more weight than the
forward-looking approach of respective capabilities', Figueres responded, demonstrating
where the convention secretariat's sympathies lay. 21
Momentum towards a new treaty put US negotiators on the spot. When it came to
his turn to address the conference, Stern was heckled by an American student. 'We need
an urgent path to a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty', Abigail Borah told the
conference to sustained applause before being bundled out of the hall. When he spoke,
Stern denied that the US had been dragging its feet or postponing action until after 2020.
BynotingthattheEUhadcalledforaroadmap'thattheUSsupports',the New York Times
reported that Stern had endorsed the move toward a treaty 'somewhat ambiguously'. 22
The EU got assistance from an unexpected quarter. Normally surefooted negotiators,
the Chinese delegation undercut their position—and that of the US—by indicating that
China might be willing to accept a legally binding post-2020 treaty. The momentum
towards a treaty appeared irresistible. As the COP went into overtime, there was a lone
hold-out.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search