Note to Self: This Week, Agree a Strong CP2

4 December 2012

Today's Thought for the Unwilling: why a strong CP2 is better for you…

ECO would like to remind Parties that hold large amounts of Kyoto surplus units: Insisting on lenient use rules and refusing to agree to cancellation at the end of 2020 may get you the opposite of what you want.
 
Why would developing countries agree to a CP2 with no ambition, no provisional application, no 5 year period, no finance . . . Why should these countries agree to such a miserable CP2 deal?
 
If the KP negotiations fail in Doha, it would mean your AAU surplus will vanish overnight, because it is only under a working KP that your AAUs have any meaning or value. So simply blocking progress on this issue may well turn against what you are hoping to achieve. ECO believes that there much more constructive ways out of this mess.  
 
Please take notes!
 
Ukraine — it is time to end your timid silence! How about joining the Kyoto family with an ambitious target and not selling any of your surplus? Such bold action may even be your ticket into the EU-ETS. 
 
Belarus and Kazakhstan — don’t get off to a bad start by supporting carryover of hot air owned by others!
Be bold! Be original!
 
Poland, Bulgaria and Romania — why not work constructively with your fellow EU countries on an intra-European solution? 
 
How about advocating for a proposal that 20% of the EU budget would be used for low carbon development and building climate resilience in the EU? 
 
Or include a trading mechanism under the Effort Sharing Decision that includes a large Green Investment Scheme (GIS). Swap your worthless AAUs at a discount for EU trading units that are actually worth money.  In return the GIS will allow you and others to decarbonize your economies. Seriously, this can work!  
 
And you know that it will . . .
 
Russia — why do you think you can sell your surplus without signing up to CP2, and to whom exactly?  The KP is pretty clear, as you know: no QELRO no assigned amount, no carryover.
 
And to all Parties, never forget: Nature cannot be fooled by accounting tricks!

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