Varied visions for new climate agreement cause ripples in Lima
5 December 2014
December 4, 2014, Lima, Peru: Progress in the UN climate negotiations continued to suffer from a failure to resolve deep seated differences of opinion between countries about key issues that should be covered by the comprehensive new agreement to deal with climate change, due to be signed in Paris at the end of next year.
The agreement is expected to signal the world’s first collective shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy, but to ensure that the deal reaches it’s full potential, developing countries need to be supported to take their own climate action.
Mohamed Adow, senior climate advisor, for Christian Aid said countries wanted different outcomes from the Paris agreement.
“Some rich countries want an agreement heavy on self-driven mitigation actions, while developing countries, including most of the African countries want a comprehensive agreement that includes not just mitigation but also adaptation and finance,” Adow says.
“It feels like we're trying to land a helicopter in a storm. One of the ways to see the landing pad is to have a review process which ensures commitments are fair and adequate and are going to get us out of this mess. Once we get a review then countries will start to trust the process again,” Adow says.
Adow says a new paper outlining elements of the 2015 agreement is due on Friday.
“This needs to clearly lay out the options so that when ministers arrive next week they can see the decisions that need to be made here to keep us on the road to Paris.”
Climate finance is a hot issue here in Lima. Commitment to providing long-term climate finance is seen by many parties as a yardstick for measuring the willingness of richer countries to achieve a comprehensive climate agreement in Paris next year.
Alix Mazounie from Climate Action Network France says, “If we are serious about this, then the agreement should both provide public finance to help the poorest countries but also, help shift the trillions of dollars that are shaping today’s economy and opting for dirty energy.”
“The good news is: phase-down of fossil fuel subsidies and high-carbon investments are among the options listed in the current ADP text that parties are discussing this week. This needs to stay in and become a big piece of the Paris deal: fossil fuels are the contradiction in this process,” Mazounie says.
This element is vital to a fair agreement. Although rich nations like the USA and Japan have pledged to the Green Climate Fund they are shamelessly spending billions more to subsidise fossil fuel expansion. Last year, fossil fuel subsidies in the G20 increased rose from $37 to $88 billion, according to an Oil Change International and Overseas Development Institute Report.
The money to finance a cleaner, fairer low carbon future is out there. But as long as rich countries continue to subsidise dirty energy expansion and fail to adequately support climate vulnerable countries, trust and progress at the UN climate negotiations will wane.
Climate Action Network (CAN) is a global network of over 900 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. More at: www.climatenetwork.org
Contact: Ria Voorhaar, CAN International in Lima on 963 961 813 or +49 157 3173 5568 or email: rvoorhaar@climatenetwork.org,