PUTTING MONEY ON THE TABLE GETS A RAY FOR UK, WHILE A US PUSH FOR RULE WEAKENING IS FOSSIL-WORTHY
The First Place Fossil goes to the US for downgrading developed country MRV. Comparability between those inside the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and those outside is essential to underpinning a regime built on trust and transparency. The US has been consistently blocking progress on MRV inside the Talks. This is all the more strange because in Copenhagen the US pushed hard on China to be more robust in its accounting and reporting of emissions. Now the tables have turned. If the US is serious about a 2015 deal they need to count their carbon. Their blocking is counter-intuitive. The US has some of the most robust transparency and accounting procedures in the whole world, but simply has an allergy to replicating these at an international level. The key to securing a global binding treaty is trust; the US knows more than anyone that transparency and accountability help reassure all countries that they each are all doing what they said they would. What the US, and their minions, like Japan and Canada, are doing is corrupting their carbon accounting.
Ray of the Day goes to the United Kingdom for being the first mover on announcing post FSF pledge. The UK announced today its climate finance will be £1.8bn over the next two years, which is a 40% increase on FSF levels, with 50% of it being dedicated to adaptation.
This announcement sets a constructive tone to the negotiations on finance here in Doha. We urge other developed countries to start putting money on the table and commit to post FSF going up not down.
While this commitment is certainly noteworthy and welcome, in other circumstances it may not have met the "Ray of the Day's" stringent standards.
What makes it worthy of such a coveted recognition is that the UK government has gone first. Rather holding back its commitment to exact concessions from other Parties, the UK has done much to create a positive dynamic by putting it forward early in the Ministerial session, and with no apparent strings attached. We look forward to other donors coming forward in similar fashion over the next three days, and we think that this cooperative approach is one that all Parties should emulate.
Contact:
Ria Voorhaar
Communications Coordinator
Climate Action Network – International
Home mobile: +49 157 3173 5568
Local mobile: +974 33 38 6907
About CAN: The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of roughly 700 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government and individual action to limit human0induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. www.climatenetwork.org
About Fossil: The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.
About Ray: CAN gives out the 'Ray of The Day' award to the countries who are a ray of hope over the past days of negotiations at the UN climate change conference.
###