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The 30% Solution
9 Jun 2010
Last week ECO talked about the paper published last month by the European Commission, which analyses what a move to a 30% emissions reduction target on 1990 levels by 2020 would mean for the EU. The paper makes a good read and leads to a quite unequivocal conclusion. The recession has made emission reductions much […]
Time to Review the 1.5 Track
9 Jun 2010
A group of workers were building a railway between two towns. Let’s say one town was called Copenhagen and the next was called Ourcommonfuture. The railway workers had assembled sleepers (crossties) and rails and knew the distance between the towns. After a while, some of the railway workers looked at the pile of construction materials. […]
Your LULUCF Glossary
9 Jun 2010
Recently the mysteries of ‘land use, land use change and forestry’ (LULUCF) have come to broader attention. ECO feels that full appreciation of the wonders of LULUCF is often hindered by the technical jargon that surrounds the subject. To help move the process forward, we offer delegates this glossary of commonly used terms in the […]
Next Steps for Japan
9 Jun 2010
ECO congratulates Mr. Naoto Kan on his appointment as the new Prime Minister of Japan. We wonder if Japan’s financial initiative to support developing countries, the so-called ‘Hatoyama Initiative’, will now be changed to the ‘Kan-Do Initiative’? Last year in Copenhagen, ECO welcomed Japan’s $15 billion pledge for fast start finance. This represents half of […]
Fossil #1: Saudi Arabia
9 Jun 2010
Saudi Arabia received the 1st Place Fossil for ingeniously linking carbon capture and storage (CCS) to reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries. In today’s debate there was general agreement on having additional public funding for REDD; the Saudis said they would only consent if there were funding windows for all other mitigation […]
Fossil #2: Russian Federation
9 Jun 2010
Russia received the 2nd Place Fossil for very significant weakening of its emissions reduction commitment from 25% to 15% of 1990 levels if land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) is not counted. The Russian president announced the 25% target as unconditional, but the Russian delegation converted this to being conditional in yesterday’s Numbers+LULUCF […]
Fossil #1: Monday Canada
8 Jun 2010
Canada was awarded First Place. Canada earns a Fossil of the Day for reducing its mitigation commitment after Copenhagen to the same level pledged by the United States of America. This January, Canada scrapped a 2020 target equivalent to 3% below 1990 in favour of one equivalent to 3% above 1990, using the rationale of […]
Fossil #2: Monday Saudi Arabia
8 Jun 2010
Saudi Arabia was awarded Second Place. Saudi Arabia earns a Fossil for being the only country trying to block discussion of bunker fuels. Speaking in this morning’s LCA contact group on sectoral approaches, Saudi Arabia asked the chair not to bring forward any text on reducing emissions from international aviation and shipping fuels and warned […]
LULUCF Goes to the Wire
8 Jun 2010
Yesterday’s KP contact group on “numbers” (emissions reductions in Annex I countries) highlighted a question that has dominated the first week of this session: is the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) debate about emission reductions – or is it about creative accounting that undermines overall ambition? The chorus in favor of requiring […]