The Carbon Reduction Pledges of the World’s Most Powerful Economies Are Far Too Low
From an Article by Alex Kirby, TruthDig Blog, September 1, 2016
London — The promises made by the G20 group of the world’s leading economies to meet the goals reached in last December’s Paris Agreement on emissions reduction are nowhere near adequate, according to new analysis by a global consortium.
In a comprehensive assessment, they identify the G20 climate challenge: it needs by 2030 to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by six times more than it has pledged so far.
It needs also to move more vigorously to a green, low-carbon economy. And if the G20 goes ahead with its plans for new coal-fuelled power plants, that will make it “virtually impossible” to keep global warming below 2 degrees C, the initial target agreed at the Paris climate conference.
The analysts’ report is released in Beijing today ahead of the G20 summit in the Chinese city of Hangzhou on 4 and 5 September.
Shared mission
It has been produced by Climate Transparency, which describes itself as “an open global consortium with a shared mission to stimulate a ‘race to the top’ in climate action through enhanced transparency”.
Contributors include NewClimate Institute, whose flagship projects include Climate Action Tracker, Germanwatch, which publishes an annual Global Climate Risk Index, the Overseas Development Institute, the Humboldt-Viadrina Governance Platform, and a range of other international experts.
Climate change and green finance are high on this year’s G20 agenda, so the assessment examines a range of indicators—including investment attractiveness, renewable energy investment, climate policy, the carbon intensity of the energy and electricity sectors of the G20 economies, fossil fuel subsidies, and climate finance.
“The G20 has proven that it can be nimble, and take action on economic issues, so we are looking to these countries to do the same for the climate.”
The G20 produces 75% of global emissions, and its energy-related greenhouse gas emissions rose by 56% from 1990-2013. This growth has now stalled, but, as the authors put it, “there is still more brown than green on the Climate Transparency G20 scorecard”, although they concede that it is “beginning to head in the right direction”.
Alvaro Umaña, Costa Rica’s former environment and energy minister, is co-chair of Climate Transparency. He says: “The G20 has proven that it can be nimble, and take action on economic issues, so we are looking to these countries to do the same for the climate.
“Our report shows that while global emissions growth may be coming to an end, there is not yet the necessary dynamic to transform the ‘brown’ fossil-fuel based economy into the ‘green’.
“There remains a tremendous opportunity for the G20 to make this transition and provide the world with enough energy, create affordable energy access for the poorest people, and to stimulate economies.”
The authors say coal is the main problem with the carbon intensity of the G20’s energy sector overall, because of the large number of planned new coal-fired power plants. These would nearly double the bloc’s coal capacity, making it almost impossible for the world to keep warming even to 2 degrees C, let alone to 1.5 degrees C as set out in the Paris Agreement.
“If G20 countries were to rid themselves of their reliance on coal, this would significantly impact their ability to both increase their climate pledges and get their emissions trajectories on a below 2 degrees C pathway,” said Niklas Höhne, a founding partner of NewClimate Institute and special professor of mitigation of greenhouse gases at Wageningen University, Netherlands.
Good signal
China, India, France, Germany, the US and the UK are rated highest in terms of investment attractiveness in renewable energy, although the ratings of both France and Germany risk dropping.
Jan Burck, team leader on German and EU low-carbon policy at Germanwatch, says: “That China and India are rated the highest is a good signal—these are the economies where the transition will have the biggest impact on the global climate. France’s reliance on nuclear is stifling the emergence of wind and solar, and Germany’s proposed cap on renewable energy is worrying.”
Although renewable energy has increased by 18% since 2008, a 2 degrees C trajectory means annual G20 country investment in the power sector alone will have to roughly double by 2035 from its 2000-2013 levels.
The report also says fossil fuel subsidies remain high—with subsidies from the group’s developed countries all being far greater than the money they have committed to climate finance.
Peter Eigen, co-chair of Climate Transparency, says: “Our assessment shows China is taking more action than many countries. Climate leadership from China at the G20 Summit could help set the world on the right path to a future safe from the worst ravages of climate change.”
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President Obama and Xi Jinping Take Big Step on Climate Change Ahead of G20
By Justin Worland, Time,September 3, 2016
The United States and China announced Saturday that they are formally joining the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, significantly increasing the likelihood that the accord will take effect this year.
The announcement, made by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping before the start of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, adds momentum to ongoing international discussions surrounding climate change. The accord requires 55 countries to join, representing 55% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, before it enters into force. Together the U.S. and China represent nearly 39% of the world’s emissions. They join 24 other countries that have already signed on to the agreement, according to a count from the World Resources Institute.
The announcement is the latest in an unlikely partnership on climate change between the two countries. Chinese opposition to strong global warming measures, at least in part, prevented efforts to reach a strong climate deal in Copenhagen in 2009. But climate became an area of cooperation when Xi took office in 2013. The alignment between Obama and Xi has been credited with building support from other countries in advance of the Paris conference in 2015 that yielded the world’s strongest agreement on climate change. Climate policy experts hope that Saturday’s U.S.-China announcement will similarly encourage other countries just as other collaborative efforts have done in the past.
“Over the last several years, we have effectively demonstrated that as the world’s two largest emitters and economies, if we can come together, we can help move the world forward on combating climate change,” said Brian Deese, a senior adviser to Obama, adding that the announcement brought the cooperation “full circle.”
Early entry into force would reduce the chance that a future president could scuttle the deal as Donald Trump has promised to do repeatedly on the campaign trail. The deal mandates a mandatory three-year waiting period after entry into force before a country can remove itself from the agreement. Additionally, a country would be required to give at least a year’s notice before making such a move.
The announcement with China is the latest move in the past several weeks from the White House aimed at ensuring Obama’s legacy on climate change. Obama gave speeches this week in Lake Tahoe and Hawaii before making a stop at the Midway Islands, all aimed at bringing attention to climate change. He also designated the largest protected marine area in the world in Hawaii. “We’ve been working on climate change on every front,” he said in a speech in Lake Tahoe. “We’ve worked to generate more clean energy, use less dirty energy, waste less energy overall.”
Entry into force this year—or at least the guarantee that entry into force is coming soon—would also allow climate negotiators to begin hammering out details that the agreement does not state explicitly. Climate negotiators are gathering in Marrakech in November for the annual meeting on climate change, formally known this year as COP 22.
“Once the agreement enters into force, you can’t just pull back out,” says Nathaniel Keohane, vice president of global climate at the Environmental Defense Fund. “This is less about the U.S. ability to walk away, it’s about the U.S. showing leadership—that entry into force applies to everyone else too.”
Saturday’s announcement also included a promise for the two countries to help push for a global agreement on HFCs—the climate change-causing pollutant in your air conditioner—by the end of the year and expanded efforts to reduce global aviation emissions.
Professionals devoted to fighting climate change—both scientists and policy experts—say that the measures could not take effect soon enough. Global warming in the past year has occurred at such a rapid pace that it has made some question whether the agreement’s goal of holding global temperature rise below 2°C (3.6°F) by 2100 is even feasible. At the very least, experts say, the agreement should take effect sooner rather than later.
Source: http://time.com/4478197/g20-climate-change-obama-xi/
See also: http://www.FrackCheckWV.net
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