National governments take actions towards COP 15
With just a few months to go before global talks in Copenhagen on a successor to the Kyoto protocol big nations are taking actions to advance international negotiations.
On 26 June, the UK Government announced a proposal on financing for climate change called "Roadmap to Copenhagen". The proposal suggests to raise US$100 billion annually to finance mitigation and adaptation measures, especially in the world’s poorest nations. The initiative comes at a critical time and is the kind of leadership that developed countries must demonstrate for the UNFCCC negotiations on a new post-2012 climate change framework to succeed. Michele Montas, UN Secretary-General Ban’s spokesperson, noted that "without a serious commitment on financing from developed countries, a deal in Copenhagen is unlikely." The Secretary-General expressed the hope that the UK initiative will catalyse discussion and commitments on financing from other member States.
On 1 July, Sweden took over the rotating European presidency from the Czech Republic. "As the country holding the presidency, Sweden will press for other industrialised countries and fast-growing economies to do their part," Andreas Carlgren, Sweden's environment minister, stated when he presented Sweden's environmental priorities to the other 26 EU environment ministers last week. Sweden will press EU nations to scale up its emissions goals for 2020 from a 20% reduction to 30%, he said, but will attach certain conditions to this in order to get the rest of the global community to do their bit. He also warned that if the global community cannot agree on ambitious targets to curb emissions, then rich countries will be pressed to provide more funding for adaptation actions. To read more about the Swedish EU presidency, please click here.
On 26 June, the America’s House of Representatives agreed for the first time, by 219 votes to 212, to cap emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. The bill envisions modest reductions of 17% from 2005 levels by 2020, but the cuts get more swingeing over time (under the assumption that technology to mitigate emissions will improve). By 2050 the cuts should hit 83%. An American carbon bill is regarded as a necessary step before anything of substance can be agreed in Copenhagen. To read more, please click here.