UN Climate Chief Lowers Expectations For 2009 Deal

From: Carbon Finance - December 10, 2008

Read Full Article ---> UN climate chief lowers expectations for 2009 deal

UN climate change head Yvo de Boer said that talks to reach a new agreement by December next year are unlikely to lead to a “fully elaborated long-term response to climate change”, and warned that many details will need to be finalised after the meeting in Copenhagen.

Speaking at a press briefing yesterday on progress with the talks in Poznan, Poland, de Boer cautioned that: “We should be careful not to reach too far and achieve nothing.” He added that the Copenhagen talks – viewed as the deadline to finalise a deal which can be ratified before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 – will be “a failure” if there are still no reduction targets agreed, but that subsequent meetings would be needed to bash out final details. “We do need to have clarity, numbers on the table from developed countries, otherwise the other dominoes won’t fall,” he added. Developing countries will only engage in the process if industrialised nations adopt reduction commitments and offer the technological support needed by developing economies.

But Stavros Dimas, EU environment commissioner, said: “Time is running out ... we have to have an agreement in Copenhagen.” Sigmar Gabriel, environment minister for Germany, said at a separate event that this week is “a defining week for climate talks”, with discussions on the EU’s climate and energy package reaching a climax at the end of the week. “Politicians love to make long-term forecasts, and it’s great to make 2050 targets, but they will be met by our children and grandchildren, so it’s important to make intermediate targets,” Gabriel added.

De Boer remained optimistic that the outcome of next December’s talks would fulfil the goals of the Bali Road Map. But he added that, just as the Kyoto Protocol needed subsequent meetings in the Hague in 2000 and Marrakech in 2001 to forge a ‘ratifiable’ agreement, so too may a Copenhagen agreement require further elucidation.