The UN Climate Talks, otherwise referred to as COP 20, begin Monday in Lima, Peru at a time when climate change has rocketed back to the top of the global political agenda.
The Lima talks are an opportunity for governments to harness momentum that has been growing around the world for months and begin taking internationally coordinated action to address the global climate change crisis. In Lima, governments can move forward on an international action plan to be finalized in Paris at the end of next year, which aims to accelerate the ongoing transition away from dirty fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy.
The foundation of any agreement in Paris will be built in Lima. That foundation includes getting nations to begin crafting Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), where countries will offer their plans for how to slash global carbon emissions so that the world’s warming is contained to no more than 2degC. The deadline for the INDC offers is March 2015, making Lima an opportunity for governments to put the finishing touches on what these commitments should contain, how long they should last, and how they should be presented. COP 20 is also an opportunity for governments to continue supporting the Green Climate Fund, which now has commitments for up to
9.6 billion in funding, but has an investment target of $100 billion by 2020.
Politically, COP 20 comes at a pivotal time. In September, hundreds of thousands of individuals from New York to Mumbai took part in the People’s Climate March, where the demand for governments to act on climate was made at historic levels. Days later, the march was referenced by several leaders, including Barack Obama and Ban Ki-moon as a reason to act. Weeks later, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gave even more reason to act when it clearly outlined the harsh consequences the world faces if climate change is left unaddressed. Since then, the US and China have made “game changing” agreements to begin reducing carbon emissions at unprecedented levels. In the last several days, nations began committing to contribute billions of dollars to the Green Climate Fund. With this momentum in the rear-view mirror and Paris now just a year away, COP 20 in Lima begins with much at stake.
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Background
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, otherwise referred to as COP20 or CMP10, will be held in Lima, Peru, between December 1-12 of 2014. This will be the 20th yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 10th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Delegates to the Lima conference will continue negotiations towards a global climate agreement, with the overarching goal of reducing greenhouse gas emission (GHG’s) to limit the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above current levels. The Lima conference will be especially important for a number of key policy issues, but it is also noteworthy because it is taking place a year ahead of what may seen as critical meetings in Paris in December 2015 and after a string of momentous occasion for the climate movement.
In September, hundreds of thousands of people around the world took to the streets to call for climate action. Diverse communities from business to religious groups echoed their message, and thousands of scientists told world leaders we need to see real world action now to prevent irreversible climate impacts. In October, governments signed off on the latest scientific findings from the Intergovernmental Panel (IPCC) on Climate Change, which stated countries must rapidly phase-out fossil fuels and support a shift to low-carbon energy in order to avoid destabilising their economies through the spiraling cost of increasingly severe climate disasters.
In November, the world’s two largest carbon emitters, the US and China, agreed to a historic plan for China to slow, peak and then reverse the course of it’s carbon emissions with 2030 as a clear target for peaking the nation’s pollution. As part of the agreement the US pledged to double the pace at which it will reduce carbon pollution.” Days after the announcement was made, President Obama was in Brisbane, Australia for the G20 and proclaimed, “if China and the United States can agree on this, then the world can agree on this,” referring to the upcoming international process for addressing climate change. Obama’s remarks in Australia followed another announcement where the US pledged to commit up to $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, which helps support developing countries cut their emissions and reduce the devastating impacts of climate change. The US commitment, along with a $1.5 billion contribution from Japan, brought the fund within $4 billion dollars of achieving the low end of the goal of raising $10-%15 billion for the fund by 2015. One week after the US and Japanese announcement, the organizers of the Green Climate Fund met in Berlin Germany and announced that in all 21 countries were putting real money on the table, making the total pledged to the GCF $9.3 billion. The most notable contributions in Berlin came from the United Kingdom, which committed $1.1 billion to the GCF at the pledging session. Contributions from European nations were the largest per capita of all. the pledges made to date. Four developing nations: Mexico, Mongolia, Panama and the Republic of Korea, were also part of the pledging action, leaving those nations that failed to step up, such as Australia, and Poland, increasingly isolated. UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said the capitalisation of the fund is one of the “wisest investments in the 21st century.” As the pledging session ended, Canada announced it would be adding another $300 million to the fund, bringing the contribution total up to $9.6 billion ahead of Lima.
While the Green Climate Fund news was encouraging news given it came just a week before the Lima talks, a sobering reality was revealed the day before when the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) released it’s annual Emissions Gap Report. The report found that, the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are at levels that justify immediate action to a completely phase out fossil fuels. In Lima, governments can show that they have been emboldened by this stark message by making headway on an international action plan, to be finalized in Paris at the end of next year, which must accelerate the on-going transition away from dirty fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy. Beyond achieving increased contributions to the Green Climate Fund making progress on the individual climate action commitments (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions – INDCs), due from all countries early next year, is seen a a key part of the Lima meetings. In Lima, the international community will put the finishing touches on what these commitments should contain, how long they should last, how they can be bolstered and how they should be presented. Many governments particularly (insert either strategic nations, tree nations or both) will be looked upon to match the initial ambition that major emitters such as US, China and the EU have shown on climate in recent months. All nations will be have an opportunity at Lima to confirm to the international community that they have a plan to redirect their economies away from their reliance on dirty fossil fuels and towards clean renewable energy. Developed countries will be looked upon to demonstrate that they will provide adequate support, such as money and technological capacity, to empower developing countries to take their own climate action.
‘The Tree’ is a service provided by the Global Call for Climate Action (GCCA), a network of more than 400 nonprofit organizations. The GCCA works to connect and facilitate the efforts of organizations from across the globe to communicate the urgency of climate change, promote the solutions before us and to mobilize support of government action at the national and international levels. For more information about the GCCA, please visit: http://www.tcktcktck.org
Joshua Wiese is Project Director for Global Call for Climate Action, responsible for running GCCA's Adopt a Negotiator and Fresh Air projects. Fresh Air is a GCCA initiative that connects climate and energy bloggers to relevant work being done by GCCA partner organizations.
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