Creative Commons: Global Campaign for Climate Action, 2011
UN climate change conferences don’t of themselves cut greenhouse gas emissions. Negotiations about targets and texts cannot do that; only government policies that incentivise and require business investment in low carbon technologies and other emission-reducing activities can.
So the standard by which UN talks should be judged is whether or not they make such policy and investment more likely or less. And from that perspective the conference that has ended in Durban, South Africa, amid considerable drama, should be regarded as very much a success.
First, it has forced countries to admit that their current climate policies are inadequate. The Durban agreement explicitly refers to the “emissions gap” – the difference between the aggregate impact of commitments that countries have made, and the upper limit of emissions required to have a chance of meeting the globally agreed goal of no more than two degrees of global warming. That gap is large, and countries have now agreed that their targets will need to be strengthened to try to close it. In doing so Durban has snatched the 2C goal from the jaws of impossibility. It still looks very difficult to achieve, but if more concerted action is now taken early enough, it yet could be.
Read More: The Guardian >>
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