Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 2 • 4th February 2005
CLIMATE CHANGE CREEPS UP AGENDA IN LEAD-UP TO G8 SUMMIT
CLIMATE CHANGE CREEPS UP AGENDA IN LEAD-UP TO G8 SUMMIT
With the Kyoto Protocol’s entry into force around the corner, a recent UK conference brought the spotlight onto climate change issues. The conference, entitled "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change", was held from 1-3 February at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter as the UK took over the G8 presidency. Just prior to the meeting, a high-level taskforce established by three think tanks in the US, UK and Australia released a report aimed at the presidency, urging consorted international action on climate change. In related news, the world’s first multi-country, multi-sector greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), took effect at the beginning of the year.
Blair conference examines climate science
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has declared climate change as a top priority during his leadership of the G8, along with Africa. The international scientific symposium on climate change in Exeter in early February was tasked with tackling the difficult questions of what levels of greenhouse gases can be considered dangerous, what the impacts might be across regions and sectors, and what options exist for achieving the stabilisation of atmospheric greenhouse gases at different levels. Overall, participants sought to flag "optimum" solutions, which would help the world both avoid unacceptable levels of climate change and unacceptably high mitigation costs. The meeting did not, as such, identify a temperature increase considered "safe"; Participants did agree that the effects of climate change are being felt already.
On options for mitigating climate change, the meeting concluded that as there was no magic bullet. Instead, a portfolio of options is necessary, including emissions trading and strong technology development and diffusion. Commenting on the meeting, Margaret Beckett, UK Environment Secretary said she hoped the conference could serve as "a milestone in building international consensus on climate change".
The meeting results will feed into the 2005 G8 Summit, which is scheduled to take place from 6-8 July in Gleneagles, Scotland. The US, which pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, will be participating at that G8 Summit. At the World Economic Forum in Davos (see related story, this issue), Blair put pressure on the US to get involved in international climate action, stressing that "interdependence is no longer disputed… If America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda too". This request may come to fore again at the G8 Summit.
High-level taskforce urges action on climate change
On a similar note, a report entitled "Meeting the Climate Challenge," released on 24 January, strongly urged world leaders to tackle climate change. The International Climate Change Taskforce joined the forces of the UK-based Institute for Public Policy Research, the US-based Centre for American Progress and the Australia Institute to produce a report targeting the G8 presidency. The Taskforce included members such as US senator Olympia Snow, Timothy Wirth, Martin Khor and Claude Martin, with Rajendra K Pachauri — current chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — serving as scientific advisor. The report recommended the creation of a "G-8 plus" Climate Group including countries like India and China, which would take on major initiatives to take action to combat climate change. Such action should, according to the Taskforce, include a shifting of agricultural subsidies from food crops to dedicated energy crops used to produce biofuels. Other measures included the promotion of highly efficient cars and other low-carbon technological solutions.
Taskforce co-chair Rt Hon Stephen Byers, a UK Member of Parliament, commented that "Our planet is at risk. With climate change, there is an ecological time-bomb ticking away, and people are becoming increasingly concerned by the changes and extreme weather events they are already seeing… I appreciate that tackling climate change is politically difficult. Strong international action is vital. World leaders need to recognise that climate change is the single most important long term issue that the planet faces and to discharge their responsibilities to the people they represent by agreeing to concerted international action to tackle climate change".
European ETS up and running
On 1 January, the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) took off. Under the scheme, industrial plants and installations — which have to comply with nationally allocated carbon dioxide emissions caps — can trade in emissions permits. The idea behind the scheme is that emissions will be reduced where such measures cost the least, and overall mitigation costs will thus decrease in Europe. Reductions made through specific projects in developing countries will also be counted in. In the future, the programme will link to similar schemes in other countries under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol will enter into force on 16 February. Discussions under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are currently stalled regarding the time-period post-2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 20 December 2004).
Additional Resources
Further information on the UK conference on Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, including links to the presentations, is available here.
The report on "Meeting the Climate Challenge" is available here.
ICTSD reporting; "How Much More Does The Climate Have To Change Before It Becomes ‘Dangerous’?," MET OFFICE RELEASE, 3 February 2005; "EU Launches Pioneering Emissions Trading Scheme," REUTERS, 4 January 2005; "G8-Plus Group Needed To Tackle Climate Change," IPPR PRESS RELEASE, 24 January 2005.