The G20 missed an opportunity

Many climate change-experts have expressed the hope that the COP17-conference in Durban will deliver more practical outcomes than COP15 in Copenhagen and COP16 in Cancun. But they clearly have not paid much attention to the annual G20 meeting earlier in November 2011, or to the global carbon emissions of 2010.

According to a Mail & Guardian report, global carbon emissions last year rose by 6%, or 564-milion tons, on 2009 levels a report released by the United States energy department indicates.

China made up nearly a quarter, or 24.6% of emissions, the United States accounted for 16.4% and India 6.2%.

Other nations that experienced a rise in emissions included Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Poland and Kazakhstan, reported the Mail & Guardian.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have warned that the COP 17 conference will be little more than an expensive talkfest unless financial commitments are forthcoming.

Non-governmental organisations said the annual G20-meeting failed to finalise ways to finance the Green Climate Fund. Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, told the Mail and Guardian the G20 could have turned talk into action with agreed sources of finances but that was not achieved.

With no agreement on any long-term sources of action, the Green Fund is an empty shell.

The fund was established last year, with rich countries, promising to mobilise 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to back action in poor countries that will bear the brunt of the impact of climate change.

With the global economic situation looking bleak and Europe on the edge of a recession, while the United States might only record an annual growth rate of marginally above 1% in 2012, it is not looking realisticly possible to fill that Green Climate Fund with finances remotely close to 100 billion a year.

“The fund currently stands empty, so governments must now decide where the money needed to fill it will come from,” said Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International.

“The G20 could have done more in pushing funding mechanisms but it made forward steps something that Durban would do well to seize on,” he added.

Recently, Neil Morris, director of climate change and sustainability services at KPMG, envisaged that COP17 has greater potential to have practical outcomes than was the case at COP15 in Copenhagen and COP16 in Cancun.

Morris reportedly said on www.greenbusinessguide.co.za that the world is moving towards a low-carbon development path, and local business must adapt. “A fundamental transformation of our energy system and our energy use will be required. Business operating in developed as well as developing countries can’t ignore these trends and need to prepare.”

The realities

But the realities about the global carbon emissions that rose last year, and the failure of G20 countries to provide a clear road map as to who will fill the Green Climate Fund and in which ways, make his predictions look quite hollow.

If the 100 billion dollars per year is not found, then it will be an expensive talk show in Durban, with little or no chance of meaningful progress in the global battle to adhere to the Kyoto Protocol.

Progress was made on a proposal that funds be raised through a tax on large financial transactions by banks in Europe (called the Robin Hood-tax) that could generate almost 60 billion euros annually.

The United States has backed away from its previous objection to the tax. South Africa, Brazil, Argentina and Ethiopia also swung their support behind the proposal, which is championed by France, Spain and Germany.

There is also growing support for a carbon charge on international shipping and aviation. The proposal could generate around $40 billion annually by 2020 and help to cut carbon emissions in the transport industry.

Up to 20 000 participants from 194 parties are expected to take part in the COP17 conference.

Hobbs said the cost of inaction on climate change would be far greater than those associated with hosting COP17.

“Progress would benefit South Africans and the entire African continent in particular, which is home to the most vulnerable people.

“A bad situation is set to get a lot worse if urgent action isn’t taken now to both slash carbon emissions and invest in the resilience of the poor people,” he said.