COP20—Lima Local weather Convention — World Points

by Anup Shah
This web page Created Saturday, January 24, 2015

This web page: https://www.globalissues.org/article/805/cop20-lima-climate-conference.
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On this web page:

Introduction
Assembly consequence
Mainstream media reporting
In context: frequent however differentiated duties
Extra data
Information tales from IPS

Introduction

December 1 – 14, 2014, Lima, Peru was the venue for the twentieth annual United Nations Local weather Change Convention, also referred to as the twentieth Convention of the Events — or COP 20.

The aim of this convention was to create a common settlement on local weather change motion and start the method of financing mitigation.

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Assembly consequence

The assembly ended with all nations agreeing to chop again greenhouse fuel emissions. Often known as the Lima Accord, this treaty will not be legally binding and international locations would not have to specify how a lot they’ll in the reduction of, as an alternative agreeing to report their plans again by March 2015.

Whereas for a lot of it seemed like a profitable consequence, others had been disenchanted, resembling poor international locations struggling to rebuild from present impacts of local weather change who had been alarmed on the disappearance of loss and harm commitments from the ultimate textual content which has been a part of the dialogue for years.

The worldwide local weather motion, 350.org, summarized the disappointments and hopeful points of the assembly consequence, noting

The brand new settlement doesn’t mirror the urgency of the local weather disaster
Some good agreements – however no measures to make sure implementation
Least developed and weak nations omitted within the chilly
Divestment (from fossil gas reliance) is extra essential than ever
World momentum for actual options is stronger than ever and can carry on going.

In making an attempt to place a optimistic spin on the general disappointment they felt, they concluded, In the long run, a world local weather treaty is only one instrument to fight local weather change. Actual change goes to proceed to return from the grassroots. The UN Local weather Talks proceed to be a spot the place the world’s international locations comes collectively to debate this disaster and persons are placing in huge efforts to verify Paris [the next global meeting] received’t be like Copenhagen which was stuffed with disappointments regardless of large guarantees.

Samantha Smith, Chief of WWF’s World Local weather and Vitality Initiative, was fairly scathing of the assembly consequence saying that political expediency received over scientific urgency. She additionally famous that Developed nation governments couldn’t even handle to clarify how they’ll ship the long-promised US$100 billion per 12 months in local weather finance by 2020. In a transfer that seemingly dismissed the plight of essentially the most weak international locations, they utterly eliminated any significant language about ‘loss and harm’.

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Mainstream media reporting

As with nearly each earlier assembly (with occasional exceptions), mainstream media reporting was very poor given the significance of this world difficulty. The place the assembly was reported it was usually in the direction of the tip, and simply sound chunk kind summaries saying all international locations agreed to emission cuts and that this was a serious enchancment.

Whereas the treaty continued to say it honors the long-standing frequent however differentiated duties the mainstream media reporting (as in most years) has sometimes failed to offer clarification and context of this precept that has been an essential a part of these talks for over 2 many years; that poor and growing international locations shouldn’t bear the identical duties because the developed ones (as a result of they don’t seem to be the reason for the anthropogenic carbon emissions over the earlier many years which have led to this, which is detailed rather more on this website’s web page on local weather justice).

A touch in the direction of this precept could have been introduced as a viewpoint of China or India, given the impression they’re being obstacles, somewhat then explaining this precept in additional context.

That was simply one of many points skirted over or omitted from frequent reporting. Others included points on financing, know-how help for poorer nations, and many others. Behind the scenes, for many years, wealthy international locations have stalled on these items or actively averted making an attempt to share know-how and many others, which is barely reported.

Yearly, this criticism is fabricated from mainstream reporting, so with out following these negotiations annually, it may be straightforward to return away with the impression that this assembly had a optimistic consequence.

However as this dialogue hosted by Democracy Now! reveals, there have been quite a lot of essential problems with rivalry:

Emissions-Reducing Deal Reached at COP 20 Lima, However Will It Assist Stop Catastrophic Local weather Change?, Democracy Now!, December 15, 2014.

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In context: frequent however differentiated duties

A few years in the past all nations agreed that local weather change was largely the results of actions from right this moment’s industrialized nations, as carbon dioxide — the primary greenhouse fuel — stays within the ambiance for many years. But, the poorest would find yourself struggling essentially the most for an issue they largely didn’t trigger. The approaches to mitigation (emissions discount) would due to this fact be completely different for these teams of nations — the frequent however differentiated duties precept.

It’s on this context that the dialogue for loss and harm has come about. And it’s one thing that wealthy international locations are eager to eliminate .

The years of resistance on this difficulty (and plenty of others) means every time it’s mentioned once more the reactions appear to get much more hostile. Mixed with the dearth of detailed context within the mainstream media protection of this side, it then turns into simpler every time to see culprits as China and India given their huge greenhouse emissions lately, in comparison with the far higher quantity by the industrialized nations over the longer interval. See this website’s part on local weather justice for extra detailed background.

And as this website has mentioned for years on the local weather justice web page, the wealthy nations are delaying any significant motion till it’s finally — and disproportionately — paid for the by the growing nations. New Delhi primarily based Nitin Sethi, affiliate editor at Enterprise Normal, interviewed within the earlier talked about video says the identical factor, however extra frankly:

There isn’t a motion that’s going to occur between now and 2020. All of that was to be completed by the developed international locations. They [rich nations] mainly have simply mentioned at Lima that we’re not going to do any greater than what we’re doing to this point, and the burden can shift onto the post-2020 period, the place different growing international locations need to share it. So, to me, it signifies actually negotiation in unhealthy religion.

Nitin Sethi, Emissions-Reducing Deal Reached at COP 20 Lima, However Will It Assist Stop Catastrophic Local weather Change?, Democracy Now!, December 15, 2014

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