Green coalition calls for deeper study of Copenhagen climate accord

MANILA, Philippines—A coalition of environmental groups has called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to conduct a thorough review of the Copenhagen Accord, a widely criticized agreement crafted on the final day of the climate talks as the meeting faced collapse in December.

The CSO Working Group on Climate Change and Development, a coalition of over 30 organizations working on climate change-related issues, said the Philippines should not be compelled into signing the accord without thoroughly studying its implications on the country’s climate survival and overall economic development.

The Copenhagen Accord, a non-binding document crafted on December 18 by a small group of countries including the BASIC nations, set a broad goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) but did not specify the staging points for achieving this goal or a year by which greenhouse gas emissions should peak.

Instead, countries are being urged to identify what actions they intend to take, either as binding curbs on emissions or voluntary action. A total of $30 billion was pledged from 2010-2012 to help poor countries in the firing line of climate change, and rich nations sketched a target of providing $100 billion annually by 2020.

Green activists and campaign groups slammed the deal for falling far below what scientists are claiming is needed to spear the threat from climate change.

Some singled it out as a backroom deal by the big players that usurped the consensus-driven UN approach.

“An ambiguous, non-legally binding deal forged by only 26 nations led by President Barack Obama and orchestrated by Danish Premier Rasmussen cannot be a substitute for the legally-binding Kyoto Protocol, which was crafted and agreed by all Parties under a transparent process, and which binds developed countries to cut their GHG emissions and pay for their historical culpability in polluting the atmospheric space,” said Chito Tionko of the CSO-WG.

Many emerging nations say they will not allow emissions targets to be imposed at the cost of economic development.

“It is the US, the EU and other developed countries that should change their production and consumption patterns and cut their greenhouse gas emissions drastically now in order for the earth to have a chance to recover,” Tionko said.

Countries have been given until the end of January to sign the accord, which will take effect when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The CSO WG urged Arroyo through the Climate Change Commission (CCC) to immediately conduct a broad consultation with various sectors to look into the implications of translating into concrete actions Manila’s emission reduction target of five percent annually from 1990 level by 2012 and the 20 percent deviation from BAU.

At the same time, it called on the CCC to initiate discussions among different sectors on the various ramifications of the accord.

The group also urged the presidential candidates to join in the climate debate, focusing on the accord’s long term and short term effects.

CSO-WG coordinator Rowena Bolinas said promised climate aid is “largely uncertain and the accord is devoid of specifics as to its source, provision and governance.”

“The total amount of the non-binding pledges made so far falls short by $2 billion per year,” Bolinas said, adding that “most of Japan’s funding is in the form of loans, while much of the EU money has simply been re-pledged and little is committed over and above the 0.7 percent of GNP aid target promised since 1972,” Bolinas said.

“The funds promised by the US, on the other hand, are subject to congressional approval which is highly uncertain in view of the current debate among US legislators,” she said.

“In our view, this is an alarming indication of the type of financial support poor nations will be receiving as payment of the climate debt of developed countries—redirected development aid, more loans earmarked for private sector investment, and not the much needed adaptation funds for communities suffering the brunt of climate change impacts.” With Agence France-Presse