A longtime rural resident, I use my 60 plus years of life learning to opinionate here and elsewhere on the “interweb” on everything from politics to environmental issues. A believer in reasonable discourse rather than unhelpful attacks I try to give positive input to the blogesphere, so feel free to comment upon rural issues or anything else posted here. But don’t be surprised if you comments get zapped if you are not polite in your replys.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Climate Change Deal Reached?

Governments today reached an historic deal on climate change that commits all major economies to greenhouse gas cuts. The deal, brokered at international talks in CancĂșn, has been hailed as restoring faith in the multilateral UN process but will not reduce temperatures as much as scientists say is needed, and it pushes many of the most important decisions to future negotiations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... ummit-deal

And from E May
It has left me pinching myself. It is all beyond what I had hoped for.... It is not over yet. So fingers crossed...

But the texts I am reading are on BOTH the Kyoto Protocol (KP) and Long-term Cooperative Action (LCA under the FCCC). They are both free of square brackets which means the parties have agreed.
The KP text recognizes industrialized countries need to reduce emissions 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020. It also sets out that a second commitment period under KP should use 1990 as a base year. It also recognizes the need to "raise the level of ambition of emission reductions" from industrialized countries.
The LCA text calls for no higher than 2 degrees, and that there is a need to consider keeping below 1.5 degrees. It calls for a "paradigm shift towards building a low-carbon society...". It also establishes a Cancun Adaptation Framework.
http://greenparty.ca/blogs/7/2010-12-10 ... rty-update

No comments: