Climate talks seek equal commitment from developed and developing nations
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COMMENTS 
At the UN climate summit in Cancun an OECD survey revealed that the US will need to deviate from business-as-usual by only 3.5% to achieve its emission-reduction targets, while India will be required to deviate by at least 36%
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Despatches from Cancun, Mexico, November 29, 2010: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), comprising the world’s richest countries, has called for a high level of international cooperation to tackle climate change. Its document, made available at the UN climate summit which began in Cancun, Mexico, on November 29 says: “Broad-based participation is needed, involving not only developed, but also developing nations.”
Its analysis shows that the emission targets pledged by a wide range of countries at the so-called Copenhagen accord, which some 130 countries, ranging from the world’s second biggest greenhouse gas emitter, the US, to the tiny island of Maldives, “are not ambitious enough to put us on a pathway to limit average global temperature rise to 2 degrees C.”
By “translation” of pledged targets and actions, the survey simulates two scenarios: one which is “low and fragmented” and the other “high and linked”, the latter referring to the assumption that industrial countries will harmonise their carbon markets to permit carbon trading.
In these simulation exercises, the US, with its declared country targets – to reduce emissions by 17% below 1990 levels by 2020 -- and actions (both of which will not be approved of in the near future by a Republican-led Congress) will deviate from business as usual by only 3.5% in either low or high scenario.
India, which has promised to reduce its carbon intensity by between 20 and 25% from 2005 (a difficult target), will deviate by as much as 45% in the low scenario and 36% in the high scenario.
“While it is promising that many countries are willing to commit to ambitious mitigation action, the pledged targets and actions as submitted to the Copenhagen accord are insufficient when compared to the emission reductions suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to keep global temperature change limited to 2 degrees C,” the survey states.
However, it points out that while the costs of taking measures are not cheap, they are substantially lower than most estimates of the costs of inaction. “Ambitious global action to mitigate greenhouse gases is thus not only necessary, but also economically rational,” the OECD concludes. “These are an essential part of a broader green growth strategy that aims at a strong, fair and clean green economy.”
The UN climate talks in Cancun have none of the histrionics which marked Copenhagen a year ago. The talks are hoping for a "balanced package" of commitments for industrial and developing countries alike.
Before the meet began Dr Saleemul Huq of the International Institute of Environment and Development, London, said that there are two broad camps at the climate talks: the absolutist camp which calls for one big package and nothing else, and the incrementalist camp which is more pragmatic. The possible achievements of the present talks, according to Huq, could be that funds are made available by industrial countries for developing countries to help them mitigate the impact of climate change, reduce deforestation and facilitate transfer of environment-friendly technologies.
Huq pointed out that in the transfer of funds to developing nations “the paradigm was that of charity”. Only a few Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands had kept the two-decade-old promise of providing 0.7% of their GDP as aid, he said. “Climate change is not a matter of disbursing funds to anyone the giver decides, but should adhere to the ‘polluter pays’ principle. It is compensation to the victims, not aid.”
Infochange News & Features, November 2010