Friday, December 11, 2015

Latest Draft Accord on Climate Talks Hints at More Than Political Gesture

Thursday night’s draft text of a new climate change accord skates on the edge of historical significance, and we won’t see the next version of it until Saturday.

The draft requires the following:
  • The countries would convene in 2019 to clearly demonstrate how they are faring in meeting those targets.
  • In 2020, countries would be required to meet and to submit new plans demonstrating how they’d ratchet up their emissions reductions plans by 2025.
  • They’d then have to reconvene every five years with fresh, tougher plans.
A Scheduling Victory for Some: The every-five-year schedule is a victory in the negotiations for the United States and for environmental advocates and vulnerable island countries like the Marshall Islands. Developing countries like India had been pushing to wait for the first meeting until 2030, and to require only 10-year commitments to ratcheting up...
 
The $100 Billion Option: The new draft also requires fairly robust actions on climate change finance. It would legally require developed countries to shell out money to help poor countries adapt to the “loss and damage” sustained by climate change, and help them transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. One option in the draft text would set $100 billion annually as a floor to be given from rich countries to poor countries to deal with climate change. 

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