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22 Oct 2013
por
davidthorpe
IMSD /
¡Hola mundo!
Te damos la bienvenida a Blogs EOI. Este es tu primer artículo. Edítalo o bórralo… ¡y comienza a publicar!
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22 Oct 2013
por
anamariarocha
IMSD /
Warsaw Climate Change Conference… a total failure or a chance for progress?
To be able to answer that we need to think on what was meant to be resolved in the 19th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) held in Poland from November 11th to 22nd. If we look at the bigger picture, the purpose was to keep building a path, that started in Durban in 2011, to reach a new Universal Climate Agreement in 2015. Even though the debates and negotiations concluded 27 hours after scheduled, we can say that this was achieved.
Nevertheless, when we look into the details we may find a different scenario. Besides making decisions about the steps to the next Summit in Paris (2015), two other important things were in the agenda: the developing of a loss and damage mechanism and clarity on climate finance. The first issue was one of the most controversial ones because it refers to the way a country can deal with the impact after it happens. In both cases the parties reached a minimal agreement, affecting once again the confidence that needs to be built between developed and developing countries.
Many people have critized this Conference as a complete failure, and probably their opinion is related to the fact that the Kyoto Protocol (the first agreement) was adopted in 1997 and entered into force in 2005, however the parties didn’t act according to it and here we are again trying to make a new agreement while countries like the Phillipines is struggling with the damages caused by typhoon haiyan on previous days. Naderev Saño, Climate Commissioner from the Phillipines, went on a hunger strike to demand a meaningful outcome of a loss and damage mechanism. Japan declaring a lowering in their emissions goal, Australia repealing the nation’s carbon tax and 800 environmentalists walking out of the Summit are some of the setbacks that ocurred in those two weeks.
I think the main concern is how are we going to deal with the climate change issues while we built our way to a new agreement that will achieve its goal by 2020. Will it be too little too late? The physical reality demands inmediate actions, but with 195 parties and over 8,300 participants the challenge to reach a consensus is big. The tension between developed and developing countries is increasing, developing countries want the developed nations to recognize the damage done during the industrial revolution, and even though they are willing to provide financial aid they are not taking responsability for the long term damages such as the rise of sea level.
Wether they recognize it or not the damage is already done, and there is a new concern about the big developing countries that are growing fast like China, India and Brazil. China can reach the same level of accumulated emissions as the United States, the country with the highest emissions in the world. So it’s not about just looking into the past or towards the future to find who is guilty, it’s about being able to find solutions on time and commiting to them as a globalized world, individual excuses will not save us from catastrophes. The best way to move forward is to learn from our mistakes; we have already tried with regulations, cap and trade system and taxes. Now we know the advantages and disadvantages of each one and it gives us the opportunity to make adjustments to make it work, we also have succesful cases like the German tax reform that we can use as a reference.
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22 Oct 2013
por
yvonneroca
IMSD /
¡Hola mundo!
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22 Oct 2013
por
guidopreti
IMSD /
¡Hola mundo!
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22 Oct 2013
por
Jacob Jon Pallone
IMSD /
REDD+: Challenges of the Main Outcome of COP 19
The Warsaw Climate Change Conference 2013 (COP 19) raised a big debate about governments´ real commitment to sustainable development and tackling climate change. Thirteen of the most influential organizations from the civil society withdrew the Conference one day before it was over, as a way of protesting for this governments´ lack of action towards solving climate change issues.
Nevertheless, according to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Conference ended “successfully”. UN presents as one of the key goals achieved, the agreement for The Warsaw Framework for REDD+ as a way to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation of forests (…) backed by pledges of 280 million dollars financing from the US, Norway and the UK.”
At first sight, this outcome seems really positive, and it is compared to no agreement at all. But, did this agreement meet the expectations that were set? Is this a long-term solution for climate change?
REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and it is considered a mitigation solution because forests´ contribution to preventing climate change is by “cleaning” the air in opposite of reducing emission production. Reading this definition can lead us to make a quick assumption: that only agreeing in mitigation solutions is tackling one part of the problem and that countries should commit to reducing their emissions as well. But rather than making quick assumptions let´s try and analyze if the decisions made are really helpful for REDD+ projects as a climate change solution.
REDD+ programs are about working with local communities that live in forests and use forests as a source of living, so they chose conserving the forest rather than degrading it. This can be achieved if the “(…) compensation they receive is higher than what they would obtain from alternative forests uses”, and giving this compensation is REDD+´s aim. Funding for this kind of compensation can come from non-market sources (such as international aid) or market sources. Following different monitoring, evaluation and verification technical methods, REDD+ projects can deliver forest carbon credits that could be purchased in the carbon credit market.
REDD+ was launched in Bali 2007 and since then there have been developed several experiences, mainly pilot ones, which have been successful in these first phases, regardless the challenges they still have to overcome. But, as Anelsen expresses in the book “Annalysing REDD+”, “we probably need another 3–5 years before we can really know if REDD+ works”. That COP19 has agreed in keep on funding REDD+ initiatives its good news, because it means that projects that have recently started and are still in a consolidating phase will have more time for this process to go on. And that the effort and resources invested by governments, private sectors and communities haven´t been in vain. But going back to our first question… is it enough?
The failure or success of REDD+ as being a mechanism to reduce climate change not only depends on the funding COP 19 can provide. It also depends on the demand of REDD+ credits in the carbon credit market. There is a potential REDD+ projects aim to deliver carbon credits for this market, and this will give sustainability to de projects creating, in the long run, less dependency on funding by aid agencies or international organizations´ funds. Possible buyers for these credits could be on the private sector in the voluntary market or governments that haven´t reached their emission goals.
According to the NGO Conservation International in its paper “REDD+ Market: Sending Out an SOS”, “project level activities for REDD+ have evolved rapidly over the past decade from a small number of pilots to a significant number of high quality and standardised activities delivering emission reductions and multiple environmental and social benefits. The speed of their success has, however, not been matched by the development of international and regional markets towards which they had aimed.” And as they claim, this will be worst in 20 years if something isn´t done, and prices will be so depreciated that communities won´t have more motivation for being part of REDD+ projects. Two possible reasons in why the demand hasn’t been growing are the lack of trust in the REDD+ mechanism and little incentives for purchasing credits.
The first reason mentioned, lack of trust, might seem to have been approached by COP 19. By delivering the Warsaw Framework for REDD+ we could say some progress has been made in building trust around REDD+ carbon credits. On the contrary, regarding incentives not much was accomplished. Incentives could have been created for companies and governments if countries would have agreed in emission targets and caps[1]. This definition would have a real effect in the demand of carbon credits, but no nation set or deepened their targets, even worst Japan scaled down its 2020 goal.
The 280 million dollar funding that will be oriented to REDD+ will keep projects ongoing, but won´t be helpful in encouraging the demand for carbon credits to grow. Without incentives for the demand carbon credit prices are still going down. Explained better by Reuters journalist Susanna Twidale “Investment under the U.N.’s $315 billion Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has ground to a halt as the value of the credits they generate has plunged 95 percent in five years to around 0.30 euros, crushing profits that investors count on to set up carbon-cutting schemes in the developing world.”
After looking more deeply into the most successful outcome of COP 19 we reach to the conclusion that countries have to agree in targets. This not only will encourage reduction of emissions from pollution, but will also create real incentives for mitigation processes. So, even if the international decision is to focus only in mitigation processes, as in Warsaw, commitments in emission targets should be made if we want long term solution that don´t depend only in aid and non-market funding.
Sources:
“Analysing REDD+: challenges and choices, Center for International Forestry Research”, CIFOR – Bogor, Indonesia. http://www.cifor.org/online-library/browse/view-publication/publication/3805.html
“Acuerdo descafeinado en la Cumbre del Clima de Varsovia”, El Mundo. http://www.elmundo.es/ciencia/2013/11/23/5290e99563fd3de35a8b4574.html
“Civil Society Groups Walk Out of Climate Talks in Protest”, Environment News Service.http://ens-newswire.com/2013/11/21/civil-society-groups-walk-out-of-un-climate-talks-in-protest/
“NGO´s and Social Movements Walk Out of Warsaw”, WWF. http://wwf.panda.org/?212532/NGOs-Social-Movements-Walk-Out-Of-Warsaw-Talks
“REDD+ Market: Sending Out an SOS”, Conservation International. http://www.conservation.org/global/carbon_fund/Documents/REDD+Market-SOS.pdf
“The Warsaw Framework for REDD Plus: The Decision on Red Finance.”, REDD Monitor. http://www.redd-monitor.org/2013/11/29/the-warsaw-framework-for-redd-plus-the-decision-on-redd-finance/
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. http://unfccc.int/meetings/warsaw_nov_2013/meeting/7649.php
“U.N. carbon offset market seen ‘in a coma’ for years after Warsaw”, Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/29/us-un-carbon-idUSBRE9AS0H520131129
UN REDD+. http://www.un-redd.org/
[1] Caps are maximum amounts of CO2 emissions per country.
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22 Oct 2013
por
celinalesta
IMSD /
¡Hola mundo!
Te damos la bienvenida a Blogs EOI. Este es tu primer artículo. Edítalo o bórralo… ¡y comienza a publicar!
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22 Oct 2013
por
mariagutierrez
IMSD /
¡Hola mundo!
Te damos la bienvenida a Blogs EOI. Este es tu primer artículo. Edítalo o bórralo… ¡y comienza a publicar!
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22 Oct 2013
por
sofiagarcia-carretero
IMSD /
¡Hola mundo!
Te damos la bienvenida a Blogs EOI. Este es tu primer artículo. Edítalo o bórralo… ¡y comienza a publicar!
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22 Oct 2013
por
marioescamilla
Uncategorized /
Rima El Khoury 2013-10-22 16:25:56
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22 Oct 2013
por
rimaelkhoury
IMSD /
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