Climate Roadmap Proposal for UN Deal by 2015 Proposed by EU Climate Diplomat To Replace Kyoto Protocol Which Expires in 2012
A climate roadmap has been proposed by the European Union’s top climate diplomat on Nov 5, 2011 for the European Union which could lead to a comprehensive deal by the year 2015 has been well received. Currently, negotiations being conducted under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have had little success ever since the Copenhagen Summit in December of 2009. The latest set of talks are scheduled from November 28 to December 9, 2011 in Durban, South Africa.
Illustration of the potentials of Climate Change
According to Connie Hedegaard, the European Climate commissioner, “I have had very positive signals about the EU proposal for a roadmap, as the idea would give countries more time, namely until 2015 to comply with international climate protection obligations and to introduce the corresponding monitoring.” Hedegaard stated that the new climate roadmap ought to be “binding” with it’s goal to encompass 80% to 85% of greenhouse gas emissions which are man-made, while the current Kyoto Protocol only encompasses roughly 33% in comparison.
Kyoto and Beyond
For the upcoming talks in Durban, South Africa scheduled for later this month, she stated “We will insist that without binding commitments there can be no successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.” Currently, it only covers 37 rich nations. The US initially signed the Protocol in November 1998 under President Clinton, but President George W. Bush later opposed it in 2001 and overturned Clinton’s signature and opted out of the Kyoto Protocol, reversing his election pledge to treat CO2 as a pollutant and revert back to actions that were driven solely by domestic economic concerns. These actions promoted by commercialism and greed have overcome all common sense and thought for the welfare of future generations. The failure of keeping the Kyoto Protocol ratification created hatred not only of the Bush administration, but of American commercialism in general.
CO2 illustration and the relationship to global warming
China was excluded from the protocol due to it’s classification as a developing nation. More recently, Japan, Canada, and Russia have refused to continue on with Kyoto and claim that any future accords must include ALL major economies including China, which in turn wants binding action from the wealthy nations. On Thursday, November 3, 2011 small island nations that are faced with rising seas slammed suggestions by both Russia and Japan that a 2015 target for the climate roadmap global agreement was unrealistic, with Moscow claiming that 2018 or maybe even later was a more credible target date. Moscow might be saying that 2018 may be more acceptable rather than credible, however, the world will never know.
Resources: Yahoo News
Well, one thing is for certain, if the Climate Roadmap Proposal for UN Deal by 2015 Proposed by EU Climate Diplomat isn’t a success, it may be too late to minimize the dangers of climate change on our planet, if it is not too late already. Peace my friends!
