A call to action
- By Yu Shujun
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E-mail Beijing Review, December 3, 2012
High expectations
The relentless amount of carbon emissions released by developed countries in their industrialization process over the past 200 years have raised the density of greenhouse gases, which is the main cause of climate change. Thus, they should shoulder major responsibilities, Su said.
"While sustainable development and poverty eradication remain urgent challenges and overriding priorities in our developing countries, we are already taking ambitious actions to reduce emissions," said Su when delivering the Statement by China on behalf of Brazil, India, South Africa and China at the opening plenary of the COP18. "As affirmed by many academic reports of highly reputed international organizations, our mitigation contribution is much greater than that by developed country parties."
"Developing countries continue to do their part through all means available to them, but more could be done through the facilitation of appropriate technology, capacity building and financing," said the statement by Venezuela on behalf of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America. "Developed countries have to be more ambitious, not less."
If a group of Annex I Parties to the UNFCCC (mostly developed countries) can lead with a level of ambition that is consistent with what the best available science requires, this will inspire others to do the same, according to the statement delivered by Nauru on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States.
The African Group said in its statement that it would like to have a decision on how to handle finance in the period between 2012 and 2020.
In its statement on behalf of the least developed countries, Gambia also hopes that a decision can be made in Doha to annually scale up developed countries' public finance contributions from US$30 billion to a minimum of US$100 billion per year from 2013 to 2020.
Although the lingering debt crisis has affected financial support from developed countries, "the key issue lies with their sincerity and understanding of their responsibilities," Su told the media.
China's Expectations
The Doha Climate Change Conference should yield results in the following four areas:
- Making definite arrangements for the implementation and enforcement of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and ensuring that the second commitment period is implemented in a timely fashion on January 1, 2013. This will be the most important outcome of the Doha Climate Change Conference
- Making further substantial progress on the issues of concern to all developing countries, such as mitigation, adaptation, funding, technology transfer and capacity building. Developed countries, in particular, should fulfill their promises to reduce emissions and provide support in terms of funding, technology transfer and capacity building, and ensure that the alreadyestablished mechanisms and institutions start substantial work and play a substantial role in offering support to developing countries in coping with climate change
- Making proper follow-up arrangements for issues left unsettled in the Bali Action Plan, such as fairness, trade and intellectual property rights, in order to successfully complete talks on the Bali Action Plan
- Fully exchanging views on issues relating to the continued enforcement of the UNFCCC after 2020 and align the process of the Durban Platform negotiations with the Bali Road Map negotiations in order to lay a solid foundation for further negotiations
(Source: China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change 2012)
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