GRAND CLIMATE DEAL COULD HAPPEN

Copenhagen climate signs positive: Australia, China
Reuters/David Fogarty, 15 April 2009 (Thomson Reuters Carbon Market Community)

"There are positive signs a climate summit in December will forge a broader pact between rich and poorer nations to fight global warming, a top Australian official and an influential Chinese expert said…But the "wasteful and luxurious" lifestyles of rich nations could yet alienate poorer nations, with developed countries like the United States and Australia needing to curb energy use and first set an example, China climate expert Pan Jiahua said.

"Australia's centre-left government…began sparring with key Green rivals over its plan to slash carbon emissions between 5 and 15 percent by 2020, with the Greens demanding much deeper cuts as the price of support in parliament…"

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"Delegates from nearly 200 countries are trying to agree by December in Copenhagen on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations' main weapon in fighting climate change.

"A key aim of the post-Kyoto deal is to find a formula that leads to big developing nations such as China and India to sign up to emissions curbs from 2013. China is the world's top greenhouse gas emitter after the United States. India is ranked fourth…[R]ecent U.N. climate talks in Bonn, Germany, broke up with little progress and fears of a widening split between developed and developing nations on a course forward, with poorer countries demanding more support. Kyoto only commits rich nations to emissions curbs up to 2012.

"Hopes among developing countries were dashed that the meeting would set a range of emissions reduction targets for industrialised nations as a whole. The Bonn talks are one of a number of rounds of negotiations this year…The final round in December, Pan said, would likely see a broad political agreement struck, but with little detail and leaving efforts to fight climate change to move forward in small, incremental steps lasting possibly for years…"

Will Australia's net capture greenhouse gases? (click to enlarge)

"Australia's senior climate negotiator Robert Owen-Jones said he was optimistic because the new Obama administration had helped re-energise talks ahead of Copenhagen…

"The meeting was clouded by evidence from three government climate scientists to a Senate panel that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's greenhouse emission cut targets would not have any impact, even if they passed parliament later this year…Wong, in a conciliatory offering ahead of meeting Greens Deputy Leader Christine Milne, said the government was flexible on its longer-term emissions reduction target of 60 percent by 2050 over 2000 levels…"