Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
09/07/12
ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT
International climate change negotiations hit a familiar snag this week as small developing nations sparred with large emitters for not having a strong enough commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. During the most recent round of U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change talks in Bangkok this week—meant as a preparatory session for a high-level ministerial summit in Doha, Qatar to be held later this year—the world’s 130 poorest nations looked to pressure richer countries to adopt legally-binding emissions reductions by threatening to cut off their access to cheap carbon credits via the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism. The move could make it more difficult for countries like Australia and Japan—which said they will not move forward with a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol—to reach their own domestic climate goals. Meanwhile, the United States and China said they would not sign any binding schemes to limit emissions that would kick in before 2020. Instead, both said they would focus on voluntary pledges made at the 2009 Copenhagen summit in the meantime.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton underscored the United States’ commitment to fighting climate change during a press conference in the Cook Islands late last week. “We stand behind our pledges in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to prompt substantial action to help vulnerable countries adapt,” Clinton said Aug 31. She acknowledged the “real threat” that small, low-lying island nations like the Cook Islands face from global warming and vowed to push U.S. leaders to do more. “We’re working continually to develop an international consensus on reducing green house gas emissions, and short lived climate pollutants initiative that I started a year ago. … But look, we know we have more to do, and we have made a commitment, we’re going to stick with our commitment. I hope that we’ll be able to go beyond those commitments in the future,” Clinton said.
