Monthly Archive: November 2012

L’Afrique cherche toujours sa solution pour faire face à un double défi : donner accès à l’énergie à l’ensemble de ses populations tout en anticipant la finitude des ressources fossiles et l’impact croissant des changements climatiques.

La pauvreté, insécurité et précarité énergétique qui caractérisent le continent conditionnent sa croissance et influencent son développement. La demande d’énergie en Afrique n’est pas satisfaite et freine le développement économique, la création d’entreprises et d’emploi, l’accès à l’éducation et aux systèmes de santé performants. Pire, une grande partie des communautés n’ont toujours pas accès à l’électricité pour leurs besoins vitaux. Peut être parce que dans les dernières décennies, les choix énergétiques sur le continent donnent la priorité aux énergies fossiles – charbon et pétrole – qui contribuent à dégrader l’environnement, à renforcer la pauvreté énergétique et ne permettent pas de faire face aux changements climatiques.

Pourtant les sources ne manquent pas sur le continent, et le potentiel est infini pour répondre aux besoins énergétiques de l’Afrique et même au-delà. C’est pour faire face à ce défi que les ONG se sont mobilisées à Rio+20 pour proposer des solutions: les énergies renouvelables et l’efficacité énergétique! Energie pour tous ou Energy for all, ce slogan devenu le credo de toutes les institutions trouvera-t-il exécuteur, dans un monde de plus en plus aveugle aux sources d’énergies les moins polluantes, les plus sobre en carbone mais entreprenant pour le gaz de schiste ?
... Read more ...

When $30 billion is not $30 billion – As many delegates will have imagined, ECO has had a close look at the delivery of Fast Start Finance as that period comes to a close this year. Apart from the fact that the large majority of finance is not new or additional, ECO also noted that countries pretty much made up their own rules in terms of what to include in their reporting. The US, for instance, included money for food security programmes as adaptation, and they also included export credit finance (which has an air of subsidies to US companies). Japan included billions of dollars in private finance towards their pledge. In a situation like this, ECO finds it really hard to meaningfully compare countries’ performance based on their reporting. ECO now understands how developing countries must feel in their search for trust (and money), which this process is both in such short supply of. As the finance period post-2012 is about to start, the finance fog needs to be cleared.

How to ensure $100 billion is indeed $100 billion – Luckily, ECO sees light at the end of the tunnel. Progress can be made on two fronts in Doha. On the one hand, the LCA could agree on what finance flows can be legitimately reported as support to action on mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.
... Read more ...

Today parties have their last and best chance to make progress on addressing emissions from
international shipping and aviation, already contributing to more than 5 percent of global emissions and
growing faster than any other sector. More than 15 years of negotiations in three UN bodies, including
the UNFCCC and the sectoral bodies IMO and ICAO, have produced very little, especially regarding
progress on market-based measures (MBMs) that can incentivise emissions reductions while generating
significant financing for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries, as well as for efficiency
measures within these sectors.

The principal stumbling block has been disagreement on how to reconcile the UNFCCC’s principles of
common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDRRC) with the principles
and approaches in the IMO and ICAO, based on global approaches with equivalent treatment on all
ships and aircraft, anywhere in the world. Technical work on exploring options for putting a price
on carbon in these sectors is well advanced, but lack of agreement on how to reconcile the different
principles is blocking progress.

Today the LCA spin-off group on sectoral approaches will consider text that addresses exactly this
issue, and one text option on the table could hold the key to breaking this long-standing deadlock.
... Read more ...

Do you remember last year? We do. ECO desperately hoped the hallway rumours of a Kyoto withdrawal weren’t true, but the second your Minister left the fine city of Durban, he confirmed your reckless abandonment of the only legally binding climate treaty we have. Little birds from around the world are telling ECO that this promise-breaking probably has something to do with those vast pits of tar sands you are so hooked on, the same ones that are undermining all of your domestic climate goals.

ECO knows you are still technically allowed in the Kyoto room, but please don’t touch that microphone. When you jumped ship on the first KP term as it hit the home stretch, you drowned what little credibility you had left. As a matter of principle you should sit silently in the back like the bad kid in the class who has been told to be quiet until they learn how to behave. There are well-intentioned Parties in the room that are trying to move forward to solve the climate crisis, so please just back off. You don’t want Kyoto and we suspect, as a result, it doesn’t want you.

Love(?),

ECO

Yesterday the halls of COP 18 in Doha were abuzz because of an announcement by the UAE during the meeting of the ADP. The Gulf state announced concrete actions it would be taking in order to do its part in reducing climate change.

The UAE announced that they will open a 100 megawatt (MW) plant this year using Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), while also preparing for another 100 MW using Photovoltaics (PV).

This is exciting news considering that the UAE belongs to a set of countries that have not historically been responsible for comparatively large total emissions. The Arab world in specific is currently only responsible for a fraction of total world emissions and is still flagged as a developing country region.

The UAE has already been one of the more active countries in the region in renewable energy. In recent years it has shown a drive to improve its infrastructure in many regards and the energy generation sector is no exception.

The examples to this are numerous, such as increased solar energy (including a solar roofing pilot program), and wind energy generation adapted to the weather of the region. Several mass transit projects, such as the Dubai and Abu Dhabi metros, and the countrywide rail system, are underway.
... Read more ...

The world is now watching whether the freshly re-elected Obama administration will take renewed interest in tackling climate change, and put some effort into bringing Congress along with him. This week he signed a bill from Congress aimed at blocking US airlines from complying with EU emissions regulations for flights into and out of the EU. The bill amounts to chest thumping as it provides no new authority to the Administration to take any meaningful steps. In fact, if they did anything with the law it would likely lead to a trade war, a taxpayer funded bailout, or a screeching halt to efforts to secure a global agreement. The EU created the regulations only after its efforts to pursue emissions in ICAO, the UN organization responsible for the aviation sector, came up against “15 years of intransigence and doublespeak,” as one informed observer put it.

But the signing of the bill could be water under the bridge if the US now throws its weight behind a strong agreement under ICAO to control emissions from the global aviation sector. There are some signs this could happen. The EU has agreed to suspend its regulations for one year, which should create a more constructive negotiating climate.
... Read more ...

The First Place Fossil is awarded to Canada, who has capped support rather than emissions.
Newsflash! This just in from the Canadian Environment Minister! Developing countries need to just take a deep breath and wait until we have an all-in global deal before they should expect any support from Canada to move towards a clean energy future through the Green Climate Fund. In talking to reporters yesterday, Canada’s environment minister took a moment to tell journalists that he would ‘make it clear’ at the meetings in Doha that developing countries shouldn’t expect more money towards climate financing from Canada, because after all, Doha “isn’t a pledging conference.”

Thanks for clearing that up, Minister! We are sure that that will do wonders for your stellar credibility and reputation at these talks. Thankfully the Minister IS coming to Doha with at least one commitment: Canada is still firmly committed that tar sands emissions will rise far beyond the 2 degree climate limit.

World to Canada: You are supposed to be ramping finance up and emissions down; not the other way around!”

The Second Place Fossil of the Day goes to New Zealand, again, because not only did Wellington deliberately decide not to put its target into the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, but today proposed that access to the CDM should be open to all and should not depend on whether a country is signing up to a second commitment period.
... Read more ...