From 30 November to 12 December 2015, Parties to the UNFCCC met in Paris to negotiate a new global climate treaty.
The Paris Agreement was a remarkable outcome, especially after the failures of Copenhagen. Almost all involved, including Carbon Market Watch, seemed surprised at how positive the outcome was. However, expectations had been carefully managed in the preceding years, so that aspirations of environmentalists to have a treaty that reflected the scientific reality by dividing up the remaining global carbon budget, had been downplayed into unreality.
Scroll down for French and Spanish Future of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) post 2020 is still unclear. This article shows how they could greatly contribute to support the mitigation and development objectives of developing countries, including by helping to design and implement Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). In Paris, countries are to adopt an …
Read more “WATCH THIS! NGO Newsletter #13: How NAMAs CAN add fuel to INDCs”
Only very few countries have outlined in their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) that they will use international trading as a means to help achieve their climate goals. However, despite the limited role of markets expressed by most industrialised countries in their INDCs, such as the EU and the US, the political reality regarding domestic carbon pricing schemes looks different: jurisdictions responsible for 40% of the global economy have already implemented carbon pricing mechanisms.
25 September 2015. Today, in a significant move, US and China launched a common vision for Paris, including a new climate finance commitment by China of $3.1 billion to the Green Climate Fund. At the same time, the UN adopted a universal Sustainable Development Agenda to address poverty, need for development and environmental protection. The announcement combined with the new goals give new momentum for the Paris climate conference to better integrate sustainable development objectives.
China has announced its Intended Nationally-Determined Contribution (INDC) to the global climate effort, meaning that the three largest emitters – the US, EU and China – have now put their opening bids on the table in advance of the Paris climate talks in December. While it is good that more countries have submitted INDCs, the …
Read more “China and others announce INDCs more Parties must follow suit”
As the deadline for industrialised countries to submit their international climate pledges for the future climate treaty has passed, only seven countries have submitted their climate plans. While numerous high emitting countries, such as Canada, Australia, Japan and New Zealand failed to make submissions, Mexico was the first developing country to commit to climate action as part of the of the Paris agreement.
Brussels, 6 March 2015. Today, EU’s environment ministers presented the EU’s contribution to the international climate agreement to be finalized in Paris by the end of the year. Carbon Market Watch criticises the official contribution for the lack of detail and calls on ministers to specify measures that avoid that hot air and emission removals from forests undermine the 40% domestic emissions reduction target.
Tomorrow, the EU is expected to announce its climate contributions towards the Paris climate agreement. The expected decision will build on the European Commission’s Road to Paris vision published last week. Hopes are that Ministers take their chances to address a number of critical issues that risk severely undermining the 40% domestic reduction target. They include a clear commitment to increase the 40% target in case of linking the EU’s emissions trading system (EU ETS) with other carbon markets, the way land use emissions are accounted for and the threat the existing surplus of emission allowances pose on the 2030 climate target.
Last week, Switzerland was the first country to officially submit its climate commitment ahead of the international climate agreement to be finalized in Paris at the end of this year. Switzerland announced a 50% emission reduction target by 2030, of which at least 30% must be achieved in Switzerland itself. The remaining up to 20% should be attained through purchasing carbon credits with “high environmental standards” applying a negative list and excluding projects that violate human rights but no criteria are proposed to assess the environmental integrity of ETS allowances.
The EU is expected to sign-off on its official international climate pledge – the so called Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), with an announcement on 6 March at the next meeting of the EU’s Environment Ministers. This announcement will make the EU the first region to flesh out its pledge following the Lima UNFCCC meeting. …
Read more “Media Advisory: Announcement of EU climate pledge for UN climate deal may undermine 40% domestic climate target by 5%”
