Today, on January 31, world nations are submitting their proposals on global climate to the UN under the Copenhagen Accord reached last December.
The Climate Conference in Copenhagen was originally aimed at signing a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) which are believed to cause global warming. The new deal would have replaced the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. But two weeks were not enough for 190 nations to agree on the issue. There is too much discord between developed and developing countries. Heads of states left the Danish capital without achieving a compromise but promised to submit their climate targets by January 31st. Alexei Kokorin, the head of WWF Russia's climate program, comments...
"It was decided that those willing to join the Copenhagen accord should inform the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat and specify their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Developing nations were allowed to submit their proposals on voluntary basis".
Mr. Kokorin added that such proposals are expected at the UN from all major GHG emitters. Brazil, South Africa, India and China are going to submit a collective bid. Cuba was the only country to reject its participation in the Copenhagen Accord, which actually does not make a big deal.
What is important about such kind of accords is that they focus not on commitments but on intentions. It means that the countries are most likely to decide on their own on GHG reduction plans. For example, Australia says by the year 2020 it is ready to reduce its CO2 emissions by 5- 25% from the 1990 level. Speaking at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen, President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev said his country would be able to reduce its GHG emissions by 25% from the 1990 level, though the official proposal addressing the UN climate watchdog will read 15-25%. Russia is not going to ignore the problem of global warming-despite an unusually cold winter this season, Mr. Kokorin says...
"Though this winter has already been registered as unusually cold in the European part of Russia, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased in January. Temperature is only a symptom. I`d rather prefer to talk about ‘climate change' than ‘warming', because in view of the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air we are witnessing more and more natural disasters".
Meanwhile, world nations are making another effort to reach a new climate deal. Next UN Climate Change Conference is scheduled for December in Mexico.
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