The next round of United Nations climate negotiations is gearing up to take place starting next week in Doha Qatar, where countries will look to both China and the United States to see whether domestic political events will provide any momentum for the stalling talks. However, because of the proximity of the U.S. Presidential Election and the start of China’s once-in-a-decade leadership transition that will culminate in March, it is not expected that the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) will be bringing too much by way of game-changing developments to Doha. Instead, we can expect most of the discussions in Doha to focus on securing final details for a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, primarily for the E.U. and now Australia, as well as starting to formulate language for a new deal that will be decided by 2015.
This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.
By Angel Hsu, Jonathan Smith, and Max Song
The idea of a total cap on energy consumption in China, first suggested last March before the National People’s Congress has reemerged in Durban, and surprisingly there are now suggestions that China might consider some kind of a cap on carbon emissions. This has been suggested apparently as part of domestic policy rather than as a negotiating position, but details are very sketchy.
Over the last week, we have been witnessing an active debate amongst Chinese academics and researchers on energy and carbon caps, although these discussions have taken place separately, from outside the plenary floor and in the multitude of side events the Chinese delegation has been hosting. Chinese…
China’s Vice Minister for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua launches the China Pavilion alongside UNFCCC Secretariat Cristiana Figueres.
This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.
When China launched its first official pavilion at a UN climate conference on Sunday, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat Cristiana Figueres was there alongside China’s NDRC Vice Minister Xie Zhenhua to cut the ribbon. Swarmed by journalists in the standing-room only conference center of the China pavilion in Durban, Figueres applauded China for being a “trend-setter” in global renewable energy, resonating around the world and during the first week of climate negotiations in Durban.
“As I look at what has happened here at Durban in the negotiations this past week, what I see is a sailboat that has been…
This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.
By Angel Hsu, Max Song, and Jonathan Smith
Interview with China energy expert Jiang Kejun, Energy Research Institute, NDRC
As the first week of the UN climate negotiations in Durban are underway, one of the most persistent themes has been how to bridge gaps – the divide between the developed and developing countries, many of whom disagree about whether the Kyoto Protocol should be extended into a second commitment period; the hole in climate finance pledges from developed countries; and the ambition or emissions gap between the Copenhagen pledges and the stabilization of global temperatures below a 2 degrees Celsius increase from pre-industrial levels.
These three major gaps must be addressed in Durban. One major question
This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs and WRI Insights.
By Deborah Seligsohn and Angel Hsu
As negotiators head to Durban, South Africa for the next round of the UNFCCC climate negotiations, China can point to significant progress in domestic climate policy since the Cancun negotiations a year ago. March, 2011 saw the adoption of China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, binding domestically China’s first phase of its Copenhagen and Cancun commitments to reduce its carbon intensity 40 to 45 percent by 2020. In this first year of the new Five Year Plan, China also adopted a number of specific climate-related implementation measures (For a more exhaustive list, see China’s just published White Paper on its climate change activities).
By Angel Hsu and Yupu Zhao
This article was originally featured in China Dialogue.
Last month’s UN-led climate talks in Cancún, Mexico,were largely touted as a success, as countries reached near consensus on critical issues such as technology transfer and the creation of a new Green Climate Fund to help developing countries adapt to global warming. The standing ovation for the Mexican hosts that erupted in the summit’s final plenary session came in stark contrast to the conclusion of last year’s Copenhagen talks, which ended behind doors, closed to civil-society observers.
Another marked change in Cancún was China’s tone and communication strategy, following heavy criticismat, and after, Copenhagen.
Whether the finger-pointing was valid or not, Copenhagen was…
This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.
By Angel Hsu, Phd candidate and YCEI Fellow, and Yupu Zhao, MESC ’12
In the politics of climate negotiations, which are often steeped in nuance and careful posturing, it’s easy to get lost in translation. On the ground in Cancun, reports have been flying about China’s so-called “game-changing” concessions, which could possibly “buoy” the climate Talks, which are quickly nearing an end. As we’re both on the ground in Cancun, we’re going to try to clear the air and get to the bottom of what exactly the Chinese have and haven’t said in the climate negotiations.
Binding commitments?
The first “game-changing” issue regards the legal nature…
By Angel Hsu, Phd candidate and Yale Climate and Energy Institute Fellow
“China is still very hurt from last year’s Copenhagen talks,” the lead of the Chinese youth delegation, Lina Li, told me yesterday on one of the many buses shuttling this year’s participants at the UN Climate Summit in Cancun. Her statement was in reaction to what she felt were unfair media accounts placing blame on China, which – as a developing country – she and many Chinese feel have already shouldered more than its share of the global burden to address climate change.
President Nasheed, seated in the center
“There is nothing wrong with being helped to go on living. And that is what this[climate change] issue is all about,” stated a senior official from the Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia. I am at a ministerial gathering of 28 nations of the Cartagena Group/Dialogue for Progressive Action convening in the beautiful island of Bandos in the Republic of Maldives. The participants are from Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Malawi, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Samoa, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Uruguay, UK and the European Commission. The Cartagena Group/Dialogue is an informal space, open to all countries that…
by Marian Ahn Thorpe
A fluffy halo for Tuvalu Image Source: Avaaz.org
Tuvalu’s surprise efforts to open a discussion of their proposed amendment to the Kyoto Protocol (see earlier posts here and here), and the subsequent suspension of negotiations this past Wednesday, continued to generate buzz today at COP as the country parties, NGOs, and the media attempted to gauge the possible fallout. Environmental NGOs were crowing with praise: Climate Action Network and Avaaz.org awarded Tuvalu a “Ray of the Day” award for taking a firm stand for stringent, legally binding commitments. The media have been reaching for all possible witticisms alluding to the country’s minute size and…
