Emissions cuts hinge on money
Written by Writer on Thursday, November 13th, 2008
Emissions cuts hinge on money
Hiroko Kono and Takeshi Kosaka / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
This is the second and final installment of a two-part series on CO2 emission control.
Negotiations with the participation of the United States and China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, will start only after the new U.S. administration of President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January and decides its policy to tackle global warming.
As one of his presidential election pledges, Obama vowed to cut the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from the 1990 level by 2050. Thus it is possible the United States will dramatically change its attitude and grab the initiative in the negotiations.
The leaders’ statement at this year’s Group of Eight summit in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, in July said G-8 nations share with all signatory countries the goal of cutting global emissions by at least 50 percent, and would demand the goal be adopted in the negotiations.
The government has proposed that a draft document of the next Conference of the Parties (COP14) include the long-term goal to halve global emissions by 2050.
In a report last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urged industrialized countries as a whole to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, and by 80 percent to 95 percent by 2050, in order to stabilize the atmospheric percentage of greenhouse gases at the equivalent of 450 ppm of carbon dioxide.
Developing countries, especially China, have strongly insisted that industrialized nations be the first to cut emissions to meet the goal.
The immediate task for industrialized countries is how to set the total emissions limit for each nation.
The government has demanded that when each nation sets a goal to cut total emissions over a midterm period of 20 to 30 years, a rational and solid numerical figure be determined by accumulating possible cuts in each industrial sector.
Resistance has come from business circles that want to avoid such a strict goal from being set.
In the wake of the current financial crisis, opposition also was voiced in the European Union, which as a whole has vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.
Business leaders and member nations in Eastern Europe voiced dissatisfaction with the huge costs such measures would entail.
A massive amount of money will be needed to prevent damage caused by climate change, such as drought and floods. But many developing countries, which will likely be hit harder by such natural disasters, are short on funds.
Therefore, it is a pressing task for industrialized nations to work out how they will provide financial aid to developing countries, including the least developed ones.
It is also urgent that a system be built to prevent forests in developing countries from decreasing further.
If developing nations turn forestlands into farms and ranches, carbon dioxide that would have been absorbed by the trees will be discharged into the air.
One estimate says such a scenario could account for about 20 percent of global emissions.
Debates continue over the details of financial aid to developing countries with forests.
One proposal would tie aid to the proportion of those countries’ greenhouse gas emissions cuts, if they can cap emissions below predicted quantities.
(Nov. 13, 2008)
