Associated Press Pakistan
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 27 (APP) - A major U.N. report has recommended creating a Climate Change Mitigation Facility (CCMF) to raise $25 to 50 billion annually to support low carbon transitions in developing countries through a mix of grants, concessional aid and risk guarantees for investment under national energy sector reform programmes.
The report recommends that major emitters in developing nations aim at emission trajectory peaks in 2020 with 20 per cent cuts by 2050. China is the major emitter followed by India among the developing nations.
It calls on the rich to provide $86 billion “new and additional” funding to finance by 2016 to protect the achievements made in Million Development Goals (MDGs) and to prevent reversals in human development. MDGs were set by the world leaders in 2000 and aim to drastically reducing several social and economic ills by 2015.
Urging the developed nations to meet their commitments under the Kyoto protocol, the report suggests that they further agree to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050 and achieve 20 t0 30 per cent cuts by 2030.
Overall, it calls on nations to agree to a “global sustainable pathway” aimed at 50 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emission by 2050 from the 1990 levels.
It also recommends that stabilization target for atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide be set at 450 ppm and estimates that it will cost 1.6 per cent of average global GDP until 2030.
Warning that failure to respond effectively to the challenges posed by climate change would stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty, the report, released by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), asserts that the poorest countries and the most vulnerable citizens suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks even though they have contributed least to the problem.
But “looking to future, no country howsoever wealthy or powerful will the immune to global warming,” it says, calling for putting in place policies for sustainable carbon budgeting in the post Kyoto era.
The report calls on nations to express their firm commitment to tackling climate change in a significant way, and points out that even stringent mitigation will not “materially affect the temperature”? until mid 2030s and that average global temperature will continue to rise up to 2050 even under a “good case”? scenario.
Stressing that the window of opportunity for avoiding the “most damaging effects” of climate change impacts is closing, it says the world has less than a decade to change course. “Actions taken, or not taken, in years ahead will have profound bearing on the future course of human development.”
The world, it says, lacks neither financial resources nor technological capabilities.
The Human Development Report on Climate Change, which comes ahead of the negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, on post Kyoto agreement on reduction greenhouse gas emission, recommends that nations establish an agreed threshold for dangerous climate change at 2 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels.
The two-week Bali conference begins on Dec. 3 and the most optimistic assessment expects the talks to last at least two years. The Kyoto protocol is due to expire in 2012.
The report recommends setting a national carbon budgets in developed countries with the target of reducing overall emissions from 1990 reference year and these be incorporated in national legislations.
It also suggests a progressively increasing carbon tax and cap-and-trade programme that aims at 20 to 30 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, The revenues from carbon tax and cap-and-trade, it suggests, be used to finance progressive tax reform with reduction in taxes on labour, investments and the development of incentive for low carbon technology.
A significant recommendation is reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in transport sector with stronger fuel efficiency in the European Union with a target of 120 g Carbon dioxide per kilometer by 2012 with progressive reduction to 80 g by 2020.
It also wants more stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards in the United States with taxation on aviation.
The report stresses the need to develop technologies with a focus on Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) and recommends the United States and European Union each aim at 30 demonstration plants by 2015.
Commending clean coal technologies, the report wants international cooperation to be strengthened in his sector with incentives for development and deployment of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) and CCS.
It favours international incentives for the conservation and sustainable management of rain forests and extension of carbon financing beyond industrial sector to land-use programmes such as forest conservation and grassland restoration.
The report calls for strengthening the capacity of developing nations to assess climate risks and integrate adaptation into all aspect of national planning.
Another recommendation calls for streamlining the current structure of dedicated multilateral funding and shifting the locus from support for project to programme-based financing.
The report also calls for expanding multilateral provisions for responding to climate related humanitarian emergencies and supporting post disaster recovery to build resilience with a USD 2 billion in financing by 2016 under arrangements like United Nations Emergency Response Fund and World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.
It recommends international cooperation to enhance access to modern energy services and reduction in dependence on biomass which the primary source of energy for about 2.5 billion people.
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