Tuesday September 22 was the United Nations (UN) Climate Summit in New York. It was not meant to be a negotiating session – more of a pep rally for the big show that will unfold in Copenhagen December 7-18, 2009. There are two more UN negotiating sessions before then – in Bangkok September 28-October 9, and in Barcelona, November 2-6. However, with only 75 days until Copenhagen, we are definitely in the ‘end game’ for negotiations to extend and strengthen the Kyoto Protocol.

So what happened in the Big Apple at the UN? It was not a great outcome, but it was not all doom and gloom. I would divide national positions as “the good, the bad and the ugly”.  To jump ahead, the good includes AOSIS and Japan; the bad includes United States; and the ugly includes Canada.

The Good

Two of the strongest voices on climate change are the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the group of Least Developed Countries, who have now called for a 1.5°C limit to temperature increase and cuts from the industrialised world of 45 per cent from 1990 levels. For many of those nations this could be the difference between survival and destruction.

A surprisingly positive note also came from Chinese President Hu Jintao. While he did not commit to a specific target, he said that China would cut emissions by a “notable margin by 2020 from the 2005 level”. This is an intensity-based reduction, not an absolute reduction, but it is a potentially significant commitment, coming from a country that now matches U.S. greenhouse emissions.

In another positive development, Japan’s new government has stepped up to the plate by pledging to cut emissions 25 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.

The Bad

President Obama’s position at the United Nations was long on talk and short on action. In a memorable turn of phrase, he said “…difficulty is no excuse for complacency. […] And we must not allow the perfect to become the enemy of progress.”

The problem is that the American position is a very long way from perfect, and there has been no progress in Washington on setting a meaningful target for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. And Obama’s weak climate legislation may not even pass before the Copenhagen negotiations take place in December.

The Ugly

Prime Minister Harper as cowboy…

Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not make a presentation in New York, but we know that Canada’s position remains abysmal. As United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his speech to the General Assembly, “The world’s glaciers are now melting faster than human progress to protect them…”. Canada’s progress is the most glacial of all, and action is long overdue… Canada’s 2007 emissions were 26 per cent above 1990 levels, and 34 per cent above our Kyoto target. Harper‘s target remains at 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020, which translates into only 3 per cent below 1990 levels.

But the political ground is shifting under the feet of the Harper government. While Canada and the U.S. seem tobe in a race to the bottom, the Chinese commitment takes away all credibillity from the Harper government, which hsa refused to take action on climate change until the developing countries do so.

 Conclusions

There’s still hope for Copenhagen. Stay tuned for the G-20 meeting that will take place in Pittsburgh for Heads of State, September 24-25. This meeting will discuss the financial commitments needed to address emission reductions and adaptation to climate change in the developing world.

Prime Minister Harper made no statement at the UN General Assembly. Maybe we should hope that he does not show up in Pittsburgh – if he does not have anything positive to say, silence would be preferable.

Dave Martin is the Climate and Energy Coordinator of Greenpeace Canada  

United Nations Climate Summit: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Categories: Greenpeace

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