Fresh proposals to fund carbon emission cuts
Updated
A speech to a high-level UN climate meeting this week by China's President Hu Jintao could signal whether the dead-locked Copenhagen climate-change talks can be salvaged. Attention has been on separate ideas from Australia and South Korea over how to bring the developing world into a post-Kyoto deal. The ideas aren't new, but it's the first time they've emerged from a mire of officials' meetings and into the political limelight, where it's hoped they'll gather momentum. A key element though is missing from the plans, and that's how to pay for the efforts developing countries would be expected to make to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra Correspondent
Speakers: Kevin Rudd, Australian Prime Minister; Professor Stephen Howes, Crawford School of Economic and Government, Australian National University; Professor John Connor, CEO, Climate Institute of Australia; Kelly Dent, climate change spokesperson, Oxfam Australia
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MOTTRAM: It's less than three months before the Copenhagen climate change summit and a deal remains elusive. Getting developing countries on board is vital but it's long been recognised that developed and developing countries bear different responsibilities, with the latter also trying to haul millions out of poverty. It's hoped that the political momentum generated by this week's international climate meeting at the UN in New York, and the G20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh, will help break the deadlock. Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd:
RUDD: We have both an historical and a future set of responsibilities. It's time for political leadership to come over the top of that and to forge an outcome. I believe we can get there. But it's going to take every bit of effort to get there.
MOTTRAM: The Australian government's proposal is that under a new global climate change deal, all countries would agree to schedules of climate change mitigation actions. For developed countries, that would include legally binding, economy-wide targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. For developing countries there'd be no such targets, though their other schedule responsibilities would be legally binding and could include sector based targets. South Korea has proposed a similar plan, but without a legal obligation. Both follow the concept of a common but differentiated approach.
Professor Stephen Howes worked on Australia's Garnaut review of domestic and international climate change policy. He says the Australian and South Korean plans have been around for some time; it's the political opportunity in New York this week that's important.
HOWES: I guess the advantage of Copenhagen is it's driving political attention. So at last leaders are having to grapple with what are some fairly complex technical issues. Because without the attention of the political leaders, the negotiators are simply spinning in circles, they could put forward proposals and there are lots of proposals but they're unable to reach agreement.
MOTTRAM: Detail though matters and could yet bedevil the proposals, says Professor John Connor of Australia's Climate Institute.
CONNOR: How is it going to curb rising emissions before 2020, how is it going to make sure that people are actually making solid commitments? So it does need to have consequences if people don't take actions and some binding elements at that international level. So we think this needs to be looked at seriously but one also needs to be aware of the history of these talks as a range of countries all trying to get their best outcomes rather than what's best for humanity and what's best for an actual and effective agreement.
MOTTRAM: But the difficult issues don't end there. There's strong in-principle support, including from China, for a global fund to pay for technology transfer and adaptation and mitigation by developing countries. But that's not included in Australia's developing country plan.
Kelly Dent is the climate change spokesperson for aid agency Oxfam Australia.
DENT: There needs to be a signal before Copenhagen. We can't leave these things to the eleventh hour because trust has already broken down between developed and developing countries and in order to be able to restore that trust, developed countries need to start putting some money on the table, to show that there's a will.
MOTTRAM: Much turns, Stephen Howes says, on the so-called G2 - the United States and China - with Hu Jintao due to speak at the UN meeting this week.
HOWES: The US needs to have some assurance that China is also being bound in some way. if they're going to get this treaty ratified, if they're going to get it through their Senate. And of course that was a problem with Kyoto, because it was seen as one-sided, as only binding the rich countries, in particular only binding the US and not China. The US wasn't able to get it ratified and that sort of unwound Kyoto. It was dead on arrival.
MOTTRAM: Professor Howes believes China could step up to save the Copenhagen talks. It has not set a domestic target for emissions cuts but the China Daily newspaper recently reported that China could put a brake on its emissions by 2030. There'll be close attention paid when Hu Jintao rises to speak at the UN climate meeting this week.
