The road to UNFCCC COP 18 and beyond

Book excerpt: Europe should set a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% on 1990 levels by 2020 in order to demonstrate political leadership in the run up to UN climate talks in 2015, when political consensus could be reached on a new international agreement to replace the Kyoto protocol. The Kyoto Protocol created an invaluable architecture for future agreements - including common emissions reporting, accounting standards and a compliance system - but it should not be renewed after 2020. Instead, diplomatic efforts should now be focused on reaching a new, and genuinely international, agreement via the promising Platform negotiated last year in Doha. Europe's influence over future international negotiations would be greatly increased if its own economy was decarbonised more. The Human Development Index should be used in future to determine equitably which countries are treated as 'developed' - and required to decrease their emissions immediately. Given the severe fiscal constraints in most developed countries, it is unlikely that the US $100 billion Green Climate Fund target will be reached by 2020 unless an innovative mechanism is developed to budgetary contributions. The UK should exploit its expertise in financial services to develop innovative mechanisms for levering in more private investment. The Government should support moves to eliminate the $400 billion of fossil fuel subsidies across the world, while ensuring that this is done in a way that does not worsen fuel poverty. The Government should also show leadership by acknowledging that consumption in the UK and some other developed countries is driving up territorial emissions elsewhere