World
governments vow to end fossil fuel era at UN climate signing ceremony
Representatives
of more than 170 countries endorse Paris agreement to cut carbon
emissions, with France’s president saying: ‘There is no turning
back’
Suzanne Goldenberg
at the United Nations and Arthur Neslen in Brussels
Friday 22 April 2016
18.52 BST
More than 170
governments declared an end to the fossil fuel era on Friday, using
the signing ceremony for the landmark Paris agreement as an occasion
to renew their vows to fight climate change.
The outpouring of
support – the largest ever single-day turn-out for a signing
ceremony – underscored strong international commitment to deliver
on the promises made in Paris last December to avoid a climate
catastrophe, the leaders said.
“There is no
turning back,” François Hollande, the French president, told the
United Nations assembly.
The UN secretary
general, Ban Ki-moon, said signatories to the deal were embracing “a
new covenant of the future”. Leonardo DiCaprio, a UN climate
ambassador, likened efforts against climate change to the campaign to
end slavery.
Hindou Oumarou
Ibrahim, an indigenous women’s leader from Chad, called on
countries to following through on their promises. Temperatures in her
country were already a blistering 48C (118F), she said, and climate
change threatened to obliterate billions spent on development aid
over recent decades.
“Climate change is
adding to poverty every day,” she said.
Friday’s gathering
was entirely ceremonial, with schoolchildren and brass bands filling
out the UN hall, and John Kerry, the secretary of state, toting his
granddaughter in his arms when it came his turn to sign the
agreement.
But the turnout –
including the presence of about 60 presidents and prime ministers –
and stirring rhetoric were seen as an important measure of the
momentum behind efforts to bring the Paris agreement into force
earlier than originally thought, possibly even this year.
Leaders also
reaffirmed previous commitments to help poor countries protect their
people from climate change.
Early implementation
would prevent the drift that set in with the Kyoto protocol in the
1990s and – crucially with Donald Trump’s ascendancy in the
Republican presidential primaries – impose a four-year delay on any
future leaders seeking to exit the agreement.
But as the leaders
noted, events on the ground are moving fast. Last year was the
hottest year on record – and so were the first three months of this
year. Temperatures at the North Pole rose above freezing last
December, the depths of the polar night; and temperatures there were
30C (54F) above normal.
“Today is a day to
mark and to celebrate the hard work done by so many to win the battle
of securing the Paris agreement,” Kerry said. “But knowing what
we know, this is also a day to recommit ourselves to actually win
this war.”
Advertisement
On Australia’s
Great Barrier Reef, some 93% of coral showed evidence of bleaching,
because of long-term ocean warming due to carbon emissions, and the
El Niño weather phenomenon.
If countries do not
make deep emissions cuts by 2020, they will miss their chance to hit
the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5-2C (2.7-3.6F), leaders and
campaign groups warned.
Campaign groups
called on governments and businesses to follow through on the
rhetoric by ramping up emissions cuts, and protecting vulnerable
populations from rising seas, extreme temperatures and other effects
of climate change.
“The decisions in
the Paris agreement now need to be incorporated into government and
corporate decisions by breaking free from fossil fuels,” Jennifer
Morgan, the director of Greenpeace, said. “Nature is telling us
that time is running out, and running out fast.”
The first hurdle was
making the agreement operational by winning approval from 55
countries representing 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
That critical
threshold moved closer into reach after the world’s biggest climate
polluters reiterated their promises to approve the deal – with some
committing to a specific time line.
China, the world’s
biggest climate polluter, said it would formally approve the
agreement before the G20 meeting in September. The US and India, the
second and third biggest emitters, also reaffirmed their intention to
approve the deal this year. Canada’s Justin Trudeau said he would
present the agreement to approval by parliament next month.
Advertisement
Brazil’s Dilma
Rousseff, engulfed in a fight for her political survival after being
impeached earlier this week, made a personal promise to help bring
the agreement into force.
“I take on the
commitment to ensure the prompt entering into effect of this
agreement in Brazil,” she told the UN.
However, the
European Union is unlikely to be in a position to join the agreement
at an early date.
Miguel Arias Cañete,
the EU climate commissioner, admitted that internal processes, under
which the individual countries must first sign off on proposals to
achieve the common goal for 2030 of a 40% emissions cut measured
against 1990 levels, would make it difficult to keep pace.
More
climate-concerned governments such as France and Germany are thought
likely to move quickly. But there are still concerns about the
response that can be expected in Poland and some other central and
eastern European countries.
“This will take
some time,” he said in a statement, “but it will ensure that when
we act, we will act on a solid legal basis. And let me assure you: it
will be done as soon as possible.”
In a pointer to
battles ahead, Arias Cañete said that his office was preparing new
legislation on renewable energy, electricity markets, energy
efficiency and a mid-century low greenhouse gas emissions strategy to
be unveiled in 2020.
Fifteen countries –
mainly small islands such as Fiji and the Maldives but also Palestine
and Somalia – formally joined the agreement on Friday.
The next phase is
even more challenging as governments and businesses move to phase out
carbon emissions from the global economy – first by targeting
economic sectors that were left out of the Paris agreement.
Jonathan Pershing,
the State Department climate envoy, told reporters that the US and
other countries would now focus on cutting emissions from shipping
and aviation, as well as the climate super pollutants, known as HFCs,
used in cooling.
“From now we have
to ensure that we have a green economic model, one that is no longer
based on carbon emissions,” Hollande said.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário