National climate positions published by UN ahead of December summit
Monday, 01 December 2008 11:48 | 
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The UN has drawn up a report detailing and summarising national positions on potential climate change commitments ahead of the Poznan negotiations in December. Given the expected difficulties in trying to reach a common framework for action, the UN hopes that this will facilitate the process by clarifying what objectives countries want to achieve at the meeting.
The EU, which is currently in the process of negotiating its own energy and climate change package, has committed to reducing the global temperature increase to 2 degrees. In practise this means that it plans to implement measures such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, and by introducing an emission trading scheme (ETS) to control energy supply. It has also put forward other proposals which include the development of CCS (carbon capture and storage) technology and limiting CO2 emissions from cars to combat global warming.
China and India has meanwhile noted that developed countries would have a commitment to reduce emissions by 25-40% below 1990 levels, with a further commitment for an 80-95% reduction by 2050. Various developing economies, including China, have called for the burden of commitment to be a reflection of the historical responsibility for the problem, and that in other words the most developed economies should shoulder the brunt of the burden.
Brazil has also called for such a distribution of commitment, and has also suggested that a crucial method for reducing emissions is through increased forest preservation, meaning less deforestation and degradation.
The Group of 77, which is the largest UN body of developing nations including China, has been keen to stress the importance of technology improvements as well. This encompasses the improvement and development of environmentally clean technologies and their accelerated deployment, implementation and transfer. The UN report also says that delegates from 53 African countries have signed an agreement to speak with one voice at the summit, with the hope that this will allow them to have a greater say in the process.
The EU, which is currently in the process of negotiating its own energy and climate change package, has committed to reducing the global temperature increase to 2 degrees. In practise this means that it plans to implement measures such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, and by introducing an emission trading scheme (ETS) to control energy supply. It has also put forward other proposals which include the development of CCS (carbon capture and storage) technology and limiting CO2 emissions from cars to combat global warming.
China and India has meanwhile noted that developed countries would have a commitment to reduce emissions by 25-40% below 1990 levels, with a further commitment for an 80-95% reduction by 2050. Various developing economies, including China, have called for the burden of commitment to be a reflection of the historical responsibility for the problem, and that in other words the most developed economies should shoulder the brunt of the burden.
Brazil has also called for such a distribution of commitment, and has also suggested that a crucial method for reducing emissions is through increased forest preservation, meaning less deforestation and degradation.
The Group of 77, which is the largest UN body of developing nations including China, has been keen to stress the importance of technology improvements as well. This encompasses the improvement and development of environmentally clean technologies and their accelerated deployment, implementation and transfer. The UN report also says that delegates from 53 African countries have signed an agreement to speak with one voice at the summit, with the hope that this will allow them to have a greater say in the process.
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