Climate change negotiations: new hopes from COP20 in Lima

Citation

Leal-Filho, W. (2014), "Climate change negotiations: new hopes from COP20 in Lima", International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Vol. 6 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-06-2014-0072

Climate change negotiations: new hopes from COP20 in Lima

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Volume 6, Issue 3

The 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP20) of the United Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol will be held in Lima, Peru, from 1-12 December 2014.

Both the host Government of Peru and the International Climate Community are putting big hopes in COP20 because of three main reasons:

• there are still many matters open and yet to be settled in respect of reduction targets to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions;

• there is still a disparity between what industrialised nations are contributing to the emissions of GHGs as a whole, and their willingness to pay for mitigation and adaptation efforts in particular, especially in developing countries; and

• a sound basis is urgently needed for the design of the 2015 conference in Paris.

Moreover, as the gap between the adaptation capacity of industrialised and developing nations widens, there is a pressing need for some sort of feedback to the various recommendations made in the latest IPCC report (5th Assessment Report), which provides a clear and up-to-date view of the current state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change.

For instance, the contribution of Working Group I (WGI) provides a comprehensive assessment of the physical science basis of climate change. Its report includes a detailed assessment of climate change observations throughout the climate system; dedicated chapters on sea level change, biogeochemical cycles, clouds and aerosols and regional climate phenomena; extensive information from models, including near-term and long-term climate projections; and a new comprehensive atlas of global and regional climate projections for 35 regions of the world. Similar substantial inputs are provided by Working Group II (WGII), whose contribution considers the vulnerability and exposure of human and natural systems, the observed impacts and future risks of climate change and the potential for and limits to adaptation. The chapters of the report assess risks and opportunities for societies, economies and ecosystems around the world.

Combined, the findings of WGI and WGII (as well as of the other IPCC Working Groups) provide a sound basis for the sort of action which is now needed, and which will hopefully be agreed in Lima. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leading the organisation of a climate change summit to be held in New York, USA, in September 2014, which will be helpful in providing a basis for the negotiations to be held in Lima.

The new hopes for Lima are thus well founded, and it is expected that, apart from efforts towards reducing GHGs emissions to limit the global temperature increase to 2°C above current levels, COP20 may also agree on concretising commitments such as promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency, increasing climate funding to reduce emissions, defining new long-term climate goals for every country and fostering adaptation initiatives. If some of these outputs are achieved, then the new hopes from COP20 will become a reality. This journal will monitor the development of COP20 with great interest and will report, document and disseminate scientific research in respect of global climate change management efforts.

Enjoy your reading.

Walter Leal Filho

Reference

Leal Filho, W. (2014), “Climate change negotiations: new hopes from COP20 in Lima”, International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Vol. 6 No. 3.