Sunday, November 24, 2013

Key points of the Warsaw consensus

Global Post via AFP: UN climate negotiators reached agreement in Warsaw on Saturday on cornerstone elements for the road to a new 2015 deal to curb global warming. Here are the main points:

Countries reaffirmed the core principle that the deal will be "applicable to all" 195 parties to the UN climate convention -- with no differentiation between rich and poor nations as under the pact's predecessor the Kyoto Protocol.

- Parties should volunteer targets for curbing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions "well in advance" of a Paris conference where the deal must be inked in two years' time.  Those "ready" to do so, must announce their contributions by the first quarter of 2015.

- A draft negotiating text must be ready by next year's round of talks in Lima, Peru.  In the runup to 2020, when the new pact must enter into force, countries are "urged" to do what they can to reduce emissions.

 A separate document agreed after a fortnight of heated negotiations, urges developed countries to deliver "increasing levels" of public finance for climate aid to poor and vulnerable countries up to 2020.  It also calls for "a very significant scale" of initial funding for the recently-formed Green Climate Fund, which is meant to disburse such aid.

 Negotiators agreed to set up the "Warsaw international mechanism for loss and damage" to assist vulnerable countries deal with future harm from climate damages they claim are no longer avoidable.  These include sudden extreme weather events like storms, but also slow-onset events like land-encroaching sea level rise or desertification....

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