World must face 'inconvenient truth' of emissions rise, says UN climate chief
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By Fiona Harvey, guardian.co.uk
The fastest-ever rise in greenhouse gas emissions is an “inconvenient truth” the world must face, the UN’s climate change chief has said. But she added that the data should not lead to fatalism that the problem is impossible to tackle.
The figures showing that efforts to control greenhouse gases have had little effect are likely to stretch already strained relations between developed and developing countries climate change to breaking point in the next two weeks in rows over who is responsible for the fastest ever rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
Most of the record rise in emissions came from rapidly emerging economies, including China, but there is growing evidence that the west has “exported” billions of tonnes of its emissions by relying on imports from the developing world.
In advance of crucial United Nations climate talks in Bonn next week, the UN’s climate chief tried to heal rifts and revive hopes of a breakthrough after news that carbon dioxide emissions from energy are now at record levels despite 20 years of climate negotiations.
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the official responsible for overseeing the talks, said of the emissions estimates: “This is the inconvenient truth of where human-generated greenhouse gas emissions are projected to go without much stronger international action now and into the future.”
But she issued a strong call to governments: “I won’t hear that this is impossible. Governments must make it possible for society, business and science to get this job done.”
Estimates from the International Energy Agency, revealed by the Guardian on Monday, show that last year carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose by a record amount, despite the recession and government policies aimed at curbing greenhouse gases. In 2010, global emissions from energy – the biggest source of emissions – were 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, compared with 29Gt in 2009 and 29.3Gt in 2008.
Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA and one of the world’s foremost experts on energy and climate, said: “Unless bold and decisive decisions are made very soon, it will be extremely challenging to achieve the global goal agreed [at the last UN climate change conference in December] in Cancún.’
Connie Hedegaard, the European Union’s climate chief, said: “One wonders how many more worrying figures the world needs. The promises of world leaders at Copenhagen and Cancún to stay below 2C of warming need urgently to be followed by more action.”
Three quarters of the emissions rise came from developing countries, with a quarter from the rich world.
Sir David King, director of the Smith School of Enterprise at the University of Oxford and former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, said the emissions rise showed how developed countries had exported their greenhouse gases to the developing world.
This is because the migration of heavy manufacturing industry to developing countries has raised emissions in emerging economies, while rich countries still benefit from the results as they buy back the manufactured goods. More emissions are associated with the manufacture of most modern goods than with their use.
Forthcoming research led by King that sets out these problems in detail chimes with studies from the Carbon Trust and others that have found similar effects.
Hedegaard said the EU had put in place strong policies that had reduced emissions, and said other countries should follow. In 2008-10, emissions from EU heavy industry fell by more than eight per cent, in part owing to the recession and in part to climate policies.
“We in Europe have specific policies, binding targets and a price on carbon. Europe has committed to an ambitious agenda of climate action,” Hedegaard said. “We look to our partners to do likewise.”
The global emissions rise, and the question of who is to blame, will cast a shadow over the Bonn talks, which are intended to clear the way for a major conference on climate this December in South Africa. One participant said the divisions between developed and developing countries over responsibility for emissions were the key faultline.
Figueres attempted to heal the rifts yesterday by encouraging countries to come together.
“No nation will solve climate change alone. And no nation is alone in feeling its impacts. We’re only a few days away now from the mid-year climate negotiations and governments need to pick up speed.”
She insisted there were reasons to be optimistic.
“Countries, including the biggest economies, are moving forward with new policies that promote low-carbon prosperous growth, even if they don’t always attach climate labels to these policies. And the private sector continues to increase its investment in low-carbon business and renewable energy and wants to do more.”
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