China offered new details on its commitment to rein in greenhouse gases and called on rich nations to speed up delivery of the $100 billion in annual climate-related aid they’ve promised by 2020. Su Wei, China’s lead climate negotiator, coupled his comments on China’s commitment with a call to accelerate funding for climate aid, shifting the pressure to industrialized nations, led by the U.S. and European Union, to do their part toward reaching an agreement next year. The “$10 billion is just one 10th of that objective,” and “we do not have any clear road map of meeting that target for 2020,” Su said. Climate aid is “a trust-building process,” he added. --Alex Morales and Reed Landberg, Bloomberg, 5 December 2014
Rich nations' pledges of almost $10 billion to a green fund to help poor nations cope with global warming are "far from adequate," particularly Australia's lack of a donation, the head of China's delegation at U.N. climate talks said on Thursday. Su Wei also urged all rich nations to deepen their planned cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, signaling that a joint Chinese-U.S. announcement of greenhouse gas curbs last month does not mean an end to deep differences on climate policy. --Reuters, 5 December 2014
Asserting that it has been a strong champion of equity, India today said developed countries should compensate developing nations for the effects their greenhouse gas emissions have had on climate. India believes that developed countries should be held responsible for their high levels of emissions which have caused harm to developing countries, like itself. That responsibility should come in the form of compensation and a fair 2015 Paris agreement. --The Economic Times of India, 4 December 2014
As a result of promoting environmental alarmism, Western governments find themselves trapped in a perilous, yet largely self-constructed catch. As long as climate change is elevated as the principal liability of industrial countries, as long as Western CO2 emissions are blamed for exacerbating natural disasters, death and destruction around the globe, green pressure groups and officials from the developing world will continue to insist that the West is liable to recompense its exorbitant carbon debt by way of wealth transfer and financial compensation. In this way, the global warming scare is creating a lose-lose situation for the West which is causing lasting damage to its standing, influence and economic strength. --Benny Peiser, Financial Post, 8 April 2008
The European Union (EU)’s delegation at the climate change conference in Lima has argued that legally binding cuts applying to all countries are necessary and should be adopted by 2015 and entered into force by 2020. The EU’s stance is at odds with the US position which favours the ‘buffet option’, that would contain some legally binding elements but allow countries to determine the scale and pace of their emissions reductions. The EU appears to have toughened its stance faced with major nations which claim they could not impose economy wide targets. Bardram hinted that such positions could stall the negotiating process in the lead-up to the Paris meeting. --Dan Collyns, The Guardian, 2 December 2014
Gunther Oettinger, the EU’s outgoing energy commissioner, declared in September that the EU should not adopt new binding CO2 targets unless all major emitters would do likewise. The EU’s post-2020 targets for greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy are contingent on a legally binding global agreement at the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015. The chances of such an agreement, however, are close to zero. China and India have made their support for such a deal conditional on a legally binding climate finance package of $100 billion per year by 2020 as promised by President Obama at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009. --Benny Peiser, Testimony to the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, 2 December 2014
Australia will continue to directly pay for climate change adaptation in vulnerable South Pacific island nations through its aid budget rather than donate to a U.N. Green Climate Fund designed for the same purpose, the foreign minister said Friday ahead of climate talks in Peru. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian delegation would not give the Lima meeting any proposed Australian emission-cutting targets beyond 2020. Bishop said that without legally binding commitments in Paris to reduce global emissions beyond 2020, any agreement would amount to nothing more than aspirations. --Associated Press, 5 December 2014
The fate of the current attempt to agree on a global climate pact won’t be decided around the negotiating tables in Paris a year from now, but by American voters in November 2016. President Obama has all but guaranteed that where candidates stand on implementing a Paris climate accord will be a campaign issue. For Republicans, this has the makings of a winning issue. In 2016 Mr. Obama will force Democrats to run, in effect, on a platform of fewer jobs, more-expensive energy and an indefinite commitment to paying billions of dollars of climate aid. --Rupert Darwall, The Wall Street Journal, 2 December 2014
I also want to know why the BBC have banned Lord Lawson of Blaby from debating climate change on the ground that he is not a scientist, yet you happily broadcast another non-scientist, Al Gore, attributing Australian forest fires to climate change — something the IPCC does not support. I contacted your complaints department about that in July but have yet to receive a reply. -- Ross Clark, The Times, 5 December 2014
