Posted on 15 December
2009 - The European Council agreed that
industrialized countries should reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 percent
by 2020 compared to emissions
in 11000.
Copenhagen, Denmark - Pledges for emissions
reductions now on the table from developed
nations at the Copenhagen climate change
conference could be lost in loopholes being
built into an agreement, WWF warned today.
“It is possible for
developed nations to spin their way out
of real emissions reductions, but they can’t
spin their way out of climate catastrophe,”
said Kim Carstensen, leader of WWF’s global
climate initiative.
“That is the track we
are on if the industrialised worlds find
ways to increase emissions while saying
they are reducing them through creative
accounting which allows us to not count
emissions, count them twice or count them
in strange ways.”
WWF’s analysis identified
a possibility that various loopholes could
lead to industrialised country emissions
increasing to 4 to 10 per cent over 11000
levels by 2020 – a stark contrast with the
pledges of 15 - 19% emissions reductions
so far tabled by industrialised nations
in Copenhagen.
Chief among the loopholes
is a lack of provisions governing where
emissions reductions can be achieved – in
the countries claiming them or as offsets
in developing countries where carbon accounting
can be much less rigorous. Based on WWF’s
assessments, around one and a half billion
tonnes of emissions reductions could be
compromised in this way.
Current UN Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) rules can allow for the
delivery of real emissions reductions –
but also for developed nations to claim
credits for projects that would have been
implemented in developed nations in any
case.
“To avoid an overall
zero sum game, WWF is seeking for the overwhelming
majority of developed country emissions
to be made at home,” Carstensen said.
Another loophole emerges
when countries carry emissions reductions
credits forward into new commitment periods
– a danger in particular from the “Hot Air”
provisions given in abundance to Russia
and eastern European economies during negotiation
of the Kyoto protocol. Altogether, purchases
of such Hot Air could result in sham emissions
reductions claims of up to 1.4 billion tonnes
of CO2 a year by 2020.
Other loopholes include shoddy rules on
forestry and land use change emissions as
well as the omission of continuously rising
emissions from international shipping and
aviation.
WWF is working with
delegates to close loopholes by strengthening
rules – and is maintaining a watching brief
on the creation of new loopholes.
