7 International climate policy beyond
2020
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8193/13
COM(13) 167
| Commission Communication: The 2015 International Climate Change Agreement — Shaping international climate change policy beyond 2020
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| Legal base | —
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| Document originated | 26 March 2013
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| Deposited in Parliament | 10 April 2013
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| Department | Energy and Climate Change
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 22 April 2013
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| Discussion in Council | No date set
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Not cleared ; Opinion sought from the Energy and Climate Change Committee under Standing Order No. 143 (11)
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Background
7.1 According to the Commission, international efforts to
address climate change fall far short of what is needed to prevent
a damaging 2°C rise in global temperatures above pre-industrial
levels, and the growth in greenhouse gas emissions will have to
be reversed before 2020, and then decline every year thereafter.
It says that it is only by acting collectively, with greater urgency
and ambition, that the worst consequences of a rapidly warming
planet can be avoided, and it notes that negotiations on a new
international agreement to address these issues were launched
in 2011, with the agreement due to be completed by the end of
2015, and to come into operation from 2020 onwards.
The current document
7.2 This Communication invites views on the work needed to
conclude such an agreement, and on the actions needed between
now and 2020. It begins by looking at the current state of play
on international climate policy, and at the challenges and opportunities
for the period 2020-30. It notes that the 2015 agreement will
have to bring together into a single instrument a patchwork of
binding and non-binding arrangements, and that it will be necessary
to learn from the experience gained under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, the operation of the Kyoto Protocol,
and the pledging process arising from the Copenhagen Conference
in 2009 and at Cancun the following year, under which individual
countries have undertaken to reduce their emissions. In particular,
it says that the approach should be one of mutual interdependence
and shared responsibility, capable of attracting the participation
of all major economies, including those which have so far resisted
legally binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition, it will have to reflect how the world has changed
since climate negotiations begun in 1990, and how it will continue
to change in future, notably the extent to which emerging economies
have become an increasing source of economic growth and emissions.
Foundations of the 2015 Agreement
7.3 The Commission suggests that, although there is general
acceptance of the need to restrain global warming, previous pledges
and commitments have been insufficiently ambitious to achieve
this, and that it seems unlikely that it will be possible to agree
precisely how this challenge can be shared in an equitable manner
in 2015. Any new agreement will therefore have to provide the
tools and processes needed to enable a further strengthening of
individual and collective ambition, whilst demonstrating that
countries can do more collectively and discouraging them from
waiting for other to act before taking action themselves. In particular,
it says that all major economies and sectors will need to contribute
in a equitable, transparent and accountable manner.
7.4 However, the Commission also points out that
climate change policy cannot stand alone, but must instead help
to support economic growth and the broader sustainable development
agenda, and be "mainstreamed" across all policy areas,
forming a key component in strategies for energy, transport, industry,
agriculture and forestry. Consequently, the 2015 Agreement must
reinforce broader sustainable development objectives, with encouragement
also being given to bilateral, multilateral and regional initiatives
which complement and accelerate the achievement of its aims.
Designing the Agreement
7.5 The Commission stresses that, if the new
Agreement is to deliver more than earlier such agreements, it
must contain legally binding commitments which apply to both developed
and developing countries, be ambitious in its objectives, contain
effective incentives for implementation and compliance, and be
widely perceived as fair and equitable. It adds that there is
also a need to encourage countries to take on new and ambitious
mitigation and adaptation commitments, and to respond to scientific
advances, with sufficiently flexibility to adjust both to developments
in scientific knowledge and to changes in technology (and its
costs). In particular, it says that the EU should promote a comprehensive
and integrated approach to implementation, which would include
the key issue of mobilising appropriate global finance, and that
it intends to present a proposal which would address this. It
also suggests that there will need to be an increased focus on
the use of market-based mechanisms, notably emissions trading.
The path towards an Agreement in 2015
7.6 The Commission notes that the UN negotiating
process has become more complex, and that decision-making by consensus
has often resulted in agreements representing the lowest common
denominator, which fail to meet public expectations or to respond
adequately to the scientific evidence. It therefore suggests that
the effectiveness of the negotiating process could be strengthened
in a number of ways, for example by developing rules of procedure
to facilitate the reaching of decisions other than by consensus;
reviewing the frequency of meetings; more informal exchanges ahead
of technical meetings; strengthening the contributions of stakeholders;
and a strengthened role for the Convention Secretariats.
The Government's view
7.7 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 22 April
2013, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (Edward
Davey) notes that this is a consultative Communication prepared
by the Commission, and hence not a proposal for legislation, nor
an agreed EU position, and that it may inform, but not dictate,
the development of EU policy in this area.
7.8 He adds that the document itself does not
significantly contribute to the overall international debate on
the 2015 agreement, although he expects the process of stakeholder
consultation initiated by it to be useful. In the meantime, the
UK's view is that the 2015 agreement must be rules-based, legally
binding, and applicable to all, and that it must also include
a mechanism which allows future increase of ambition in order
to avoid a repeat of the current emissions gap between the actions
taken by the Parties and what is needed to limit global temperature
increases to below 2°C. He adds that the UK continues to
stress the importance of measurement, reporting, and verification,
and of accounting rules, and believes it is imperative that the
new agreement should require all countries to have mitigation
commitments. It also believes that there is an urgent need within
the EU to progress thinking about ways in which the debate on
the spectrum of commitments and levels of ambition, and on the
design and scope of the 2015 agreement, can be shaped, and it
expects the UK to contribute to this after the UNFCCC inter-sessional
negotiating meeting, which takes place in Bonn in June this year.
Conclusion
7.9 As the 2015 International Climate Change
agreement will be an important milestone, we think it right to
draw to the attention of the House the Commission's thinking on
the approach which the EU should adopt to the discussions leading
up to it. As with the Commission Green Paper[39]
on climate and energy policies for 2030, we would welcome the
formal Opinion of the Energy and Climate Change Committee on this
Communication before taking a definitive view on it. In the meantime,
the document remains under scrutiny.
39 (34814) 8096/13: see Chapter 5 of this Report. Back
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