During the UNFCCC Climate Summit in Lima yesterday, the European Union won the shameful second place Fossil of the Day Award. The dubious award was handed down to the EU after it called for a 10 year commitment period in the post-2020 international climate agreement.
According to Climate Action Network, 10 year cycles of commitments are a sure fire way to lock in low ambition in the future climate deal. Five year commitment periods ending no later than 2025 is the approach we should follow in order to capture the fast evolving dynamics of domestic political and energy situation. Only this time frame will prevent us from locking in low ambition, will frame incentivizes early actions, and ensures the politics is linked to the latest climate science.
EU must not pretend that it is bound by its 2030 climate and energy package towards 2030. There is no technical reason at all that it cannot put forward a target for 2025 based on what has been agreed in the package.
The time to decide a common five year period is now in Lima, in order to enable countries to prepare their INDCs with a clear guidance on this 2025 timeframe. The quality of future climate regime is at stake, in a rapidly changing world where renewable technologies are becoming ever cheaper and competitive.
During United Nations climate change negotiations, members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their ‘best’ to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks. Yesterday the second prize was awarded to the EU. The first place in the Fossil of the Day was given to Australia. It is due to the fact that the country claimed that loss and damage should be an element of adaptation, not a standalone part of the Paris Protocol. This stance is in direct opposition to the countries most vulnerable to climate impacts.
