Last November, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreed to continue to negotiate on a climate agreement. In the absence of real CO2 targets, they wrote in the Bali Roadmap that CO2 emissions should “peak and decline” with no definite time period provided.
The United States delegation led the charge to strip language from the Bali Roadmap that hinted at any commitment, long or short-term, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past few months, the UNFCCC has dragged its heels, procrastinating on establishing targets, despite calls by the Alliance for Small Island Nations and the E.U. to speed up the process. The UNFCCC has effectively left a vacuum for climate action.
And despite UN inaction, Japan’s Prime Minister said today that emissions targets will not be decided at the G8 meeting in a few weeks. Though branded as the ‘climate’ G8 meeting, Fukuda said “Agreeing on a midterm target is the core challenge of U.N. negotiations…”
At the moment, both international processes seem stalled. There’s nothing like a summer of real grassroots action to combat high-level inaction and feet-dragging, so let’s get to work!