The Durban conference: between Cancún and Paris

Just about at the time that climate negotiators started packing their suitcases and boarding planes to Durban for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP17), the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) released troubling figures. Data published by the agency earlier in November showed greenhouse gas emissions were at record levels in 2010: 30.4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide escaped into the atmosphere last year – 1.6Gt (5,3%) more than in 2009, pushing carbon levels to their highest levels yet. The rapid rise occurred even as economic turmoil enveloped global markets.

The data mean that one of the mainstay agreements reached at the COP 16 last year in Cancún – to limit the rise of global mean temperatures at 2 degrees Celsius compare to pre-industrial levels – is already compromised. Nicholas Stern, author of the seminal Review on the economics of climate change, for one, says IEA’s figures mean the emissions reduction trajectory is back on the “business as usual” path, which means all efforts towards curbing carbon output since the inception of negotiations have been futile.

• Primary Source

ISPI: Commentary: The Durban conference: between Cancún and Paris [PDF] http://www.ispionline.it/sites/default/files/pubblicazioni/commentary_martino_5.12.2011_0.pdf

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