Lexi Barnett: Hopes of a deal on climate change seem far away

AS THE United Nations conference on climate change reaches its climax here in Durban, South Africa, it is vital that progress towards a fair, ambitious and legally binding global deal is made. However, hopes of such an agreement are muted at best.

The major issue is the legal framework within which greenhouse gas emission cuts should be set and managed. At a bare minimum, the package must include a credible second commitment period to the current Kyoto Protocol, which expires next year. However, various developed countries including the United States, Canada, Japan and Russia are opposed.

The other part of this jigsaw is to negotiate a mandate for a future single, rules-based system that would include major emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil, which aren’t bound by the Kyoto Protocol. This would also include the wealthy “defectors” cited above.

Failure to secure such a balanced global agreement could lead to a decade of inaction. Worryingly, specific proposals to stall agreement on a deal until 2020 are firmly on the table.

Current commitments to cut emissions set the world on a path towards a global mean temperature rise of three or four degrees. This would be catastrophic for much of the world’s population.

A further area of grave concern is the lack of progress on providing new finance to help developing countries cope with the climate change challenges they face. By close of play tomorrow the UN conference must provide a strong mandate to “operationalise” the UN Green Climate Fund, which will provide $100 billion (£64bn) per year by 2020 to support climate-related action in developing countries.

As the First Minister stated in China, wealthy countries have an historic responsibility for creating climate change, and a moral obligation to act.

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF), and our partners in developing countries, know the costs of failure to reach an agreement here will be human, and not just political.

• Lexi Barnett is SCIAF’s campaigns officer. Read her daily blog from Durban in our environment section online.