core sector communique

U.S. Hopes for Progress at Climate Change Talks

By Charlene Porter

Staff Writer

Washington - U.S. negotiators in Durban, South Africa, are hoping that "a substantial step forward in the global effort to address climate change" can be made at the 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), according to the deputy special envoy leading the U.S. delegation this week.

In a November 28 briefing in Durban , Jonathan Pershing told reporters that the U.S. priority is to convince the 16,000 government representatives attending the session to focus on the 2010 commitments made at the UNFCCC meeting in Cancún, Mexico. Implementing the commitments for climate change action made in Cancún - making them "fully operational" - will result in significant progress to curb climate change, Pershing said.

"These commitments and actions cover countries representing more than 80 percent of global greenhouse gases," Pershing said, "with significant reductions that are beginning to slow the trend of global climate change."

Pershing noted the Cancún commitments for "creation of a transparency regime" that would track reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. He suggested a set of guidelines to create transparency in actions nations take to reduce emissions. The guidelines might call for national data reports, consultations among nations, analysis of their actions, and a means to allow international discussions to continue.

The Cancún agreement also sketched out the establishment of other institutions to increase support for national actions to cope with the problem. They include a Green Climate Fund, a Technology Executive Committee and a Technology Center and Network to assist in the transition to cleaner energy systems.

The United States has contributed $5.1 billion to "Fast Start" funds that the developed world has agreed to raise as assistance to developing nations that need help in reducing reliance on carbon-based fuels and converting to clean-energy technologies. Pershing said the U.S. delegation will release details later this week on what the United States is doing in 126 nations to help in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The Cancún agreements envisioned a Green Climate Fund as an administrative body to manage aid, targeted to countries in need of assistance. That aid is expected to flow from a variety of sources including governments and the private sector. Though Pershing said the United States does have some "substantive concerns" about the establishment of the fund as currently proposed, he expressed hope that these could be resolved to allow the Green Climate Fund to move forward.

Discussions in Durban will focus on both immediate and long-range strategies and goals for reducing emissions and adapting to climate change. Pershing suggested the Cancún agreement could serve as a good template for long-range international strategies.

"It does include the major emitters," he said. "It takes a series of steps that are built on what they were able to deliver, and we now see ... actions in all the countries that made commitments to deliver on those commitments. That is a tremendous first start."

While some critics have derided the UNFCCC as ineffective and the process as too slow, Pershing disagrees. "The world is acting," he said. Again, he pointed to the Cancún agreement. "We now have an agreement that covers 80 percent, or more, of global emissions," in contrast to the 15 percent of emissions that were subject to reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, which entered into force in 2005.

"To my way of thinking, that's an enormous step forward in solving the problem - 15 percent to 80 percent," Pershing said.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)