Climate change is once again very high on the international agenda. The upcoming 20th UN climate change conference in Lima will be crucial on the road to Paris, where an international binding agreement on fighting climate change will be adopted.
The critical questions at stake are, 'what measures are needed to keep the rise of the average global temperature below two degrees centigrade? And, how can we raise the €80bn for climate financing which were promised to developing countries in 2009?'
One year ahead of the climate summit in Paris, we need momentum for ambitious and quantifiable action on mitigating climate change by all nations. These mitigation pledges will be submitted to the UN in the form of ‘intended nationally determined contributions’ (INDCs) by March next year.
The wheels are already turning. Last October, European heads of state and government agreed to reduce the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030. Soon thereafter, the US and China announced commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a bilateral agreement, breaking their deadlock and sending a strong signal for the implementation of an international climate treaty in 2015.
"More nations - especially developed countries which are responsible for most of the greenhouse gases accumulated in the atmosphere - need to commit to tangible targets"
Previously, international negotiations on a binding climate treaty had been consistently blocked by the unwillingness of these two states, which are responsible for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions. Now, China and the US have to walk the talk.
The US needs to overcome resistance in congress in order to become a credible negotiation partner, while Chinese CO2 emissions are expected to reach their peak not only in 2030, but perhaps even before, in 2025.
However, the commitments announced so far can only be seen as minimum efforts, as they are not ambitious enough to reach the two degrees centigrade target.
More nations - especially developed countries which are responsible for most of the greenhouse gases accumulated in the atmosphere - need to commit to tangible targets.
Therefore, one of the main goals of the Lima conference is to agree on upfront information requirements so that INDCs are transparent, quantifiable and comparable. There needs to be an assessment phase ahead of the Paris conference to consider whether the INDCs presented are collectively sufficient in light of the two degrees centigrade objective.
The other hot topic remains the financial support of mitigation efforts in developing countries. The UN green climate fund will become operational this year, with a goal of raising an initial €8bn. A recent fund raising conference in Berlin led to financial pledges by countries so far amounting to €7.5bn.
Typically, funding only comes from developed countries, but countries such as Mongolia and Mexico have broken with this tradition by also promising money.
The progress on pledges to mitigate climate change and financial contributions made in the last couple of weeks are important signals ahead of the Lima conference. The momentum has to be kept in order to incentivise all countries to make their fair contributions in the fight against global warming.