Ahead of the 2015 global climate conference in Paris the French ambassador for climate negotiations at the United Nations has issued a rallying call for both the public and private enterprise to work towards climate abatement.
Success at the major UN climate conference will largely depending on the European Union’s support.
Despite previous setbacks at UN level, climate change has been chosen as a political area for optimism by the French government, which will organise the 2015 Conference of the Parties (COP) signatory to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“We have the right to dream of a diplomatic success after all,” said one French Socialist MP worried about Socialist President François Hollande’s declining popularity, which has reached an all-time low, at 26 per cent.
EU news website EurActiv reports this will be the first time a COP has taken place in France, even though they have been held annually for 21 years.
For the minister of foreign affairs, Laurent Fabius, the subject is serious enough to hold a ministerial meeting each month until December 2015 on the subject, with the minister of the environment, Philippe Martin, and the deputy minister for development, Pascal Canfin.
With the Kyoto Protocol having expired, the UNFCCC signatories have committed to organise its successor in 2015 at the latest, meaning the stakes are high for the meeting.
The National Assembly will also be involved in preparations. ”
A briefing on climate change and adaptation will be launched,” said the president of the Sustainable Development Committee in the National Assembly, Jean-Paul Chanteguet, who insists that MPs “should not be left on the side about the climate issue”.
Jacques Lapouge,, French ambassador at the climate negotiations, addressed the committee and said France had three climate policy goals for 2015:
- Define an agreement applicable to all
- Adopting a legally binding text
- Aim at an ambitious goal to keep global temperature increase below 2°C.
“It must be a conference to find solutions, which brings together all public and private initiatives that work for the climate.
“We need to impose a change of discourse: fighting against climate change is not only sharing a burden, it is also an investment for the future,” said the diplomat in charge of the negotiations.
“We must seize the opportunity,” Mr Lapouge said.
“We are fortunate to have seen the United States government evolve on the subject, and John Kerry, who is in charge of these issues, is clearly in favour of an agreement.
“China is also considering the matter, if nothing else to preserve social peace in the country.”
The US and China, who between themselves are responsible for half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, have already agreed in June to reduce emissions of the HFC refrigerant, considered as “super greenhouse gas”.
Their project, which envisions a reduction of 90 billion tons of CO2 equivalent by 2050, was ratified by the G20 at the end of August.
EurActiv reports the ambassador also believes that Europe retains “a leading role” in the negotiations, but urges the European Commission to decide faster on the figures.
“It is necessary that we have a clear position on the 2020 target, which is very close, in mid-2014 at the latest,” said Mr Lapouge.
The European Commission is currently divided between supporters of the energy sector, which argue for maintaining the current target of cutting CO2 emissions by 20 per cenet by 2020, and those arguing for a harder stance, of 30 per cent by 2020.
A European Council meeting of EU heads of states and government will be held in March 2014, and is considered as a key milestone in the run up to the conference.
In the meantime, the Warsaw UN conference, which opens on November 11 in Poland, is the first step on the long road to an agreement and should clarify the chances of reaching an agreement in Paris.
To do this, large industrialised countries should provide firm answers on key issues such as finance, which are a precondition for the participation of South countries.
