Global Warming Negotiations in Doha End with a Focus on Action at Home
WASHINGTON (December 8, 2012) - The United Nations climate talks in Doha, Qatar ended Saturday with key countries agreeing to guidelines on how to track progress toward meeting their commitments and set a path toward a stronger legal agreement in 2015.
Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), made the following statement from Doha:
“This year has been filled with devastating wake-up calls that global warming is already impacting us. Failure to act will hurt people and communities in the United States and around the world.
"With the agreement in Doha, countries can now focus on following through on the commitments they made to reduce emissions at home, build stronger efforts to support action by developing countries, and improve the transparency of their actions.
“Countries have begun rolling up their sleeves to enact new standards and policies that will lay the foundation for even greater carbon pollution reductions. These efforts will be supported by the progress made at the climate negotiations, but real progress will only occur if we win the fights in the capitals, boardrooms, and courtrooms of the key countries.”
The agreements in Doha:
· Outlined the clear path to negotiating even stronger action in 2015 that will include actions by all key countries.
· Finalized key guidelines on how developed and developing countries will monitor and report their emissions and track progress towards their emissions reduction commitments.
· Reaffirmed the need to continue investing in efforts to support developing countries in deploying clean energy, reducing deforestation emissions, and supporting the most vulnerable countries in strengthening their resilience to climate change countries.
· Finalized the second round of targets for a number of developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol.
Earlier this week, NRDC released an innovative proposal that could cut carbon emissions from existing U.S. power plants - the biggest emitters of carbon pollution - by 26 percent by 2020 using existing laws. For more information on the NRDC proposal, see
http://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution-standards/.
And for more insight on the global climate negotiations, see Jake's blogs here: