Tag Archives: Developing States

20 September 2013

New report: responsibility for climate change is shared by all states

A report published in Climate Change reveals that developed states may not bear the overwhelming responsibility for climate change. Both developing and developed states ‘may be almost equally responsible for contributing to climate change.’

The report states that the question of which states have been contributing the most to climate change depends on the choices that are made in calculating both current and historic emissions. The authors conclude that: ‘The results presented in this paper show the importance of the choices that can be made when calculating historical contributions of countries. Such choices have to be made by the policy-makers when negotiating a future international climate agreement.’

The authors distinguish between contributions of states to climate change and their responsibility for it, which according to them may be balanced by emissions that are needed to fulfill their citizens’ ‘basic needs’ (e.g. heating and cooking).

Source: Climate News Network | Climate responsibility ’is shared by all’
Source: Michel G. J. den Elzen, Jos G. J. Olivier, Niklas Höhne, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Countries’ contributions to climate change: effect of accounting for all greenhouse gases, recent trends, basic needs and technological progress, Climate Change, September 2013

9 May 2012

EU contributions to the ‘Green Climate Fund’ uncertain after 2012

Negotiations on the amount of money European Union (EU) member states will contribute to the ‘Green Climate Fund’ after 2012 (for the period 2013-2020) have been unsuccessful so far. In light of the economic crisis, some of the EU member states argue against any firm commitment to contribute to the Climate Fund after 2012.

The Green Climate Fund was established by international agreement within the framework of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aiming to provide financial support for developing States to cope with the effects of climate change. Although the aim of this fund was to raise up to 100 billion dollars a year by 2020, the EU member states have merely given a clear pledge for funding until the end of 2012.

Source: Reuters | EU nations get cold feet over climate change fund

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