Japan, Australia stick to targets as Copenhagen Accord deadline looms

The governments of Japan and Australia today confirmed that they would stick with their existing 2020 emission reduction targets, with just four days until a 31 January deadline to submit goals under the Copenhagen Accord. Japan is committed to a 25% reduction below 1990 levels by 2020, if “all major economies” sign up to an international agreement and adopt ambitious targets, according to the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Australia’s climate change minister Penny Wong meanwhile said the country was committed to a 5% reduction on 2000 emissions by 2020, but would consider a target in the range of 15-25%, also depending on the targets taken by other nations.
“A lot of the big developed countries will submit targets by 31 January,” said Ben Caldecott, head of UK and EU climate change and energy policy at London-based asset manager Climate Change Capital (CCC). Source: Carbon Finance

France, Canada and Norway are also expected to accept the Copenhagen Accord, according to US Climate Action Network. The political agreement calls for developed countries to submit emission reduction targets to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat by Sunday, and for developing countries to propose mitigation actions by the same date.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, last week said the deadline was ‘soft’, describing the accord as “a living document” that countries will add to over the year.

“The proof of the overall success of the Copenhagen Accord is going to be the adoption of domestic measures and actions,” said Abyd Karmali, president of the Carbon Markets & Investors Association.

The moves by Japan and Australia follow a meeting of ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China – dubbed the ‘BASIC’ countries – last weekend, at which the four countries highlighted their support for the accord, but stressed the “centrality” of the UN process and called for an additional five negotiating sessions this year before a summit in Mexico at the end of the year.

The BASIC statement was clear that the accord “is a tool to help advance negotiations”, said Andrei Marcu, Geneva-based head of regulatory affairs at trading house Mercuria, adding that he expects “a significant number of countries” to make their commitments known. However, he added that the 31 January deadline was always “difficult to achieve”, due to the accord being agreed so late in December and the requirement for intra-governmental consultations.

But Karmali noted that the deadline was an attempt to “maintain momentum ... after 31 January, there’s not much of a roadmap.”

“There’s a lot of shadow-boxing as people try to understand” how to turn the accord into a full regime and guess at what the US will do, said Nick Mabey, chief executive of London-based think-tank E3G. The US was instrumental in getting the text agreed with major developing countries in Copenhagen, but has since been silent on its intentions. Before the December meeting, President Barack Obama had pledged to reduce emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.

“Things were thrown up in the air in Copenhagen – it’ll be interesting to see who’s prepared to work together,” Mabey said.

Marcu added: “At some point, the question is: who is going to take the initiative and host meetings of the Copenhagen Accord signatories?”

“We obviously have the UNFCCC process which will continue, but we’re entering a phase in which climate policy negotiations are more fragmented,” said CCC’s Caldecott, adding that talks are likely to take place in other fora.