The Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) on Monday said it had received pledges from 55 countries to limit and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020. The international climate change body said the countries together accounted for about 78% of global GHG emissions from energy use.
The nations submitted their GHG emission reduction targets to the UN by Jan. 31, which was the deadline agreed to under the Copenhagen Accord.
Among industrialized countries, the commitments come from Australia, Canada, Croatia, the European Union (EU) and its member states, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, and the U.S. Commitments also came from 23 developing countries, including such major emitters as Brazil, China, India, the Republic of Korea, and South Africa.
In a letter (PDF) sent to the UN by the Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern last week, the U.S. committed to reduce emissions “in the range of” 17% below 2005 levels by 2020, “recognizing that the final target will be reported to the Secretariat in light of enacted legislation.”
The EU proposed a conditional target that would start at a 20% reduction from 1990 levels by 2020, but would increase to 30% from the same levels if other developed nations took on comparable national targets.
India and China agreed to reduce growth of their carbon intensity per unit of gross domestic product from business-as-usual levels by 20% and 25% and 40% to 45% respectively. The so-called BASIC nation bloc—Brazil, South Africa, India, and China—issued a joint statement from a meeting in New Delhi in which they stressed the non-binding political nature of the Copenhagen Accord and any related emission targets, and the importance of continuing the two-track UN negotiating process.
Sources: UNFCC, U.S. Dept. of State, EERE
