Friday, 14 November 2014 02:18
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GLOBAL efforts to fight climate change received a huge boost this week when leaders of the two biggest polluters in the world pledged ambitious goals to cut emissions. However, the way is still rocky with more countries need to join the effort and political support needed not to derail pledges back home.
On Wednesday China and the US pledged to take ambitious action to limit greenhouse gases, aiming to inject fresh momentum into the global fight against climate change ahead of make-or-break climate talks in Paris next year.
President Barack Obama announced that the US would move much faster in cutting its levels of pollution. Chinese President Xi Jinping also agreed to cap China’s emissions in the future. The unexpected breakthrough by the world’s two largest polluters, unveiled on the last day of Obama’s trip to China, reflected both nations’ desire to display a united front, reported international analysts.
The US set a new target to reduce its emissions of heat-trapping gases by 26% to 28% by 2025, compared with 2005 levels. That’s a sharp increase from earlier in Obama’s presidency, when he pledged to cut emissions by 17% by 2020.
China has set a target for its emission to peak by 2030, or earlier if possible, but has not put any benchmarks in place. President Xi also pledged to increase the share of energy that China will derive from sources other than fossil fuels.
UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon on the sidelines of the 25th Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) praised the development and called on other countries to follow the example. The new pledges provide much needed impetus to signifying that the tide is turning on clogged climate change deals that have been bogged down well before Copenhagen in 2009.
Leaders from Southeast Asian nations have also confirmed their determination to unveil respective national targets for mitigation efforts “well in advance of” a key global climate change meeting scheduled for December next year. Those who are ready are also encouraged to put forward their” intended nationally determined contributions” by the first quarter next year, the leaders said Wednesday at ASEAN in the Myanmar capital.
The ASEAN leaders also urged developed countries to continue to demonstrate leadership and come forward early with ambitious emission reduction targets by March 2015, and help the developing countries in climate change efforts.
Cyclone Nargis hitting Myanmar in 2008 and the Typhoon Haiyan lashing the Philippines last year as well as the 10th anniversary of the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 has pushed the danger of dealing with natural disasters to the limelight as never before.
Even before the fresh pledges have made it around the world storm clouds are looming. President Obama’s landmark agreement with China to cut greenhouse gas pollution is a bet by the president and Democrats that on the issue of climate change, American voters are far ahead of Washington’s warring factions and that the environment will be a winning cause in the 2016 presidential campaign. But Republicans are already planning to limit Obama’s efforts insisting the pledges are unrealistic and would hurt the economy by cutting down jobs.
China, embattled with slowing growth and transitioning economy will face similar challenges at home, making the new gains far from certain. Can the world’s top polluters really become its saviors?
