Climate Change News - December 3, 2013

Last Minute Deal at Warsaw Climate Talks Gives Nations One Year to Create Carbon Targets

On November 24, negotiators from 192 nations reached an agreement at the Warsaw climate talks to disclose carbon targets by early 2015. The two-week meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 19th annual Conference of the Parties (COP-19) was tasked with laying the groundwork for 2015’s  COP-21 in Paris, where a successor to the Kyoto Protocol is expected to be finalized. The meeting was marked by intransigence on the definition of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction commitments between developed and developing nations, and last minute negotiations centered on one word in the agreement, “commitment.” China’s chief negotiator, Su Wei, stated that “only developed countries should have commitments.” A last-minute agreement was reached by changing wording in the document allowing for a more flexible interpretation between the goals of developing and developed countries. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christina Figueres commented on the agreement, stating, “We have seen essential progress. But let us again be clear that we are witnessing ever more frequent, extreme weather events, and the poor and vulnerable already paying the price. Now governments, and especially developing nations, must go back to do their homework so they can put their plans on the table ahead of the Paris conference.”

For additional information see: The Guardian , The BBC , The Boston Herald , The Irish Times , Politico , Background information on structure of UNFCC

International Agreement Reached on Mechanism to Address Loss and Damage from Climate Impacts

The U.N. climate negotiations in Warsaw closed with an agreement to launch the “Warsaw international mechanism for loss and damage associated with climate change impacts.”  The mechanism, established under the Cancun Adaptation Framework, aims to better protect the developing countries that are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including loss and damages associated with “extreme weather events and slow onset events such as rising sea levels.”  Recognizing the importance of adaptation to climate change impacts, the decision also crucially acknowledged that “loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change includes, and in some cases involves more than, that which can be reduced by adaptation.”  Developed nations had blocked previous efforts to create a loss and damage mechanism, but relented in exchange for vague financing language.  Work to implement the mechanism will begin when the executive committee meets for the first time in March.  "The big message coming out of Warsaw is that we have an agreement to do something substantive on loss and damage," said Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCAD). "It is the beginning of something, it's not the end."

For additional information see: Thomson Reuters Foundation , Text of Agreement

Nations Announce Partnership with Gas Industry to Reduce Methane Emissions

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern and other key climate officials announced at the U.N. climate talks that the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) will soon launch a partnership with major oil and gas companies to reduce methane gas emissions. The effort will require the CCAC and industry representatives to draft a framework that will guide industry action to reduce methane loss from venting, leakage, and flaring. The methane partnership was one of 10 actions announced by the CCAC in Warsaw. Because the goal of the main Warsaw climate talks was to work towards a 2015 agreement on emissions reductions to begin in 2020, the CCAC is seeking to fill this “ambition gap” by focusing on efforts that can be made in the meantime.  “We have a range of initiatives that hold meaningful promise, and we are moving forward, all in a way that fully complements the aggressive action we all need to take on CO2,” explained Stern. The CCAC is a cooperative initiative launched in 2012 by the U.N. Environment Programme and six countries (including the United States) that has grown to 34 member countries and 33 non-state partners, such as the World Bank and the World Health Organization. The goal of the CCAC is to reduce methane and other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), which do not remain in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, but are much more potent as warming agents.  

For additional information see: Think Progress , CCAC Press Release

Study Finds U.S. Methane Emissions 50% Higher than EPA Estimates

On November 25, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published research findings that indicate U.S. methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG), are up to 1.5 times higher than estimates provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 1.7 times higher than the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR). Fifteen researchers analyzed 12,700 measurements of atmospheric methane concentrations sampled in 2007 and 2008 by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. EPA and EDGAR, by comparison, calculate average methane discharge rates for sources.  In the United States, the oil and gas industry and livestock are the major sources of methane emissions, with contributions from landfills and other sources. Researchers found that emissions from cattle operations are twice as high as EPA and EDGAR inventories, and emissions from fossil fuel operations are roughly five times larger than previously calculated. The findings also demonstrate that oil and gas operations in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas produced five times more methane than prior estimates, and may be responsible for up to 25 percent of anthropogenic methane emissions in the United States. These results come a few months after the EPA reduced national methane emission estimates by 25 to 30 percent, citing reductions in emissions from the oil and gas industry, coal mining, and landfills. As EPA and states craft new emissions standards aimed at reducing emissions, the research findings are particularly salient, according to Dan Lashof, director of the climate and clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Methane is a powerful climate change pollutant, and the study gives greater impetus to the EPA and states to establish stronger standards to reduce leaks from the oil and gas system,” said Lashof.

For additional information see: The New York Times , Bloomberg Businessweek , Study