UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) speaking with Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference

Towards a “Green New Deal”

UN climate change talks in Poland

Representatives of nearly 200 countries met in Poznań, Poland on 1–12 December 2008, for the latest United Nations Climate Change Conference. They mapped out what needs to be done over the next twelve months to achieve a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the legally binding regime for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions that expires at the end of 2012. In December 2009, a conference will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, where negotiations are expected to conclude with a new pact that would enter into force in 2013.

Investing in a green future

“The world is watching us. The next generation is counting on us. We must not fail,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates at the High-Level Segment of the conference. He went on to underline that the world is facing two crises: climate change and the global economy. “But these crises present us with a great opportunity — an opportunity to address both challenges simultaneously. Managing the global financial crisis requires massive global stimulus. A big part of that spending should be an investment — an investment in a green future. An investment that fights climate change, creates millions of green jobs and spurs green growth. We need a Green New Deal,” Mr Ban said — a deal that works for all nations, rich as well as poor.

Mr Ban urged delegates to come up with a long-term vision. “We need a basic framework for cooperative action starting today, not in 2012. Within this framework, industrialized countries must set ambitious long-term goals, coupled with mid-term emission reduction targets. Developing countries need to limit the growth of their emissions as well. To do so, they will need robust financial and technological support — not just promises, but tangible results,” he said. Mr Ban also stressed that adaptation will be key. “Change must be integrated with strategies for development and poverty alleviation. One without the other means failure for both,” he said, adding that “the world’s poorest should not suffer first and worst from a problem they did least to create”.

ITU and the UN delivering as one

ITU/J.M. Ferré ITU Deputy Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, addressing the side event on “ICT and climate change: Finding solutions”

A side event in Poznań saw the launch of a new report “Acting on climate change: the UN system delivering as one”, prepared by the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination. ITU Deputy Secretary-General Houlin Zhao attended the event and outlined ITU’s important role in tackling the issues, given the essential part played by information and communication technologies (ICT) in monitoring and mitigating the effects of climate change, as well as in emergency telecommunications following natural disasters.

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Yvo de Boer, noted that a new climate change pact would need to be implemented effectively on the ground and said the “Delivering as One” initiative could make an enormous contribution to this and to enhancing public awareness.

Through this initiative, the United Nations system is acting as an effective conduit of international action on an unprecedented scale. The initiative brings together the system’s expertise and ongoing work in diverse areas — ranging from science and technology to agriculture, transport, forestry, and reduction of disaster risks — aimed at tackling climate change and adapting to it.

ITU is contributing actively to this coordinated effort. In particular, it is fostering a global understanding of how ICT are crucial in meeting the challenge of climate change. At the conference in Poznań, ITU was organizer of a side event under the theme “ICT and climate change: Finding solutions”, jointly hosted with the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), and the European Business Council for Sustainable Energy (e5).

Speaking at the event, ITU Deputy Secretary-General Houlin Zhao stressed that “technology has been, and always will be, a major driver of change — and technology has now taken industry and society to the verge of important economic and social developments.” He added that these developments offer major economic gains to businesses and governments, life-altering personal benefits to individuals, and a meaningful contribution to the health of the planet. ICT can help, for example, by significantly reducing the energy consumption of other sectors. “As we increasingly digitize the economy, we move bits and bytes wherever possible, instead of people and property,” Mr Zhao said. ICT can make the transporting of goods much more efficient, as well as the energy used in our homes and workplaces.

ITU takes the problem of climate change seriously, Mr Zhao told participants. “ITU is committed to connecting the world, and we are committed to connecting it responsibly,” he said.

The opportunities of a low-carbon economy

“Towards a low-carbon economy” was the theme of a second side event organized by ITU, together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE). It focused on how ICT can help the global economy to shift from a high to a low-carbon model.

As well as being an essential step in combating climate change, this move also represents a promising way out of the current global financial crisis, according to a recently released report “Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world”, coordinated by UNEP, the International Labour Organization (ILO), ITUC and IOE.

The report says that efforts to tackle climate change could create millions of new green jobs in the coming decades, such as those related to sustainable energy and to reducing the environmental impact of enterprises and economic sectors. As shown in Figure 1, green jobs in renewable energy are expected to rise from 2.3 million in 2006 to 20 million in 2030.

ITU emphasized that sectors with high potential in this field include energy-efficient buildings, transport and industrial processes, recycling and waste management, and sustainable agriculture and forestry. In all sectors, ICT will be crucial in achieving the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Developing countries could be hardest hit by the effects of climate change — but they also have a particularly large potential for the creation of green jobs, which can act as an economic stimulus.

Partnership with the developing world

The conference in Poznań put finishing touches to the Kyoto Protocol’s Adaptation Fund, paving the way for it to receive projects during 2009. It was agreed that the fund, fed by voluntary contributions and a share of proceeds from the Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism (CDM), would have a legal capacity granting developing countries direct access.

Under the CDM, projects that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in developing countries and contribute to sustainable development can earn certified emission reduction credits. Countries with a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol buy these credits to cover a portion of their emission-reduction commitments under the treaty. There are now more than 1240 registered CDM projects in 51 countries, and another 3000 projects are in the pipeline for registration.

The CDM Executive Board was asked to explore ways to enhance regional distribution of projects. Progress was also made on a number of issues that are particularly important for developing countries, including disaster mitigation, and the reduction of emissions arising from deforestation. In addition, the conference endorsed the Global Environment Facility’s Poznań Strategic Programme on Technology Transfer. Its aim is to raise the investment that developing countries require both for mitigation and adaptation technologies.

President of the conference, Poland’s Minister of the Environment Maciej Nowicki, commented that “in addition to having agreed the work programme for 2009, we have cleared the decks of many technical issues.” He added that “Poznań is the place where the partnership between the developing and developed world to fight climate change has shifted beyond rhetoric and turned into real action.”

Geothermal boost for East Africa’s electricity

B. Cleary Millions of new jobs could be created in the development of "green" technologies

An example of this partnership was highlighted at the conference by UNEP, which announced that East Africa is set to receive a boost to electricity supplies from a natural resource: the sizeable reservoir of geothermal energy in the Rift Valley. UNEP said its project in Kenya, which involves testing new seismic and drilling technology, has discovered wells of steam able to generate four to five megawatts (and in one case a massive eight megawatts) of electricity. This could lead to an estimated saving of USD 75 million from the costs of building a 70-megawatt installation, as well as reduced electricity prices for consumers.

In addition, by using the new technology that is being tested, the number of wells likely to be needed to achieve 70 megawatts could be as low as 15, compared with more than 30 wells using older methods. Potentially, this could lead to a saving of up to USD 5 million for each well drilled. Kenya has set a goal of generating 1200 megawatts from geothermal energy by 2015.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner told delegates at Poznań that delivering electricity to the two billion people worldwide who as yet have no access — while at the same time combating global warming — is a critical challenge. But geothermal energy is part of the solution. It is “100 per cent indigenous, environmentally-friendly and a technology that has been under-utilized for too long,” he said.

The project in Kenya is backed by the United Nations and funded by the Global Environment Facility. Its results have paved the way for an international effort to expand geothermal operations up and down the Rift Valley, which runs from Mozambique to Djibouti. With the valley offering at least 4000 megawatts of electricity ready to be harvested, “it is time to take this technology off the back burner in order to power livelihoods, fuel development and reduce dependence on polluting and unpredictable fossil fuels,” Mr Steiner underlined.

The road ahead

Thomas Barrat

The climate change conference ended with a clear commitment from governments to shift into full negotiating mode in order to shape an ambitious and effective international response to climate change, to be agreed in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. “We will now move to the next level of negotiations, which involves crafting a concrete negotiating text for the agreed outcome,” said conference president Mr Nowicki. The first draft of the text should be available at a UNFCCC meeting in Bonn, Germany, in June 2009.

“We now have a much clearer sense of where we need to go in designing an outcome which will spell out the commitments of developed countries, the financial support required and the institutions that will deliver that support as part of the Copenhagen outcome,” commented Mr de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.

Mr de Boer also welcomed a plan agreed by European Union (EU) leaders to fight global warming, which was announced on 12 December 2008. “This is a sign of developed countries’ resolve and courage that the world has been waiting for in Poznań,” he commented. The plan reportedly elaborates how all EU member countries will cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. It “shows the world that ambitious emission reduction goals by 2020 are in line with moving economic recovery in a green direction,” Mr de Boer said, adding that “this will contribute to propelling the world towards a strong, ambitious and ratifiable outcome in Copenhagen”.

The pact that will replace the Kyoto Protocol is expected to contain four key elements: ambitious emission reductions by developed countries; mitigation measures by developing nations; financial support by wealthier nations for poorer ones, and strengthened multilateralism.