E3G

Creating a secure climate: the G8 leadership challenge

By Jennifer Morgan

Climate change will be at the top of the agenda when leaders of the world’s major economies gather in Japan for the G8 Summit in July. The science is clear on the need for an ambitious and rapid response. Almost all heads of government now have a basic understanding that without climate security they will be unable to meet their economic or development goals. This makes reducing global greenhouse emissions a vital national interest and a core issue for international diplomacy.

So writes E3G’s Jennifer Morgan, in a comment article published in the May 2008 edition of The World Today - the monthly magazine of Chatham House. A pdf version of the article is attached for download.

Creating a secure climate

BY 2050, THE WORLD WILL NEED to cut its emissions dramatically, to at least half of 1990 levels. The challenge is to agree how this will be shared between countries and create the political conditions for national leaders to sign up to a global climate deal.

The starting point for the negotiations is the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its subsequent Kyoto Protocol, agreed five years later. Kyoto set emission reduction targets for developed countries up to 2012 and created the carbon market which includes the Clean Development Mechanism to finance complementary action in developing nations.

Although the Protocol was rejected by President George Bush’s administration, it was ratified by enough countries to enter into force in 2005. With the exception of Canada, all Kyoto ratifiers are likely to meet their targets through domestic action or by purchasing carbon credits. Kyoto should be the basis for the post-2012 agreement as it contains many of the key elements required for a comprehensive deal.