As delegates start negotiations in Durban, the major issues of the Kyoto Protocol and a “Roadmap to 2020” are dominating the news wires. The big picture story is very important, but in the meantime nations need to use this meeting to make real progress in a number of smaller but important areas. Despite the rhetoric, an alternative global framework is slowly emerging from the process, albeit one that won’t immediately deliver the sharp reductions that we know are needed, but nevertheless one that has the prospect of engaging the business community and catalyzing significant project activity in many countries. In particular, the developing country emission reduction pledges which emerged from Copenhagen and Cancun in response to the agreed 2°C global ambition are being progressively distilled into a series of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), or bottom-up national/sector policies and commitments.
There still remain very substantial gaps to fill. Recently, through its Vision 2050 project, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) called again for the development of “a carbon price and a network of linked emissions trading frameworks . . . “ in combination with technology development policies as the principal systematic and lowest cost approaches to reducing emissions. Although such a comprehensive approach remains distant, the issues of technology and financing are being dealt with to some extent through the development of the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism and the Green Climate Fund. These mechanisms, in combination with the development of NAMA programmes in key countries can make a real difference, but a number of essential steps should be taken in Durban to fully activate this process;
- Full business involvement is critical to getting the large scale investment needed. As business we need to better understand and even contribute to the development of proposals through an open consultation process and stakeholder meetings. Then, as countries begin defining and implementing NAMAs, partnerships with business should be established through which proposals can be developed and therefore attract the necessary investment.
- The Green Climate Fund needs to begin operating, with a particular focus on large scale emission reduction opportunities in power generation and transport in emerging economies. It’s also important that the fund is available to a broad range of emission reduction technologies.
- Delegates must recognize the long term importance of a carbon market and therefore ensure that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the one existing mechanism able to project a carbon price into the entire developing world, has a clear way forward independent of a global agreement on targets. The opportunity to confirm the acceptability of Carbon Capture and Storage projects under this mechanism should not be lost.
- Finally, the COP should seek to establish a means by which the Technology Mechanism can support and fund the creation of local and regional technology platforms tied to NAMA delivery.
These are modest steps, somewhat esoteric in nature for the layman, but essential for real progress. We recognize that the meeting in Durban can only deliver so much, but the above is not outside the grasp of a single meeting. A recent Shell document that I have worked on gives more detail on what is needed from Durban.
To download the document, click here -> Structural Approaches (Durban).
I am one with you in your opinion for reducing GHG Emissions, especially the practical solution. We really need to act now before it is too late. The alternative source of energy like solar, wind and water power are expensive and take time to replace the usage of fossil fuel aside from the fact that the variance of CO2 reduction from that of the CO2 produced from utilizing fossil fuel is very negligible. As long as the industrialized countries like US, China, India, Japan, Russia and Europe continue to use fossil fuel for their industries, ignoring the very objective of the Kyoto Protocol, CO2 production will surely increase and it will not be a long time that the feared 2- degree Celsius Centigrade increase of the earth’s temperature will be met. Scientists project that this will be irreversible by then and it will be very disastrous for our mother earth and mankind. Nobody is exempted, young and old, men and women, any race or religion bear the wrath of global warming- many will die.
As I reside in a third world country, the Philippines, for which I am only unknown and just a small voice, may I take this opportunity through your blog, to inform the world that here I got a practical, easy, cheap, measurable, environment friendly, natural, fast, and globally doable solution to capture, sequester, store and /or reduce greatly the present production of CO2 and further neutralize/ alter the chemical composition of billions of tons of trapped CO2 in our atmosphere that causes global warming and climate change within the decade or even before the year 2020. The technology will not prevent US, China, India, Europe, Japan or any other industrialized country from utilizing fossil fuel as much as they can for their industrial machines, power generating plants and transport system. Instead, they will have to use the innovative product to be blended with the fossil fuel right in the fuel storage/tank so as to catalyze the conversion of the CO2 present in the fossil fuel into energy, thus making the fuel more efficient. When this happens, with more efficient fuel, CO2 emission from fossil fuel is reduced by 80% to 90%. The remaining 10% to 20% will be allowed to be emitted into the atmosphere to catalyze/ capture or sequester CO2 that is suspended or trapped there for hundred years causing global warming. I think this will be globally acceptable by users of fossil fuel and the green activists. Therefore, let us start using fossil fuel with the product so that the race against the global warming time bomb will actually begin. The global network which will be used to reach every carbon producer in this planet is ready. The challenge is for each of us to act to reduce CO2 using fossil fuel now mixed with the product. Billion users everyday, means means billion of tons of CO2 reduction every year. The ultimate result is, we are saving mother earth and the whole mankind from environmental degradation and extreme poverty that no amount of money or anything of value in this world can equalize. For further information, please try to visit http://www.mannacatalyst.com and http://www.dcvprogram.org
Mr Valencia, I have a question. Fossil fuel release their energy via oxidation of carbon and hydrogen to cabon dioxide and dihydrogen oxide. I’m wondering how your catalyst changes the reaction above. I’m disappointed that climate change advisor to Shell is unable to comment. Perhaps it is too scientific 🙂