Cancun Climate Change Meet: Struggle for Breakthrough

On the second day of the Cancun meet, diplomats are struggling hard to revive the battered climate change process. It is going to be a 12-day gathering, enough time for governments to arrive at some viable deal on a crucial issue facing the entire mankind.

But if the past experience is anything to go by, nothing much will come of this exercise either – more so at a time when nations are having a tough time coping with the global economic meltdown.

Health Effects of Global Warming
Greenhouse effect causes excessive heat to build up in the earth’s atmosphere causing global warming and affects the environment and health.

"The discussions yesterday were generally good, but there are holes," Nina Jamal of Indyact, a watchdog on green and social issues.

"But the negotiations are going to be complex if there is no flexibility by the parties and no political will."

The mood in Cancun remains darkened by memories of the December 2009 Copenhagen summit, where more than 120 world leaders came close to a historic fiasco.

Copenhagen Summit - Much Ado About Nothing
The final accord acknowledges the need to keep temperature rises to no more than 2C, but there is no commitment from anyone to emission reduction to achieve that lofty goal.

They had gone to the Danish capital to bless an expected post-2012 pact to brake man-made greenhouse gases, blamed for driving the planet to a future of flood, drought, rising seas and freakish storms.

Instead, they entered a maze of national interests and reluctance to pick up the tab for easing dependence on fossil fuels, the backbone of the world's energy supply.

Bali Roadmap? US Already Skeptical, Future Uncertain
The White House is trying to distance itself from the Bali roadmap on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. For all the hype the future is indeed uncertain.

To get the process back on track, the 194 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are under pressure in Cancun to consolidate pledges on carbon emissions and devise ways of monitoring these promises.

They are also being urged to give at least an official start to a so-called Green Fund that would help channel hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to climate-vulnerable countries.

Technology transfer, help for coping with climate change and averting carbon emissions by deforestation are other areas that look promising.

But there was no guarantee that the UNFCCC will exorcise the devil of inter-connectedness -- in other words, a country or bloc of countries will refuse to sign up to one particular deal unless it gets a break in another.

In an early sign that this problem could revive, Brazil warned that developing countries expected a decision to extend commitments under the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 as part of an overall deal.

"If we don't have a very clear decision on this in Cancun, it will be impossible to have decisions on other issues because we would not have the necessary balance," its chief negotiator, Luiz Figueiredo, said on Monday.

Source-Medindia