COP 21: Consensus Emerging on 5-year Reviews
/On the third day of the Paris Agreement negotiations, a consensus is emerging that countries should be evaluated every 5 years to monitor progress towards curbing emissions. Periodic reviews have the benefit of ensuring that countries (and the international community) are aware that they are or are not meeting their emissions reductions commitments. They also create an opportunity to impose further reductions if climate science continues to paint a bleak picture. Here's Reuters:
Climate negotiators in Paris are drawing close to resolving one of the sticking points for a breakthrough emissions pact by favoring a five-year review period on promised greenhouse gas cuts, a top official said on Wednesday.Regular reviews are seen as a crucial part of any agreement since countries' current pledges to cut emissions - submitted by 185 nations to the United Nations - will fail to prevent temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, seen as a dangerous level.Countries have disagreed as to how often audits of those plans should take place. While many major emitters including China, the United States and the European Union supported a five-year period, a term included in an outline U.N. text last month, others such as India have been reluctant to commit."It seems now there is a growing consensus that (reviews) will be every five years," U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres told a news conference on the third day of talks.There was still little progress on thornier issues, though, such as funding for developing nations and a long-term goal for phasing out fossil fuels.
