The First Place Fossil Goes To The US For Downgrading Developed Country MRV
Comparability between those inside the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and those outside is essential to underpinning a regime built on trust and transparency. The US has been consistently blocking progress on MRV inside the talks.
This is all the more strange because in Copenhagen the US pushed hard on China to be more robust in its accounting and reporting of emissions. Now the tables
have turned. If the US is serious about a 2015 deal they need to count their carbon.
Their blocking is counter-intuitive. The US has some of the most robust transparency and accounting procedures in the whole world, but simply has an allergy to replicating
these at an international level. The key to securing a global binding treaty is trust; the US knows more than anyone that transparency and accountability help reassure all
countries that they each are all doing what they said they would.
What the US, and their minions, like Japan and Canada, are doing is corrupting their carbon accounting.
Ray of the Day goes to the United Kingdom for being the first mover on announcing post FSF pledge. The UK announced today its climate finance will be
£1.8bn over the next two years, which is a 40% increase on FSF levels, with 50% of it being dedicated to adaptation.
This announcement sets a constructive tone to the negotiations on finance here in Doha. We urge other developed countries to start putting money on the table and
commit to post FSF going up not down. While this commitment is certainly noteworthy and welcome, in other circumstances it may not have met the “Ray of the Day’s” stringent standards.
What makes it worthy of such a coveted recognition is that the UK government has gone first. Rather holding back its commitment to exact concessions from other Parties, the UK has done much to create a positive dynamic by putting it forward early in the Ministerial session, and with no apparent strings attached. We look forward to other donors coming forward in similar fashion over the next three days, and we think that this cooperative approach is one that all Parties should emulate.
FAQs