EU Kyoto Negoitator John Prescott has given his response to President Obama’s speech, saying he must do more to help secure a political agreement that is credible .
In a vlog on his New Earth Deal website (www.newearthdeal.org) he says:
“Well I’ve heard President Obama’s speech here in Copenhagen and I do have to say to him, it’s wonderful to hear an American President say we’ve got to do something and get action not talk.
“But I was a little bit put out when he said nothing has happened since the Kyoto. That’s certainly true in America but not in Europe. We lived up to a lot of our Kyoto oblogations and the deal President Obama has announced is still less than what European nations have observed since Kyoto.
“It’s still the largest and wealthiest nation and the greatest emitter. So hopefully that speech is a statement of his position at the moment. But when he gets in the room with Gordon and others he’s going to have to offer a little bit more.
“As I told the Chinese environment minister, he’s got to wriggle a little bit more and Europe’s got to be talking about 30% as the minimum not the maximum.
“All these three groups have got to make a change so let’s hope that’s going to happen in the next couple of hours so we do have a political agreement that is credible.”
Former UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Convention (COP15.)
Mr Prescott was there as the Rapporteur on Climate Change for the Council of Europe and leading its New Earth Deal campaign for a fairer deal for the developing countries. You can follow his daily diary at www.newearthdeal.org.
Kyoto negotiator Prescott issues Stern Warning to US at Copenhagen
Former UK Deputy Prime Minister and EU Kyoto negotiator John Prescott issued a stern warning to the US that they must do much more to help a secure a deal at Copenhagen.
Speaking at the Danish Parliament to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Mr Prescott publicly criticised the US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern for saying emissions was ‘just maths.’
Mr Prescott, who is at Copenhagen as the Council of Europe’s Rapporteur on Climate Change, said:
“I was very concerned with remarks from the US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern in which he pointed out that China, by 2020, will be emitting far more than America.
“Todd Stern also said that with emissions “you’ve just got to do the maths. This isn’t a matter of politics or morality or anything else. It’s just maths.”
“Well let me give my interpretation of the maths. The US emits 20 tonnes of CO2 per person a year compared to about 6 tonnes for China, 2 for India and less than 1 for Africa. The US also, according to the World Bank, has a GDP per person seven times higher than China.
“Such remarks offend anyone with a sense of fairness and certainly goes against the agreed UN principle that governs climate change negotiations – that of common and differentiated responsibilities, as we emphasised in our Council of Europe resolution. In other words, the polluter pays.
“That attitude certainly makes the relationship and the possibility of an agreement between rich and poorer countries, much more difficult.
“It’s not just about maths. It’s about equity and social justice, which President Obama has talked an awful lot about in the last few months.”
Mr Prescott, who negotiated on behalf of the EU at Kyoto in 1997, said President Obama should make the most of his executive power to increase the US emissions target.
He added: “These two great nations of China and the US need to redouble their efforts to find an agreement.
“It is said that China’s target of reducing carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020 underestimates what it will actually achieve.
“And the US President now has the power, confirmed by his courts, to act to reduce the threat of greenhouse gases to the heath of his nation without the necessary agreement of Congress.
“That’s why I think its possible that the US could maker a greater contribution than its target of a 17% emissions cut.
“So the world calls upon China, the US and Europe to make a greater contribution to secure a credible political agreement at Copenhagen. Or as the Council of Europe has called it, a New Earth Deal.
“Because if we don’t, our children and our children’s children will never forgive us.”
Ends
Full text of Mr Prescott’s address at the Danish Parliament
It feels that 12 years on I’m back at Kyoto. All those hopes and fears of an agreement (or lack of one) are running rife through the Bella Centre.
Having met and talked to a number of my former Kyoto negotiators here, we’re all agreed it seems to be following the same path.
So is this going to be Kyoto 2 or a separate Copenhagen agreement?
I have to say I’m in the Kyoto 2 camp.
It has to build on the existing treaty – not replace it.
That may involve a twin track process in the final political agreement that runs alongside Kyoto and leads to a legally binding agreement at a future COP.
I believe we’re 80% there on a deal, just as we were at Kyoto at this stage. This is particularly impressive as back in 1997 we found agreement from 47 industrial countries – now we’ve got to find consensus from 192!
However there’s still a long way to go and just as we experienced back then, there’ll be lots of walking and talking, and negotiations into the night.
Also as at Kyoto, Europe’s playing a major part in forging that agreement.
Gordon Brown in getting the leaders to come here for the final push and Ed Miliband working night and day as the Chair of the committee dealing with the finance for the agreement.
Ed is handling the pivotal issue that will make or break a Copenhagen deal.
There are of course other issues such more funding, greater emissions cuts, the timetable for an agreement along with verification of the commitments.
In fact our Council of Europe resolution called for the right to live in a clean, safe and healthy environment a human right.
However we really do need to avoid the elephant traps – the late issues such as a demand from G77 to commit the agreement to stabilising the increase in temperature from two degrees to 1.5.
I understand their motive and the intention but it threatens the possibility of an agreement in the last 60 hours, as the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has made clear. Failure is not an option here.
We must also be careful about intemperate language during these negotiations.
I was very concerned with remarks from the US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern in which he pointed out that China, by 2020, will be emitting far more than America.
Todd Stern also said that with emissions “you’ve just got to do the maths. “This isn’t a matter of politics or morality or anything else. It’s just maths.”
Well let me give my interpretation of the maths. The US emits 20 tonnes of CO2 per person a year compared to about 6 tonnes for China, 2 for India and less than 1 for Africa. The US also, according to the World Bank, has a GDP per person seven times higher than China.
Such remarks offend anyone with a sense of fairness and certainly goes against the agreed UN principle that governs climate change negotiations – that of common and differentiated responsibilities, as we emphasised in our Council of Europe resolution.
In other words, the polluter pays.
That attitude certainly makes the relationship and the possibility of an agreement between rich and poorer countries, much more difficult.
It’s not just about maths. It’s about equity and social justice, which President Obama has talked an awful lot about in the last few months.
These two great nations of China and the US need to redouble their efforts to find an agreement.
It is said that China’s target of reducing carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020 underestimates what it will actually achieve.
And the US President now has the power, confirmed by his courts, to act to reduce the threat of greenhouse gases to the heath of his nation without the necessary agreement of Congress.
That’s why I think its possible that the US could maker a greater contribution than its target of a 17% emissions cut.
So the world calls upon China, the US and Europe to make a greater contribution to secure a credible political agreement at Copenhagen. Or as the Council of Europe has called it, a New Earth Deal.
Because if we don’t, our children and our children’s children will never forgive us.
So let the Copenhagen agreement be a testament to future generations that the world had the courage to find a global solution to the global problem of climate change.
Former UK Deputy Prime Minister and EU Kyoto negotiator John Prescott in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Convention (COP15.)
Mr Prescott is there as the Rapporteur on Climate Change for the Council of Europe and leading its New Earth Deal campaign for a fairer deal for the developing countries.
You can follow his daily diary at www.newearthdeal.org
Former UK Deputy Prime Minister and EU Kyoto negotiator John Prescott is in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Convention (COP15.)
Mr Prescott is there as the Rapporteur on Climate Change for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and leading its New Earth Deal campaign for a fairer deal for the developing countries.
You can follow his daily diary here at www.newearthdeal.org
The Council of Europe has welcome President Obama’s decision to go to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
In a statement, John Prescott, the Council of Europe’s Rapporteur on Climate Change said:
“I’m absolutely delighted that the White House has confirmed that President Obama will go to Copenhagen.
“We at the Council of Europe have been calling for the leaders of the US, China and India to follow Gordon Brown’s lead by being there at the UN Climate Change Conference to ensure we get that binding political deal.
“On Monday in Paris, the Council of Europe – which represents 47 countries and 800 million people – passed a resolution asking all three leaders to attend. I repeated this call in the House of Commons during a climate change debate yesterday.
“And last week I impressed upon Premier Wen in a personal meeting in Beijing that China’s leadership must go to Copenhagen.
“Hopefully China and India will now follow Obama’s lead.
“From my experience negotiating for the EU at Kyoto, I know how important it is to have world leaders involved in any last minute settlement.”
The Council of Europe’s Rapporteur on Climate Change John Prescott speaking in the House of Commons, urging President Obama, China’s Premier Wen and India’s Prime Minister Singh to go to Copenhagen.
The Council of Europe has passed a resolution urging all three leaders to attend the UN Climate Change Conference in December in order to secure a deal.
Mr Prescott, who was the EU negotiator at Kyoto, said all word leaders must “sit in that damn room and come to an agreement and don’t let them out before that!”
You can find out more about the Council of Europe’s New Earth Deal for a fairer deal for the developing world at Copenhagen, then go to www.newearthdeal.org
The right to ‘live in a healthy and viable environment’ should be enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights, according to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
PACE’s Rapporteur on Climate Change, former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Kyoto Protocol negotiator John Prescott is backing the call as part of its New Earth Deal campaign to secure a fairer deal at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.
Mr Prescott, who today begins a UK tour of schools at the Globe Academy in Southwark, London delivering a presentation on climate change, Kyoto and Copenhagen as part of UN Climate Week, said:
“In 1949, the Council of Europe drew up the European Convention of Human Rights to ensure that we never again had to endure a global war.
“60 years on, the global threat isn’t from war but from climate change.
“That’s why we propose drafting a new Protocol to the Convention, enshrining the right to a healthy and viable environment as a fundamental human right.”
PACE will recommend the proposal at its Road to Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in Strasbourg, France on Sept 29th as well as calling on the Council of Europe to adopt climate change as one of its core priorities and explore the linkages between climate change and human rights in Europe.
PACE will also call for an ambitious binding global agreement with a clear vision for a future low carbon world – based on more social and environmental equity and recommend that Council of Europe member states and observer states negotiate an integrated package of measures.
Mr Prescott added: “We believe that any deal negotiated must consider the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
“That means that social justice and the reduction of poverty must be at the very heart of any agreement. It also means equalising greenhouse gas emissions per head in each country.
“The climate change we’re experiencing across the world has been caused by the richer developed countries. They must now recognise the central principle that the polluter pays.”
The schools, which are being visited as part of Mr Prescott’s New Earth Deal campaign over the next three days, are:
Globe Academy, London, Pudsey Grangefield, Pudsey, nr Leeds, Parrs Wood High School in Didsbury, Manchester and Yardley’s School, Birmingham.
PACE has partnered with the environmental movie ‘Age of Stupid’ allowing access to use clips from the film in Mr Prescott’s school presentation and on its website.
The UK school tour will be launched on September 21st in London by one the Age of Stupid’s stars, windfarm developer and environmental activist, Piers Guy. His battle against nimbys (‘not in my back yard’ campaigners) opposing his windfarm development in Bedford, England will feature in the presentation.
Age of Stupid Director and founder of 10:10, Franny Armstrong said:
“Everyone at Team Stupid is delighted to join forces with John Prescott as he heads in to schools up and down the country.”
Vital UN climate change talks in Copenhagen are likely to collapse unless rich nations agree a “social justice deal” built around equalising emissions per head in each country, according to the former deputy prime minister John Prescott.
Speaking to the Guardian, Prescott admitted that the formula would require far greater sacrifices by rich nations, especially the US. Prescott, one of three politicians to broker the original UN climate change deal in December 1997, is to become deeply involved in trying to ensure there is a successor to Kyoto.
He met leaders of Barack Obama’s climate change team in Washington a fortnight ago, and is due to travel to China on 8 September at the same time as Lord Mandelson, the business secretary. He will be given an honorary professorship at Xiamen University for his work on climate change.
Prescott will also stage an international conference from 28 September on the principles of a deal for Copenhagen, to be opened by Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and addressed by Al Gore. The conference, organised by the Council of Europe, will have 65 states present.
Prescott is also going to lead a Gore-style campaign in schools in October showing the film The Age of Stupid, starring Pete Postlethwaite, portraying a devastated planet in 2050 owing to world leaders’ failure to act on climate change.
Prescott says: “What I fear is that Copenhagen is a much more difficult nut to crack than Kyoto, far more countries are involved, and we nearly did not succeed at Kyoto. It took a last-minute fix. There are going to be real difficulties, even among the rich countries themselves.”
He is doubtful that the EU member states will even stick to the commitments they make. “For a deal to work it has to have a formula that has an element of equity and social justice in it that reflects the state of each country’s industrial development and its emissions per capita.”
China now emits more carbon than America in absolute terms, owing to the size of its population, but in per capita terms the US emits four or five times as much. Prescott warns: “Rich countries are showing great reluctance to face up to the reality of what rationing carbon means for levels of growth and prosperity in their countries. It is going to be a fundamental change.”
The EU has committed itself to an 80% cut by 2050 and a 20% cut by 2020. The US Senate is due to pass a cap-and-trade bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions by only 17% from 2005 levels by 2020. But even this proposal, regarded as far too little by China and India, is meeting fierce resistance from the US coal industry, which is pouring cash into a lobbying campaign to weaken the resolve of Democrat senators. Prescott says: “From speaking to the Americans I can already see it is clear that they are going to have difficulties even meeting the European target. The steel and coal companies are financing the same kind of campaigns against Copenhagen as they financed against Kyoto.
“What is vital is that America and China come to an agreement, and at the heart of that will be an arrangement on the coal industry. China depends for 70% of its energy on coal, and the US still has a massive coal industry. Coal is still going to remain at the heart of global energy. A realistic agreement will have to recognise coal. You cannot shut it down.
“The west is going to come up with big money on how to finance alternative energy in the developing countries, including clean coal. We have got to crack clean coal technology. China and India are going to want to know how many billions the rich countries are going to put aside to help them make their carbon contributions. That will be one of the big tests at Copenhagen. The fact is that the west has poisoned the world and left continents like Africa in poverty. The west will have up to stump up the cash for clean technology.”
Both Chinese and Indian climate negotiators have recently again refused to offer any targets to cut their emissions. They are insisting that the EU and the US commit themselves to 40% cuts in emissions by 2020 against 1990 baselines. Neither the US nor the EU are anywhere near this position.
Prescott says any agreement cannot be based on 1990 levels for developing countries. “They did not have industrial development at that stage, so we are fighting for the principle of an objective based on carbon tonnes per capita. That is the fairest way forward.”
Copenhagen, he argues, will represent a major infringement on free market economies, even though it will use market mechanisms such as cap and trade to set a price for carbon through rationing.
“What we are beginning to witness is a whole new set of rules for economics, based on rationing resources.”
