Major Economies Forum: No Progress Or Climate Ninjas?

Posted on 25. Jun, 2009 by Ross in Asia, Government Policy, North America

After weeks of countries announcing carbon emissions targets in the run up to the Copenhagen conference, this week’s meeting of the world’s biggest polluters at the Major Economies Forum in Mexico was notably silent, with very little news from the proceedings find its way to the media.

So was there no progress at all, or were blades being quietly sharpened behind closed doors ready to strike a sneaky ninja blow to climate change in December?

The indications seem to support the former conclusion. After the news of Japan’s brassy and unambitious target, and the uber-bullish offering from the Russians this week, the conference became a sounding-out period after the momentum of consensus which had been building up until the talks in Bonn seemed to have stalled.

The one statement which made any ripples outside of the conference was unsurprisingly from an American. If there had been any doubts as to the lack of strength of the US Congress’s ambitions to reduce emissions, American climate envoy Todd Stern dispelled them. Referring to calls from the developing world for Western nations to reduce carbon emissions by 40%, he said:

In our judgement [this kind of cut is] not necessary and not feasible given where we are starting from, so it is not on the cards.

Japan, aware of the need to regain some international kudos after only aiming to cut Japanese emissions by 2% over the next ten years, made a deliberately low-key announcement regarding their aim share technology with poorer countries to assist them to cut their carbon emissions. Of course, Japan benefits from using the acts as offsets against its own pollution, further risking the ire of environmentalists: offsetting has become a highly contentious topic recently, with expectations that the Copenhagen conference will set strict limits on the proportion of emissions which countries will be able to offset.

The constant backroom manoeuvring will continue next at side meetings at the G8 summit in Italy on July 9th.

Image by Esparta @ Flickr