Royal Dutch Shell Plc is among the companies supporting CO2 trading under the climate talks as a cheap way to encourage cleaner emissions, said Graeme Sweeney, executive vice president for CO2 at Shell, Europe's biggest oil company.
Pollution Price
"CO2 pricing that's supported through carbon markets delivers the lowest cost, the fastest, and the most effective response to climate change," Sweeney said. The company would like to see carbon capture and storage, a technology that pumps power plant emissions for permanent underground storage, included in the UN's Clean Development Mechanism carbon-offset program, he said.
Financial austerity measures in 10 nations, including the U.S., Japan, Spain and Germany, will cut spending on climate- protection measures by $45 billion in the five years through 2015, Ernst & Young forecast on Nov. 17. The measures include renewable-energy subsidies and tax credits and pollution- abatement programs.
"Governments of the leading countries of the world are likely to drastically slow down their investments in sustainability amid public spending cuts that could escalate if the debt crisis worsens in Europe," said Juan Costa Climent, E&Y's London-based climate sustainability chief, a former Spanish trade secretary. "In this context, reaching an agreement in Durban seems impossible."
Share Of Demand
Renewable energy now accounts for a small proportion of global demand, about 4 percent when counted with biomass and generators powered by waste, according to the International Energy Agency. That level will rise to 14 percent by 2035 under the Paris-based organization's central forecast. Oil, coal and gas that today have 75 percent of demand will see that figure drop to 62 percent over the same period, the IEA says.
With an extension to Kyoto in its current form unlikely, the 27-nation EU bloc will push for a clear path charting when countries will make legally binding commitments, EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in an interview. The EU, which accounts for 11 percent of global emissions, will seek to reach a new, expanded treaty with the world's biggest emitters.
"You cannot keep momentum in a political process just by implementing old decisions," Hedegaard said. "A road map with a timetable would mark one significant step forward."
Envoys at last year's climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, set a goal to contain global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) since the 19th century. Pledges made so far, which aren't legally binding, are insufficient, according to the IEA.
"With current policies in place, global temperatures are set to increase 6 degrees Celsius, which has catastrophic implications," IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol said. "If as of 2017 there is not a start of a major wave of new and clean investments, the door to 2 degrees will be closed."
The South African organizers want to ensure new targets are set under Kyoto, which developing countries value because it holds the developed world to account for more than a century of climate-warming emissions.