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Cancun deliberates carbon sequestration
Ministers at the UN climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, began a high-level meeting on Monday (Tuesday in Jakarta)
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inisters at the UN climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, began a high-level meeting on Monday (Tuesday in Jakarta).
They plan to adopt drafts of decisions, including on the use of technology to inject emissions into underground storage instead of releasing it to the atmosphere.
The technology, known as carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), has been a hotly debated issue in the last three years, with detractors warning of unstable geological formations and seabeds, such as in Indonesia, which supports the use of CCS technology.
Negotiators proposed two options for ministers to decide on whether carbon emissions captured by the CCS could be traded in carbon markets, known as the carbon development mechanism (CDM).
Under the CDM, developing countries could host projects to slash emissions that could be sold to developed nations to offset emissions.
A ton of emission reduction from energy is currently worth between US$5 and $10.
“The advances should be seen as a positive sign for the conference as a whole,” Patricia Espinosa, the president of the conference and Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, said.
She said the move was significant as it presented ministers with only two clear options on the issue.
Indonesia hailed the draft decision, saying CCS technology could allow the country to use abundant amounts of coal without the fear of releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, Indonesian delegate Agus Sari told The Jakarta Post.
Greenpeace International’s Cindy Baxter urged parties in Cancun to stop wasting time giving dirty industries more excuses to continue with business as usual.
“The fossil fuel industry has plenty of money of its own, it doesn’t need to steal money meant to get renewable energy to the poorest countries — which is exactly what promoting the CCS into the CDM would not only allow, but actively sponsor,” Baxter said.
Experts blame coal-based fuel combustion as the main source of greenhouse gas emissions, which leads to a warming of the planet.
Ministers from 194 countries will have until Dec. 10 to reach a final say on draft decisions submitted by two working groups regarding emission cut targets, adaptation, mitigation and technology transfer.
Activists welcomed the draft decisions, but warned ministers to focus more on crucial issues such as emission cut targets.
“There are a lot options in the text that we generally support, however, some items are missing,” Gordon Shepherd, the head of the WWF’s global climate change initiative, said. “What is missing is a clear and formal recognition that there is a significant gap between current pledges [on emission cuts] and the goal.”
Oxfam said key questions remained unanswered in the text on how to settle the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the only international binding treaty on emission cuts.
“Success in Cancun requires more than a quelling of political tensions and must ensure that decisions are taken that deliver concrete results ,” Oxfam America’s Ben Grossman said.
