Figueres on COP 18: We Need Domestic Legislation

Before we get an international consensus on a binding treaty under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change we will need to see domestic legislation. Almost 200 Nations have convened for COP 18, but on its own these efforts are inadequate. Those assembled in Doha, Qatar will not deliver the immediate results we need. The modest agenda this year means that no new emissions targets will be set and little progress is expected on a protocol that is supposed to be concluded in 2015 and take effect in 2020. The rate at which emissions are growing means we cannot wait for 2020. A number of studies indicate that are nearing tipping points from which we will not be able to recover.

Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the climate convention, said the global negotiations were necessary, but were not sufficient. According to her to move forward nations will need to work on passing legislation in their home countries before we can make progress on an international binding agreement.

“We won’t get an international agreement until enough domestic legislation and action are in place to begin to have an effect,” Figueres said in an interview. “Governments have to find ways in which action on the ground can be accelerated and taken to a higher level, because that is absolutely needed.”

© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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