working paper
Committee: United Nations Environment Programme
Theme: Climate change
Subcontracted by France,
We believe that global greenhouse gas emissions must be greatly reduced:
1. urges:
(a) All developed countries should reduce their emissions by 80%-85% by 2050 based on the level of 1990;
(b) All developing countries should slow down their emissions and set more ambitious medium-term targets;
(c) All countries should fulfill their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and the Framework Convention on Climate Change;
2. Confirm:
(a) On the basis of "equity", all countries have "common but differentiated responsibilities";
(b) The world strategy should provide a platform for partnership between developing and developed countries;
3. Decides:
(a) By 2020, the EU will spend 2.4 billion euros on the projects involved.
(1 USD: 0.68 Euro);
(b) Develop policies to encourage the most cost-effective emission reduction measures, including:
(i) Energy efficiency;
(2) Carbon market mechanism, which is fluid, transparent, extensive and comprehensive;
(iii) Transport;
(iv) Construction and use of energy in buildings;
(c) Globalization and transparency of the monitoring system;
(d) We should pay more attention to deforestation and land use, which are as important as reducing emissions. We call on countries with the ability to help those in need;
(e) Establishing an emergency system for Pacific islands to help them adapt to climate change;
(f) Holding a small-scale meeting among 28 countries every month.
4. Support:
A promise restricted by law
(b) poor countries:
(a) according to the priorities identified in the second national communication and the national development plan, select the key sectors of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures as the basis for the assessment of capital needs;
Assess the financing needs needed to address mitigation and adaptation measures in selected key sectors and identify appropriate financial and regulatory tools to support these needs;
(iii) Raising awareness and promoting an informed consensus among government agencies on the policy actions needed to mobilize funds and investments.
5. Note:
(1) Reasonable needs of developing countries for development and poverty reduction
(2) Emission targets should be suitable for the national conditions of each country.
"It would be quite surprising if President Obama flew across the Atlantic to Copenhagen, but only repeated the previously announced emission reduction targets of the United States." This is Swedish Environment Minister Andreas who negotiated on behalf of the European Union at the Copenhagen Climate Conference. Statement made by Carlgren on the first day of the meeting (65438+February 7th).
In the host country of the conference, Danish Prime Minister Lars? l？ After Rasmussen declared that "reaching an agreement is entirely possible", Carlgren's statement immediately revealed the tension at the negotiating table in the next two weeks.
Carlgren also claimed that the EU is ready to raise the emission reduction target from 20% to 30%, but it needs further efforts from other parties present.
Merkel "cheers" on the sidelines.
Regarding the EU's use of the floating emission reduction scale of 10% to put pressure on other participating countries, Carlgren said that it is "necessary" to keep the pressure until the end of Copenhagen, because "if the EU promises to implement the highest emission reduction target ahead of schedule, the pressure on other countries to make new concessions will be much reduced, and the effectiveness of the agreement that may be reached at the meeting will be correspondingly weakened". Carlgren stressed that the reason for putting pressure on other participating countries is that the EU hopes to make the Copenhagen Climate Conference a milestone in the global response to climate change.
Previously, EU countries have agreed to reduce emissions by 20% from the emission level of 1990 by 2020; If other countries can make "comparable" commitments, the EU will raise the emission reduction target to 30%. However, the EU did not explain how the commitments of other countries were "comparable".
The Financial Times pointed out that the European Union should focus on the scientific proposal supported by the United Nations to deal with global warming, that is, to reduce emissions enough to ensure that the global temperature in the middle of this century will not rise more than 2 degrees Celsius compared with the level before the industrial revolution.
German Chancellor Angela, who is scheduled to attend the Copenhagen Climate Conference on June 5438+07? Merkel also focused on the limit of global temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius. In an interview with German media, she said that the presence of leaders from various countries, including Obama, showed that the world has realized the importance of tackling climate change. "This makes me optimistic about the future of Copenhagen", but in order to achieve the goal of preventing the temperature from rising above 2 degrees Celsius, all parties must make further commitments.
"Quarrel" is actually the interest of western European enterprises.
Merkel was not the only one cheering for the EU's position outside the venue. German Foreign Minister westerwelle said on the 7th that Germany hopes that the EU will become a pioneer in global emission reduction and is willing to contribute to the EU's commitment to large-scale emission reduction, "but it does not want other countries not to shoulder their due responsibilities".
To some extent, westerwelle's statement reflects the "selfish consideration" of the EU on the issue of emission reduction, that is, once the EU independently implements the highest emission reduction target without further emission reduction commitments from other countries, the competitiveness of European enterprises in related industries in the global market will be relatively weakened.
Xie Berman, CEO of Royal DSM Group, a Dutch chemical company, said that if other countries don't raise their emission reduction targets, even if the EU only implements the minimum emission reduction commitment of 20%, European companies can't stand on the same starting line with global competitors. He said that the emission reduction tasks of countries at the Copenhagen Climate Conference were "unbalanced" and that "European companies are willing to participate in emission reduction, but they are unwilling to pay the price of reduced competitiveness". Therefore, he judged that it is impossible for the EU to finally implement the highest emission reduction target, because "it is impossible".
On the other hand, the EU and other participating countries started a "quarrel". Because the interests of western European enterprises are more protected, their attitude of implementing the 30% emission reduction target has been collectively opposed by Central and Eastern European countries. Poland is the leader of some coal-dependent EU member countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and its EU Affairs Minister Mikolaj? Dowgielewicz said, "The conditions for raising the goal do not exist at present." He said that before the technical review of the final proposals of all parties and the impact assessment of European industries, the decision to implement the highest goal cannot be made; These tasks will not be completed before March next year.
The United States and the European Union "kick the ball" with each other.
As a developed economy, the European Union and the previous American government unilaterally tore up the Kyoto Protocol, which has the strongest demand for further emission reduction in the United States.
Earlier,165438+125 October, the federal government of the United States announced at the Copenhagen Climate Conference that it promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% in 2020 on the basis of 2005. However, according to the calculation of EU experts, this target is only equivalent to a reduction of 3% on the basis of 1990, which is far from the requirements of the EU and developing economies.
Although the emission reduction commitments of the United States also include phased targets such as 30% emission reduction in 2025, 42% emission reduction in 2030 and 83% emission reduction in 2050, these commitments have been widely questioned. In this regard, Chen Ying, director of the Environmental Development Research Office of the Urban Development and Environment Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, said that the current emission scale of the United States, because of unilaterally tearing up the Kyoto Protocol, makes it extremely difficult to reduce emissions by 83% in 2050. In addition, the emission reduction commitments of the United States are not different from those stipulated in the Clean Energy Security Act of the United States. Therefore, even if the United States makes new commitments, there is a possibility that it will not be approved by the US Congress after returning home.
I. Relevant information about Germany
In the concrete practice of energy saving and emission reduction, Germany is a world model. We can learn from institutional arrangements, legal construction, economic incentive and restraint measures, advanced technical means and public participation.
The investigation in Germany mainly focused on the energy efficiency of urban buildings. The total area of various buildings in the city is huge, and the energy consumed by building heating and water supply accounts for about one-third of the total energy consumption in Germany. Germany attaches great importance to the energy saving of building facilities, and it is a relatively big task to do a good job in urban building energy saving. Germany's environmental protection departments mainly monitor and manage building energy consumption by establishing building energy database, improve people's energy-saving awareness and skills through extensive publicity and education, restrain enterprises and people's code of conduct through laws and regulations, and promote energy-saving achievements through continuous technological innovation.
(A) the establishment of building energy consumption data system
First, the German environmental protection department installed various reading meters for each building for energy monitoring. Through the collection and arrangement of these data, we can not only grasp the energy use situation at any time and find the potential waste problem, but also formulate a reasonable energy consumption standard base (similar to the average value) suitable for the social situation through the analysis of the data. When formulating standards, the environmental protection management department will train building management personnel, inform them of the monitoring data, and ask them to manage building energy consumption to reach the standard benchmark level. The meter reader is equipped with a dynamic scale of energy consumption (from green to red, the energy consumption is from less to more). If the energy consumption reaches or approaches the red warning level, the equipment can remind the building manager that the current energy consumption is too high, and the manager can adjust and reduce the energy consumption level of the building by adjusting the energy control valve.
The environmental protection department will input the collected data into the central data analysis system on time. By sorting out and comparing the data of different buildings, combined with the characteristics of the building itself, the weak links in building energy efficiency are found and the building is transformed.
(B) the constraints of laws and regulations
Since 1970s, the German government has initiated a series of environmental policies. 197 1 year, Germany announced the first comprehensive environmental planning plan. 1972, Germany revised and passed the German Basic Law, giving the government more power in the field of environmental policy. Subsequently, Germany passed environmental protection bills such as the Garbage Disposal Law and the Federal Air Emission Control Law, and established public institutions such as the Environmental Experts Committee and the Federal Environmental Committee. 1986 Germany formally established the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Protection and Nuclear Safety. 1995 Germany passed the emission control law, 1996 Germany's circular economy and waste law came into effect. In 2000, Germany promulgated the Renewable Energy Law; In 2005, Germany promulgated the Federal Regulations on Air Emission Control and Energy Conservation; In 2004, Germany promulgated the amendment to the Renewable Energy Law; In 2005, Germany promulgated the Electrical Equipment Law. From the perspective of regulatory system, the German government has set up an independent regulatory body to conduct all-round supervision of environmental protection.
(3) extensive publicity
The German government organizes various energy-saving publicity activities, ranging from kindergartens to universities, from residents' communities to enterprises. Through continuous publicity, it can have a mild effect like an alarm. In addition to reminding people not to relax, childhood education can also make the concept of environmental protection and conservation take root in children's minds, which is conducive to the cultivation of consciousness. The government has also conducted various energy-saving training lectures, set up consulting institutions and telephone numbers, and let people know the importance of energy conservation, how to save energy and how to use energy-saving equipment and facilities effectively through popular science education.
(4) Improve the energy-saving effect through technological innovation.
Germany is the second largest technology exporter in the world, and it has strong technical strength in both traditional technology and high technology. Germany's environmental protection industry is in a leading position in the world. Through continuous technological innovation, the new building is 20% more energy-efficient than the old building 15-20 years ago. Even though remarkable achievements have been made in energy conservation, German environmental protection departments still believe that their country has great potential in energy conservation. Through technological innovation, the old buildings with relatively high energy consumption are reformed and maintained (such as replacing doors and windows with better seals, replacing parts, cleaning and updating energy pipelines, etc.). ), the environmental protection department hopes to achieve a 5% year-on-year reduction in energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
Finally, it is worth noting that German environmental protection departments mainly adopt the comparison and control of energy consumption when setting energy-saving targets and accounting energy-saving effects. Although the price factor is considered, it is not an important measure. Because the price of energy is determined by market factors, sometimes the fluctuation of energy consumption is to reduce energy consumption from the perspective of overall energy consumption, but it may increase in the reflection of price. From the point of view of environmental protection, it seems that price cannot be used as an important measure.
Second, the situation in France.
France is one of the main sponsors of the European Union and a modern market economy country with developed economy. When formulating economic policies, it puts the strategy of sustainable development in a very important position, strives to promote economic development and realize environmental protection, and has done a lot of work for this.
(1) Sound laws and regulations
1. Strengthen the construction of laws and regulations
France has always attached importance to ensuring the effective implementation of policies and measures through legislative means.
2. Implement a licensing system.
Trading carbon dioxide emission rights is an important measure for the French government to give full play to the market mechanism and promote energy conservation. The government issues carbon dioxide emission permits to enterprises, and each permit has allowable emission standards. If the actual carbon dioxide emissions of enterprises exceed the standard, they must buy "emissions" from those enterprises whose actual emissions are lower than the emission standard, so that enterprises have two choices, namely, increasing technological transformation to reduce emissions and buying "emissions". The core question is which is more economical.
3. Establish an inter-ministerial committee on sustainable development.
In 2003, France established the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Sustainable Development (CIDD), which meets at least once a year.
4. Establishment of Environment and Energy Administration
1990, France established a comprehensive institution independent of various departments-French Environment and Energy Control Agency (hereinafter referred to as ADEME), which is a public institution directly under the French central government. Its director is directly appointed by the President, who is fully responsible for, managing and implementing national energy conservation and environmental pollution control. Local governments at all levels also have corresponding institutions. The function of ADEME is to fund the research of relevant institutions and the technological development of various regions in China. It mainly performs three tasks: research and prediction, evaluation and consultation, popularization and publicity.
(b) A lot of work has been done in building energy conservation.
France is a country with relatively scarce energy resources. Its oil and gas reserves are limited, while coal resources are drying up. Therefore, encouraging energy conservation and emission reduction and developing renewable energy have become the priority issues for the government. The "big household" of energy consumption such as construction industry is the key goal of the government's "careful calculation". Statistics from the French Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development show that the energy consumption of the construction industry accounts for about 42% of the total energy consumption in France, and the carbon dioxide generated accounts for about 25% of the total national emissions.