The ‘bare minimum’ agreement reached this weekend at the United Nations Meeting on Climate Change in Doha means that there will be a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol until the year 2020. The bad news is that countries such as Japan, Russia, Canada and New Zealand are not included in this second period. The same is true of the United States, which never ratified the protocol. The countries that have committed to reducing their emissions in the second period of the Kyoto Protocol (headed by the European Union, Australia, Norway and Switzerland) only account for 15% of total emissions worldwide.
Negotiations were intense in Qatar. The increasingly divergent positions of developed and developing countries towards the end raised doubts about the possibility of a worthy outcome for the summit. Once again, the countries committed under the auspices of the United Nations to formalise emission reduction commitments so that the average temperature increase should not exceed two degrees Celsius by 2100. However, the mechanisms for funding and private participation in bringing down emissions have yet to be developed.
Several meetings of the Conference of Parties were held between 26 November and 7 December at the National Convention Centre in Doha. The imposing modern building where the negotiations were hosted was visited by thousands of delegates, who were transferred from various hotels in the buses that the city had provided to try to avoid traffic jams. In the city of Doha, which is in the process of constant growth, transport is exclusively in private vehicles. Therefore, a major effort was made by the organisers to raise awareness of the importance of bringing down CO2 emissions.
Once inside the convention centre, it was obvious that something had changed: this year there were no documents, pamphlets nor printed reports to be seen. This COP (Conference of the Parties Member of United Nation Framework on Climate Change) was a paperless COP. The papersmart strategy implemented by the United Nations focused on reducing the amount of paper used. Inside the building, there were several QR codes, enabling all delegates to have digital copies of the documents.
The trip to Doha was a very enriching experience. The city, with its privileged location overlooking a bay in the Persian Gulf, leaves nobody indifferent. It was founded in 1850 and in 1916 it became the capital of the British protectorate of Qatar, maintaining its capital status in 1971 when the country gained its independence. Nowadays it is a modern city, with major contrasts between the skyscrapers, business centres, cranes operating at full speed….and the traditional Arab clay houses that are very common in the city.
The Conference has been a step forward towards sustainability. Through its Policy against climate change, Iberdrola actively supports an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As noted by the Chairman during his speech, Iberdrola’s power generation facilities, with lower emissions than the European average, will play a key role towards meeting the 2020 target.
