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Doha – a weak and ineffective agreement on Climate Change

“The solutions to climate change are becoming very good investments,” Jennifer Morgan, from the World Resources Institute, told RenewEconomy at the close of the conference. “Whether it is CSP or wind, you have incentive to invest in these technologies for a range of reasons. Then you can build the political Doha saved 250 trees, but it couldn’t save
the planet

Doha saved 250 trees, but it couldn’t save the planet http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/doha-saved-250-trees-but-it-couldnt-save-the-planet-54848   REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson   10 December 2012

DOHA: As the stalemate on the plenary floor in the climate change negotiations in Doha reached its tortuous 10th hour on Saturday evening, members of the French delegation gathered in a tight knot in the main aisle and expressed their alarm at the course of events. “We cannot allow this to happen in Paris in 2015,” I heard one of them say. “That would be a disaster.”

It was as though it had suddenly dawned on the French delegation the
size of the task at hand. The creation of a “Paris Protocol” that
united and binds all nations into a climate treaty may appear as an
alluring trophy to mount in the Elysee Palace, but as these talks have
revealed, matching rhetoric with action has escaped the skills of 17
different hosts of these annual climate change negotiations. The
French reputation for diplomatic finesse will be at stake.

Agreement in Doha was finally reached shortly after 7.30pm local time,
and it seemed that nobody left happy. It was, at best, a patch up job.
It was designed as a “working COP” (conference of the parties), as
Mark Dreyfus, Australia’s parliamentary secretary for climate change
who led the delegation, put it.

It tied up loose ends so a path could be cleared for a new attempt to
forge a global treaty three years hence. But even effective
housekeeping proved impossible and, given the urgency for action, few
left the sprawling convention centre with a sense of achievement. A
pathway had been created, but for all they knew, it could lead to
another Copenhagen.

There is, however, one significant ray of light. If there is still no
political constituency to move on climate, there is a growing economic
one. Qatar and Saudi Arabia didn’t get many rave reviews for the way
they handled their responsibilities at these talks, but their legacy
may lie far beyond the modest achievements of this year’s conference –
in the sheer scale of investment that they plan for concentrated solar
power.

The world’s biggest oil exporter and the biggest gas exporter
respectively, these two nations are intent on becoming, well, the
Saudi Arabia and Qatar of solar. It is a move borne out of self
interest – the ability to sell more fossil fuels to others – but it is
also a recognition of the need to diversify their economy, even for
those who have built their wealth on the exploitation of fossil fuels.

And this investment may have a broader significance. It is the
economic actions of individual countries that will likely deliver the
technological breakthroughs that are needed to combat climate change.
Germany’s investment in solar PV has triggered a wave of investment
and deployment that has helped bring down the costs of flat panel
solar by 80 per cent in the last two years, and spark a revolution in
the world’s energy markets.  Energy efficiency standards in Europe,
Japan, the US, and now in Australia, will do the same.

As we discuss in this article, the investment of tens of billions in
CSP by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, along with other Gulf states and
emerging economies such as India and South Arabia, could drive the
massive investment needed to drive down the cost of CSP – a crucial
link to establish new electricity markets that rely on renewables. The
western economies were unable to free up the money to make the
investment, but the Gulf nations, with their massive sovereign funds,
can.

“The solutions to climate change are becoming very good investments,” Jennifer Morgan, from the World Resources Institute, told RenewEconomy at the close of the conference. “Whether it is CSP or wind, you have incentive to invest in these technologies for a range of reasons. Then you can build the political Doha saved 250 trees, but it couldn’t save
the planet

December 10, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change