Countries Worldwide Adhere To The Copenhagen Accord

The European Union and the United States have made their adherence to the Copenhagen Accord formal this week, as the end of January deadline approches.

The US aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020. This target only represents a 4% reduction on 1990 levels, which many other nations are pushing to set as a baseline.

The EU has maintained its position with its pledge to achieve a unilateral 20% cut in emissions from 1990 levels by 2020, and confirmed that it would raise the target to 30% if other industrialised nations make “comparable offers” and developing countries promise “adequate contributions”.

Norway features among the most ambitious nations with regards to cutting emissions, with a promise to achieve at least a 30% reduction from 1990 levels by 2020, willing to increase that target to 40% should other countries also commit to higher targets.

9 other nations (Australia, France, Canada, Singapore, Turkey, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, Ghana and the Maldives), have also officially signed up to the Copenhagen Accord, while others are expected to join them in the next couple of days prior to the deadline.

Cutting emissions and respecting the sometimes very ambitious targets that countries are setting for themselves will require drastically efficient measures that guarantee a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

As Council Member of the Energy Saving Association, Thomas Brandner believes that energy efficiency is one of those measures: "Saving energy in the business sphere means reducing the carbon output of one of the most polluting sectors - industry. About a third of total global emissions is generated by the industry sector, which means reducing it through the use of energy efficient systems would make a consequential difference and contribute largely in reducing a country's carbon footprint."

The only country that has so far officially rejected the Accord is Cuba. UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband comments:

“The Copenhagen Accord was an important step forward but we now need to redouble efforts to secure the legally binding treaty, and complete the unfinished business of Copenhagen.”

Friday 29th January 2010


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