by René Lavanchy
The United Nations is to put forward a new process for negotiating a new binding international treaty on carbon emissions after the “disappointment” of the Copenhagen conference last month, climate change secretary Ed Miliband has indicated to MPs.
Mr Miliband said UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and other officials were considering how to reform the decision making process, which politicians have blamed for the failure to achieve a binding agreement to limit global warming.
The conference agreed to “note” a policy of limiting global warming to two degrees centigrade, and no agreement was reached on limiting destruction of rainforests.
“The process was unsatisfactory”, he said at an energy and climate change questions session. “We must ensure that we do not have a repeat of the process problems at Copenhagen, which obscured any differences over substance and prevented proper discussion of them. I think that the process needs to be reformed, and I think that that will happen.”
But the Government came under further pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions faster. The call was repeated by MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee, who said this week that Britain must cut its emissions by 42 per cent by 2020, even if the European Union only agrees a 30 per cent cut.
