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G8共識:減碳 應削減化石燃料補貼

2012年05月25日
摘譯自2012年5月21日ENS美國,華府報導;沈瑞筠編譯;蔡麗伶審校

八大工業國(G8)領袖同意將逐步停止政府對煤、石油及天然氣的補貼,追求永續能源及低碳政策「以應對全球氣候變化的挑戰」。

本次G8會議於5月18-19日在華盛頓特區附近的馬里蘭州大衛營舉辦,由美國總統歐巴馬主持,加拿大、法國、德國、義大利、日本、俄羅斯、英國和歐盟各國領袖與會,並於19日晚上發表聲明。

照片來源:白宮

歐巴馬總統發表會議決議:「我們以安全及永續的面向討論了所有能源安全策略的重要性,各國同意加入由美國領導的氣候變遷處理聯盟,致力減少存在週期短的溫室氣體排放。」

八國領袖宣布在能源和氣候變遷議題上,「考慮環境安全、永續、及可負擔的面向……從傳統石化燃料到可再生能源、其他更新的技術等各種來源」他們將滿足能源需求。

八國領袖表示:「我們強烈支持逐步淘汰鼓勵浪費性消費的中期低效化石燃料補貼,期使之合理化。也將持續報告進展。」

他們同意支持G-20全球海洋環境保護倡議建立最佳行動共享機制,提供所有感興趣的國家和利益相關 者近海石油和天然氣勘探和開發的最佳做法的交流,以幫助防止未來事故的發生。

包括日本首相野田佳彥在內的各國領袖在內的領袖都對福島核災記憶猶新。他們聲明,「鑑於在日本海嘯引發的核事故,我們將繼續對現有核能設施採取全面風險及安全性評估,並以高層級核安全為目標加強相關協定的履行。」

日本在關閉了最後一座運行中的核能反應爐後,是自1970年後首次全國不使用核電。

八國領袖們同意應對氣候變遷繼續努力。他們承認「於2020年前舒緩氣候變遷的需求」持續增加,並表示他們會與科學研究結果一致「以工業革命前為基準,限制全球氣溫增加低於2°C以下」。

「我們強烈支持的聯合國氣候變化綱要公約(UNFCCC)在德班舉行的第17次締約方會議的結果(2011年12月在南非舉行的一年一度的聯合國氣候會議)」他們呼籲針對德班宣言(Durban platform)達成一致的協議,「在2015年產生新的具有法律效益的協定,這份協定適用於所有成員,無論是已開發或開發中國家。」

歐盟的執行機構—歐盟執行委員會(European Commission)表示「歐盟完全接受本次G8領袖會議聚焦於全球氣候行動,並強調降低二氧化碳和其他溫室氣體排放強而有力的標準建立的必要性,以符合聯合國在Cop17商定的目標,加速『德班宣言』的落實。」

在控制氣候變遷上的部分成就在於G8領袖們同意加入「氣候與清淨空氣聯盟(Climate and Clean Air Coalition)」致力減少存在週期短的溫室氣體排放。這個聯盟在今年二月鎖定三種對全球暖化的貢獻度超過1/3以上溫室氣體,分別是黑碳(或稱煤煙)、甲烷與氫氟碳化物。

氣候與清淨空氣聯盟包含了美國、加拿大、孟加拉,加納,墨西哥,瑞典和聯合國環境計劃署。是第一個試圖處理這些週期短的溫室氣體與農業產出物,來限制他們對近程氣候變遷及人類健康的影響的組織。聯合國環境計劃署和其他國表示超過30%的近程全球暖化是由這些週期短的溫室氣體所造成,且每年造成兩百萬人早夭。

八國領袖皆對能源供應感到不安,歐巴馬總統說「面對石油供應中斷的風險,我們一致承認必須密切觀察全球能源市場。我們呼籲國際能源總署採取行動確保充分即時的市場機制。」

全球化亦成為八國領袖的焦點。他們誓言「消除全球能源基礎設施的發展障礙」和「追求更乾淨、安全、實惠的能源的普及。」

歐盟執行委員會在5月17日G8峰會前論及控制氣候變遷時表示:「科學家說所有已開發國家需要減少80-95%的排放量,以保持全球變暖低於2°C的機會,如果我們不加針對強氣候變化的行動,到2100年溫度可能會增加4℃。」

歐盟在減少溫室氣體排放扮演全球領導者的角色。在過去的二十年中,排放量已經下降了16%,而經濟則成長40%。如果近期政策充分落實,歐盟的目標為2020年的排放量比1990年減少20%,並將可再生能源在能源結構中所佔的比裡提高為20%。

以「2050年具有競爭力的低碳經濟路線」為藍圖,歐盟執行委員會正在試圖超越2020年目標,及制定各國元首同意達成本世紀中葉國內排放減少80%至95%的長遠目標計畫。

G-8 to Eliminate Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Curb Climate Pollutants
WASHINGTON, DC, May 21, 2012 (ENS)

Leaders of the world's most developed economies, the Group of Eight, have agreed to phase out government subsidies for coal, oil and gas and pursue sustainable energy and low carbon policies "in order to tackle the global challenge of climate change."

Hosted by President Barack Obama at the presidential retreat Camp David in the Maryland woods near Washington, DC, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union met on Friday night and continued working through Saturday, issuing a declaration on Saturday night.

As the G-8 meeting concluded, President Obama said, "We discussed the importance of pursuing an all-of-the-above strategy for energy security in a safe and sustainable way. Leaders agreed to join a new U.S.-led coalition to address climate change, in part by reducing short-lived pollutants."

On energy and climate change, the leaders declared they would meet their energy needs "from a wide variety of sources ranging from traditional fuels to renewables to other clean technologies. ... in an environmentally safe, sustainable, secure, and affordable manner."

"We strongly support efforts to rationalize and phase-out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, and to continue voluntary reporting on progress," the G-8 leaders declared.

That said, the leaders declared their support for environmentally risky petroleum exploration, "in frontier areas and the use of technologies such as deep water drilling and hydraulic fracturing," limiting the risks through "best practices" and taking into account environmental concerns over the life of a field."

They agreed to support the G-20 Global Marine Environment Protection initiative to develop a Best Practices Sharing Mechanism, available to all interested countries and stakeholders, for the exchange of best practices for offshore oil and gas exploration and development in an effort to help prevent future accidents.

The leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, still have the ongoing nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on their minds.

"In light of the nuclear accident triggered by the tsunami in Japan," they declared, "we continue to strongly support initiatives to carry out comprehensive risk and safety assessments of existing nuclear installations and to strengthen the implementation of relevant conventions to aim for high levels of nuclear safety."

Japan shut down its last working nuclear power reactor, the first time the country has been without nuclear power since 1970.

The G-8 leaders agreed to continue their efforts to address climate change. They declared their recognition of "the need for increased mitigation ambition in the period to 2020," and said they would do "our part to limit effectively the increase in global temperature below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, consistent with science."

"We strongly support the outcome of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban," the leaders said, referring to the annual UN climate meeting held in South Africa last December.

They called the agreement reached there, the Durban Platform, "a significant breakthrough toward the adoption by 2015 of a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force applicable to all Parties, developed and developing countries alike."

The European Commission, the executive branch of government, stated, "The EU fully welcomes the focus of this G-8 Summit on global climate action and underlines the need for strong and urgent measures, in the UN context, to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions to stay on track to meet the internationally agreed objectives and to speedily implement the Durban platform."

As part of their work to control climate change, the G-8 leaders agreed to join a new coalition - the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-lived Climate Pollutants, announced in February to focus efforts on reducing black carbon, or soot, hydrofluorocarbons, and methane.

The new coalition is the first effort to treat these pollutants together, to limit their effect on near-term climate change, agricultural productivity, and human health. The United States and Canada are among the founding coalition partners along with: Bangladesh, Ghana, Mexico and Sweden and the UN Environment Programme.

UNEP and others have said that short-lived climate pollutants account for over 30 percent of near-term global warming as well as two million premature deaths a year.

Expressing the unease of all G-8 leaders over adequate energy supplies, President Obama said, "In the face of increasing disruptions in the supply of oil, we agreed that we must closely monitor global energy markets. Together, we stand ready to call upon the International Energy Agency to take action to ensure that the market remains fully and timely supplied."

Globalization continues to be a focus of the G-8 leaders. They pledged to "remove obstacles to the evolution of global energy infrastructure" and "pursue universal access to cleaner, safer, and more affordable energy."

To accelerate the global pace of progress on appliances and equipment efficiency, the G-8 leaders agreed to allow manufacturers to test products once and sell them globally. "This effort will draw on the work of existing standardization bodies to lower non-tariff barriers and improve the international comparability of energy efficiency policies," they said.

Commenting on the need to control climate change ahead of the G-8 meeting, the European Commission said Thursday, "Science tells us that all developed countries would need to reduce emissions by 80-95 percent in order to have a fair chance of keeping global warming below 2°C. If we do not step up climate action, temperatures might increase by as much as 4°C by 2100."

The European Union is a global leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past two decades, emissions have gone down by 16 percent, whereas the economy has grown by 40 percent over the same period. If current policies are fully implemented, the EU is on track to achieve its targets for 2020 of reducing emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels and raising the share of renewables in its energy mix to 20 percent.

With its "Roadmap for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050" the European Commission is looking beyond these 2020 objectives and setting out a plan to meet the long-term target of reducing domestic emissions by 80 to 95% by mid-century as agreed by European Heads of State and governments.

作者

蔡麗伶(LiLing Barricman)

In my healing journey and learning to attain the breath awareness, I become aware of the reality that all the creatures of the world are breathing the same breath. Take action, here and now. From my physical being to the every corner of this out of balance's planet.