Isra-Mart srl:Cameron warns against fragmented approach to climate challenge

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David Cameron yesterday warned that a fragmented national and regional approach to tackling climate change will be unable to sufficiently curb greenhouse gas emissions, insisting that a binding global deal remains critical.

Speaking via satellite link at the Governors Global Climate Summit in Davis, California, Cameron praised the summit's host, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the US president, Barack Obama, for having "made some big steps forward" in tackling climate change.

But he cautioned against the fragmented sub-national approach advocated by Schwarzenegger, and urged the national governments of China and the US to do more to deliver a global climate change deal.

"The UK and EU have very aggressive targets for reducing our carbon emissions," he said. "I really admire what you're doing in California and other states around the US to pick up this agenda. But at the same time we need to work towards a global deal otherwise we're all going to do our own individual bit. If we can't get the whole of the US and China on board, we're not going to get the kind of action we need to prevent dangerous climate change."

He criticised the Chinese for their resistance to monitoring emissions, a major obstacle at the talks last December in Copenhagen, and also aimed a dig at US legislators' opposition to climate change measures.

"To get a proper international agreement we need to get the Chinese to evaluate and record their emissions, but we also need to persuade the US administration that it is worth their while entering into an agreement," he said.

He also added his voice to those predicting that a binding agreement will not be reached at the upcoming Cancun climate summit. "We're not going to get a global legally binding deal at Cancun, it's a staging post on the way to that deal," he acknowledged.

But during his conversation with governor Schwarzenegger, the prime minister said that even "laggard" countries could be persuaded to sign an international agreement by showing "what a green economy can look like".

"We should be really aggressive about driving forward green change in our own countries, regions and states so we can convince everyone in the world that this is not an anti-growth agenda, it's a progress agenda that's essential for saving our planet," he said. "Cancun can only be a staging post. I'm sure that's all it can be. The best thing we can do between now and Cancun and then on to South Africa is show that green growth makes sense."

In the absence of a legally binding deal either at international or national levels, Schwarzenegger, the outgoing governor of California, has been pursuing an aggressive sub-national agenda on action on climate change. Yesterday he thumbed his nose at the slow pace of developing UN-backed REDD (reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation) schemes by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with local leaders in Brazil and Mexico to develop new forestry-based offset credits.

If formalised, the agreement would enable Californian companies to purchase offset credits from carbon sequestered in forests in Acre in central Brazil and Chiapas in western Mexico to meet their targets on reducing CO2 when the state's emissions cap-and-trade scheme comes into effect from 2012. The Californian scheme is the first in the world to commit to the use of forest credits in its carbon market.

The initiative was developed by Schwarzenegger's Governor's Climate and Forests Taskforce, and includes 14 states and provinces from Nigeria, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil. Chiapas and Acre are the first regions to sign an MOU with California.

A working group will develop recommendations for protocols over the next nine months that will be submitted to the California Air Resources Board for approval, bypassing any requirement for accreditation by the UN under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon offsetting scheme.

Tony Brunello, the former deputy secretary for climate change and energy at California Natural Resources Agency who co-founded the Governor's Climate and Forests Taskforce, said the scheme would offer an alternative to the "stalled" UN process. "This way, we don't have to wait for the UN," he said. "If anything, I would argue that this verification process would have to succeed the UN's, given that many view the CDM as having failed. It could also provide a model for other schemes."

In addition to the forests agreement, Schwarzenegger officially launched the R20 Regions of Climate Action which aims to find World Bank and private investors to fast track local government projects in energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean transportation.

"We can't afford to wait for national and international movement," the governor said. "Action is needed now. The role of sub-national governments is more important than ever, and California has shown that state and regional governments can institute policies that will grow the green economy, create jobs and clean our environment."