Beyond the Cancun Climate Conference

Despite the continued absence of a legally-binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions climate action in Oxfordshire must continue

The Cancun climate change summit closed last weekend in the frenzy of last-minute deal making that has become characteristic of every such conference.

And what of the 'deal'?  A new draft document pledges governments to keep temperature rises to 2 degrees, outlines how carbon reductions are to be scrutinised and reported and sets out plans for paying less industrialised countries to protect their forests.

What is lacking is a legally-binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  This is required to replace the Kyoto Protocol (which set industrialised countries targets to reduce their emissions to c. 5% below 1990 levels between 2008-2012) which comes to an end next year. 

So, some steps forward from the fiasco of the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 and some treading of water. One observer said 'the Mexican hosts produced masterful compromise texts which saw promising though not conclusive deals to transfer technology and protect the world's forests'.  And while Friends of the Earth view the agreement as 'weak and ineffective', it also believes 'it gives us a small and fragile lifeline' in the run up to the Durban Climate Summit in 2011.

To stress the positive, new life seems to have been breathed into global climate change negotations.  However, it is absolutely clear that Durban is the line in the sand and must achieve the step change to the ambitious (but absolutely necessary) legally-binding carbon-reduction targets.  Time is, very simply, running out to prevent the devastating effects of climate change.

All of which is to say that efforts must continue, and indeed accelerate, at the local level to help maintain the climate momentum.  The Runaway Climate Challenge Conference in Oxford last month was an inspiring show-case of the myriad initiatives that contribute to reducing carbon emissions, bringing the climate argument to more and more people and maintaining the pressure on our politicians to seek the most robust and far-reaching climate agreements at national and international levels.

In addition, over the next few months ORCC and Climate-X will be running the Big Carbon Challenge, a carbon reduction competion sponsored by Cottsway Housing Association.  Community groups will compete to drive down their emissions and develop community strategies to get the carbon reduction message out. 

So, Think Global, Act Local.  A cliche perhaps, but cliches often reveal an underpinning truth.