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1 [1] (September 24, 2014)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthaaaxv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: CRS Insights Climate Summit 2014: Warm-Up for 2015 Jane A. Leggett, Specialist in Energy and Environmental Policy (,aleggett, 7-9525) On September 23, 125 heads of state and governments, as well as business, religious, community, and civil society leaders, gathered in New York City for CLimate-Summi 2014. The Summit was hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and branded as an event to galvanize and catalyze climate action. While it may have accomplished little in its quest for deeper government commitments than already pledged, it provided a platform for private and nonprofit organizations to announce a wide variety of actions, including pledges of U.S. $200 billion to finance climate-related actions, mostly from investors and other private entities, and that may move markets and secure future greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. The European Union pledged U.S. $18 billion of the total. The Summit came two months before the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)-the COP's last full session before it agrees, according to its schedule, by the end of 2015, on a new accord to address climate change in the post-2020 period. Nations that are ready to do so will announce their intended nationally determined contributions in the first quarter of 2015. The U.S. Department of State outlined on September 18 its prQupaj. for certain elements of the negotiations, including a due date of 2025 for GHG reductions and equal clarity from all Parties regardless of their different mitigation levels. The Summit spotlighted 125 leaders in a warm-up round before their announcements in 2015. While President Obama appeared at the Summit, a number of key Heads of State did not attend, such as China's President Xi Jinping and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Their absence added doubts about their willingness to commit to GHG reductions necessary to slow significantly scientists' projections of human-induced global warming. The formal statements by these governments and others would sustain the developed versus developing country bifurcation of responsibilities. Many low-income nations reiterated calls for leaders to fulfill their multinational pledge to mobilize up to $100 billion in financing by 2020 in the politically binding Cancun Agreements. Many leaders' statements suggested that the 2015 negotiations may remain mired in old positions that have impeded the UNFCCC's effectiveness. The first government speaker, Environment Commissioner Connie Heddegaard of the European Union, reiterated the region's intention to reduce EU GHG emissions by 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. This is an interim value in the proposed EU Framework on the cost-effective track toward its objective of reducing GHG emissions to at least 80% below the 1990 level by 2050. President Obama stated that the United States will accomplish his policy goal of reducing U.S. GHG emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020, and cited proposed and promulgated regulatrion by the Eninmnt;il Protection Agency and11, aitiona '',n11I'Iiativ designed to achieve future emission reductions. The President announced a new Executive Order on Climate-Resilient International Development. It reinforced the long-standing message that the United States will provide experts, information, and some financial resources to assist low-income countries to mitigate or adapt to climate change, but provide only limited public funds toward the multinational pledge of $100 billion annually by 2020. Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of China had-both literally and figuratively-the last say. Many observers consider that the commitments of China, India, and a score of additional lower- to middle-income countries will determine the effectiveness of the forthcoming agreement and continued interest in the United Nations process. Zhang pointed out that China's policies reduced its carbon intensity below the 2005 level by 28% in 2013, well on the way to meeting China's target of 40-45% by 2020. However, in a position dating back to the original UNFCCC negotiations-when China emitted one-tenth of global GHG emissions rather than its current one-quarter share-China maintained a distinction between