Pathway for Bali

Fighting Climate Change lays out a definitive checklist for all political leaders meeting in Bali in December -- a pathway for a binding and enforceable post 2012 multilateral agreement that the authors stress will be essential to buttress our planet and its poorest people against the worst impacts of climate change:

• Cut emissions from developing countries by 20 percent by 2050 and from developed countries by 30 percent by 2020 and at least 80 percent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.
  
• Create a Climate Change Mitigation Facility to finance the incremental low-carbon energy investment in developing countries, to give them both the means to switch to low emission pathways and the incentive to commit to binding international emission cuts. This would need an investment of US$25-50 billion annually.
  
• Put a proper price on carbon through a combination of carbon taxation and an ambitious global expansion of cap-and-trade schemes.
  
• Strengthen regulatory standards by adopting and enforcing tougher efficiency standards on vehicle, building and electrical appliance emissions.
  
• Support the development of low carbon energy provision, recognizing unexploited potential for an increase in the share of renewable energy used and the need for urgent investment in breakthrough technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS).
  
• Allocate US$86 billion, or 0.2 percent of northern countries' combined GDP to adaptation to climate proof infrastructure and build the resilience of the poor to the effects of climate change.
  
• Make adaptation part of all plans to reduce poverty and extreme inequality, including poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs).
  
• Recognize carbon sequestration on forests and land as essential parts of a future global agreement and back international finance transfer plans on deforestation as advocated by Brazil among others.

Fighting Climate Change concludes that "one of the hardest lessons taught by climate change is that the economic model which drives growth and the profligate consumption in rich nations that goes with it, is ecologically unsustainable." But the authors argue, "with the right reforms, it is not too late to cut greenhouse gas emissions to sustainable levels without sacrificing economic growth: that rising prosperity and climate security are not conflicting objectives."

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About this report: The Human Development Report continues to frame debates on some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. It is an independent report commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Kevin Watkins is the Lead Author of the 2007/2008 report, which includes special contributions from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Mayor of the City of New York Michael R. Bloomberg, Advocate for Arctic climate change Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chair of the World Commission on Sustainable Development and former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Tutu, and the Director of the Centre for Science and Environment Sunita Narain. The Report is translated into more than a dozen languages and launched in more than 100 countries annually. Further information can be found at http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/. The 2007/2008 Human Development Report is published in English by Palgrave Macmillan.

About UNDP: UNDP is the UN's global network to help people meet their development needs and build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working as a trusted partner with governments, civil society and the private sector to help them build their own solutions to global and national development challenges. Further information can be found at http://www.undp.org/.

(China Development Gateway November 28, 2007)