• Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
    • Wind
    • Marine
    • Solar
    • Biomass
    • Nuclear
    • CCS
    • Infrastructure
  • Policy
    • Politics
    • Legislation
    • Taxation
  • Management
    • Marketing
    • Risk
    • Skills
    • Incentives
    • Carbon Accounting
  • Technology
    • Waste
    • Recycling
    • R&D
    • Efficiency
    • IT
  • Investment
    • Carbon Trading
    • Offsets
    • Venture Capital
  • Net Zero Now
  • Events & Awards
  • SDG Hub
  • Industry Voice
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  •  
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
    • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

      If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

      If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

      Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

      Email: [email protected]

      • Sign in
  • Follow us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Newsletters
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
  • Free Trial
  • Subscribe
  • Events & Awards
    • Upcoming events
      event logo
      NZF Pathway - Finance

      This exclusive half day online event will investigate how all businesses can support and accelerate the transition to low and net zero carbon buildings, while maximising the financial and productivity opportunities that will result.

      • Date: 16 Mar 2021
      • Online Event
      event logo
      Net Zero Festival 2021

      Net Zero Festival is the world's first business festival dedicated to exploring, advancing, and celebrating the global transition to a net zero emission economy. Join us at BusinessGreen's Net Zero Festival – for leaders who won't wait until 2050 to build a better business, and a better world.

      • Date: 27 Sep 2021
      • Worldwide
      View all events
  • SDG Hub
Business Green
Business Green
  • Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
  • Policy
  • Management
  • Technology
  • Investment
  • Net Zero Now
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
  • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

    If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

    If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

    Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

    Email: [email protected]

    • Sign in
  • Hot topics
  • Green recovery
  • Net Zero Now
  • Net Zero Leadership
  • Net Zero Finance
  • Policy

COP21: UK working closely with low-lying islands to 'strive for' 1.5C target

  • Jessica Shankleman
  • Jessica Shankleman
  • @JessicaBG
  • 07 December 2015
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

Energy Minister Lord Bourne joins 14 other ministers including Bangladesh, Philippines and Marshall Islands to push for long-term goal

A coalition of 15 ministers from countries including the UK, US, Bangladesh and Brazil, appear to be joining forces to ensure the Paris climate deal includes a long term goal that aims to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Bourne attended a high level meeting this morning, chaired by former US Vice President Al Gore and Mary Robinson, the former Irish president and UN special envoy on climate change, alongside environment ministers from Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Philippines and Marshall Islands.

Related articles

  • Poll: Two-thirds of adults believe UK government should do more to combat climate change
  • Mars and DHL plot £350m UK logistics hubs to slash one million road miles
  • Drax launches green skills drive to 'boost social mobility for one million people'
  • Aegon commits to net zero across its default pension funds by 2050

Speaking to BusinessGreen on the sidelines of the Paris climate change talks, Lord Bourne said there had been unanimous support for a long term goal in the text that at least "strives towards 1.5C".

The meeting was also attended by US climate envoy Todd Stern and ministers from Trinidad and Tobago, Sweden, Papua New Guinea, Netherlands, Grenada, Costa Rica, Chile and Ethiopia. It was organised by Friends of the Future of the United Nations.

Stern today told a press conference that the US is "working with other countries on some formulation that would include 1.5C".

Bourne said the group of nations were thinking along the same lines and planned to meet again on Wednesday, potentially with the aim of agreeing language that could be used for a long term goal.

"[We were] talking in similar terms about the long term goal of carbon neutrality of ensuring we can meet something ambitious," he told BusinessGreen. "There was talk of striving for 1.5C, there was a lot of talking about striving below 2C."

A growing number of countries are backing the call by vulnerable nations such as low-lying islands for the text to reflect the fact that if the world warms more than 1.5C, their homes may be lost to rising seas. A coalition of business leaders from powerful companies including L'Oreal, Unilever and Marks & Spencer also backed the 1.5C goal on Sunday, according to the Guardian.

But OPEC nations including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela are trying to block a more ambitious target. India could accept a tougher global warming limit of 1.5C in a proposed UN climate deal, but only on the condition richer nations make radical greenhouse gas cuts to meet it, according to Climate Home.

Bourne admitted that convincing these countries to back 1.5C was still a major block to success. "There's still a lot of work to do," he said.

The United Nations' own estimations reveal that the current climate pledges by 186 nations will still lead to warming of around 3C, far exceeding the 2C that the UN agreed is needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. But low-lying island will still be hit hard with 2C warming so are calling for a more ambitious target of 1.5C.

Bourne said the UK was "strongly aligned" with the small island states and was today due to meet with the Barbados delegation, having already met with Tony de Brum, The Marshall Islands Foreign Minister. "In a sense they are the world's conscience," he said.

"It's important we get an agreement in Paris but it's equally important that we recognise that the job isn't done in Paris. It is a staging post and therefore a long term goal is very important."

Alongside a long term goal, the UK, EU and US are also calling for the Paris deal to commit countries to review their climate actions plans every five years. Although emerging economies such as China and India are resisting the review clause, arguing they are already doing as much as they can to limit temperature rises.

"It's not interfering with a nation's sovereignty," said Bourne. "It's saying this is needed, this is a mechanism to show where we've got to."

But a leading climate scientist today argued that meeting 1.5C is near impossible. Dr Glen Peters, from the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, Norway, said that to meet the tougher 1.5C target and reduce further the impacts of climate change, emissions would have to come down to zero by between 2025 to 2030.

There was only "an extremely thin chance" of curbing temperature rises to 1.5C, he warned, while even meeting the 2C goal was "very difficult", he said.

Bourne also insisted that not one other delegate had raised concerns at COP21 about the UK's recent watering down of its climate and energy policies.

This article is part of BusinessGreen's Road to Paris hub, hosted in association with PwC.

Further reading

Could global greenhouse gas emissions experience an historic fall in 2015?
  • Climate change
  • 07 December 2015
Arnold Schwarzenegger says climate campaigns need to focus on 'right now' not 2050
  • Policy
  • 07 December 2015
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Policy
  • Climate change
  • Paris Summit
  • In-depth

More on Policy

Boris Johnson at the launch of the COP26 Summit at the Science Museum in early 2020
    • Policy
Poll: Two-thirds of adults believe UK government should do more to combat climate change
    • Policy
    • 17 January 2021
The car free city would stretch 100 miles across Saudia Arabia
    • Management
Global Briefing: Saudi Arabia plots car-free city stretching 100 miles
    • Management
    • 15 January 2021
Imported emissions make up 46 per cent of the UK's carbon footprint
    • Carbon Trading
From taxes to targets: How can the UK curb its offshore carbon emissions?
    • Carbon Trading
    • 15 January 2021
China has expanded its coal plant capacity to boost the coronavirus-stricken economy
    • Energy
'Economically feasible': New study maps how China could shift from coal to green energy in the 2020s
    • Energy
    • 15 January 2021
Adapting to increasingly severe climate impacts has fallen is not receiving enough attention from governments, according to UNEP | Credit: South Agency
    • Climate change
Climate adaptation: Could nature based solutions help bridge the gap?
    • Climate change
    • 14 January 2021
    • Science
Is inaction on environmental crises leading humanity into a 'ghastly future of mass extinction'?
    • Science
    • 13 January 2021
    • Biodiversity
Boris Johnson: 'Tackling climate change must be part of overall agenda to protect the natural world'
    • Biodiversity
    • 12 January 2021
A hybrid Sky engineering van | Credit: Sky
    • Policy
Sky announced as 'principal media partner' for COP26
    • Policy
    • 12 January 2021

More news

250 Bishopsgate: Bringing nature into a London building
  • Workplace
250 Bishopsgate: Bringing nature into a London building

NatWest Group explains how sustainability has been embedded into its flagship building in London

  • 18 January 2021
Outdated carbon credits from old wind and solar farms are threatening climate change efforts
  • Offsets
Outdated carbon credits from old wind and solar farms are threatening climate change efforts

The carbon credit system needs an overhaul to effectively help in reducing climate change, according to a UCL study

  • 18 January 2021
Poll: Two-thirds of adults believe UK government should do more to combat climate change
  • Policy
Poll: Two-thirds of adults believe UK government should do more to combat climate change

New survey reveals 60 per cent of voters agree UK should strive to be a global leader on climate action, as Labour sets out 'crunch test' for government's COP26 climate diplomacy efforts

  • 17 January 2021
Global Briefing: Saudi Arabia plots car-free city stretching 100 miles
  • Management
Global Briefing: Saudi Arabia plots car-free city stretching 100 miles

Plus Danish diets, China climate policy signals, and all the top green business news from around the world this week

  • 15 January 2021
blog comments powered by Disqus
Back to Top

Most read

Mars and DHL plot £350m UK logistics hubs to slash one million road miles
Mars and DHL plot £350m UK logistics hubs to slash one million road miles
Terra Carta: Prince of Wales launches green recovery charter for business
Terra Carta: Prince of Wales launches green recovery charter for business
'Environmentally regressive': UK government approves use of bee-harming pesticide banned in EU
'Environmentally regressive': UK government approves use of bee-harming pesticide banned in EU
Unilever and Alibaba launch 'world first' AI-powered closed-loop recycling system
Unilever and Alibaba launch 'world first' AI-powered closed-loop recycling system
Essar and Progressive Energy plot £750m hydrogen CCS hub in Cheshire
Essar and Progressive Energy plot £750m hydrogen CCS hub in Cheshire
  • Contact Us
  • Marketing solutions
  • About Incisive Media
  • Terms and conditions
  • Policies
  • Careers
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Incisive Footer Logo

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017
Loading