Tiempo Climate Newswatch

In the run-up to the Cancún climate summit, leaders from over 100 urban centres met at the World Mayors Summit on Climate in Mexico City and agreed the Global Cities Covenant on Climate, the Mexico City Pact. The pact establishes a set of voluntary commitments aimed at mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and facilitating urban adaptation. Actions will be recorded in the carbonn Cities Climate Registry. "We have to tell the international community that it's in the cities that the battle to slow global warming will be won," said Marcelo Ebrard, mayor of Mexico City.

Ebrard was appointed champion of the United Nations campaign Making Cities Resilient at the summit. "It is our way to recognize Mayor Ebrard for his exemplary leadership, and for showing how local action can be taken to build the resilience of nations and their assets," said Margaret Wahlström of the Secretariat of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. "It is particularly relevant at a time when the cost of disasters is expected to rise significantly because of climate change. Cities will have to bear the biggest brunt of climate-related risks," she added. The campaign draws on the sustainable urbanizations principles developed in the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign 2009-2013.

China has acknowledged that is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. "Our emissions volume now stands at number one in the world," said Xie Zhenhua from the National Development and Reform Commission. He called on the United States to take a leadership role at the Cancún climate summit reaffirming his country's position that developed countries should accept their historic responsibility for the climate problem. China is taking voluntary action to limit emissions growth. "We will not allow our emissions to increase unchecked. China is taking decisive actions to slow down our emissions so that our emissions peak can come at an early date," he said. China will not, however, accept mandatory controls.

Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh has said that India would be open to engagement with a system of global monitoring of climate change efforts that respects national sovereignty, a source of contention at the Copenhagen climate summit. He described the sum committed to fast-start finance in support of developing country actions by the United States as a "laughable number." Small Island States want an end-2011 deadline for a new climate agreement. "In the case of climate, emergency requires speed," said Dessima Williams of the Alliance of Small Island States. "Anything that is not concluded in Cancún should not be put off into the indefinite future but could easily and should be referenced to South Africa [the 2011 climate summit]," she argued. This position will meet opposition from the United States.

Existing pledges and promises to control national emissions, if fully realized, could deliver around 60 per cent of the reductions needed to limit the rise in global temperature to two degrees Celsius over the 21st century, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). There is still, though, a large "gigatonne gap" to be addressed.

"The results indicate that the United Nations meeting in Copenhagen could prove to have been more of a success than a failure if all the commitments, intentions and funding, including fully supporting the pledges of developing economies, are met," commented Achim Steiner, UNEP head. "This still leaves a gap of perhaps 5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent - a gap that could be bridged by higher ambition on carbon dioxide by developed and developing countries perhaps complemented by action on a range of so-called non-carbon dioxide pollutants such as methane from waste tips to black carbon from the inefficient burning of biomass and animal wastes," he continued.