After Gutenberg

jcwinnie

Reuters reports that “South Korea has set its voluntary 2020 emissions reduction target to a 30 percent reduction from its forecast under a ‘business as usual’ scenario.”

“Unless there is a big change in the business situation, the business as usual target should be equivalent to a 4 percent reduction (against 2005 levels),” Woo Ki-jong, secretary-general of the presidential committee on green growth, told Reuters by telephone.

The OECD’s fastest-growing carbon polluter earlier this month ditched its weakest voluntary emissions target of an 8 percent increase from 2005 emissions levels by 2020.

A senior government source said on Saturday South Korea had adopted the toughest of its two voluntary 2020 emissions reduction targets — either unchanged from or 4 percent below 2005 levels ahead of a global meeting in Copenhagen.

President Lee Myung-bak said in the statement that while emissions reduction would present “short-term burdens” it would also bring “broader national gains.”

“Through the aggressive greenhouse gas reduction, South Korea will be ready for industrialised countries’ carbon trade tariffs, raise energy security and acquire market share first in rapidly growing green sectors.”

While not obliged under the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol climate pact to announce binding cuts, South Korea faced pressure to put the brakes on the rapid growth of its planet-warming emissions from industry and transport.

The statement noted that the target cut was the strongest recommended to developing countries by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

South Korea’s green investment plans are already among the most ambitious in Asia, with the government saying earlier this year it would pump 107 trillion won ($92.88 billion) into environment-related industries over the next five years.

The country is hoping to showcase its green policies when it hosts a G20 summit next year.

jcwinnie

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez

President Barack Obama touted the importance of next month’s climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, in spite of the event’s downgraded objectives.

Obama over the weekend acknowledged the meeting won’t produce a legally binding deal to cut emissions, but on Tuesday he insisted a political agreement in Copenhagen, the new goal of the summit, will have an “immediate” effect.

“Our aim there, in support of what Prime Minister [Lars Lokke] Rasmussen of Denmark is trying to achieve, is not a partial accord or a political declaration, but rather an accord that covers all of the issues in the negotiations, and one that has immediate operational effect,” Obama said in Beijing following a meeting with China’s president.

“This kind of comprehensive agreement would be an important step forward in the effort to rally the world around a solution to our climate challenge,” he added.

In Singapore over the weekend, Obama and other heads of state said the objective for Copenhagen would be a political agreement on climate change. Lower-level administration officials had already been downgrading expectations for a final binding agreement on cutting emissions.

Obama made the remarks after he and Chinese President Hu Jintao announced a series of joint “clean energy” agreements that Obama cast as a sign of progress on climate change. China and the U.S. are the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions.

The two nations have reached several specific agreements on low-emissions power and vehicles, the White House said. This includes establishment of a joint clean energy research center, building on an agreement Energy Secretary Steven Chu reached with Chinese officials in July. Other joint measures are aimed at spurring use of electric vehicles, renewable power, low-emissions coal and other technologies.

Deputy National Security Adviser Mike Froman stressed that the U.S.-China deal would add momentum to international efforts in Copenhagen despite the absence from the agreement of specifics on emissions-curbing measures.

“I think the agreement today reflected in the joint statement does give momentum to the Copenhagen process,” Froman told reporters. He acknowledged that “further specifics” must be fleshed out by negotiators.

China is believed to back a reduction in its emissions intensity — which means emissions relative to economic activity — rather than an outright reduction target.

“Obama says Copenhagen will rally World on Climate Change“

Meanwhile, U.S. Senators put the finishing touches on their political solution.