Climate deal failure would be 'big blow'

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Failure to strike a global deal to govern greenhouse gas emissions at United Nations negotiations this December in Paris could spell the death of multilateralism, South Africa's ex-environment minister said.

 

The stakes are high for the international talks, which hope to set a framework for reducing emissions to avoid 2 degree Celsius global temperature rise by 2100, said Valli Moosa, now the independent non-executive chairman of Anglo American Platinum. Another collapse akin to the 2009 Copenhagen talks would kick dealmaking up to national leaders, where it could get ensnared in political bickering.

 

Those pressures and the memory of Copenhagen, though, have sharpened the resolve of negotiators, Moosa said at a Thursday event hosted by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions in Washington, D.C.

 

"They seem to have a sense of mission," said Moosa, who co-chairs the group's Toward 2015 effort, which brings diplomats together to discuss the negotiations. "They also know that if we fail in Paris it will be a big blow in a number of ways"