The United States, China, India and 52 other nations have submitted national climate pledges to the United Nations, sending a clear signal of political will for action on climate change, U.S. non-profit group Environmental Defense Fund said Monday.
"We have all the world's biggest polluters saying they want to work together," said Jennifer Haverkamp, EDF's International Climate Policy Director." This sends a clear signal that countries intend to stay at the negotiating table. The challenge now is to translate this will into measurable action and a strong global climate treaty."
The national pledges will be inscribed in the Copenhagen Accord – a non-binding political agreement to curb global warming brokered at the U.N. climate talks in December. The U.N. set a soft deadline of Jan. 31 for submitting pledges, but nations missing the deadline can sign up later.
"The really key countries all honored the January 31 deadline," said Haverkamp. "The United States, China, India, Brazil, the European Union – these are the world's biggest economies and biggest polluters. We're looking at the leaders of the 21st century clean energy economy, and no one wants to walk away."
The Copenhagen Accord, reached after an especially difficult session of U.N. climate talks, captured for the first time the political will of all major emitting nations to work together to halt global warming. However, as a non-binding political document, it was criticized for lacking the necessary rigor.
Despite these concerns, the accord was recognized by almost 190 nations in an overwhelming show of determination to take action on global warming. Nations were asked to join the accord by Jan. 31 by submitting voluntary pledges to curb their global warming pollution.
In a statement, the United Nations said 55 countries representing 78 percent of global energy emissions have so far submitted pledges. Pledges came from the United States, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Costa Rica, Maldives, Marshall Islands and Indonesia, among others.
The next high-level meeting is slated for December in Mexico following several interim negotiating sessions in 2010.
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