International Climate Negotiations: 2010
UNFCCC meetings in 2010
June 2010: UNFCCC negotiations in Bonn
The first substantial meeting of the UNFCCC since Copenhagen took place in the German city of Bonn in the first two weeks of June. Overall, modest progress was made at a relatively upbeat and unspectacular meeting. Constructive dialogue and progress was made on key “nuts and bolts” elements of the promised global deal, including work moved forward on financial architecture for support of mitigation and adaptation in developing countries, progress in defining systems for international accountability by reporting, monitoring and verifying mitigation activities, and positive efforts on establishing a mechanism to accelerate the dispersal and uptake of innovative clean technology into the developing world.
One of the more disappointing aspects of the meeting was the thwarting of an attempt by the Alliance of Small Island States to request a technical paper to be prepared on scientific and practical issues around limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. Many countries committed in Copenhagen to review global action in light of this goal by 2015 at the latest. The proposal was was ultimately defeated by Saudi Arabia, backed by other oil producing countries from the Arab region.
Nevertheless, most participating countries worked wilingly with each other on unglamourous but crucial pieces of the architecture of a global climate response. The world will now be looking to them to accelerate the pace of this progress when they meet again in August. You can see the UNFCCC's press release here.
April 2010: First UN climate meeting since Copenhagen
The first formal gathering of all the parties to the UNFCCC since Copenhagen was held in Bonn from 9-11th April and CANA's International Coordinator attended. After two marathon closing plenaries, the outcome is that finally we have the LCA Chair’s mandate to prepare a consolidated text, and we have an outline of our meeting schedule for the year. A comprehensive list of outcomes is provided for CANA members here (password required). The publicly-available analysis is provided in the ECO e-zines from Climate Action Network International here.
The delegates managed to secure some modest progress on processes for negotiation for the rest of the year. There will be two additional meetings between June and the COP, of at least a week each, but the location of these meetings is not yet determined, and the Secretariat does not have funding for them. See the UNFCCC website for the conclusions from the Kyoto working group and the long term cooperative action group.
In the mean time, parties have submitted views on what should be included in the new long-term cooperative action negotiating text, and their submissions are available here.
The next formal talks for the UNFCCC are scheduled for 31st May-11th June.
About the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992, with the goal “to protect the climate system for present and future generations.” The full text of the Convention is available on the UNFCCC website: www.unfccc.int
There are 196 parties to the UNFCCC, including the EU Parties to the Convention have agreed to work towards achieving the Convention’s ultimate aim, of stabilising greenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”
The decision-making body of the UNFCCC is the Conference of Parties (COP), which meets once a year in December. Different COPs are distinguished by number. The Copenhagen talks, for example, are the 15th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC, so they are known as COP15.
United Nations update (4/3/10)
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer will leave the post from 1st July this year. Suggestions are being made about a possible successor, who is tipped to be from a developing country. Also, there are a few new documents to peruse on the UNFCCC website. This includes a summary of work undertaken at COP15 on the basis of the LCA work here.
The UN will create an independent panel of scientists to review the processes of the IPCC, with details to be released this week (see news coverage here). According to Environmental News Service, a report from the review is to be presented to the IPCC Plenary in South Korea in October.
The UN will reportedly also be beginning preparations for a Conference on Sustainable Development, (aka “Rio+20”) to be held in Rio de Janiero in 2012, marking twenty years since the landmark Earth Summit from which the UNFCCC (and much more besides) was born. Brazil’s President Lula da Silva first proposed the follow-up to the milestone Earth Summit in 2007. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the conference in December last year and a preparatory meeting is set down to begin work on 17th-19th May, in New York.
d) UNEP meeting in Indonesia
The eleventh special session of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Bali last week skimmed under the radar of the Australian press. The formal outcome of the meeting is the Nusa Dua Declaration. This is the first landmark declaration to be made by UNEP environment ministers in ten years, and indicates the Ministers’ desire for a “comprehensive outcome” at COP16 in Mexico. During the meeting, Yvo de Boer cautioned that we should set our sights on South Africa in 2011, rather than expecting too much from Mexico. The ENB report from the session indicates that temperature targets and warmth of reception of the Copenhagen Accord continue to be disputed. The Nusa Dua Declaration will be reported to the General Assembly in October. See the Jakarta Post coverage of the meeting.
About the Kyoto Protocol
Go to CANA's background page on the Kyoto Protocol (note that some of this information pre-dates Australia's ratification -- dates of authoring are given in most cases.)
About the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
IPCC Reports: All the IPCC Summary for Policy Makers reports (Science, Impacts & Adaptation, and Mitigation) can be downloaded from the IPCC website www.ipcc.ch
What are other countries doing?
Lots of countries around the world are taking action to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Up to date information about global greenhouse gas emissions can be accessed through the World Resources Institute's Climate Analysis Indicator Tool (CAIT) -- CAIT can help you understand which sectors create emissions in which countries.
If you want to find out the latest on the emissions reduction commitments and proposed actions since the Copenhagen climate talks, see our page on the Copenhagen Accord.
Useful resources on the UNFCCC negotiations
-
Oxfam Australia’s Suffering the Science on the human impact of climate change is available here
-
Oxfam Australia’s Hang Together or Separately? on global effort sharing is available here
-
A Copenhagen Climate Treaty, by international NGOs available here
-
World Resource Institute’s analysis of comparability of effort in developed country pledges for emissions cuts
-
World Resources Institute on why finance matters at Copenhagen
-
The Climate Institute’s Low Carbon Competitiveness report
