Negotiators have finished the first week of the intersessional United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks in Bonn, Germany.
If you recall, the talks began after the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report estimating that 2010 holds the record in carbon emissions, up five percent from the previous record year of 2008. Also, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said that countries should aim for a 1.5 degree Celsius temperature increase, instead of the widely agreed upon two degree Celsius target, that created some controversy.
Let’s take a look at what happened in Bonn during the first week and where the talks currently stand.
Negotiators first tackled the biggest question on everyone’s mind. What is going to happen once the Kyoto Protocol (KP) expires in 2012? Developing nations, including the G77 and China, said that the extension of the KP is their top priority, with the operationalization of the Cancun Agreements following in second place. The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) even agreed to accept emissions cuts if developed countries sign on to legally-binding emissions reductions.
"If we're going to get started urgently we need to provide the confidence which you can only get from a legal agreement, so let's take what we did in Cancun and make it binding," Leon Charles, AOSIS chief negotiator told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Japan, Canada, Russia, and the United States all reiterated claims that they would not sign on to an extension of the KP. Even Figueres said that the 2012 KP deadline is not achievable. This may have been a move to address the issue and to clear the way for negotiators to focus on matters where progress is likely to be made.
“Even if they were able to agree on a legal text ... that requires an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, it requires legislative ratifications on the part of three-quarters of the parties, so we would assume that there's no time to do that between Durban and the end of 2012," said Figueres."Countries have realized this, that they actually stand before the potential of a regulatory gap, and are involved in constructive negotiations as to how they're going to deal with that.”
However, some delegates on the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) track said that progress was going forward on elements of a legally-binding agreement under the AWG-LCA, and some suggested it could provide a new protocol framework.
The Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) adopted its agenda, but the critical sticking point of measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) seems to be left out.
South Africa, the host of the next Conference of Parties (COP) in Durban, held a meeting with delegates and has arranged for further meetings between Bonn and Durban on mitigation, finance, technology and capacity building, political level engagement, and legal options.
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), one negotiator seemed to be optimistic on the first week’s progress. “Things are definitely looking brighter than they did a couple of days ago, but I still have tempered expectations for Durban.”
Next week we’ll take a look at the progress made (or not made) and analyze what this means for the bigger picture in Durban.
