Creative Commons: Adopt a Negotiator, 2011
This is a guest post by Sebastian Duycks of the Adopt a Negotiator Project, currently tracking the UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany. For full coverage of the talks, visit the Adopt a Negotiator site, or follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
With most of the international hype on sustainable development community focused on the Rio conference, the UN climate talks have just resumed in Bonn for another two weeks. While no breakthrough is expected, three important discussions will be taking place during this session, each involving a different discussion track. The outcome of those are key to ensure that international cooperation on climate action do not backslide into counterproductive political disputes.
In/out the Kyoto Protocol
First of all, governments need to make a final decision before December on the future of the Kyoto Protocol. It is indeed crucial for the trust among the international community that the protocol – as the only treaty including obligations regarding climate action – remains operational after the end of this year. At the moment, these obligations only applies for a period ending in 2012 and thus a new agreement is required to set new targets. The EU, Norway and Switzerland are however the only countries who already agreed to sign up for such an extension, while Japan and Russia clearly signaled that they would not accept any new target (not to mention the US and Canada, who are both totally out of the protocol). One of the critical questions for the coming months will thus be whether Australia and New Zealand will join the side of the more constructive nations, or if they would rather escape their responsibility to contribute to a more livable climate. Also, some essential technical questions need to be answered to ensure that the new targets do not include loopholes that would make them meaningless in terms of benefits for the climate.
Long term vision (?)
Secondly, countries are also expected to discuss their vision for a low carbon planet in the so-called “long-term cooperation†negotiating track. This discussion already delivered some partial decisions over the past 5 years on many issues, including financial support from developed countries for adaptation and mitigation in the global south, the creation of several new institutions. It still lacks however two main elements. Its “visionary†aspect would benefit from an agreement on when the international community foresees the peaking of global emissions as well as what levels of emissions reduction should be reduced by 2050. Many of the decisions reached during the past two years also need to be supported with concrete elements in the coming months in order to become truly operational. This operationalization include the need to provide resources to the funds established.
A new discussion for a low-carbon planet
Thirdly, the Durban conference resulted in the launch of a new negotiating track to deal with everything related to climate policies after 2020. Before 2015, delegations will engage in a discussion on what needs to be done and, perhaps more importantly, to which extent will each country be contributing to these measures. This discussion will only begin on Thursday and is expected to progress slowly, as difficult issues related, for instance, to the meaning of “equity†will need to be addressed. NGOs are urging the negotiators not to lay back and use this long timeframe to avoid reaching decisions, but to adopt a concrete workprogram highlighting milestones to be reached at each of the major UNFCCC sessions.
The content of the discussions in Bonn during the next twelve days will do little to provide new solutions to the climate crisis, but they can at least ensure that the whole discussion is still going in the right direction. But such a modest outcome is already a good reason to remain vigilant about the content of these discussions.
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