adminThose are the words of Mr Langston James Goree, UN liaison at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, after seeing an uninspiring conclusion to the two-week preparatory UN climate talks that closed in Bonn, Germany, last week.
It is unfair to say delegates at Bonn were there only to warm the seats up, but the outcome certainly did not make light the work that awaits the world at Warsaw later this year.
The Polish capital is the 2013 venue for the 19th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP19), a major global platform for multilateral climate negotiations.
No work except conflict was conducted under the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), the arm responsible for implementing the climate agreements, because Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine introduced a new item to the agenda that targets reform of the legal procedures to the decision-making structures of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Russians’ desire for change was inspired by events at the previous COP in Doha, where the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period was only adopted after much controversy.
Several parties resisted, leading to a stalemate in the discussions. Parties are now hoping for better fortunes at Warsaw, if that hope can really be banked on.
Time was wasted here, and will need to be regained, if that’s possible, between now and November to allow for concrete work in Poland.
“This is of grave concern to us as issues of implementation are key for the LDCs,” said Mr Prakash Mathema of the Least Developed Countries group at the conclusion of the Bonn talks.
“We expect this not to happen again at COP19 in Warsaw later this year. Communities around the world have high expectations regarding this process and hope that we, as climate ambassadors, will take some bold decisions very soon to protect humanity from the adverse impacts of climate change. We need to act now and we need to act together,” Mr Mathema said.
Where negotiations succeeded, the progress was piecemeal. Negotiations under the Ad hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) continued, but failed to reach convincing, progressive decisions for the benefit of mankind or the climate talks.
The ADP, responsible for designing a new agreement to replace Kyoto by 2015 and for advancing the pre-2020 emission and mitigation agenda, held “marathon sessions” in work groups and round tables, but the key elements of a draft negotiating text to guide for the 2015 agreement remained elusive.
The body only has 30 months left to produce a binding agreement implementable in 2020. A clear roadmap should emerge from Warsaw and “so parties will have to decide on how to capture progress for that purpose . . .”
Numerous “hybrid approaches” were proposed as ways for keeping temperatures increases below two degrees Celsius.
Others preferred top-down mitigation strategies and others the bottom up that enables countries to provide national commitments, but no middle ground was reached.
In Bonn, African countries and other developing nations voiced concern that current pledges and commitments under the Protocol and the Convention needed enhancement.
Indeed, that may be a key determinant for the success of the global response to climate change-implementing agreed principles, as well as scaling up action to control carbon emissions.
Developed countries must lead the charge. Firstly, because they are historically responsible for all the pollution fuelling changing climatic conditions today.
And secondly, because they continue leading in emitting carbons. Thirdly, for social justice and because they have the money.
The current noises, as heard at Doha, were some developed countries pushed for increased, if not similar actions from developing countries, is plainly irresponsible and impractical.
Developed countries should assist those developing limit own emissions and adapt to climate change.
There were more positives at Bonn under the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), taking advantage of the lifelessness within the SBI, a body with which some items are linked.
The key outputs were reached on agriculture and the programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+).
On agriculture, parties in Doha had not been able to agree on a workshop and a technical paper on “opportunities and challenges from mitigation in the agricultural sector”, since the G-77/China favoured addressing adaptation concerns rather than mitigation.
At Bonn, parties agreed to shift the focus of the workshop and the technical paper to address “adaptation of agriculture to climate change impacts while promoting rural development, sustainable development and productivity of agricultural systems and food security, particularly in developing countries”.
However, Warsaw still remains an uphill task, and the following statements sum it all up: “It is time for developed countries to step up to the plate and take the lead before it is too late. Only when the climate talks adhere to the principles and provisions of the convention will the world see an effective climate change agreement,” said a post- Bonn statement from the Like-Minded Developing Countries.
“The post-Bali, pre-Copenhagen idealism and energy has long since dissipated,” said Mr Goree.
“What is beyond any doubt, however, is the enormity of the challenge ahead in securing a meaningful agreement in 2015, with Warsaw the first of three crucial COPs. Bonn has demonstrated that progress can be made under the right conditions, but, at the same time, matters can arise that are capable of taking everyone’s eyes off the winding road ahead.”
God is faithful.
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