Second Round of 2010 UN Climate Change
Talks in Bonn
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From 31 May to 11 June the second round of UN Climate Talks for 2010 took place in Bonn. Important progress was made towards picking up on issues that were not resolved in Copenhagen and towards agreeing on the new negotiating text that had been under preparation. The outcome is set to be presented at the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico (COP 16) at the end of this year. |
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“A big step forward is now possible at Cancún, in the form of a full package of operational measures that will allow countries to take faster, stronger action across all areas of climate change”, said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer.
Progress was made at the meeting in fleshing out the specifics of how a climate regime can work in practice. The working group under the Convention responsible for the text to provide long-term response to climate change (AWG on Long Cooperative Action)* undertook detailed discussions on reducing greenhouse gases, adapting to the inevitable effects of climate change, the transfer of clean technology, reducing emissions from deforestation and capacity building, along with finance and institutional arrangements. The chair of the group was requested by Parties to compile a revised version by the next negotiating session in August.
Parallel to the AWG-LCA, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) also met in Bonn. In this group, countries started work on turning the emission reduction pledges that developed countries made since Copenhagen into targets that can be formally compared in a UN negotiating context**.
Yvo de Boer called on the negotiators to begin an in-depth consideration of the legal nature of any new agreement or set of agreements. “The fact remains industrial country pledges fall well short of the -25-40% range the IPCC has said gives a 50% chance to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees”, he warned as the pledges made by rich countries so far add up to about 12-19% of emissions over 1990 levels by 2020.
In terms of the long-term commitment, industrialized countries as a group have indicated their willingness to take on a -80% goal for 2050. Although Yvo de Boer expressed his belief that this goal will be delivered in future, he added that “more stringent actions cannot be much longer postponed. Otherwise, the 2 degree world will be in danger, and the door to a 1.5 world will have slammed shut”.
The next UNFCCC negotiating session is scheduled to take place 2-6 August in Bonn, followed by a second one-week intersessional meeting (precise date and time yet to be announced) before the UN Climate Change Conference 29 November to 10 December in Cancún, Mexico.
* At the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen at the end of 2009, governments extended the mandate of the AWG-LCA as the negotiating group tasked to deliver a long-term global solution to the climate challenge. Governments meeting in Bonn in April this year subsequently invited the Chair of the group, Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe, to prepare a new text in time for the June negotiating session.
** 76 emission reduction and emission limitation pledges have been made by developed and developing countries since the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. All industrialised countries have pledged emission reduction targets, and 39 developing countries have pledged voluntary actions to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.