The UN Bangkok Climate Change Talks ended with agreement on a work programme for 2008, which structures negotiations on a long-term international climate change agreement, set to be concluded in Copenhagen by the end of 2009
The Bangkok meeting sent a clear signal that the use of market-based mechanisms, such as the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, should be continued and improved as a way for developed countries to meet emission reduction targets and contribute towards sustainable development.
“The train to Copenhagen has left the station.” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “Not only do we have the certainty that critical issues will be addressed this year, we now have the bite-sized chunks which will allow us to negotiate in an effective manner.”
At the Bangkok meeting, delegates from 162 countries began fleshing out the “Road Map” agreed at UN Climate Change Conference in Bali last year, which launched negotiations on a long-term international agreement, along with strengthening ongoing work under the UNFCCC. This agreement is to be clinched in Copenhagen in 2009. The main elements of the stronger climate change deal include a shared long-term vision and enhanced action on mitigation, adaptation, technology and finance.
“Delegates brought their hopes and aspirations to Bangkok. You need a good beginning to get to a good end. We now have that good beginning,” said the UN’s top climate change official. “It is now crucial to create a better common understanding of key issues before Parties can move into the phase of discussing concrete text proposals for the envisaged agreement,” he added.
Whilst agreement was reached on an overall work programme for 2008 under the Convention, the process established under the Kyoto Protocol initiated work on the analysis of tools for developed countries to reach emission reduction targets after 2012, when the first commitment period of the protocol expires. The group also discussed ways to enhance the effectiveness of these tools and their contribution to sustainable development. One of the main outcomes of their discussion was an agreement that the use of emissions trading, the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation should be continued.
“This sends an important signal to businesses that the international carbon market spawned by the Kyoto Protocol will continue beyond 2012. Businesses have been asking for clarity on this issue and now they have it, making it possible for them to plan their investments accordingly,” said the UNFCCC Executive Secretary.
Parties also agreed to continue including forest and land use-related activities as a means to achieve emission reductions in the second commitment period. The group under the Kyoto Protocol will continue its work on the analysis of tools for developed countries to reach their emission reduction targets at its next regular meetings in June and August 2008.
According to the work programme agreed at Bangkok, Parties will seek progress on all five identified elements of the Copenhagen agreement (a shared long-term vision and enhanced action on mitigation, adaptation, technology and finance) at each of the three sessions that will be organised this year. At the same time, each of the three gatherings will focus on particular set of key issues. In 2009 at least four sessions will take place, with a combined duration of up to eight weeks.
The second major UN climate change meeting this year after Bangkok, to be held in Bonn, Germany in June, will address the issue of advancing adaptation to climate change through finance and technology. The Bonn session will look into ways to generate and mobilize the necessary financial and investment flows to both reduce emissions and adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change. It will furthermore look into ways to scale up the development and transfer of low-emissions technologies to developing countries and to speed up the use and spread of such technologies.
The third major UN gathering in 2008 in August will look more closely into a number of crucial issues related to enhanced action on mitigation. One of them concerns reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries, recognized to be responsible for around 20% of global emissions. The Ghana meeting will address the issue of cooperative sectoral approaches and sector-specific actions.
The fourth session at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, in December this year will address the issue of risk management and risk reduction strategies, technology and the key elements of a shared long-term vision for joint action in combating climate change, including a long-term target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
UNFCCC
With 192 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has to date 178 member Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
Under the CDM, projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and contribute to sustainable development can earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits. There are currently more than 975 registered CDM projects in 49 developing countries, and another 2000 plus projects in the project registration pipeline. The CDM is expected to generate more than 2.7 billion CERs by the time the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012, each equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide.
