Fresh three-day talks begin in Bonn on Friday to lay down the time table for preparatory meetings in run up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun in Mexico.
The calendar would be influenced by how the parties decide to build on the outcome of the Copenhagen conference. At the end of the conference in December, the member countries took note of the legally non-binding Copenhagen Accord, and extended the mandate of two working groups to proceed on long-term action and further emission reduction commitments by developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol.
To build on the synergy between the twin-track negotiations and the Accord, the UK has floated a new proposal to have two treaties if one does not come through. While developed countries could extend their emission reduction targets beyond 2012 when the first commitment phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires, another treaty could be for countries like the US, which did not ratify Kyoto Protocol, and developing countries, which are not obliged under the Protocol to cut emissions.
While developing countries like China and India are in favour of continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, they are opposed to undertaking legally binding emission reduction targets. In fact, they were instrumental in crafting the Copenhagen Accord, which requires them to communicate their voluntary emission intensity cuts to the UNFCCC.
In the meantime, in keeping with the Copenhagen Accords requirements, so far 75 countries, which contribute 80% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, have submitted their national pledges to reduce or limit their emissions by 2020 to the UNFCCC. While 42 rich countries have committed to targets to reduce emissions, 35 developing countries have pledged to nationally appropriate mitigation actions.
While noting that the pledges are an important step towards the objective of limiting growth of emissions, outgoing UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer added in a recent statement they will not in themselves suffice to limit warming to below 2 degrees C. More needs to be done.
Similarly, the Accord commits developed countries to provide $10 billion a year for 2010-2012, going up to $100 billion a year by 2020. There has been some movement recently, with the high level advisory group on climate change financing, headed by UKs Gordon Brown and Ethiopias Meles Zenawi, meeting in London to figure out how to raise money committed by industrialised countries. They considered proposals ranging from expanding carbon markets to levying taxes on financial transactions, air travel and shipping.
But such incremental forward movement can be consolidated only when there is a synergy between the follow up on twin-track negotiations and the Copenhagen Accord.
Source: The Financial Express
Published on 9 April 2010.