Bangkok--3 Sep--UNFCCC
Governments began meeting in Bangkok today to prepare decisions that they will take at the next UN climate change conference in Doha.
"Governments have promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions and help the poor and vulnerable adapt to climate change. They know they must implement these promises fully, raise their efforts before 2020 and redouble those efforts again after 2020," said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
"Soon, in Doha, they must show implementation and set the pace towards adopting a new, universal climate agreement by 2015. The next three years are set to drive the next two decades of the international response to climate change," she said.
At the last UNFCCC conference, in Durban, South Africa, nations set specific objectives for their 2012 meeting in Doha, Qatar (26 November to 7 December). These include essential work to trigger a new phase of greater climate action and to take the next concrete steps to fill existing gaps in the international policy response to climate change.
Three negotiating groups are meeting informally in Bangkok over the next week. (See below for further details on each group).
One group will discuss how to amend the Kyoto Protocol, the existing treaty under which industrialised countries commit to emissions cuts, so that it continues into a second commitment period next year and its important international infrastructure and accounting rules are preserved.
A second group is preparing to conclude the work which it began in 2007 and which has resulted in a set of international agreements that aim to limit the average global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius (beyond which climate change becomes increasingly dangerous), to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to achieve this and to establish an adequate support system to provide developing countries with finance and technology to build their own sustainable, clean energy futures.
The third, new working group will discuss how to take the next steps necessary to negotiate the new global climate change agreement, which must be adopted by 2015 and enter into force from 2020, and how to raise current inadequate global ambition to deal with climate change, including cutting greenhouse gas emissions even faster.
A common theme running through the Bangkok meeting is how to make sure that promised, adequate funds flow from developed to developing countries to support their plans to deal with climate change. "All sides need a clearer understanding on how to get to 100 billion USD a year by 2020 with no gaps," said Ms Figueres.
The location of the Bangkok meeting (to 5 September) is the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
What the three working groups will be discussing in Bangkok in more detail:
1) The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Partiesunder the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP)
The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends on 31 December
2012. Adopting amendments to the Kyoto Protocol in Doha with new commitments is essential so that a seamless continuation of the Protocol can be assured as of 1 January 2013.
In Bangkok, negotiators can finish as much detail as possible to
smooth the way for final high-level political decisions that will see the amendment passed.
Key issues under discussion include the length of the secondcommitment period and how to convert targets into so-called quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives (QELROs), the unit of binding reduction commitments.
Governments will further explore the legal formulation of theamendment, including how to carry over unused emission credits of economies in transition into the second phase of the Protocol.
2) The Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA)
Governments decided in Durban at the end of last year to complete the2007 Bali Action Plan under the LCA, covering the areas of mitigation (curbing greenhouse gas emissions), adaptation to climate change, and the finance, technology and capacity-building which developing countries require to build their low-emission, climate-resilient futures.
In Bangkok, governments will continue to discuss which elements ofthe Bali Action plan have been achieved and/or implemented, what additional decisions can be taken in Doha and which elements may need to continue to be further addressed in other negotiating groups.
A number of discussions will be held in Bangkok within the context ofthe LCA. For example, discussions to clarify the emission reduction targets of industrialized countries and the nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries, along with a discussion on a new market-based mechanism and financing options to prevent deforestation.
3) Ad hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action(AWG-ADP)
In Durban, governments agreed to negotiate a new, universal climateagreement, which is to be adopted by 2015, to enter into force from 2020 and to be applicable to all nations.
A second crucial part of that negotiation is to agree how to raiseglobal ambition for climate change action before 2020.
In Bangkok, governments will discuss how the ADP will push forwardits work to ultimately adopt this new agreement, also how to bridge the ambition gap between what has been pledged to date in terms of emission curbs and what further action can be taken to keep the world below the two degrees temperature rise.