UN climate change talks kick off in Bonn
Press Release
A second round of UN Climate Change Talks this year in Bonn kicked off Monday. The gathering (1 to 12 June) is being attended by more than 4,000 participants, including government delegates, representatives from business and industry, environmental organisations and research institutions.
Delegates from 182 countries meeting in Bonn are to discuss, for the first time, key negotiating texts which can serve as the basis for an ambitious and effective international climate change deal, to be clinched in Copenhagen in December. The Copenhagen agreed outcome is to follow on the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012.
Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Framework Convention on Climate Change, expressed confidence that the world was on track towards negotiating a solid deal in Copenhagen this year. "The political moment is right to reach an agreement. There is no doubt in my mind that the Copenhagen climate conference in December is going to lead to a result. If the world has learned anything from the financial crisis, it is that global issues require a global response," he said.
Michael Zammit Cutajar, Chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) noted that the negotiating text that is on the table did not prejudge or preclude any particular outcome. "The text is a starting point and now is the time for parties to take position and enrich it," he said.
The negotiating text for consideration by the AWG-LCA, which comprises all 192 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, covers issues of a shared vision for long-term cooperative action, enhanced action on adaptation, mitigation and finance, technology and capacity-building.
The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further commitments for Annex I Countries under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) will focus on a proposal for amendments to the Kyoto Protocol, including the annex relating to emission reduction commitments of 37 industrialized countries for the second phase of the protocol (post-2012).
Other issues intended for discussion under the protocol, in Bonn, are how to improve emissions trading, coverage of emissions credits, the Kyoto Protocol's so-called 'project-basedmechanisms" and options for the treatment of land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF).
"It is important that we complete some of the more solvable issues here in Bonn so that we can then focus on the more difficult ones later on in the negotiations," said John Ashe, the newly-elected Chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further commitments for Annex I Countries under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP).
In addition to the two working groups specifically designed to negotiate the Copenhagen agreed outcome, the 'Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice' (SBSTA) and the 'Subsidiary Body for Implementation' (SBI) will be meeting in Bonn.
SBSTA, which serves as the interface between the political process under the UNFCCC and the scientific community, will take forward work on the Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. Other issues dealt with under this group will be the development and transfer of technologies, reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries and methodological issues under the Kyoto Protocol such as common metrics to calculate the CO2 equivalence of greenhouse gases. A key focus of SBI's work in Bonn will the development and transfer of technologies, along with capacity-building for developing countries.
The UNFCCC gathering in Germany constitutes the second in a series of five major UN negotiating sessions this year leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December (7 to 18 December). The next meeting, informal consultations comprising the LCA and KP groups, will take place 10 to 14 August in Bonn, followed by a gathering in Bangkok from 28 September to 9 October and a further gathering from 2 to 6 November in Barcelona.