Introduction

Negotiating sessions of the Adhoc Working Group on Long Term Co-operative Action (AWG LCA), the Adhoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol (AWG KP), the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) are now taking place in Bonn, Germany.

These meetings are intended to build on elements of the Cancun Agreements, thereby laying the groundwork for the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP 17) which will take place in Durban at the end of this year.

The SBI and SBSTA negotiating sessions commenced on Monday 6th June 2011 and will close on Thursday 16th June 2011. The AWG KCA and AWG KP sessions began on Tuesday 7th June 2011 and will close on Friday 17th June 2011.

The climate change negotiations: Reality TV without the TV part

14 June 2011

Delegates have been negotiating for a week already. Well, for some of the week. In a repeat of the preceding negotiation session, in Bangkok, much of the first week of valuable negotiating time was taken up debating what the agenda should look like and which items should be in or out. For those of you who are not seasoned negotiation watchers: if an item is not put on the agenda at the beginning of the negotiation session, it will not be up for discussion. Which leads to intense debate about the agendas themselves.

Now, finally, they are getting on to the business at hand.

In a timely move, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published a report last week which shows that there was a record surge in the use of fossil fuels in 2010 and 75 per cent of this surge came from emerging economies. The IEA has pointed out that 'lock-in' of this growth pattern grows with each year that there are no binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The report also highlights the fact that the Fukushima catastrophe has led to a retreat from nuclear power by many countries, with knock-on growth for emissions. Required reading and sobering news for those who are assembled in the Maritim Hotel in Bonn.

There are some major agenda items on the table this fortnight.

Among the SBSTA agenda items, UNFCCC delegates have the opportunity to consider:

  • The development and transfer of technologies.
  • How to address emissions from fuel used for aviation and maritime transport
  • What the implications of new HFC 23 facilities are
  • What the impacts of climate change on water resources and water resource management might be

Some of the higher profile SBI agenda items are as follows:

  • Whether there should be an appeal procedure against decisions made by the CDM Executive Board
  • How developing countries' mitigation efforts could be subject to an agreed level of monitoring, verification and reporting (MRV)

Many AWG LCA agenda items in this negotiation session are of interest, including:

  • How to tackle nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAS), both by developing and developed country Parties
  • The provision of incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD)
  • Sector-specific approaches to mitigation, eg. steel / cement sectors

The AWG KP agenda is focussed on the single issue of further commitments for Annex 1 Parties. This issue has been divided into smaller topics, to be discussed by small 'spin-off groups', but the success of the larger agenda item is hanging dramatically in the balance, given that the Umbrella Group of delegates has publically waived a further commitment period and therefore left the Kyoto Protocol in the cold. You can draw your own reality TV show analogies here.

Thank you for reading the Norton Rose Group climate change negotiations blog. We will keep you informed of the major breakthroughs and barriers in these negotiating groups for the remainder of the week!

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