This is one in a series of bulletins authored by Doug Tingey who is in Copenhagen attending the climate change negotiations from December 7th to 20th. Doug is Counsel to Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) in Calgary and is a member of the firm's Corporate Commercial Practice Group and Climate Change Focus Group. Doug advises on business law aspects of climate change mitigation to clients carrying on business around the world. BLG considers the outcome of COP 15 to be critical for many Canadian businesses and is providing these bulletins as a method of keeping clients and friends of the firm informed during the conference.
The 15th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 15) and the 5th meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 5) opened yesterday in Copenhagen with urgency, optimism and resolve. The negotiating task is daunting. COP 15/MOP 5 is intended to be the culmination of two years of sometimes intense work that began with a roadmap agreed to in Bali. Two ad hoc working groups were struck, one under the UNFCCC (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention or AWG-LCA) and the other under the Kyoto Protocol (Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). Initial plenary sessions have focused on procedural matters.
According to the press release issued by the UNFCCC Secretariat prior to the first plenary sessions "working groups starting Monday will have six days to conclude negotiations before the Ministerial High Level Segment starts December 16. Ministers will then in turn have two days to take any unresolved issues forward before the more than 100 world leaders arrive the evening of December 17. This means a total of eight negotiating days to prepare a workable package that consists of both immediate and long-term components which leaders can endorse on December 18." President Obama has stated that he will attend at that time and recent reports indicate that Stephen Harper will as well.
The AWG-LCA is commencing its meetings in one contact group starting with a discussion of what type of agreement is to be reached and how it should be adopted (it is commonly recognised that a "protocol" is out of reach). There will of course be intensive discussions around the key elements of the Bali roadmap – long term vision, mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology transfer and capacity building.
The AWG-KP is continuing discussions with several working groups, the most contentious of which will focus on Annex 1 commitments for a second compliance period from 2012 to 2020. These negotiations may well be superseded by the AWG-LCA discussions on mitigation. Significant improvements to the Clean Development Mechanism are expected as is clarity about the roll of forestry (especially avoided deforestation) and carbon capture and sequestration.
It will be a few days before it is determined whether, how and to what degree the negotiations in the two AWGs will merge.
One of the more important topics being discussed is the continued relationship between the UNFCCC, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) with regards to emissions from international aviation and shipping. Both ICAO and IMO are of the strong view that they should continue to be responsible for dealing with reductions in emissions from their respective industries and are seeking guidance from COP 15/MOP 5.
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