Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 9 • Number 11 • 12th June 2009

Slow-Moving Climate Talks Conclude in Bonn

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Despite the looming December deadline, observers say negotiations at the latest round of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany continued to progress at a snail’s pace. The lack of commitments from countries - with little more than six months left before Parties are expected to outline a successor to the Kyoto Protocol - forced UN climate chief Yvo de Boer to acknowledge that a deal in Copenhagen will be “physically impossible.”

Still, the executive secretary remained optimistic, insisting that the conference will help elucidate key issues. “Copenhagen will deliver clarity on key political issues in this debate,” de Boer said on Wednesday. “There will be clarity on the extent industrialised countries will reduce their [GHG] emissions, and clarity on what major developing countries are willing to do to mitigate their emissions.”

The latest Bonn meeting, which ran from 1-12 June, resulted in the addition of more than 200 new pages to the 30-page draft negotiating text. This will have to be condensed into something more manageable for a final agreement to be reached.

At the meeting, the UNFCCC chief underscored the four issues that he believes should be the focal point of negotiations in order to reach a consensus. These pillars are establishing targets for industrialised countries’ emissions cuts, presenting tangible efforts from more industrialised developing countries - such as China and India - to limit emissions, commitments for technology transfer funding to help poor countries mitigate and adapt to climate change, and establishing a ‘governance structure’ for the future treaty.

But with the slow pace of negotiations it is unclear how long it will take to achieve de Boer’s key issues. Some pundits are now saying that even if a Copenhagen deal can be agreed to ‘in principle’ at the December meeting, negotiations will undoubtedly continue into 2010.

Japan contributes to pessimism

Japan was widely criticised when it announced its plans to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on 10 June. Environmentalists panned the country’s stated target of a 15 percent GHG reduction by 2020 because it uses 2005 as a base year. This would amount to a cut of only 8 percent below 1990 levels - or 2 percent less than what the country is currently committed to under Kyoto.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said his country’s plan was in line with those initiated by the US and Europe and encouraged others to make similar commitments. “We all must make a commitment to tackle the problem of global warming,” Aso said Wednesday.

But green groups were not impressed - some referring to the prime minister as ‘George W. Aso’, in reference to the former US president whose environmental policies were often criticised as weak. UNFCCC Executive Secretary de Boer also appeared perturbed by Aso’s announcement, saying he was speechless. “For the first time in two and a half years in this job I don’t know what to say,” de Boer told reporters.

Targets remain absent

Probably the primary sticking point in negotiations is the lack of GHG emissions reduction targets for developed countries, either collectively or as individual countries. The tone set earlier this year by US President Barack Obama led many observers to believe that the US would be leading the way to Copenhagen with ambitious commitments for developed countries to follow. But this has not been the case so far.

Some critics now lay the blame for the current lack of progress on climate change negotiations on Washington’s doorstep. “The election of President Obama created tremendous hope worldwide that the US would finally play a leadership role in solving the climate crisis,” said Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth. “Unfortunately for the survival of people and the planet, the Obama Administration’s position at these UN negotiations sounds frighteningly similar to that of George Bush.”

But the US has made it clear that they are concerned that more industrialised developing countries - like China, now the world’s largest polluter - will continue to increase their GHG emissions unabated, despite a Copenhagen deal.

On this note, Todd Stern, the top US climate negotiator, was in China last week laying the groundwork for future bilateral cooperation on emissions reductions. Although no formal agreement was reached during Stern’s visit, the two countries agreed to strengthen scientific cooperation.

ICTSD Reporting; “Tougher climate target unlikely,” THE AGE, 12 June 2009; “Green Groups Not Pleased With Japan’s New Emissions Targets,” RED ORBIT, 11 June 2009; “Bonn Climate Talks Conclude Friday,” SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS, 11 June 2009; “No detailed deal in Copenhagen: UN climate chief,” YAHOO NEWS, 10 June 2009.