Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 8 • Number 15 • 5th September 2008

Climate change talks speed up in Accra, says UN

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The latest round of global climate change talks in Accra, Ghana concluded on 27 August with officials praising the progress made during the seven day meeting on a number of key issues. There are “clear signals that the pace of negotiations to get to a deal on long-term strengthened international action on climate change is picking up,” the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said in a press release following the talks.

The objective of the Accra climate negotiations was to continue discussions on the Bali Action Plan - a roadmap intended to achieve a global climate deal on a post-2012 framework by December 2009.

Over 1600 participants, representing governments, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the private sector attended the third session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA 3) and the first part of the sixth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC (AGW-KP 6) from 21-27 August.

The AWG-LCA is mandated to launch a comprehensive process to enable the full, effective, and sustained implementation of the Convention through long-term cooperative action up to and beyond 2012. This includes a shared vision for long-term cooperative action and enhanced action on the mitigation of climate change, adaptation, technology development and transfer, and the provision of financial resources and investment.

In Accra, the AWG-KP continued work on analyzing the means that may be available to Annex I Parties - industrialized countries that have commitments under the Kyoto Protocol - to reach their Kyoto emission reduction targets after 2012 and on identifying ways to enhance their effectiveness and contribution to sustainable development. Possible means to achieving these goals that were discussed included emissions trading and the project-based mechanisms, land use, land-use change and forestry, greenhouse gases sectors and source categories, and possible approaches targeting sector emissions.

The climate talks resulted in the adoption of conclusions on long-term cooperative action and on the 2009 work programme under the AWG-LCA. Delegates also agreed that the AWG-LCA would shift into full negotiating mode in 2009 in order to advance negotiations on all the elements of the Bali Action Plan in light of the approaching deadline for the completion of its work at the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009.

“This has been a very important and encouraging meeting,” said Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. “We are still on track, the process has speeded up, and governments are very serious about negotiating a result in Copenhagen.” He added that “The highlight of this session is that governments have agreed to compile different proposals for solutions in a structured way for discussion at the next landmark meeting in Poznan.”

The Accra Climate Change Talks were the last round of talks and negotiations before this year’s Conference of the Parties (COP-14) in Poznan, Poland, in December.

Progress on sectoral agreements

Discussions at a workshop under the third session of the AWG-LCA clarified so-called “sectoral approaches” through which countries can address emissions from a whole sector of their economy. Countries meeting in Ghana emphasized that such approaches should not lead to binding commitments for developing countries and that it is up to a country to decide if it wants to put sectoral policies in place or not. Also, countries seemed to agree that sectoral cooperation is an important tool that would foster exchange of best practices, deployment of technology, and technology transfer.

During the discussions, significant differences emerged between some developed countries and a majority of developing countries on whether to impose limited carbon emissions levels on specific industries such as steel, cement, or power generation. Many developing countries, including the Philippines (representing the G77), India, China, Brazil, Bangladesh (representing LDCs), Grenada (representing small island states), and Saudi Arabia, fear that developed countries could use sectoral benchmarks, such as the amount of energy required to produce a tonne of cement, as a means of effectively blocking goods from their less efficient industries.

The Philippines, on behalf of the G77 and China, said that discussions on sectors should not be used to justify trade measures, standards, or other measures against developing countries. It noted that the founding principles of the UNFCCC should not be undermined, including the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility.” In addition, the delegation said that within the AWG-KP, sectoral efforts can contribute to, but not replace, legally binding targets for Annex I countries. For developing countries, sectoral approaches should only be one option among others to achieve national goals. Within the AWG-LCA, sectoral approaches call for enhanced efforts to implement the Convention’s technology obligations.

Japan, a proponent of the sectoral approaches, responded that its method would not replace national overall targets (for Annex I countries) nor would it lead to trade restrictions. It clearly stated that it did not favour imposing common international standards.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries

In a working group on long-term cooperative action under the UNFCCC, participants discussed possibilities for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer says that countries have made it very clear that the issue of forests needs to be part of a Copenhagen deal. This is because emissions from deforestation account for 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Delegates agreed that countries should be compensated for slowing or halting deforestation and that countries where forests have largely been depleted should be rewarded for conserving and expanding their remaining forest cover.

As part of a workshop on policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD), several countries gave presentations on different substantive issues including the provision of financing for forest related initiatives (whether through market or non-market mechanisms). Some countries stressed that reforestation and afforestation activities, and international support for these activities, should not serve as an offset for emissions by Annex I countries, and a means for them to avoid reducing their domestic emissions.

Friends of the Earth (FoE) International warned that including forests in carbon markets would enable Annex I countries to buy up large areas of forest to gain carbon credits that can count towards their own emission reduction targets. FoE further warned that increasing the value of forests in this way could “trigger a rapid increase in land rights abuses due to a rapid expansion of state and/or corporate control over forests without regard for the customary or territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities.”

Contentious discussions on differentiation for mitigation

Developing countries opposed attempts by developed countries to amend the UNFCCC to impose new greenhouse gas reduction obligations on them, calling the move counter-productive to achieving a positive outcome at the climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009. Developed countries, led by the EU, said that developing countries should be divided into two groups: “advanced developing countries” (or “major economies”) and other developing countries. They suggested that developing countries that have a higher per capita income (such as Singapore, Argentina and some OPEC states) could take on new commitments on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. For the first time, developed countries explicitly stated their intentions to amend the Convention and to propose the creation of a new Protocol.

A number of developing countries, including the G-77 plus China and the African Group, strongly opposed any differentiation of parties beyond that of the Convention. India, Qatar, and Singapore pointed out that developed countries have so far largely failed to implement their mitigation, technology, and finance obligations under the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. They said that it is unfair to now attempt to pass this onto those countries who have contributed little to causing climate change and who are most vulnerable to its impacts. Differentiation between developed and developing countries was included as a part of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol to their respective historical responsibility for causing climate change.

A new treaty will require deeper cuts from developed nations by 2020 and only “actions” by developing nations to slow the rise of their emissions.

Financing and technology

For the first time at a UNFCCC meeting, governments discussed what is needed both in terms of financing and technology to improve action on both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

Delegates debated the various financing proposals that had been presented by countries. They will be assembled and submitted at the 1-12 December meeting in Poznan, Poland. Many developing countries supported the G77 plus China’s proposal on an enhanced financial mechanism to promote action on mitigation and adaptation as well as the development and transfer of technology, as required by the Bali Action Plan.

Way forward

The short-term future of global climate change negotiations will depend upon the makeup of the next US administration. The closely watched US election will take place shortly before the meeting in Poznan and the new administration will take office six weeks after. Jake Schmidt, International Climate Policy Director at the National Resources Defense Council, says the pace of negotiations will largely depend on “how quickly a U.S. team can be put in place, how fast they can get their positions sorted out, and when they can start to negotiate.”

“UN Climate Change Negotiations Speed up in Accra,” UNFCCC PRESS RELEASE, 27 August 2008; “TWN Accra News Updates,” THIRD WORLD NETWORK; ENB Vol.12 No.383, Earth Negotiations Bulletin; “UN Climate Talks To Seek Speed Amid Discord,” INSNET.ORG, 25 August 2008; “UN Climate Talks Advance on Forests, Industry,” REUTERS, 26 August 2008; “Ghana Climate Talks Advance on Saving Forests,” REUTERS, 27 August 2008; “Rich or Poor? New Faultline in UN Climate Talks,” REUTERS, 28 August 2008; “Climate Talks Accelerating, Says UN After Accra Meet,” THE WORLD BANK GROUP, 28 August 2008; “UN Climate Talks Make Headway on Emission Limits,” AP, 27 August 2008.