Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Cancun blog 08.12.10 - day 3
At a plenary session this morning we get a report back from the chairs of the two UNFCC working groups,
In the report back from the working group on the convention on long term action (AWG/LCA), the Chair The Chair of AWG LCA reports:
- a lot of progress on adaptation and on REDD,
- on MRV there is a set of options,
- on technology progress doesn’t allow for a compromise solution on and the text remains unchanged.
Active engagements from Ministers will be needed on the following:
- mitigation commitments of developed countries,
-mitigation actions of developing countries,
- MRV on mitigation by developed countries,
- MRV on actions by developing countries, including ICA,
-financing.
In addition the issue of vulnerability needs to be addressed. The draft text she presented also continued a proposal for the extension of the AWG/LCA, whose mandate would otherwise have ended here..
In the meantime, Bolivia has entered an objection to the Mexican C0P 16 Chair proposals on moving to small groups.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Climate change demonstration, Cancún
TUESDAY DECEMBER 7th STARTS AT 9am at Unidad Desportiva Jacinto Canek, Cancun
Event: INTERNATIONAL DEMONSTRATION
"This morning sees an international demonstration in the centre of
"The main slogan will be: "SYSTEM CHANGE INSTEAD OF CLIMATE CHANGE".
The demonstrators want to stress that techological solutions are not enough. There needs to be a change in the economic system that leads to a completely unsustainable way of living - unsustainable for both people and for nature. We must alter the patterns that got us into this mess in the first place"
Day 2 in Cancún
We will meet this morning with local NG0s in Puerto Morales a few kilometres from where we are staying and from where the negotiations are being held. They will give us presentations on local REDD+ projects (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation).
Up to 20% of global C02 emissions are due to tropical deforestation and forest degradation but this is not directly addressed by the UNFCC and Kyoto Protocol.
The project we will see this morning centres on preserving the remaining existing mangroves, while developers have their eye on the area to build even more of the hotels for which Cancun is famous.
We will also discuss with NG0s how this whole issue is being dealt with in the negotiations, which centre on a mechanism to combat these emissions due to tropical deforestation and forest degradation, including incentives to leave forests standing.
The opening of the high level segment of the UN Climate talks takes place this afternoon (Tue).
REDD is one of the issues that is fairly advanced in the negotiations in terms of the practicalities, even though there are differences of opinion on how this should be approached. But of course 'balanced package' is a buzz word we hear again and again in Cancún, and if some groups of countries feel their issues of concern are not being addressed they may hold up progress on other issues until that changes, and this is happening with Saudia Arabia and REDD. Also, the ALBA countries in Latin America oppose links between REDD and carbon markets.
Mexican Chair of the UN talks, Ms Patricia Espinosa is trying an interesting way of seeing what might be possible on outstanding issues.
She has asked ten Ministers, five sets of two Ministers, one from a developed country and one from a developing country in each pair, to see what is possible on a given issue. They won't be calling negotiating meetings or producing texts, but will walk the corridors talking to people and getting a sense of what might fly. That will then go to a high level plenary session tomorrow that will also hear from subsidiary bodies that finished their work last week.
Ms Espinosa stresses again and again that there will be no separate or Ministerial process and no sudden production of hidden texts and that this is not what these pairs of Ministers are about.
The pairs of Ministers are:
Sweden and Grenada on matters related to shared vision; Spain and Algeria on adaptation; Australia and Bangladesh on finance, technology and capacity building; New Zealand and Indonesia on mitigation, including MRV (measurement, reporting and verification) and Britain and Brazil on items under the Kyoto Protocol. Other Ministers may be asked to take up other issues if needs be.
I heard the cynical view first that this was a way of giving Ministers something to do, but it seems now to be building on something that worked recently in the UN talks on biodiversity in Nagoya. We will know soon if it has helped unlock any thorny issues.
Meanwhile, on 'shared vision', another buzz word of COP 16, NG0s are critical that in spite of the possible progress on specific issues in these UN talks, an overall shared vision of where we want to get to is missing. Partly this is because there is no agreement yet on whether there will be a legally binding agreement even by next year. But more worryingly it is also because the steps that countries may agree this week fall far short still of where science tells us we have to be if we are to meet the challenge of tackling climate change.
Up to 20% of global C02 emissions are due to tropical deforestation and forest degradation but this is not directly addressed by the UNFCC and Kyoto Protocol.
The project we will see this morning centres on preserving the remaining existing mangroves, while developers have their eye on the area to build even more of the hotels for which Cancun is famous.
We will also discuss with NG0s how this whole issue is being dealt with in the negotiations, which centre on a mechanism to combat these emissions due to tropical deforestation and forest degradation, including incentives to leave forests standing.
The opening of the high level segment of the UN Climate talks takes place this afternoon (Tue).
REDD is one of the issues that is fairly advanced in the negotiations in terms of the practicalities, even though there are differences of opinion on how this should be approached. But of course 'balanced package' is a buzz word we hear again and again in Cancún, and if some groups of countries feel their issues of concern are not being addressed they may hold up progress on other issues until that changes, and this is happening with Saudia Arabia and REDD. Also, the ALBA countries in Latin America oppose links between REDD and carbon markets.
Mexican Chair of the UN talks, Ms Patricia Espinosa is trying an interesting way of seeing what might be possible on outstanding issues.
She has asked ten Ministers, five sets of two Ministers, one from a developed country and one from a developing country in each pair, to see what is possible on a given issue. They won't be calling negotiating meetings or producing texts, but will walk the corridors talking to people and getting a sense of what might fly. That will then go to a high level plenary session tomorrow that will also hear from subsidiary bodies that finished their work last week.
Ms Espinosa stresses again and again that there will be no separate or Ministerial process and no sudden production of hidden texts and that this is not what these pairs of Ministers are about.
The pairs of Ministers are:
Sweden and Grenada on matters related to shared vision; Spain and Algeria on adaptation; Australia and Bangladesh on finance, technology and capacity building; New Zealand and Indonesia on mitigation, including MRV (measurement, reporting and verification) and Britain and Brazil on items under the Kyoto Protocol. Other Ministers may be asked to take up other issues if needs be.
I heard the cynical view first that this was a way of giving Ministers something to do, but it seems now to be building on something that worked recently in the UN talks on biodiversity in Nagoya. We will know soon if it has helped unlock any thorny issues.
Meanwhile, on 'shared vision', another buzz word of COP 16, NG0s are critical that in spite of the possible progress on specific issues in these UN talks, an overall shared vision of where we want to get to is missing. Partly this is because there is no agreement yet on whether there will be a legally binding agreement even by next year. But more worryingly it is also because the steps that countries may agree this week fall far short still of where science tells us we have to be if we are to meet the challenge of tackling climate change.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Cancún, Day 1
The UN Climate talks in Cancún started later than expected for me. The flight to Cancún hit a technical problem and the hundreds of passengers, including Ministers and Prime Ministers ended up 24 hours in Gatwick instead of in Cancún.
I am told by those that were here that on the surface at least there has been a more positive atmosphere in the plenary session, including more positive signals from G77 + China.
People were shocked at the hard line taken by. Japan in stating that they wouldn't sign up to a second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol, given their role in negotiating this and their very positive recent role on the question of biodiversity in Nagoya. However, I am also told that Japan has been softening this stance a little since. So, we will have to wait and see.
At the Interparliamentary Union meeting this morning, COP 16 Chair Patricia Espinosa stresses that Mexico is trying to be more open and transparent in the way the negotiations are being carried out. She tells us there will be no hidden texts and no sudden production of texts produced in a hidden way for adoption.
Ms Espinosa tells us that possibly for the first time coming out of COP 16 in Cancun there will be mechanisms on adaptation, technology and capacity building especially for the very vulnerable countries and those with less resources. She also forsees for the first time mechanisms for financing in the long-term, so that governments are able to ensure the continuity of those efforts.
Mr Saber Chowdhury, an MP from Bangladesh, sounds a more sober note about the scepticism of vulnerable developing countries. Developed countries have never fulfilled their pledges on Official Develpment Assistance, so how are we to believe that this will be any different?
He stresses that we need to change the development paradigm. Until now, developing
countries were seen as passive recipients of aid. Now, he says, massive transfer of technologies and of the requisite finance must allow developing countries to leapfrog in their development onto a clean, green economy.
This theme is taken up by Dr Kumi Naidoo, Head of Greenpeace International who slams the lack of progress on the fast-start financing promised last year at Copenagen. In all our languages, 'fast' means 'quick', he says, so why the foot dragging on this $30bn 'fast-start' finance for 2010-2012.?
He also stresses the need to help developing countries to by-pass the dirty development pathways of the industrialised countries, asking why the world cannot mobilise for this even a fraction of the trillions mobilised to meet the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, the positive signal from G77 at the outset of these UN climate change negotiations indicates they are ready for a legally binding agreement. Ms Espinosa, Chair of these UN negotiations, takes up this point this morning, saying there is a need for action by ALL countries, developed and developing countries. She stresses, however the difference in the nature of commitments needed from developed and from developing countries.
I look forward to discussing more the details of the progress made to date when we meet with UNFCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres later this afternoon
I am told by those that were here that on the surface at least there has been a more positive atmosphere in the plenary session, including more positive signals from G77 + China.
People were shocked at the hard line taken by. Japan in stating that they wouldn't sign up to a second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol, given their role in negotiating this and their very positive recent role on the question of biodiversity in Nagoya. However, I am also told that Japan has been softening this stance a little since. So, we will have to wait and see.
At the Interparliamentary Union meeting this morning, COP 16 Chair Patricia Espinosa stresses that Mexico is trying to be more open and transparent in the way the negotiations are being carried out. She tells us there will be no hidden texts and no sudden production of texts produced in a hidden way for adoption.
Ms Espinosa tells us that possibly for the first time coming out of COP 16 in Cancun there will be mechanisms on adaptation, technology and capacity building especially for the very vulnerable countries and those with less resources. She also forsees for the first time mechanisms for financing in the long-term, so that governments are able to ensure the continuity of those efforts.
Mr Saber Chowdhury, an MP from Bangladesh, sounds a more sober note about the scepticism of vulnerable developing countries. Developed countries have never fulfilled their pledges on Official Develpment Assistance, so how are we to believe that this will be any different?
He stresses that we need to change the development paradigm. Until now, developing
countries were seen as passive recipients of aid. Now, he says, massive transfer of technologies and of the requisite finance must allow developing countries to leapfrog in their development onto a clean, green economy.
This theme is taken up by Dr Kumi Naidoo, Head of Greenpeace International who slams the lack of progress on the fast-start financing promised last year at Copenagen. In all our languages, 'fast' means 'quick', he says, so why the foot dragging on this $30bn 'fast-start' finance for 2010-2012.?
He also stresses the need to help developing countries to by-pass the dirty development pathways of the industrialised countries, asking why the world cannot mobilise for this even a fraction of the trillions mobilised to meet the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, the positive signal from G77 at the outset of these UN climate change negotiations indicates they are ready for a legally binding agreement. Ms Espinosa, Chair of these UN negotiations, takes up this point this morning, saying there is a need for action by ALL countries, developed and developing countries. She stresses, however the difference in the nature of commitments needed from developed and from developing countries.
I look forward to discussing more the details of the progress made to date when we meet with UNFCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres later this afternoon
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