Bangkok,
09 October 2009 - The penultimate negotiating
session before the historic UN Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen in December wrapped
up Friday in the Thai capitol Bangkok with
progress made on what needs to constitute
the "bricks and mortar" of the
Copenhagen agreed outcome, but a continuing
lack of clarity on key deliverables to make
a successful international climate change
deal workable.
"A will has emerged
in Bangkok to build the architecture to
rapidly implement climate action,"
said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer,
"but significant differences remain.
In December, citizens everywhere in the
world will have a right to know exactly
what their governments will do to prevent
dangerous climate change. It is time now
to step back from self interest and let
the common interest prevail," he added.
Parties made progress
on the issues of adaptation, technology
transfer and capacity building. They also
reached agreement on technical issues such
as forests, which according to UNEP's Science
Compendium 2009 released in September, play
a critical role in emissions reduction.
Whereas the parties
made headway on how to assess the global
warming potentials of new greenhouse gases
and the number of options for strengthening
the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism,
there was little progress was made on the
issue of mid-term emission reduction targets
for industrialised countries. And clarity
is lacking on the issue of finance that
developing countries need to undertake additional
actions to limit their emissions growth
and adapt to the inevitable effects of climate
change.
"A good example
with regard to what industrialised countries
can do to increase the level of their ambition
in the context of an international agreement
at Copenhagen is the minus 40% emissions
reduction target announced by Norway today,"
the UN's top climate change official said.
The negotiations in
Thailand will be followed by five days of
pre-Copenhagen negotiations in Barcelona
(2-6 November) before the UN Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen (7-18 December).
"Negotiators have
three weeks back in their capitals to receive
guidance from their political leaders to
complete their work," said Yvo de Boer.
"Bold leadership must open the roadblocks
around the essentials of targets and finance
that the negotiators can complete their
journey," he added.
Heads of state and government
meeting in New York in September identified
five politically essential issues to a deliver
a comprehensive, fair and effective Copenhagen
agreement.
The climate change deal
clinched in Copenhagen is to ensure enhanced
action to assist the most vulnerable and
the poorest to adapt to the impacts of climate
change.
Furthermore, world leaders
have agreed that clarity must be provided
on ambitious emission reduction targets
of industrialised countries, as well as
the need for nationally appropriate mitigation
actions by developing countries with the
necessary support.
A beacon to guide discussions
is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change's finding that an aggregate emission
reduction by industrialised countries of
between minus 25% and 40% over 11000 levels
would be required by 2020, and that global
emissions would need to be reduced by at
least 50% by 2050, in order to stave off
the worst effects of climate change.
The fourth essential
identified by heads of state and government
is that the Copenhagen agreed outcome needs
to generate scaled-up financial and technological
resources, with a mechanism put in place
that would funds to be generated automatically
over time.
Finally, they have agreed
that the Copenhagen deal needs to create
an equitable governance structure to manage
funds for adaptation and mitigation that
address the needs of developing countries.
Notes to editors:
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC)
With 192 Parties, the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership
and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has to date
184 member Parties. Under the Protocol,
37 States, consisting of highly industrialized
countries and countries undergoing the process
of transition to a market economy, have
legally binding emission limitation and
reduction committments. The ultimate objective
of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse
gas concentrations in the atmosphere at
a level that will prevent dangerous human
interference with the climate system.
