sábado, 14 de junio de 2008

Outcome of the Bonn Climate Change Talks, 2-13 June 2008 (UNFCC)

Activists dressed as polar bears, talk to a delegate from Taiwan prior to the start of the UN Sessions of the subsidiary bodies on the Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany, on Monday, June 2, 2008.
Photo from AP Photo by Hermann J. Knippertz




Outcome of the Bonn Climate Change Talks, 2-13 June 2008

The Bonn Talks included the second major session this year on a strengthened international climate change agreement to be finalized in December 2009 in Copenhagen.


As agreed at the previous session of Climate Change Talks in Bangkok, all five elements of the negotiations - adaptation, mitigation, technology, finance and a shared vision for long-term cooperative action - were discussed under the Convention at the Bonn session.

Long-term cooperation

Regarding the debate on future action, three workshops on adaptation, finance and technology were held, designed to deepen understanding of the issues forming the building blocks of a future agreement.


The negotiating group on long-term cooperative action, the AWG-LCA, which was established at last December’s conference in Bali, put several concrete proposals on the table. This resulted in a clearer understanding among governments on what countries would ultimately like to see written into a long-term agreement to address climate change.


While the tabling of these proposals was an important step in moving the negotiating process forward, the need for more targeted proposals in the next sessions was made clear. The AWG-LCA session ended with a call on Parties to submit specific textual proposals which are expected to provide the basis for an initial negotiating text in Poznan in December.

The Kyoto Protocol


Talks also continued in Bonn for the working group on further commitments for Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, the AWG-KP. The objective of these negotiations was to identify means that may be available to industrialized countries under the Kyoto Protocol to reach their emission reduction targets beyond the first phase of the Protocol in 2012. One of the issues under consideration, for example, involved broadening the range of greenhouse gases to include those such as the group of fluorinated ethers.


A round table on the means was held in Bonn. The group also looked at methodologies for estimating emissions and global warming potentials of greenhouse gases, and a workshop on these matters took place.

Ongoing work

In addition to the two working groups explicitly designed to negotiate the Copenhagen agreement, ongoing work under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol was taken forward.


Parties agreed on scaling up practical technology transfer efforts, in particular for Africa, small island developing states and least developed countries. This will include collaborative research and development of technologies and technology needs assessments. Parties also agreed to develop performance indicators to monitor and evaluate progress on technology transfer.


Important progress was made on the issue of adaptation. Parties agreed to implement the second phase of the Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, during which a wide range of activities will be carried out. This includes expanding the engagement of different organizations, which will have a positive impact on implementing adaptation action. Parties also agreed to streamline funding for adaptation projects.


The next round of climate change negotiations to pave the way for a future agreement in Copenhagen will take place in Accra, Ghana from 21-27 August.

miércoles, 4 de junio de 2008

The Road to Copenhagen: Second Stop (post from itsgettinghotinhere.org)



The second session of the UN working group on long term cooperative action has started in Bonn, Germany. The working group (AWG-LCA), created in Bali, is mandated to consider action needed to create the conditions for action on climate change–both to reduce emissions and adapt to unavoidable changes, adequate to the current understanding of the causes and science of climate change . This session will start looking at issues of investment flows, finance, and adaptation.

For the next two weeks, the UNFCCC will try to make progress on the many items listed and agreed in the Bali Action Plan –the outcome of the negotiations in Bali—, and the issues will get heated. The deadline for this new "action" is 2009, at the meeting in Copenhagen. This session in Bonn will be a forum for most substantive dialogue, ideas, proposals, and an overall (desperate) effort to go beyond programming and workshop planning into discussing the critical issues in regards to technology transfer and adaptation. enhanced conditions for a stable climate.

Members of SustainUS and CYCC are present at the meeting, and we hope to share with you occasional updates.

lunes, 2 de junio de 2008

Conversaciones sobre el clima en Bonn del 2 al 13/06/08

VIGÉSIMO OCTAVO PERÍODO DE SESIONES
DE LOS ÓRGANOS SUBSIDIARIOS DE LA
CMNUCC Y SESIONES DE LOS GRUPOS
ESPECIALES DE TRABAJO: 2 AL 13 DE JUNIO
DE 2008


Entre el 2 y el 13 de junio, en la ciudad de Bonn, Alemania,
tendrán lugar varios reuniones que forman parte de las
negociaciones en curso en el marco de la Convención Marco de
las NU sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC) y el Protocolo
de Kyoto. El vigésimo octavo período de sesiones de los
Órganos Subsidiarios de Asesoramiento Científico y Tecnológico
(OSACT) e Implementación (OSI) de la CMNUCC se llevará a
cabo del 4 al 13 de junio de 2008. Además, el segundo período
de sesiones del Grupo Especial de Trabajo sobre la Acción
Cooperativa a Largo Plazo en el Marco de la Convención (GTEACLP
2), y la continuación del quinto período de sesiones del
Grupo Especial de Trabajo sobre los Futuros Compromisos de
las Partes del Anexo I del Protocolo de Kyoto (GTE-PK 5) se
realizarán del 2 al 12 de junio.

Todas estas reuniones forman parte de las discusiones en
curso que buscan mejorar la cooperación internacional sobre
el cambio climático, incluso para el período posterior a 2012,
cuando termina el “primer período de compromisos” del
Protocolo de Kyoto. En el GTE-ACLP 2, se realizarán tres
talleres para ayudar a los delegados tratar cuestiones clave como
la adaptación, el financiamiento y las tecnologías. El GTE-PK
incluirá una mesa redonda sobre medios para que las Partes
del Anexo I alcancen las metas de reducción de emisiones y
un taller sobre cuestiones metodológicas. El OSI considerará
cuestiones como la creación de capacidades y los preparativos
para una segunda revisión del Protocolo en el marco del Artículo
9, mientras que la agenda de OSACT incluye ítems sobre la
tecnología y la reducción de emisiones de la deforestación en los
países en desarrollo.