The atmosphere around the Bella Centre seems much more tense today, as delegates and observers realise just how much more work is needed. With tomorrow looming – a day when many of the contact groups are supposed to report back on their progress – an insider to the US delegation remarked that it is “crunch time” and that they have been working through the night on the different texts.
Disarray
Negotiations broke down on Wednesday in the COP plenary over proposals by parties for protocol amendments, after developing countries split between those who favour a new protocol and others who want to continue with the Kyoto agreement. Notably disruptive was an intervention by Tuvalu. Tuvalu has proposed a strengthened protocol that would not only mean much greater (some would say impossible) efforts from developed countries but also necessitate emissions reductions from developing countries.
Both COP and CMP talks are now suspended, pending consultations on whether to establish contact groups to consider proposed new protocols under the convention and proposed amendments to the Kyoto Protocol. A Q&A session with Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, had been scheduled for this morning but it was cancelled at the last minute. Numerous other meetings were also cancelled…perhaps a signal that the negotiations are sliding into disarray.
AWG-LCA & AWG-KP
Today at a session closed to observers, both Michael Zammit Cutajar, the Chair of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA), and John Ashe, the Chair of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP), presented new draft texts to the Parties. The drafts that both Chairs put forward try to make some progress from the current, very lengthy, non-papers that are being negotiated. Both drafts have been cut down to seven pages for the LCA and 27 pages for the KP (they were originally over 100 pages long!). One of the most contentious issues of the talks has been the debate around a base year. The new AWG- LCA draft maintains a base year of 1990. However, the US position is based on 2005 as the base year.
The AWG-KP draft considers the issue of CCS in the CDM. Two proposals are put forward; the first concludes that CCS projects are not eligible for the CDM, laying out reasons for their exclusion. In the second option, CCS projects would be eligible in the second and subsequent commitment periods (that is, well beyond-2012) but requests that the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) recommend ”modalities and procedures for inclusion under the CDM, with a view to forwarding a draft decision to the COP/CMP at its Seventh Session”. This would delay any decision on inclusion for another two years!
Hit and Miss of the Day
The Chinese and Saudi Arabian delegations for complaining about the conference branding. Both parties lodged complaints with the Secretariat on Wednesday, arguing that the conference should be called COP15/CMP5 (see Wednesday’s blog).
