Benjamin Sporton, WCI Policy Manager
There is only one more week of climate negotiations before COP16/CMP6 at the end of November. This week’s talks in Bonn and those due to take place in October are key to laying the groundwork for the UN climate change negotiations in Cancun.
This week has been highly technical and focussed on draft texts developed by the Parties to the climate treaties. One delegate reportedly described a “text explosion” mid-week when one section of draft text grew from three to eleven pages in the course of three hours of discussion! Another delegate admitted to not even understanding a presentation on counting forestry credits made by another delegation. Some delegates have even commented that things seem to be going backwards – draft text that was previously all-but agreed as far back as Copenhagen now seems to be up for grabs. This doesn’t look like progress!
Going into this week, a lot of commentators were hoping to have a better idea of what might be possible come Cancún. Not much will have become clear as a result of this week, which leaves a lot of work to be done in Tianjin in China in October.
A fundamental issue has been what is going to happen when the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. A paper released by the UNFCCC secretariat sought to reassure delegates that a lot of the important machinery of the Protocol would continue following the end of the first commitment period. It also explored legal options for avoiding a gap between the first and subsequent commitment periods. Even if technically there isn’t a legal problem, at the very least the existence of a gap will reduce the confidence of many stakeholders in the process. It’s going to be important to try and avoid this and we’ll be keeping a keen eye on how that progresses.
A big focus for coal has been getting Carbon Capture and Storage included in the Clean Development Mechanism. That hasn’t really been an issue at these talks (it has been referred to the COP/CMP in Cancun) but the form of financing arrangements under any future agreement has been. Beyond the CDM, ensuring that any new financing mechanisms include a role for CCS is critical to making sure climate goals can be achieved. WCI is going to be focussing on this as we get closer to Cancun.
On financing, a special briefing was held at the talks by the Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing. They are exploring ways to raise the $100 billion a year for climate financing committed to under the Copenhagen Accord. At the briefing, prominent British economist Lord Nicholas Stern said potential revenue sources include auctioning the right to pollute, taxes on carbon production, an international travel tax, and a tax on international financial transactions, as well as government grants and loans. He also said private capital will be crucial, and governments need to adopt policies that reduce the risk to investors. This is a key point for CCS, where risks to investors are a key stumbling block that governments must resolve.
It’s good to see there is constructive work being done by the Secretary-General’s group. Their report is due out shortly before Parties convene in Cancun so it can make an important contribution to discussions about financing. If serious progress can be made on financing, it might give Parties the energy and confidence they need to resolve other issues as we look towards a future agreement.
