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Mixed-bag climate conference closes in Bonn
Topic Started: 15 Jun 2013, 12:15 AM (28 Views)
skibboy
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14 JUNE 2013

Mixed-bag climate conference closes in Bonn

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Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on May 25, 2012, Bonn, Germany. "We are encouraged by the progress that has been reached here," Figueres told journalists at the end of a climate conference.

AFP - Talks towards a worldwide climate pact wrapped up Friday with delegates claiming progress, even though a procedural bust-up with Russia blocked important work.

With just over 900 days left to a 2015 deadline for signing the UN's most ambitious environmental deal, the negotiations in Bonn sought to lay the groundwork for a ministerial-level huddle in Warsaw in November.

Due to enter into force by 2020, the agreement would for the first time bind all the world's nations to measurable targets for curbing Earth-warming greenhouse-gas emissions.

Its aim is to avoid the most calamitous warming-induced climate effects -- worsening droughts, floods, storms and sea-level rise -- by meeting a goal to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

Delegates and officials pointed to a positive mood which had helped them to explore the broad outlines of a deal.

"We are encouraged by the progress that has been reached here," Christiana Figueres, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told journalists.

But there was dissatisfaction with a Russian objection that paralysed one of three working groups throughout the 12-day get-together.

The Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) finally threw in the towel on Tuesday after more than a week of wrangling without doing any work.

Accused of putting narrow politics before the urgent need to halt global warming, Russia had insisted that a discussion on procedure be added to the SBI's agenda for Bonn.

It was backed by Ukraine and Belarus.

Moscow objects to the way the last big climate conference, in Doha, Qatar, closed in December -- the chairman gavelling through a deal in spite of Russian objections.

"It is a regrettable setback... since it means that no formal work was done," European Union climate envoy Jurgen Lefevere said of the Russian blockade.

Europe has proposed making a diplomatic push to persuade Russia to let the SBI resume in Warsaw.

The SBI was meant to start a discussion on a global mechanism to compensate countries for climate change-related loss and damage, as well as draft the 2014-2015 budget for the UNFCCC secretariat.

It was also supposed to work on a review of whether the UN's target of 2 C should be lowered to a safer 1.5 C.

"We have lost very important discussions which should have happened," said Azeb Girmai, representing a group of least-developed countries.

"People are dying as we speak... losing their productive capacity, territories and islands."

But delegates seemed upbeat about exploratory talks that took place in a wider forum, the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform (ADP).

According to a UNFCCC statement, "concrete progress" was made towards the new climate pact.

"Notwithstanding the deadlock... this has been a productive session and parties have worked together," said Irish negotiator David Walsh.

Figueres stressed it remained "achievable" to close the gap between government pledges for curbing greenhouse gases and the cuts actually needed.

Europe has suggested a hybrid system combining elements from a "bottom-up" approach favoured by the United States -- in which nations themselves determine their contribution -- and a "top-down" approach that would place national targets under close scrutiny.

Under the European idea, nations would determine their own pledges, but these would be reviewed by their peers before being signed into the new, binding deal.

Lobby group Greenpeace said more urgency was required.

"We'd like to see just a bit of the acceleration of the (climate) crisis reflected in the talks," said Greenpeace senior policy adviser Ruth Davis.

This included rich countries pledging money to help developing states adapt to climate impacts caused by man-made global warming, Davis said.

The talks in Bonn took place as floods battered parts of central Europe -- including conference host Germany.

Figueres announced Friday that Peru will host the 2014 ministerial-level talks. France will stage the 2015 event.

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skibboy
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15 JUNE 2013

UN climate talks: No consensus on... well, consensus

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin outside Moscow, on June 14, 2013.

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United Nations Convention on Climate Change chief Christiana Figueres speaks during a press conference on November 30, 2012, in Doha.

AFP - A debilitating row with Russia at UN climate talks this week exposed a fundamental flaw in how decisions are taken -- the entire system balanced precariously on an ill-defined notion of consensus, observers say.

While furious with Russia for allowing the issue to stop important work at a meeting in Bonn, negotiators agree the decision-making procedure must be clarified before any long-term damage is caused.

By tradition, decisions in the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) are made on the basis of "consensus" -- a term that implies common resolve by its 195 parties.

The principle is conceptually fuzzy and remains undefined in the organisation's rulebook, yet it was the tool that created the Kyoto Protocol and binds the community of nations to signing an ambitious new pact on carbon emissions in 2015.

"Consensus is considered important since this makes the likelihood of implementation or compliance with what has been agreed larger, and demonstrates respect for the principle of state sovereignty," Louise van Schaik of the Clingendael Institute of International Relations in the Netherlands told AFP.

But a bust-up at a low-key meeting in Germany this past week raised stark questions as to whether the practice -- at least in its current form -- can endure as the bill for climate change mounts and countries fight harder over how to apportion it.

"Since the beginning we've been sailing along in a bit of a legal grey zone where things are done by consensus without anybody really knowing what consensus means," one insider told AFP.

"It is a question of the chairs and presidents (of meetings) capturing the political will and feeding it back to delegates. Decisions are taken by acclamation -- people stand up and clap and a decision is passed. There are almost always at least one or two countries objecting."

What currently passes for consensus is traditionally achieved through frantic, late-night haggling.

Conference presidents often have to "gavel through" major deals -- declaring a decision adopted even if a country is howling dissent.

What has brought matters to a head this time is Russia, which is incensed at the way the Qatari president of last December's meeting in Doha gavelled through a decision to extend the Kyoto Protocol on curbing Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Its approval hamstrung Russia's planned sale of 5.8 billion tonnes of carbon credits amassed under the protocol's first round, which expired at the end of last year.

Outraged -- according to a well-placed source, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote a furious letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon -- the Kremlin is playing tough.

In the 12-day talks that finished in Bonn on Friday, Russia, backed by Ukraine and Belarus, blocked work in one of three negotiating groups -- demanding a debate on how consensus is reached.

"We have serious reasons to be concerned," Russian negotiator Oleg Shamanov told negotiators.

"If we fail to hold such a discussion on the procedural aspects of preparing and taking decisions, we may see in 2015 a situation where all efforts that have been made would be a failure."

He did not spell out how the system should be changed, but stressed it must take account of the "sovereign equality of all countries... to express their view."

Negotiators from other countries said Russia had a point and welcomed a debate on procedure.

"Our system is sick," agreed one European negotiator.

"Maybe something good can come of this -- a review of how the system works, and how it doesn't."

European Commission envoy Artur Runge-Metzger said: "Maybe this is something that also need to be explored at the UN level."

Veterans of the climate process say the problem has deep roots.

At their very first executive meeting in 1995, parties failed to adopt the UNFCCC's rules of procedure because they disagreed over Rule 42, which would allow for a vote when consensus fails.

By mutual agreement, the parties have been applying the rules ever since, but not Rule 42.

There's an irony in all this, said climate analyst Bill Hare: "Russia is one of those countries that fought for 20 years to block the adoption of rules and procedure."

Some delegates felt there was no time to wrangle over sovereign principles with just over two years left to finalise a deal that must save Earth from calamitous global warming-induced climate change.

"It's awkward and dangerous, because it could drag the plenary on, so it would impact the effectiveness of a process that already struggles to make decisions," said an NGO source.

But most agreed that, ultimately, procedural clarity would help the process as a whole.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres described the issue as a "challenge" but also "a fantastic opportunity to be creative and to increase the efficiency of the system".

It was, however, not clear in which forum, or when, the issue will be taken up.

"Stay tuned for innovation," she said as the Bonn talks closed.

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