UN Climate-Pact for Copenhagen is on the Table
First Negotiation Text to be Discussed by Climate Experts in Bonn
May 23, 2009
Africa and other regions are already experiencing the powerful effects of climate change. Weather patterns are changing and resulting in more droughts and floods, higher air and water temperatures. A resource-efficient “green economy” future will require financial support and technology transfer from more advanced economies. Since there is no further time to waste,
progress towards achieving an ambitious new treaty on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is gathering pace, according to the top United Nations climate change official who announced in May 2009 the online publication of the text to be negotiated by nations later this year in Copenhagen. “This document marks an important point on our road,” said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “It's the first time [that a] real negotiating text will be on the table which can serve as a basis for governments to start drafting a Copenhagen agreed outcome.”
Negotiations on Greenhouse Gas Reductions beyond 2012
Governments attending the Copenhagen conference on climate change are expected to adopt an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol from 1995, whose first commitment period for reducing greenhouse gas emissions ends in 2012. The negotiations on reductions to be achieved by industrialized countries after 2012 centre on issues related to the scale of the reductions, improvements to emissions trading and the Kyoto Protocol's carbon offset mechanisms, as well as concerns relating to land-use change and forestry. The UN issued with the negotiation text a range of rival ideas for fighting climate change from rich and poor nations. The draft included suggestions that rich nations set aside up to 2 percent of their gross national product to help the poor cope with global warming, while rich countries called for developing nations to do more to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
United States has committed to a Copenhagen agreement
The 53-page text proposal covers a shared vision for long-term cooperative action, along with an action plan for strengthening adaptation and mitigation measures, as well as finance, technology and capacity-building. Meanwhile, the United States has committed to a Copenhagen agreement and a clean energy future. The US will even try to persuade rich and poor countries to share the burden of fighting climate change, with a big US pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions likely to help mend ties. Washington will hold talks among major economies, including China, the EU, Russia, India and Japan, in Paris on 25 and 26 May 2009 to search for common ground on issues such as how to cut fossil fuel use and promote clean technologies.
Mr. de Boer stressed on 20 May 2009 that with only 200 days before Copenhagen, time gets tighter but the world is not standing still on climate change.” Before the UNFCCC conference in Copenhagen, some 3,000 participants, including government delegates, representatives from business and industry, environmental organizations and research institutions will gather in Bonn from 1-12 June for talks on the negotiating text.
