Baltic and European news
UN climate talks make progress in Accra
2604, 01/09/08
UN negotiations for a global post-2012 climate agreement have begun to gather pace after months of sluggish progress. Governments meeting in Accra (EED 25/08/08 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/26023), Ghana, last week moved closer to a negotiating text for a deal in Copenhagen, UN climate chief said.
"This has been a very important and encouraging meeting", Yvo de Boer told journalists at the end of the meeting on Wednesday. Mr de Boer had previously criticised slow progress in negotiations (EED 13/06/08 http://www.endseuropedaily.com/25632).
Governments meeting for high-level talks in Pozna, Poland, in December will have before them "something that is actually pretty close to the first version of a negotiating text", Mr de Boer said.
Green group WWF criticised the EU for "coming to the negotiation table with empty hands". "The EU is losing its role as a climate leader to a range of developing countries and creative players like Norway and Switzerland", the group argued. South Korea pledged to set emission reduction targets and boost renewables.
Discussions provided clarifications on sectoral approaches, initiatives to cut emissions in industries such as steel and cement. "The talks here have made it clear that sectoral approaches are not about imposing targets, [they] are something that a government may or may not choose to do on a voluntary basis at a national level," de Boer said.
Many developing countries including China have seen these approaches as a backdoor attempt by industrialised nations to impose targets on them.
Governments also agreed that deforestation in developing countries should be part of a Copenhagen deal. Two main approaches are being considered: the use of funds to help countries tackle the issue and tradable carbon credits based on avoided deforestation. Many seem to prefer a combination of both approaches.
Other issues discussed at the meeting include financing and technology for climate mitigation and adaptation.
Governments made a number of proposals in these areas. These will be discussed further in Pozna. They also proposed options to improve project-based emission trading through the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM).
*During the meeting, the UN's environment department (Unep) released a report arguing that scrapping subsidies for fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal could cut greenhouse gas emissions by six per cent a year while slightly increasing global GDP.
Follow-up: Unfccc http://unfccc.int/2860.php, press release
Accra meeting webpage http://unfccc.int/meetings/intersessional/accra/items/4437.php and summary of discussions on sectoral approaches http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2008/awglca3/eng/crp04.pdf.
See also Earth Negotiations Bulletin coverage http://www.iisd.ca/climate/ccwg2/
and WWF reaction http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/press_releases/index.cfm?uNewsID=144181, plus Unep press release http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=543&ArticleID=5902&l=en and report http://www.unep.org/pdf/PressReleases/Reforming_Energy_Subsidies.pdf.
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