Bonn lays foundations for Copenhagen climate deal

UN climate talks in Bonn have produced draft negotiating texts that will form the basis for a new global deal to be signed in Copenhagen in December. Delegates spent the past two weeks clarifying their positions and elaborating specific proposals.

Governments have until Wednesday to submit their proposed amendments to the Kyoto protocol (EE 05/06/09 http://www.endseurope.com/21493). In a closing press conference UN climate chief Yvo de Boer called Bonn a "significant session [that] has made clear what governments want to see in a Copenhagen agreement".

However several observers deplored the slow pace in ongoing negotiations, arguing little progress had been made in Bonn. July's summit of G8 leaders in Italy is now seen as industrialised nations' next opportunity to get closer to a deal. Mr de Boer urged them to show greater ambition in proposed mid-term emission cuts (EE 11/06/09 http://www.endseurope.com/21544).

Denmark's climate and energy Minister Connie Hedegaard warned world governments that work needed to be speeded up. "Of course we have to respect the way the UN works. But to me, there is no doubt that things are moving too slow," she said according to media reports.

Michael Zammit Cutajar, chair of the working group dealing with a draft overarching negotiating text for a climate deal (EE 20/05/09 http://www.endseurope.com/21393), warned against any breakthroughs before Copenhagen: "This is like the evolutionary process in reverse - the Big Bang comes at the end." The draft negotiating text "sailed [through] rather uncontroversially" in Bonn, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) reports.

Potential amendments to the Kyoto protocol (EE 19/05/09 http://www.endseurope.com/21378) were discussed in more detail in Bonn with attempts to consolidate proposals on forestry and developed country emission reduction targets. Such targets should have been agreed in Bonn, according to a work plan adopted last year (EE 11/12/08 http://www.endseurope.com/17242). But this did not happen.

Bonn was the second of five UN meetings planned before Copenhagen in December. It made important progress on technology transfer and deforestation, according to the UNFCCC. There were also new proposals on aviation and shipping (EE 12/06/09 http://www.endseurope.com/21547). But debate on reforming Kyoto's flexible mechanisms had to be postponed due to lack of time, according to observers.

Follow-up: Bonn meeting homepage http://unfccc.int/meetings/sb30/items/4842.php,

UNFCCC press release

http://unfccc.int/files/press/news_room/press_releases_and_advisories/application/pdf/091206_closing_pr_sb30.pdf,

ENB coverage http://www.iisd.ca/climate/sb30/ and CAN-Europe coverage

http://www.climatenetwork.org/eco/bonn-ii-2009-ecos/?path.query:record=/sites/caniprod/eco/bonn-ii-2009-ecos&path.depth:int:record=-1&portal_type:list=Document&portal_type:list=File&portal_type:list=Image&portal_type:list=Link&portal_type:list=News%20Item&

plus reactions from Oxfam

http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2009-06-12/industrialized-countries-sabotaging-talks-through-inertia,

FoE Europe

http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2009/Jun12_Rich_countries_hold_UN_Climate_Negotiations_Hostage.html,

Greenpeace

http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/press-centre/press-releases2/climate-deadlock-bonn-09-06-12

and WWF

http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/policy/wwf_europe_environment/?166961/Climate-delegates-finally-agreed-only-that-they-disagree---WWF.

See also G8 homepage

http://www.g8italia2009.it/G8/G8-G8_Layout_locale-1199882116809_Home.htm.

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