26 May
2006 - “After two weeks of negotiations, the brakes
are off and the process is moving forward,” said
Jennifer Morgan, Director of WWF’s Global Climate
Change Programme. “However, a serious scale-up
in the intensity of work is needed or the impacts
of climate change will quickly overtake this process
if countries are not careful.”
The Montreal Climate Change
Conference in December last year was successful
in launching several "tracks" of negotiations
for the second Kyoto phase, post-2012. The follow-up
negotiations here in Bonn, now ending, focused
on a series of key topics, including the level
of targets for developed countries, reducing emissions
from deforestation in tropical countries, and
a timeframe for the negotiations.
Countries have now agreed to
focus the next session of the negotiations, in
Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2006, on discussing
emissions scenarios to reduce the pollution that
causes climate change and the various policies
and technologies that have worked thus far. A
range of analyses are to be undertaken by developed
countries in the development of the next set of
targets to the Kyoto Protocol. In addition, the
Long-Term Dialogue on Future Cooperative Action,
including all Parties, is also set to continue
its workshops, but the effectiveness of this Dialogue
is yet to be proven.
“Developed countries must get
serious and begin a credible process at home to
agree upon the much deeper cuts needed to avoid
the worst impacts,” said Morgan. “The next set
of targets for developed countries must be much
deeper than the current Kyoto targets in order
to avoid dangerous climate change.”
Time is of the essence as never
before. In order to keep the rise of global average
temperature below 2°C in comparison with pre-industrial
levels, global greenhouse gas emissions will have
to be near 50 to 55% below 11000 levels by 2050.
Reducing these emissions to stay below the 2°C
threshold is possible. Many studies show that
global emissions can be reduced to keep global
average temperature increase below 2°C, but
the energy system needs to be altered substantially
when aiming for low-level stabilisation. The current
fossil fuel based system needs to be transformed
completely into a highly energy efficient system,
using renewable source of energy and partly new
low carbon technologies.
Background: Bonn hosted the
first meetings on the post-2012 time period of
the Kyoto Protocol, as decided in Montreal in
November 2005. These included the first session
of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments
for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG)
held from 17-26 May. These sessions were preceded
by the Dialogue on long-term cooperative action
to address climate change by enhancing implementation
of the Convention, which was held from 15-16 May.
