UN Climate Change Talks,
Bonn, 2-13 June 2008
01 Jun 2008 - Background:
Under the auspices of the UN, governments
are meeting to continue their preparatory
talks under the BALI MANDATE, which was
negotiated last December at the 13th session
of the Conference of the Parties to the
UNFCCC (COP13). The Bali Mandate compels
governments to agree on a new climate deal
by December 2009 that will cover the issues
of emission reductions, mitigation mechanisms,
adaptation, finance, technology and forests.
However, the Bali meeting agreed only on
the broad strokes of the topics that the
negotiations should cover; specifics need
to be worked out in a negotiating marathon
of which the Bonn talks are the second step
(after talks in Bangkok in April). Bonn
prepares for a full-blown meeting at ministerial
level in Poznan, Poland, in December this
year.
Key Issues:
2008 is a year that requires intense work
from government negotiators. Governments
need to come to Bonn with the intention
to clearly progress toward an ambitious
outcome at the Poznan COP. “It would be
wrong to think that the real work only starts
in 2009 – that attitude would mean that
the negotiations will fail,” says Kim Carstensen,
Director of the WWF Global Climate Initiative.
“It is a step-by-step walk on the road to
Copenhagen – we need real steps forward
to arrive at the goal.”
Government delegates
in Bonn need to narrow down the options
for a negotiations framework to be agreed
in Poznan that will then subsequently be
negotiated in 2009. “Governments need to
put ideas on the table on how to mobilize
the technologies needed to tackle climate
change.” says Kathrin Gutmann,” WWF Climate
Policy Coordinator. “Industrialized and
developing countries are equally responsible
for fleshing out those details.”
Industrialized countries
have to live up to their responsibility,
show commitment to taking up new national
emission reduction targets, and commit to
a mid term reductions at the top end of
the 25 to 40% reduction range by 2020 the
IPCC concluded would be needed. “Industrialized
countries need to respect their obligation
and responsibility to take the lead in fighting
climate change,” says Kathrin Gutmann,”
WWF Climate Policy Coordinator. “There is
a clear difference between developing and
industrialized countries; just compare China
and the US, with per capita emissions per
person of 5 tons versus 20.”
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Progress at Bonn Climate
Talks is not good enough – WWF
12 Jun 2008 - Bonn,
Germany – With only 536 days remaining until
the Copenhagen Climate Summit, governments
are making too little progress in developing
the future system for reducing climate-damaging
emissions, WWF says.
“Progress at the end
of this second round in a series of UN climate
negotiations was considered ‘feeble’, according
to WWF’s negotiating team. “The ideas put
on the table are only translated into shopping
lists rather than blueprints for negotiations,”
says Kathrin Gutmann, WWF Climate Policy
Coordinator.
The EU, in particular,
has not shown any substantial initiative
or move forward at the Bonn talks. Other
Europeans do better, in WWF’s view: Norway
and Switzerland have both produced concrete
proposals on finance, detailing possible
mechanisms for raising funds. And a number
of developing countries have tabled proposals
on adaptation, finance and technology transfer.
Such initiatives provide the necessary political
signal and substance for a constructive
way forward in the negotiations.
“The EU seems to be
sitting on the fence, basking in the glory
of yesterday’s leadership but not showing
much substance when it comes to moving forward,”
says Kathrin Gutmann. “Now that many developing
countries are engaging the EU needs to step
up to the challenge now, even in the remaining
hours of the Bonn meeting.”
Australia and Canada
drew criticism trying to obtain more loopholes
in the talks about forest and agricultural
emissions, to escape from implementing strong
emission reduction targets.
“The science tells us
that governments need to think at a much
larger scale of action than ever before
to get climate change under control,” says
Kathrin Gutmann. “Parties in the talks need
to focus on the outcome the world needs
– a high priority is for industrialized
countries to commit to new ways of raising
adequate levels of funds for low carbon
development in developing countries through
direct transfers as well as new innovative
mechanisms.”
At the upcoming G8+5
Summit, progressive countries must persuade
their colleagues to return to the UN talks
armed with commitments commensurate with
the problems the world is facing.
“Japan has a huge responsibility
to deliver momentum for the UN negotiations
at its G8 Summit in Hokkaido,” says Kim
Carstensen, Director of the WWF Global Climate
Initiative. “The formal UN process would
benefit from a burst of adrenalin delivered
by the G8+5 heads of state.”
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Get to work, don’t leave
the climate to fortune – WWF
02 Jun 2008 - Bonn,
Germany – The UN climate talks in Bonn need
to be more than a talking shop, and must
produce concrete results, the conservation
organisation WWF said today. WWF and Oxfam
representatives dressed up as polar bears
today to distribute fortune cookies with
16 clear policy demands for the talks.
Government delegates
from more than 100 countries will attend
the UN climate change talks from 2-13 June
2008 in Bonn. The talks are the second step
in a negotiations marathon that started
last December in Bali where governments
agreed to put in place a global climate
agreement by the end of 2009 at a UN Summit
in Copenhagen. The agreement will cover
issues of emission reductions to prevent
dangerous climate change combined with mechanisms
and resources for mitigation, adaptation,
finance, technology and forests.
“If governments still
think that the talks in 2008 are a leisurely
affair they are utterly mistaken,” says
Kim Carstensen, Director of the WWF Global
Climate Initiative. “To achieve progress
in Copenhagen next year, countries need
to agree in Poland at the end of this year
on the options and basic ideas that need
to be negotiated further in 2009.”
At their last meeting
in Bangkok, governments failed to put on
the table a detailed work programme and
did not progress beyond the decisions taken
at the Bali climate summit. In Bonn, negotiators
must identify options for the necessary
emission reductions and for mobilizing the
resources needed.
On the financing of
clean energy and adaptation, governments
need to identify and commit to developing
tools for a finance framework, which guarantees
predictable and secure resources for low-carbon
development in developing countries. Financing
on climate issues must be additional to
existing development aid. Development aid
is aimed at alleviating poverty in the poorest
countries, and should not be mixed with
funding aimed at solving the global climate
crisis. All payments, whether for development
or for the climate, must be measurable,
reportable, and verifiable. In return, developing
countries must commit to putting the necessary
national development policies in place that
will allow for effective adaptation and
ensure less emissions.
“Industrialized countries
need to respect their obligation and responsibility
to take the lead in fighting climate change,”
says Kathrin Gutmann, WWF Climate Policy
Coordinator. “There is a clear difference
between developing and industrialized countries,
and no ‘major emitters club’ can paper over
this fact.”
Some countries will
again try to cast doubt over the range of
mid-term reduction commitments – between
25-40 per cent by 2020 was agreed between
Kyoto Parties in Bali. Governments need
to confirm this range and not just rely
on long-term 2050 targets.
Spokespeople:
Kim Carstensen, Director, WWF Global Climate
Deal Programme, +45 40 34 36 35, k.carstensen@wwf.dk.
Kathrin Gutmann, WWF Climate Policy Coordinator,
[49] 162 29 144 28, gutmann@wwf.de.
Media contacts:
Martin Hiller, WWF Global Climate Change
Programme (English, German, French)
The policy demands in
the Fortune Cookies:
A joint stunt by WWF and Oxfam on Monday
morning tries to ensure that government
delegates attending the climate talks get
some direction for their negotiations in
the coming two weeks. The two NGO put out
fortune cookies with sixteen messages to
the delegates – framing clearly, where progress
has to be made.
1. Keeping global warming
well below 2°C must be the objective
of a post-2012 climate regime.
2. The post-2012 deal
must guarantee poor countries’ right to
development.
3. “MRV” resource transfers
from industrialised countries for adaptation
and climate-friendly development are an
essential pre-condition for developing country
action.
4. Funding from industrialised
countries to finance adaptation in developing
countries must be new, predictable, and
adequate – and must be additional to existing
ODA commitments.
5. The Copenhagen deal
has ensure that tens of billions of US$
annually are transferred from industrialised
countries to developing nations to finance
adaptation and low carbon development.
6. In the future regime,
industrialised countries must commit to
legally binding, absolute emission cuts
of at least the upper end of 25-40% by 2020.
7. To keep warming below
2°C, global emissions must peak in the
next decade and be cut by 80% by 2050 compared
to 11000.
8. The US must rejoin
the global fight against climate change
by committing to binding, absolute reduction
targets with a comparable effort to the
Annex I group, i.e. 25-40% by 2020.
9. EU domestic emissions
must go down by at least 30% by 2020, from
11000 levels.
10. The post-2012 climate
regime needs to cover emissions from aviation
and shipping sectors, starting with Annex
I countries.
11. Newly industrialised
countries such as South Korea, Saudi Arabia
or Singapore should take on binding reduction
commitments under the post-2012 regime.
12. The climate impacts
on least developed and small island developing
countries should be the basis for assessing
the adequacy of mitigation efforts under
the post-2012 deal.
13. Some key developing
countries must lower emissions compared
to their BAU projections – contingent upon
adequate finance and technology support
from Annex I.
14. Reform the CDM!
We need new mechanisms to deliver real sustainable
development, ensure global emission cuts,
technology transfer and help with poverty
reduction.
15. The future regime
must build and expand upon the Kyoto Protocol.
Binding absolute emission reduction targets
for industrialised countries are here to
stay.
16. Before Poznan, governments
must have agreed the key concepts and proposals
for the post-2012 agreement to negotiate
during 2009. Bonn has to deliver progress
towards this!
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Fukuda’s climate vision
is blurred – WWF
09 Jun 2008 - Bonn,
Germany: The Japanese Prime Minister’s vision
for climate change policy, announced today
in Tokyo, falls short on ambition and will
not help to protect the world from dangerous
climate change, WWF said today.
“The G8 Leaders need
to make concrete steps forward to a low
carbon world, and Japan’s Prime Minister
Fukuda needs to push hard to trigger that
leadership,” said Kathrin Gutmann, WWF Climate
Policy Coordinator,. “In this light, Fukuda
presents only a blurred vision and the lack
of a 2020 target for emissions reductions
is utterly disappointing.”
Although Japan’s long-term
target of 60-80% emissions reductions by
2050 may sound like a step forward, the
Prime Minister postponed announcing a medium
target next year. This, however, would be
a critical milestone for re-directing investment
into clean energy sources.
Instead of setting the
mid term target, Japan suggests changing
the base year from 11000 to 2005. This would
be equivalent to a 4% reduction of Japanese
emissions by 2020 only, compared to 11000.
The EU has proposed a 30% reduction compared
to 11000 if others match the effort.
“The Japanese Prime
Minister is playing a numbers game to avoid
a commitment to deep emission reductions”,
says Kathrin Gutmann. “Fukuda willl have
to announce a clear mid-term target soon.
“
According to science,
industrialized nations have to cut emissions
by 25-40% by 2020 to keep global warming
below the danger-threshold of 2°C. All
Kyoto Protocol Parties – including Japan
– agreed to this indicative reduction range
at the UN conference in Bali last December.
“Japan wants to let
the slowest movers determine the pace, but
this is not how you accelerate change,”
said Naoyuki Yamagishi, Head of the Climate
Change Programme at WWF Japan. “Rather than
support innovative business and protect
people and nature, Fukuda is deferring to
pressure from Japan’s dirtiest industries.”
Fukuda also failed to
confirm the implementation of a domestic
emissions trading system in Japan, making
it difficult for Japan’s financial industry
to support the move to a low carbon society.
Emissions trading makes it more cost efficient
to clean up polluting technologies but,
according to WWF, conservative industry
circles have once again managed to block
progress.
Kim Carstensen, Director
WWF Global Climate Initiative
