The Rights of Nature

The proposals developed by the Plurinational State of Bolivia bring together and build upon the progress made in the World Charter for Nature  (1982), the Rio Declaration (1992), the Earth Charter (2000), and the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (2010):

I. A DEEPER COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY

1. In this century, the central challenges of sustainable development are: on the one hand, to overcome poverty and the tremendous inequalities that exist and, on the other hand, reestablish the equilibrium of the Earth system. Both objectives are intrinsically linked and one cannot be reached independently of the other. Read the rest of this entry »

Pablo Solón

The Climate Change Conference ended two days later than expected, adopting a set of decisions that were known only a few hours before their adoption. Some decisions were even not complete at the moment of their consideration. Paragraphs were missing and some delegations didn’t even have copies of these drafts. The package of decisions was released by the South African presidency with the ultimatum of “Take it or leave it”. Only the European Union was allowed to make last minute amendments at the plenary.

Several delegations made harsh criticisms to the documents and expressed their opposition to sections of them. However, no delegation explicitly objected the subsequent adoption of these decisions. At the end, the whole package was adopted by consensus without the objection of any delegation. The core elements of the Durban Package can be summarized as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

Nele Marien (*)

The official package deal of Durban consisted of 4 main documents, apart of several other decisions, most of them less critical, that have been adopted:

  1. A decision on the second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol 
  2. The LCA outcome: the partial implementation of the Bali Action Plan and the Cancun Agreements
  3. A Durban Platform for Enhanced Action: the decision to work towards a new “agreed outcome with legal force, applicable to all”
  4. The green climate fund

The package was officially sold to the world as a success, but having a closer look, it’s easy to see it doesn’t do what it is suposed to do, and it does what it shouldn’t do.

Rather then having a look decision by decision, let’s have an overall look on what the “package”implies:

Postponing the urgent

Climate scientists are advising us insistently: the world just has a few years to start acting on climate change, if not we may enter in an irreversible spiral of climate disaster. So the most urgent issue is to start acting NOW on real mitigation.

Unfortunately, the Durban package doesn’t attend this at all. During the whole Durban negotiation, there hasn’t even been a real discussion on the issue. Read the rest of this entry »

Nele Marien (*)

The new text proposal for the Kyoto Protocol states that a second commitment period will be established. That seems good news; it was what everybody was waiting for.

But, a second commitment period for what? For the sake of having it? For the sake of carbon markets? For calming public opinion?
Let’s see the good points and the bad points of the actual proposal.

It establishes a second commitment period for five years. That’s good. But will it be real? Or is it just another false promise?

Adopting amendments or taking note of proposed amendments

Paragraph 3 generates a big confusion:

3. Takes note of the proposed amendments to the Kyoto Protocol developed by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol as contained in Annexes 1, 2 and 3 to this decision;

Indeed, in Annexes are the proposed amendments. But, will the Climate Conference approve those amendments this year? Then why should the CMP “Take note” of the proposed amendments? The only correct thing to do if it wants a ‘secure’ a second commitment period, is to adopt the amendments now. All the rest are just vague promises. Indeed, nobody is bound by something that was just “taken note of”! Read the rest of this entry »

Nele Marien (*)

After this morning a set of 2 negotiation texts, giving the “bigger picture” for the Durban outcome were presented, and later rejected by the G77, now a second trial has been presented.

Let’s see what it says.

1) It takes note of a decision — still unknown — under the CMP which would “secure a ratifiable second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol” Well, or you just adopt a new commitment period. Or you don’t, and you can’t secure what parties will do in the future. Seeing the list of unfulfilled promises, and the amount of announces that developed countries have made stating they don’t want a second commitment period, it is quite doubtful that a 2nd commitment period can be ‘secured’. Read the rest of this entry »

After several hours of waiting, a new “bigger picture” text came out in the Durban Climate Conference. Again, drafted only by some. 

Chairs Proposal

INDABA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

Friday, 9 December 2011 @ 23:00

The Conference of the Parties,

Recognizing that climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet and thus requires to be urgently addressed by all Parties, and acknowledging that the global nature of climate change calls for the widest possible cooperation by all countries and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, with a view to accelerate the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions;

Noting with grave concern the significant gap between the aggregated effect of Parties mitigation pledges in terms of global annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020 and aggregate emissions pathways consistent with having a likely chance of holding warming below 2°C or 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels;

Recognizing also that fulfilling the ultimate objective of the Convention will require strengthening the multilateral, rules-based regime under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change;

1.  Noting decision 1/CMP.7 [Amendments and related decisions to secure a ratifiable second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol];

2.  Also noting decision 1/CP.17 [Implementation of the Bali Action Plan, including operationalisation of the Cancun Agreements];

3.  Decides to extend the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention for one year in order for it to continue its work and reach the agreed outcome pursuant to decision 1/CP.13 (Bali Action Plan) through decisions adopted at the 16th, 17th and 18th sessions of the Conference of the Parties, at which time the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action shall be terminated;

4.  Decides also  to launch a process to develop a Protocol or another legal instrument applicable to all Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, through a subsidiary body under the Convention hereby established and to be known as the Ad Hoc Working Group on XX;

5.  Decides  that the process shall begin immediately and be conducted as a matter of urgency and that the Ad Hoc Working Group on XX shall report to the intervening sessions of the Conference of the Parties on the progress of its work;

6.  Decides that the Ad Hoc Working Group on XX shall complete its work as early as possible but no later than 2015 in order to adopt this legal instrument at the 21st session of the Conference of Parties;

7.  Also  decides  that the Ad Hoc Working Group on XX shall plan its work in 2012, including, inter alia, on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building, drawing upon submission from Parties, and relevant technical, social and economic information and expertise;

8.  Decides that the process shall raise levels of ambition and be informed, inter alia, by the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the outcomes of the 2013-2015 review and the work of the Subsidiary Bodies;


Pablo Solon (*)

A few moments ago we found out the decisions that they have been cooking behind the scenes. In Durban they won’t approve a second period of commitments of the Kyoto Protocol. This will happen at the end of next year: in COP18.

In Durban they will only take note of the draft amendments and the “intention” of rich countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol will lose its heart. The promises of reductions by rich countries will be incredibly low until 2020 and will lead to a temperature increase of more than 4 degrees C. The Kyoto Protocol will turn into a Zombie without a global figure for reduction of emissions by industrialised countries, and will carry on walking until 2020 just so that carbon markets don’t disappear.

In 2020 “a new legal framework appliable to all” will enter into effect. “To all”,  means diluting the difference between developed and developing countries, between countries responsible for climate change and those who are victims. The US managed to eliminate any mention of a “binding” agreement. That means the “new legal framework” will be an empty gesture without any effect. The European Unions is permitting that the Kyoto Protocol is converted to a Zombi. This will become known as the lost decade of the fight against climate change. Genocide and ecocide will reach proportions that we have not yet seen. The Great Escape by the Rich has turned into the Great Swindle.

(*) Pablo Solon is an international analyst and social activist. He was chief negotiator for climate change and United Nations Ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia (2009-June 2011). http://pablosolon.wordpress.com/

Finally  the two draft decisions (one for the COP, one for the Kyoto Protocol) that have been workerd out in exclusive and closed meetings, have been known. In bold the most problematic points, analysis on the will be published soon.

I. Draft Decision for the COP

Chairs Proposal

INDABA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

Friday, 9 December 2011 @ 08:00

The Conference of the Parties,

Recognizing the need to meet present and predicted climate change imperatives through

full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention with a view to reducing

global greenhouse gas emissions so as to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 °C above preindustrial levels, and to consider strengthening this goal in relation to a global average temperature rise of 1.5°C;

Recognizing also that meeting this goal will require strengthening of current  implementation efforts as well as crafting a future multilateral rules-based response under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change framework after 2020;

1.  Noting decision 1/CMP.7 [Giving effect to Kyoto amendments/elements/rules in time to avoid the gap];

2.  Also noting decision 1/CP.17 [Implementation under the Convention, including making the Cancun Agreements operational];

3.  Decides in order to achieve the full effective and sustained implementation of the Convention to complete the agreed outcome pursuant to decision 1/CP.13 (Bali Action Plan) through a set of decisions to be adopted at the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties, at which time the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action shall be terminated;

4.  Also decides to launch a process in order to develop a legal framework applicable to all under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change after 2020, through a subsidiary body under the Convention to be established at the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties and to be known as the Ad Hoc Working Group on [XX];

5.  Decides  that the process shall begin immediately and be conducted as a matter of urgency and that the Ad Hoc Working Group on [XX] shall report to the intervening sessions of the Conference of the Parties on the progress of its work; 

6.  Decides that the sessions of the Ad Hoc Working Group on [XX] shall be scheduled  to ensure completion of the work as early as possible but no later than 2015 in order to adopt the legal framework at the 21st session of the Conference of Parties;

7.  Also decides to further elaborate the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on [XX] in 2012, including on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building, drawing upon submission from Parties, and relevant technical, social and economic information and expertise;

8.  Decides that the process shall encourage increasing levels of ambition and be informed, inter  alia, by the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the outcome of the 2013-2015 review and the work of the Subsidiary Bodies.

————-

II. Draft decisión for the CMP (Kyoto Protocol)

Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol at its sixteenth session

Version of 9 December 2011 @ 05:00

The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol,

Recalling Article 3, paragraph 9, of the Kyoto Protocol,

Also recalling Article 20, paragraph 2, and Article 21, paragraph 7, of the Kyoto Protocol,

Further recalling decisions 1/CMP.1, 1/CMP.5 and 1/CMP.6,

Noting with appreciation the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol,

Noting also the importance of developing a comprehensive global response to the problem of climate change,

Recognizing the importance of ensuring the environmental integrity of the Kyoto Protocol,

Cognizant of decision -/CP.17 {title of decision on AWG-LCA},

Emphasizing the role of the Kyoto Protocol in the mitigation effort by Parties

included in Annex I, the importance of  ensuring continuity in mitigation action by those Parties and the need to start the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol without delay,

1.   Welcomes the agreement achieved by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol on its work pursuant to decisions 1/CMP.1, 1/CMP.5 and 1/CMP.6 in the areas of land use, land-use change and forestry (decision -/CMP.7), emissions trading and the project-based mechanisms (decision -/CMP.7), greenhouse gases, sectors and source categories, common metrics to calculate the carbon dioxide equivalence of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks, and other methodological issues (decision -/CMP.7) and the consideration of information on potential environmental, economic and social consequences, including spillover effects, of tools, policies, measures and methodologies available to Annex I Parties (decision -/CMP.7);

2.   Takes note of the draft amendments to the Kyoto Protocol developed by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol as contained in Annexes 1, 2 and 3 to this decision;

3.   Takes note also of the quantified economy-wide emission reduction targets communicated by Parties included in Annex I and presented in Annex 1 to this decision and of the intention of these Parties to convert them to quantified emission limitation or reduction objectives for the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol;

4.   Invites Parties included in Annex I and listed in Annex 1 to this decision to submit information on their quantified emission limitation or reduction objectives for the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol by 1 May 2012 for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Implementation at its thirty-sixth session and requests the Subsidiary Body for Implementation to deliver the results of its work to the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol with a view to the Conference of

the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol adopting them as amendments to Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol at its eighth session, while ensuring coherence with the implementation of decision {title of decision on AWG-LCA};

5.   Decides to adopt the amendments contained in Annexes 2 and 3 to this decision in conjunction with the adoption of the amendments referred to in paragraph 4 above;

6.   Requests the Subsidiary Body for Implementation to assess the implications of the carry-over of assigned amount units to the second commitment period on the scale of emission reductions to be achieved by Annex I Parties in aggregate for the second commitment period, with a view to preparing a draft decision for adoption by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol at its eighth session;

7.   Decides, on the basis of the outcomes and results described in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 above, that the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol has completed its work in accordance with decision 1/CMP.1;

8.   Requests the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice to assess and address the implications of the implementation of decisions -CMP.7 referred to in paragraph 1 above on the previous decisions on methodological issues related to the Kyoto Protocol adopted by Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol including those relating to Articles 5, 7 and 8 of the Kyoto Protocol, with a view to preparing relevant draft decisions for consideration and adoption by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol at its eighth session, and noting that some issues may need to be addressed at subsequent sessions of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.

Annexes:

Annex 1. Draft amendments to Annex B to the

Kyoto Protocol

Annex 2. Draft amendments to Annex A to the

Kyoto Protocol

Annex 3. Draft amendments to the Kyoto Protocol

Separate -/CMP.7 decisions:

Decision -/CMP.7: LULUCF 

Decision -/CMP.7:  mechanisms 

Decision -/CMP.7: methodological issues 

Decision -/CMP.7: potential consequences 

Talks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference are in their second to last day, but little progress appears to have been made on the key issues of extending the Kyoto Protocol or forming a Green Climate Fund. The United States is refusing to accept any deal involving binding emissions cuts before the year 2020 despite dire warnings that the world can’t afford to wait. We get analysis from Pablo Solón, Bolivia’s former ambassador to the United Nations and former chief negotiator on climate change, and from Patrick Bond, a South African climate activist, professor and author. “The main issue is the figure of emission reductions of rich countries is not really being raised,” Solón says. “It is very, very low… You cannot be silent when you see the genocide and ecocide that is going to happen because of this kind of decision.” Solon also says the U.S. “blackmails” developing countries into dropping demands for binding cuts by threatening to withdraw climate aid. Bond says the next round of climate talks should include the idea of sanctions against major polluters, like the United States, that reject binding cuts.

ACCRA CAUCUS PRESS RELEASE: Durban, South Africa (UNFCCC)                            

Recent collapses in carbon markets and widespread opposition from forest peoples and non-governmental organisations have not stopped governments gathered in Durban from trying to build momentum for the creation of a new forest carbon market as part of the response to deforestation and climate change.

The Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change, a coalition of around 100 civil society and indigenous peoples organisations from 38 countries, called on governments in Durban to reject forest carbon trading after a new draft decision [1] related to REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) specifically includes “market-based” sources of financing, which opens the door for as forest carbon market allowing developed countries to ‘offset’ emissions reductions.

 

“By selling carbon offsets from our forests, we would be abandoning the solution to the climate crisis”, said Cecile Ndjebet, President of the African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests. “Developed countries have the historical responsibility for climate change and trading carbon forest offsets would shift the burden to developing countries, and would prolong the heavy polluting industries that created the problem”.

At the same time, existing carbon markets are in a state of crisis. The carbon price in Europe is at its lowest in almost 3 years [2], and credits traded in the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol have fallen to an all time low [3], unable to cover basic project costs. “We’ve seen financial markets crash in recent years, and a forest carbon market would also be volatile and liable to boom and bust. Still rich governments insist this is the best way to finance forests” said Nat Dyer of Rainforest Foundation UK. “Forest carbon markets are an extremely inefficient way to get money to where it’s really needed. The largest part is captured by carbon traders and by expensive external consultants.”

“Any decision in Durban that opens the door to the use of offset trading to fund forests would be a disaster for the climate, the forests and the people who depend on them,” said Belen Paez of Fundacion Pachamama in Ecuador. “Agreeing to fund forests from carbon trading gives the illusion there is money being offered for forest protection, when what is really needed is predictable and sustainable investment to combat the drivers of deforestation.”


Notes to editors:

1. Work of the AWG-LCA Contact Group, Agenda item 3.2.3. Version 2 December 2011, @ 09.35

2. European Union carbon permits (EUAs) fell more than 3 percent early on Thursday December 7th, trading at 7.09 euros a tonne.

3. Prices for UN Certified Emission Reductions, or CERs,for December delivery settled at 5.03 euros ($6.52) a metric ton on the ICE Futures Europe exchange on December 6 2011, the second-lowest closing price since they began trading in 2008. CER credits have lost 80 percent from their peak of 25 euros in July 2008 and down about 56 percent this year.

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