On Tuesday environment ministers said that the highest octane political gathering on climate change since the Copenhagen summit has helped restore trust but delivered no notable breakthroughs.
“The ice is broken,” Germany’s Norbert Roettgen told journalists as the two-and-a-half day brainstorming session outside Bonn ended. “This meeting was a very important contribution to building trust and confidence.”
By avoiding some of the explosive political land mines that disrupted talks in Copenhagen, negotiators and ministers from over 45 countries focused on what will become the foundations for any future global climate deal. This would include the disbursement of short-term financing to poor countries bracing for the climate change impacts, mechanisms for measuring, reporting and verification of pledges to cut greenhouse gases and figuring out the most effective ways to halt deforestation.
“We have reached consensus on forest protection, and there are good perspectives for consensus on technology transfer — a result is possible, at least in Cancun,” Roettgen said, referring to a UN climate conference late November in the Mexican resort town.
An exchange platform between rich and developing countries for sustainable development initiatives was also unveiled by Roettgen and according to him ten countries, which include among them, the US, Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea and Spain have already embraced the idea.
Since the disappointing conclusion to Copenhagen the ministers and negotiators at these talks trod a delicate line between aiming too high or too low for Cancun, taking place later this year.
“Not probable” was Connie Hedegaard’s, Europe’s Commissioner for Climate Action, reply when asked if a full treaty was possible in Mexico.
“It is extremely important that we have a set of concrete decisions coming out of Cancun. But we need to look at the process realistically,” she told journalists.
A highly polarised debate on what kind of legally binding treaty might emerge from the troubled UN talks has given way instead to the “building blocks” approach.
“Copenhagen was a reality check,” said Jose Romero, Switzerland’s top climate negotiator and a veteran of UN climate talks.
“We are going to focus on substance, we want consensus on the substantive measures before talking about the agreement itself,” he told AFP.
UN climate chief Yvo De Boer said a “good outcome” in Cancun would be “an operational architecture on climate change.”
However the main sticking point in any climate deal will always be the divvying up of the task to cut greenhouse gases and who will pay for it. Positive thinking and incremental progress will only go so far in bridging arguments between nations.
At present voluntary emission pledges registered in the Copenhagen Accord put Earth on track for increases in temperature of 3.5 to 4.0 degree Celsius (6.3 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) which is way above the 2.0° Celsius threshold for dangerous warming.
Martin Kaiser, climate policy director for Greenpeace International said that the Petersberg Climate Dialogue was haunted by stalled legislation in the US.
“The US pledges in the Copenhagen Accord on emissions reductions depend on national legislation, which is stalled,” he said. “So basically that means they have not pledged anything yet — that is the biggest problem we have.”
There is also scepticism and impatience among developing countries on promises for financing. The accord set aside $30 billion in ‘fast track’ money to be distributed by the end of 2012, which would be scaled up to $100 billion per annum by 2020. However delays in releasing the funds and concerns about where the long term funding will come from have cast a shadow over these commitments.
“It is widely recognised that finance is the key to opening the next door,” said Romero.
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May 21st, 2010 at 2:16 PM
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