Briefings from Bonn-2

AWC-LCA meet on to discuss Adaptation

AWC-LCA convened its meeting today with a focus on Agenda item 3 on “Enabling the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention through long-term cooperative action now, upto and beyond 2012”¹.The chair requested the parties for specific comments on all five elements of Bali Action Plan (BAP). Majority of the developing countries including LDCs impressed upon successful implementation of the provisions given under Bali Action Plan rather than modifications on definitions of issues like shared vision and grouping of countries. The developing countries also endorsed the statement of G77 and China on considering the financing, technology transfer, development and capacity building as main elements of the Convention.

The first comment came from Japan, which stated that adaptation has to be considered urgently with respect to LDCs and AOSIS² and suggested mainstreaming of adaptation into development action plan of the nations. It mentioned that Cool Earth Partnership would continue under World Bank as complimentary mechanism for reducing mitigation in developing countries and LDCs.

EU opined that the definition of shared vision as espoused in Article 2 of Bali Action Plan need to be redefined in a way that short and medium term actions would be guided by four building blocks and ultimately emissions target need to be consistent with long term goals. It also stressed upon differentiation of countries under changing national and international circumstances. The suggestions of EU were strongly criticised by India which stated that provisions of BAP should not be tampered with as it very clearly outlines the shared vision. India was also not prepared to accept any differentiation between Annex-1 and Annex-2 parties, imposed by EU and would only go with the Article 4 of the Convention³. On the issue of financial flows for mitigation actions in developing countries, India stressed on the importance of type of fund flows that lies at heart of this convention framework and that countries should not give more weightage to private funds and market mechanisms.

Uruguay suggested for coordinated and concreted efforts on adaptation policies focusing on the areas involving production, services and human settlements with more weightage on agriculture and coastal areas.

The delegation from AOSIS stressed upon the need for adaptation policies to tackle the present vulnerability concerning them rather than focusing mostly on future actions.

China endorsed India’s statement and urged that principles and provisions of convention should be upheld. It also insisted on Annexe 1 countries to honour their commitment of emission reduction targets by further quantifying it. Pakistan insisted on need to look at various efforts needed for scaling up funds and type of technologies needed to meet therequirements of developing countries and LDCs. Bangladesh stressed on the need to identify ways and means to improve access to financial support.

This meeting was followed by Contact Group discussion of parties within AWG-LCA to share concrete ideas on adaptation measures and procedural conclusion in the area of submission. Developing countries, AOSIS and LDCs demanded for new and additional fund for adaptation. Supporting the demand of additional funds, India also proposed for mainstreaming the adaptation measures into national policies. Philippines on behalf of G-77 and China presented that adaptation cost has significantly increased with climate change occurring at rapid rate. Hence there is anurgency for action. It suggested that there is a need to adapt and look into risk reduction strategies like insurance. It also emphaised on equal footage to be given to both mitigation and adaptation.. EU emphasized on outlining of clear agreement between activities to be carried out by developed and developing countries to ensure enhanced adaptation and effective implementation of Bali Action Plan. EU confirmed its commitments to provide support on adaptation to LDCs, AOSIS and African groups in terms of adequate transfer of technology.

Workshop on IPCC AR-4

The Contact Group meetings and Workshops became major initiatives for discussion in the current Climate Session at Bonn. The IPCC AR 4 met today in one of such workshop to discuss about the latest findings. According to the Ad-hoc Working Group-1, the latest findings on rates of changes of GHG emissions have increased by more than 100 times during the last 20,000 years. It has been observed in the latest findings of the Ad-hoc Working Group-2 that there has been an increase in the average precipitation over land between 30-40° N Latitudes during the period 1901-2005⁴. The variability has only increased between the periods 1979-2005, in the same geographical extent. The experts from the IPCC have cited the use of increased aerosols being the only factor for such variability. It has been observed that the continental ice caps have been showing late freezing and early melting phenomena, which has resulted in acceleration of breaking of ice. There has been an increase of continuous dry days due to the human induced atmospheric activities, resulting in the increase of CO2 emissions. The experts have cited that the CO2 emissions have been the main reason behind the recent extreme climatic situations.

Joint Contact Group Meeting on SBI and SBSTA

The Chair has put forward the discussion on “Work Programme of the Expert Group on Technology Transfer for 2008-09”. The Indian delegation has raised concerns on the Terms of Reference included as activity 1.1 of Annex-1⁵ of the FCCC/SB/2008/INF.1. In a proposal by the Chair to decide on the Draft Text on SB Agenda item “Development and Transfer of Technologies”, the delegation from Ghana has suggested on separating the proposed text into three different paragraphs1. This was accepted by the Chair and it was decided that the Draft Text on this issue will be put up for discussions during the Informal Consultation on Saturday.

Contact Group on Development and Transfer of Technologies:

The SBSTA Contact Group met to discuss the Terms of Reference included within Annex-1 and Annex-2 of the document FCCC/SBSTA/2008/INF.2. The Chair has put forward for discussion on preparing a TOR for the report on performance indicators and for a report on future financing options for enhancing technology transfer. While the ToR on performance indicator related report drew attention from the developed countries, the G77 and China represented by Ghana has expressed concern on the language related to the role of GEF. The delegation has requested for possible inputs from the AWG-LCA for further developments in building up the ToR on future financing option. The Chair adjourned the meeting in order to deal with the issue at the informal group meeting in the coming weekend.

Centad Team                                                                 6 June 2008