Nusa Dua, Bali (Platts)--10Dec2007
An initial effort to craft a mandate for negotiations on climate change
action after 2012 appeared to be doomed on Monday as numerous delegations, led
by the US, voiced opposition to the inclusion of specific emissions reduction
targets in a draft proposal.
UNFCCC member states have gathered on the Indonesian island of Bali to
thrash out the details of a negotiating mandate for a two-year process that
would result in a global agreement on how to combat climate change after the
Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
A two-year Dialogue under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,
which began in 2005, ended last week as the Bali meeting began, and the
co-chairs of the Dialogue have attempted to encapsulate the conclusions in a
draft that will form the basis for a negotiating mandate.
According to the draft, a copy of which was obtained by Platts, the
attempt is to reduce emissions by 25-40% by 2020 and "be reduced to very low
levels, well below half of levels in 2000 by 2050."
Speaking at a press briefing Monday, the leader of the US delegation,
Harlan Watson, said: "We're looking for text that's short, to the point,
that's balanced, taking into consideration the needs of all parties, and also
a text that's not prejudged the outcomes that might come out of the two-year
negotiating process."
Watson confirmed he had heard that the Japanese delegation had also
"indicated some difficulties with the text."
He said: "What we want to do is charge the negotiating group with
considering long-term global goals, whether it's an emissions reduction goal
or a temperature goal. We don't think it's prudent or reasonable to start off
with a set of numbers: that's what the negotiations are going to be for."
Other sources close to the negotiations said that many developing
countries had objected to a 2050 reduction target because it suggests that
they might eventually be asked to adopt binding targets of their own.
The European Union has also been pressing for the text to include
reference to limiting global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial levels, but Watson rejected this, saying: "We don't think this
will be helpful as a starting point. We want to limit pre-determining what the
outcome will be."
The text also offered three options for the negotiating process. Option 1
would see a renewal of the two-year dialogue process; option 2 proposes an
"open-ended ad-hoc working group of parties to the Convention" that would
complete its work by 2009; and option 3 combines the work of the dialogue
process with discussions by those party to the Kyoto Protocol (which does not
include the US).
Watson said the US favors the second option. "We would like to call it a
negotiating committee. We'd like to see the word 'negotiation' in the title,
rather than just an ad-hoc working group," he added.
The first option, he said, was a "non-starter," as it merely continues
the discussions held over the past two years.
Concerning the third option, the so-called "one-track" approach, Watson
said: "This will not work. For one reason, many countries are against it on
principle; for another, the two tracks are separate legal entities, so
legally, it does not work."
--Alessandro Vitelli, alessandro_vitelli@platts.com
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