ACHIEVING SUCCESSFUL CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS IN DURBAN

BY UGONMA COKEY

 

The 17th session of the UN Conference of the Parties on climate change, COP 17, opens in Durban, South Africa, on Monday, the 28th of November 2011.

For 2 weeks, several thousand participants, including government delegates, representatives from civil society, business and industry, environmental, non-governmental organizations and research institutions will be focusing on securing a global climate agreement as the Kyoto protocol’s first commitment period which started in 2008 ends in 2012.

They will also be reviewing the implementation of the Bali plan of Action and Cancun agreement.

Since 1995, parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, have been meeting annually in the Conference of the Parties, popularly called the COP, to assess progress in dealing with climate change.

The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty produced by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development informally known as the Earth summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14 1992.

The objective of the treaty was to stabilize green house gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. 

But because the treaty was not binding and set no mandatory limits on green house gas emissions for individual countries, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, establishing legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their green house gas emissions.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, the developed countries called the Annex 1 Parties which ratified the Protocol committed to reducing their emission level of green house gases to targets that are mainly set below their 1990 levels. Developing countries, the Annex II countries are not required to reduce emission level unless developed countries supply funding and technology.

Critics of the convention have described the division as unfair, arguing that both developing and developed countries need to reduce their emission, unilaterally. 

The issue of getting a second commitment period for the Kyoto protocol which is currently the only legally binding system in place has been on the front burner ahead of the Durban conference. 

While Developing countries look forward to the developed countries agreeing to a second commitment period, some developed countries including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Canada, and led by the United States, are trying to deregulate the climate regime by introducing the Pledge and Review system.

Under the pledge and review, which is a drastic departure from the current system, countries’ climate pollution reduction targets are set individually with no reference to what science requires or what other countries are doing.  Those in support of a second commitment period say the pledge and review represents dangerous backtracking on promises made and will lead to atmospheric anarchy.

The European Union on its part is advocating that the world fast tracks negotiations for a single, legally binding treaty on cutting emissions – which translates to no discussion on a legal instrument.

From Bonn to Panama, New York to Cannes, stakeholders have been discussing and negotiating to ensure their positions are upheld.
The African Group says it is looking forward to an outcome that will strengthen the Convention and secure subsequent commitment periods for developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol, as well as comparable efforts by the US.
Meanwhile, a new UN report states that man-made change has boosted the frequency or intensity of heat waves, wildfires, floods and cyclones and that disasters are likely to multiply in the future.

According to the report, the world is falling behind in the fight against global warming. The UN has also in its 22nd annual Human Development Report warned that unless countries take action against climate change and implement sustainable solutions, progress in human development will be in serious jeopardy.

In 2010, record temperatures fuelled devastating forest fires across Siberia, while Pakistan and India reeled from unprecedented flooding. This year, the United States has suffered a record number of billion dollar disasters from flooding in the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, Hurricane Irene and drought in Texas. China is still suffering from lack of water, while Central America and Thailand count their dead from recent flooding, and Somalia counts the cost of famine and drought in the country.

Following these developments, expectations about Durban are currently mixed. But if the world must deal with Climate Change issues and not play politics with it, all parties must be flexible in their negotiations, as they review proposals put forward by different governments, non-governmental organizations and academics aimed at designing a Climate regime to deliver outcomes that will keep the world safe, especially the most vulnerable.

Only then can the COP17 climate change talks in Durban be said to have been successful.

 

BROADCAST ON NOVEMBER 28, 2011

 

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