Further engagement of developing countries, in particular major emitters;
The requirement that developing countries get incentives to limit their
emissions and assistance to adapt to the impacts of climate change, so as
to safeguard socio-economic development and poverty eradication; and
Full flexibility in the carbon market to ensure the most cost-effective
implementation and to mobilize the resources needed to provide
incentives to developing countries.
It is time to change the dynamics of the UNFCCC process and to turn
December's Conference of the Parties in Bali into the beginning of a new
phase in the politics of climate change. The debate on whether or not to
embark on new negotiations needs to be replaced by a substantial discussion
on how Parties envisage the Convention in the longer term.
The first and most important task is to bring together the discussions that
will shape a future climate regime. These include, primarily, negotiations on
further commitments for industrialized countries (currently the responsibility
of an ad hoc working group under the Kyoto Protocol) and a broader
discussion on long-term cooperative action to address climate change,
taking place in the form of a dialogue under the UNFCCC. This non-binding
and open dialogue has enabled Parties to take a broader look at the
Convention by considering four thematic areas: advancing development
goals in a sustainable way; addressing action on adaptation; realizing
the full potential of technologies; and realising the full potential of
market-based opportunities.
This broader perspective has provided the opportunity for countries to
identify the essential building blocks for a future regime. Technology, for
example, lies at the core of any response to climate change as it provides
the physical means to address it. The Convention could, for example,
strengthen its activities on technology deployment and transfer, and look
into establishing agreements and partnerships for technology research and
development. Then, adaptation must be seen as a priority since it is not
feasible entirely to prevent the impacts of climate change. It is, therefore,
essential to generate mechanisms to support and strengthen the processes
of assessment of vulnerability and adaptation -- and of mainstreaming
adaptation into development planning. Valuable knowledge for this task
has been already produced under the Nairobi Work Programme on Impacts,
Vulnerability and Adaptation. Finally, the implementation of the Convention
relies upon sustainable, sufficient and predictable financial resources.
Parties will embark on a comprehensive assessment of financial flows
required to address all aspects of climate change, with an aim of making such
resources available.
What happens during 2007 at the political level is crucial for the future.
As time passes, additional initiatives to address specific aspects of global
warming are likely to join those in place. It is the international community's
responsibility to lead these initiatives into common action and to avoid their
fragmentation. Governments ought to devote substantial efforts to move
international politics towards this end. The politics of climate change must
heat up if the world's ice is to remain frozen.
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The warming of the earth's climate system is unequivocal. According to the
Fourth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), most of the observed increase in global averaged temperatures
since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in
anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations. Rising temperatures in the
Arctic have caused a decline of 2.7 percent of sea ice since 1978. Elsewhere,
mountain glaciers and snow cover are retreating. A third of the glacier surface
in Bolivia and Peru, for example, has disappeared since the seventies. Climate
change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time: its effects
range from agricultural impacts and endangered water and food security to
sea-level rise and the spread of vector-borne diseases.
While the ice continues to melt, the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is facing significant difficulties on agreeing
on what needs to be done once the first commitment period of the Kyoto
Protocol expires after 2012. International discussions to build a long-term
climate regime are constrained by a fundamental disagreement on how to
move forward. It is difficult to generalize the position of different groups of
Parties, as national circumstances relating to global warming vary widely. In
essence, developing countries suffer most of the negative climate-related
impacts but fear that emission limitations could compromise their economic
development. On the other hand, industrialized countries, driven by
competitiveness concerns, are reluctant to agree to taking on new emission
reduction commitments without any move from developing ones.
Climate change is a global problem and, as such, needs a global response
which embraces the interests and needs of all countries. In its absence,
individual actions face the risk of fragmentation and limited effectiveness.
The international community needs a common and long-term agreement to
address climate change, and a consensus on the direction that such a framework
should take. The need for such a multilateral response is the main reason why
the climate change debate within the United Nations must be revived.
More than ten years of diplomacy have delivered a mature process and have
put in place the carbon market, which is one of the most powerful tools for
international environmental policy. Negotiations on a future climate regime
need to be reinvigorated during 2007, with a view to avoiding any gaps in
the action to combat climate change, and in order to provide the carbon
market with political certainty, The international community should seek
the involvement of economic and financial decision makers, since emerging
concerns with energy security and economic growth are closely linked to
actions to combat global warming. To build confidence, Parties could set
boundaries of their deliberations by agreeing on important elements of
consensus in the form of principles. These could include:
The need for a long-term global response in line with the latest scientific
findings and compatible with private sector long-term investment
planning strategies;
The importance of industrialized countries continuing to take the lead by
substantially reducing their emissions, given their historic responsibility
and their economic power and capabilities;
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new
dynamics
by Yvo de Boer
OUR PLANET MAGAZINE
CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE CRYOSPHERE
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