http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page295025?oid=554907&sn=2009+Detail&pid=287226

 

JOHANNESBURG - The issue of a "second commitment" to the Kyoto Protocol (KP) is expected to feature highly on the COP17 climate conference in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal in December. The first commitment to the KP expires in December 2012, meaning governments will have to decide and finalise whether the first phase will be extended or whether a second phase will be adopted.

 

The United Nations says a new international framework will need to be negotiated and ratified in Durban that can deliver the emission reductions the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has  indicated are needed.

The KP is an international agreement linked to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It sets targets for 37 industrialised countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Ambassador at large for the COP17, Nozipho Diseko, told a workshop in Pretoria that Russia, Japan and Canada have indicated they will not support a second commitment. Canada is opposing it because of its oil extraction operations while Russia says it requires room to develop in an unconstrained way. Japan is concerned it will impact on its competitiveness in relation to its neighbour, China.

The KP was adopted in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan and came into force in February 2005. So far 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol, with the United States having signed it but not ratified it.

Other issues which are likely to be focused on at the Durban conference are building institutions that will support developing countries' response to climate change. At the annual gathering in Cancun, Mexico, in 2010, governments agreed these institutions must comprise a technology mechanism to promote clean energy and to help countries adapt to the change.

An adaptation framework was also needed to co-ordinate international co-operation to assist developing countries to protect themselves against the impact of climate change. The UN says it is important for the technology mechanism and the adaptation committee to be established in Durban so that they can begin work in 2012.

Another pressing issue is that of a Green Climate Fund. It is anticipated that the first phase of the fund will be negotiated in Durban. The fund hopes to generate $100m by 2010. It is proposed that the fund be governed by a board of 24 members - 12 from developing countries and the remainder from developed countries. It will be capitalised by developed nations.

It is also hoped the Durban gathering will see governments agreeing on how they will move forward together to achieve the goal to limit the rise in average global temperature to two degrees Celsius and how to review progress towards that goal between 2013 and 2015.