News | Climate Change

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A FRESH round of negotiations kicked off Monday in another attempt to get global agreement on a treaty to meet climate change with representatives of 182 United Nations member-states in attendance at the meeting in Bonn, Germany.

The talks are designed to pick up on issues that were not resolved in December in Copenhagen, and to pave the way for signature of a final draft this December in Cancun, Mexico.
“Climate negotiations over the next two weeks will be on track if they keep focused on a common way forward toward a concrete and realistic goal in Cancun. There is a growing consensus on what the goal for Cancun can be—namely, a full, operational architecture to implement effective, collective climate action,” said Yvo de Boer, the resigned executive secretary of the UN Climate Change Secretariat.
“Key to the success of talks in Bonn will be a decision on what text negotiators use as a basis for discussions, and what institutions must be established to enforce a treaty,” added de Boer.
Among the key issues that remain are the emission-reduction target; rules to protect forests and endangered species; financing to help poor countries adapt to the changing climate; a global carbon-trading system; and the establishment of institutions to govern finances and enforce treaty obligations.
De Boer also called on industrialized countries to fulfill the financial pledge they made in Copenhagen. These countries promised to deploy $30 billion from now to 2012 in short-term finance to kick-start climate action in developing countries.
Saleemul Huq, a senior fellow of the Climate Change Group of the Britain-based International Institute for Environment and Development, is not optimistic of the results of the talks, believing there is little hope of success this year to agree on a legally binding climate treaty.
“There will be no legally binding agreement unless the US agrees,” said Huq. “There is little possibility for the legislation getting passed before Cancun. And if the US does not agree, other countries are very unlikely to sign a legal treaty.”
The United States finds itself in an unenviable position at the climate-change talks. Huq said it has not yet achieved a true domestic consensus on the degree to which it is willing to obligate itself internationally.
Meanwhile, Oxfam International is calling on negotiators in Bonn to deliver and report openly on climate cash in 2010, saying that a clear framework for raising and doubling the $100-billion pledge in public money must be agreed by the Mexico summit in December this year.
"Rich nations failed to deliver in Copenhagen. Now they can inject a much-needed dose of trust back into the negotiations,” said Kalayaan Pulido-Constantino, Oxfam Philippines spokesman. “Showing they are willing to put their money where their mouth is will go some way to healing the deep rifts [uncovered] at last year’s climate summit, as well as helping to alleviate the plight of those living on the front line of climate change.”