ICW Daily from Bonn - Day 2

The Bonn Train moves forward at last

In today’s LCA meeting on technology the Facilitator agreed to consolidate the Technology text as far as possible, and have something ready for discussion by Thursday, 9 am. This move came from Parties themselves - welcome progress at last! The Finance group also tabled a request for the same.

Australia targets ‘Bland News’

There’s nothing new in this, but Australia updated its joint submission of national targets relating to possible quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives (QELROs) – in plain English, that means its 2020 target – a weak 5 percent reduction below 2000 levels. Note that 1990 is the base year for most part, but countries are taking the liberty to decide their own base years (2000, 2005).

Lord of the Loop: NZ’s ‘conditional’ future

Oxfam and several other organizations in New Zealand have shamed the target put forward by the NZ Government, saying that this decision shows a serious lack of ambition. And New Zealand in a previous intervention at the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS, had the pluck to tell countries like Fiji and Samoa to cut down their emissions!

In today’s session, Micronesia and Philippines pressed NZ for bigger targets, and finally asked the question on everyone’s lips: If you mention a 2 degree C limit, how will a 10-20% reduction help meet that target?
                                    
Key Issues of the Day

Stop and Go! A note before you proceed: Non Governmental Organisations and civil society are only allowed to sit in as observers in ‘open’ sessions. Most meaty and weighty discussions take place in ‘closed’ sessions and therefore, one really has no way of knowing how discussions progress behind closed doors.

Day 2 at Bonn: Parties met on three areas of the Bali Action Plan - Technology Transfer and Capacity Building (for the second time), enhanced action on Mitigation (first time), and enhanced action on Finance (also second time). In parallel to these was the AWG-KP group to discuss what the emission reduction targets of Annex I targets should be under the Kyoto Protocol, the potential consequences and LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry).

Parallel groups met under the AWG-LCA to start whittling down the text, but overall (for the Bali Action Plan as a whole), there seems to be a lack of a consensus as to what text should be in, and what should be out.

This lack of a strong mandate to consolidate text, will mean that external multilateral forums such as the MEF or the G20 can potentially gain importance. This brings up the issue that poor and marginalized developing countries can loose out a chance to have a voice.

Down to the details: Across all LCA groups, it appeared that the G77 and China put forth a formidable front, and were in some sense attempting to ‘stall’ or block the negotiations. The group clearly wanted their text in the counting, and was not in the least enthused about looking into text that was outside ‘agreed Protocols and Action Plans’. 

In the enhanced action on Mitigation group, Parties refrained from getting down to business.  G77 and China on the one hand garnered favour from the developed countries, while Anenx I countries lay low, seeking the ‘intestices’ to make headway.

Barbados was a lone voice, with support from Gabon: Barbados saying 350 ppm and 1.5 degrees C temperature rise were the values that needed to be inserted into the mitigation text, and Gabon saying that COP 15 should NOT be a failure, but that the growing lack of trust between countries did not bode well.

The highlight of this session was a heated barrage of words between India and the United States. But the Chair suggested that India’s proposal to ‘check and delete’ common text through multi and bi-lateral discussion be taken up with immediate effect.

 If Mitigation made little progress, Technology transfer and Capacity Building had a more heartening outcome, with the Facilitator being directed by parties to actually whittle down the text. The group on Finance also suggested that the Facilitator move things in the same direction for the Finance section. With due consideration, this was the second meeting of the Technology and Finance groups, and the first for the Mitigation group.

As for the working groups on the KP on Annex I targets, developed countries appeared to be stalling the discussions, not putting down hard targets – that it seems, may only realistically happen by Copenhagen.

Focus on GOI

A ten-strong GOI delegation is here in Bonn, and delegates divide up between the many parallel sessions. Some delegations suggest that parallel sessions be reduced since they do not have the capacity to attend all.

India had points to make only at the enhanced action on mitigation session. Mr Shekhar Dasgupta spoke on behalf of the Indian delegation, and put down three possible methods to move forward on consolidating the text.

a)    Compare and eliminate similar text – through multilateral and bilateral discussions with immediate effect
b)    Remove text that is not in accordance with the Bali Action Plan and the Kyoto Protocol
c)    Remove texts from legal submissions (meant to be checked at Copenhagen also), to avoid duplication

The Chair indicated that the first suggestion would be more that welcome, and agreed to proceed in this direction in the coming meetings.

The United States had some strong reservations about the suggestions to work only with the BAP and KP. This led to some point of dissent between the two parties, with India re-defending its statements towards the end of the session rather strongly.

The Chair noted that there was ‘strong will for progress but there remained ‘some tough issues and differences of opinion’.

Views on India

The representative of a network that did not want to be named said the Indian side was ‘doing well for themselves’ at the discussions. Another Non-Governmental Organisation Representative who did not wish to be named said that in negotiations, there needs to be some amount of ‘give and take’. The Indian stand on negotiations needs to change with the changing times – it has stayed the same for the past 15 years.