CLIMATE CHANGE CONVENTION OFFICIAL EXPRESSES CONCERN AT SLOW PROGRESS IN EFFORTS TO FINALIZE NEW AGREEMENT
Press Release
ENV/DEV/444
CLIMATE CHANGE CONVENTION OFFICIAL EXPRESSES CONCERN AT SLOW PROGRESS IN EFFORTS TO FINALIZE NEW AGREEMENT
19970811 Executive Secretary Notes That Only Short Time Remains to Build Political Will Needed to Produce Results at Kyoto Meeting in December(Reissued as received.)
GENEVA, 8 August (UNEP) -- The seventh round of talks on new commitments by developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions after the year 2000 concluded in Boon yesterday.
Negotiators worked to refine and streamline the draft text of a new agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Many sections of the text were revised, while others were merged and simplified. The draft remains lengthy, however, and many sections still include a variety of negotiating positions. Only one negotiating session remains before government ministers must finalize the agreement in Kyoto, Japan, this December.
"We are leaving Bonn today with the various options fully articulated and clarified for all to see and understand", said Ambassador Raul Estrada- Oyuela of Argentina, the Chairman of the ad hoc group on the Berlin Mandate. "When we come back for our final session in October, governments will be well positioned to choose from among them."
Michael Zammit Cutajar, the Executive Secretary of the Convention, said, "We should all be concerned about the slow progress at this meeting. There is only a short time remaining to build the necessary political will for producing an effective agreement in Kyoto."
Delegates did not focus on the central question of what the precise targets and timetables for emissions reductions should be. Instead, Chairman Estrada-Oyuela proposed that the meeting work in closed sessions of non-groups to define the framework that will determine how the still-to-be-agreed targets will be implemented.
The non-group on policies and measures focused, in particular, on whether there should be a common set of legally binding policies and measures
for all developed countries, or whether countries should have the flexibility to achieve targets by adopting the policies most appropriate to their domestic circumstances.
The non-group on quantified emissions limitation and reduction objectives (that is, targets and timetables) addressed issues such as compliance measures, possible impacts on developing countries, and flexibility (i.e. emissions trading, multi-year budgets, banking and borrowing, and activities implemented jointly).
The non-group on article 4.1 explored how to advance implementation of existing commitments by all governments. The non-group on institutions and mechanisms discussed matters such as conditions for the agreement's entry into force and its relationship to other agreements.
In addition to the ad hoc group on the Berlin Mandate, three other subsidiary bodies also met during the past two weeks. The division of labour among those bodies was clarified, and the process of finalizing decisions and forwarding them to the Conference of the Parties for adoption in December was begun.
The Subsidiary Body for Implementation considered national communications, technology transfer, and activities implemented jointly. It also approved a Convention core budget of $18.7 million for the 1998-1999 biennium and various practical arrangements for the December conference, as well as for the next conference (to be held in November 1998). The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice examined various methodological and other issues. The ad hoc group on article 13 advanced work on measures for helping governments overcome difficulties in meeting their commitments.
The meetings were attended by more than 600 delegates from 145 countries, together with some 500 observers. The next subsidiary body sessions are scheduled for 20-31 October at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn. The Kyoto Conference will finalize the new agreement from 1-10 December.
Under the Convention, developed countries have agreed to take measures aimed at returning their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. At the first session of the treaty's conference of the parties, in 1995 in Berlin, the international community recognized that stronger measures were needed to minimize the risk of climate change. The ad hoc group on the Berlin Mandate was established to negotiate new developed-country commitments for the post-2000 period. That group is also tasked with advancing the implementation of existing commitments by both developed and developing countries.
The Climate Change Convention was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. It entered into force on 21 March 1994 and has been ratified by close to 170 countries. The treaty negotiations were
- 3 - Press Release ENV/DEV/444 11 August 1997
inspired in large part by the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international network of thousands of scientists and other experts sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
According to the IPCC, current trends in greenhouse gas emissions are likely to cause the average global temperature to increase by 1-3.5 degrees Celsius over the next 100 years. As a result, sea levels are expected to rise by 15 to 95 centimetres and climate zones to shift towards the poles by 150 to 550 kilometres in mid-latitudes. Forests, deserts, rangelands and other unmanaged ecosystems would face new climatic stresses, as would human societies, health, and infrastructure.
* *** *
NOTE:For more information, contact Michael Williams, UNEP Information Unit for Conventions, Geneva at (+41-22) 979 9242/44, fax (+41-22) 797 3464, e-mail: mwilliams@unep.ch. Official documents and other materials are available in English on the Internet at http://www.unfccc.de.