COP 15 Daily Summary

The second week of the talks was marked by several frictions between the parties, while outside the Bella Centre hundreds of delegates and observers waited for many hours in cold weather to get their access tags. The G77, led by African nations walked out of the Convention talks, suspending them for most of the rest of the day. In response, developed countries asked to suspend the Protocol track as well, saying that the two need to proceed together. Though the formal talks were stalled, and only resumed in the evening, informal consultations took place throughout the day.

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Several informal ministerial consultations were launched late on Monday to provide some political guidance to negotiations, which continue to suffer from roadblocks surrounding agreement on finance, its governance, adaptation and other concerns formulated at a pre-COP meeting by some representatives. These consultations will be held in parallel to negotiations and will provide an informal summary to be fed back to plenaries the following day (Tuesday) so this feedback may be integrated into existing negotiating sessions. Whilst there was some reluctance from developing countries who are struggling to manage the complexities of the ever-expanding parallel negotiations with their smaller delegations, feedback in the larger plenaries is expected to accelerate progress on some of the more complex negotiating issues.

ADAPTATION

The second week of the Copenhagen conference began with a proposal from Mexico and Norway to establish a new Green Fund that would finance mitigation and adaptation actions of the developing countries. The Green Fund would receive financial resources through two tracks. Under one track a determined amount of emission allowances would be auctioned off with all the proceeds going to the Green Fund. Under the second track developed countries would contribute public resources to the Green Fund according to the amount of their emissions, their GDP and the size of their population. The most vulnerable countries, the least developed countries and the small island states will be given priority in funding for adaptation. The Green Fund would be accountable directly to the COP and the Green Fund Board would have equal presentation of developing and developed countries.

Both Mexico’s President Calderon and the Norway’s Prime Minister Stoltenberg believe that the funds raised and proposed so far are inadequate for the adaptation needs of the developing world. However, the amount they hope to raise through this two track system is not higher than the amounts previously proposed by UK’s Prime Minister Brown at the Meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of States or proposed at the summit of the EU leaders. Calderon and Stoltenberg have proposed USD10 billion per year up to 2013 and USD30-40 billion per year by 2020 for the Green Fund. However, they believe that their proposal will enhance predictability and certainty of finances and has the potential for substantially increasing the amount of predictable funds.

Whether the developing countries will agree to this low amount for short-term financing is a different question. The statements by the lead negotiators from different developing countries on the inadequacy of the proposed USD10 billion per year for short-term adaptation actions continue this week.

REDD+

Forests took somewhat of a backseat in negotiations on Monday to fundamental issues of emissions targets, finance, and grim talks of what will need to be left for further talks at COP16 in Mexico City. A draft decision by SBSTA released on Friday evening presented the most recent REDD+ methodology, with vague considerations to indigenous peoples, biodiversity, and the drivers of deforestation and degradation, and no mention of specific targets–in terms of emissions reductions or deforestation.

However, interest in forests and REDD+ remains high, with nearly all REDD-themed side events full to capacity, and Forest Day 3 attracting roughly 1600 participants. The focus on much of this interest is on implementation–from monitoring, reporting and verifying of avoided deforestation and emissions reductions (MRV), to the scaling-down of implementation from the global deal to local applications, to the equitable distribution of benefits and burdens. As one presenter in a “Financing REDD” session on Forest Day 3 said to a sparsely-populated room, “everyone is interested in how REDD+ money will be distributed, but we need to think about where it comes from too.” These larger-scale questions, where it comes from, and how much it will contribute to its core objective of reducing emissions, hinge upon settling the larger issues that dominated Monday’s discussions and will hopefully resolved over the next few days.

JI/CDM

As of day 8 of the conference, negotiations are indicating that during the next few years, the CDM will be subject to significant reforms. Such reforms may include measures which simplify local governments’ access to financing under the mechanism, by policies such as allowing projects to be grouped in categories, instead of having to apply for funding individually. Such a reform would reduce developers’ administrative costs. Developers have been arguing that it can take up to a year to gain approval for a project.

Separate from the actual negotiations, the International Network for Sustainable Energy (INFORSE) and Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF) held an exhibit entitled  “200 NGOs in Action in Asia and Africa for Sustainable Energy, Proposing Simplified CDM”. Here, groups from Nepal, India, Senegal, Uganda, South Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, proposed simplifying CDM in order to permit small scale projects, which would allow NGOs to play a greater role in the CDM process.

Entities such as the Danish Climate Change Program and the WWF estimate that of the USD 400 billion that is needed each year for climate change mitigation and technology transfer in the developing world, only about USD 8 billion is distributed annually under the CDM. Additionally, these groups stress that out of the 1500 CDM projects throughout the developing world, only a few dozen are in Africa.

According to the International Energy Agency, only 40 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africans are connected to the electricity grid. Therefore, organizations such as the Danish Climate Change Program and the WWF stress a greater allocation of CDM projects to Africa. Environmentalists have been continuing to argue that the CDM has not benefited many regions, and that credits have been concentrated in China, which many argue has the least need for financing under the CDM.

FINANCE

Discussions are finally touching core issues such as sources, but the main source of debate so far still lies in the governance structure of a potential new fund and the functioning of an overarching body. Norway and Mexico have merged their proposals and push for the creation of a Green Fund for financing climate actions in developing countries, using both public and private financing. Discussions are clearly focusing on long term finance, since this weekend. Indeed, after the EU’s fast start pledge was revealed on Friday, many developing countries, in particular China, have accused developed countries are focusing on short term solutions, neglecting long term commitments. This sensitive issue has been lifted up out of the working groups by the COP President and is currently discussed in a informal consultation under the chairmanship of Minister Ed Miliband (UK) and Minister Sherry Ayittey (Ghana).

MITIGATION

Mitigation issues, along with finance, are one of the most crunchy issues in the negotiations. That is why the COP President has decided to organised informal consultations on a large number of mitigation themes, such as developed countries’ targets under the KP, developing countries mitigation efforts and response measures. Consultations started on Monday.

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

China indicated that it had abandoned its demand for climate funding from developed countries. This is a big concession, from a major country, and could lead to some progress in the talks that so far have yet to make major progress on the big issues.

Najib Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, told Reuters that Malaysia is prepared to offer a commitment, not just make demands to the developed world. Though it has relatively low emission levels per capita – 7.2 tonnes in 2006, according to UN figures – Razak is going to “commit Malaysia to very credible cuts which means we have to spend, which we will do,”

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

The White House has announced on Monday that the US and other industrialised countries are launching a new programme which will spend 350 million USD over five years to supply developing nations with clean energy technology. This includes 85 million USD from the US. The plan is called the Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative and contains 4 main components – Solar and LED Energy Access Program; Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment Program; Clean Energy Information Platform; Scaling-up the Renewable Energy Program. While helpful, especially in poor regions, where such a programme can make a substantial difference, this amount of funding is much bellow what developing nations are demanding for addressing different issues, and is therefore not likely to have any affect on the talks.

Other Daily Updates

• Day 1: 7 Dec 2009
• Day 2: 8 Dec 2009
• Day 3: 9 Dec 2009
• Day 4: 10 Dec 2009
• Day 5: 11 Dec 2009
• Day 6-7: 12-13 Dec 2009
• Day 9: 15 Dec 2009
• Day 10: 16 Dec 2009
• Day 11: 17 Dec 2009

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