Article by Guest Contributor: Joelle Westlund With the closing of the 16th Conference of Parties convention, participants have shelved their decision making until the COP17 in South Africa. Developing countries have left the conferences with reasonable promised support from developed countries and the additional challenge of resisting Japan’s stance on future agreements. Developing countries did [...]

Article by Guest Contributor: Veronika Shirokova COP16 saw a modest advancement in negotiations on Technology Transfer, guided by a framework established during an earlier meeting in New Delhi. Participants agreed upon the preliminary structure of a Technology Mechanism, creating a Technology Executive Committee (TEC) and a Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN). The TEC will [...]

Article by Guest Contributor: Joelle Westlund As the COP16 comes to a final close, developing countries have yet to see extended commitments towards the Kyoto Protocol. Japan has reiterated its position on the future of Kyoto, arguing that China, India and the United States must fulfill their obligations to emission reductions through the signing of [...]

Article by Guest Contributor: Natalie Antonowicz During the second week of negotiations at Cancun, expectations for progress on the United Nations’ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program declined. Delegates remained divided about rules on safeguards and finance, as well as the scope of REDD. Overall, however, the second week of the Cancun [...]

Article by Guest Contributor: Natalie Antonowicz During the second week of negotiations at the Cancun Conference, delegates made progress regarding the designation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects as applicable for funding under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Under the CDM, developed countries may gain emissions reduction credit by undertaking environmentally sound projects in [...]

Article by Guest Contributor: Natalie Antonowicz During the second week of the Cancun Conference, developing countries continued to express their unique vulnerability to climate change, and push for increased involvement and assistance from developed countries. Some progress was indeed made on this issue, but concerns remain about the ability of vulnerable states to address climate [...]

Article by Guest Contributor: Joelle Westlund A week into the climate talks in Cancun, developing countries seem to be witnessing a regression in commitments to the mitigation of climate change. The contention over the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol has now increased with Japan’s new stance. On December 3, 2010, Japan joined Canada, Russia, and the [...]

Article by: Krishna Krishnamurthy After failing to reach a detailed agreement in Copenhagen (COP-15), the Parties of the Conference nevertheless agreed to advance negotiations on a post-2012 regime in Cancun (COP-16). Among the achievements in COP-15 is the so-called Copenhagen Accord which, apart from recommending a limit in the rise of global average temperatures to [...]

Article by: Ruth Brandt The first week of the COP16 has come and gone, with barely a mention of REDD+ in the official negotiations. Some delegates attribute this to the fact that the REDD+ negotiating text is one of the more advanced ones, and that negotiators either want to bring other texts to a comparable [...]

By Guest Contributor: Natalie Antonowicz During the first week of the Cancun Conference, several main and side events were held regarding the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation (CDM/JI). Attendees included not only the parties to the COP, but also observer organizations, and other intergovernmental organizations. The majority of these events focused on the future [...]