/ 17 April 2009

Few meaty advances at Bonn climate-change talks

At the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) talks held in Bonn recently 192 countries met to discuss further commitments under the Kyoto Protocol and long-term cooperative action to address climate change.

There were hopes that developed countries would agree at least on aggregate targets for reducing carbon emissions, but these hopes were dashed, perhaps not unexpectedly, leaving many participants and observers feeling frustrated.

It’s hard to pin down any concrete progress made during the negotiating session.

Speaking to the Mail & Guardian Online, Judy Beaumont, chief policy advisor: Environment & Sustainable Development Cooperation at the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and a member of the South African delegation which attended the talks, said that while there was ”limited progress” during the Bonn sessions, there was also a shift from ”discussion and exploratory mode” to ”negotiating mode”.

On the final day of the negotiations, Harald Dovland — chairperson of the group discussing amendments to the Kyoto Protocol — said he did not have any ”tabloid conclusions” that would make headlines but that there were ”lively months ahead”.

Michael Zammit Cutajar, who chairs the group discussing long-term cooperative actions, said the session had yielded ”positive discussions” about cooperation in technology research and development, and an ”interesting expression of views” on the importance of action on forestry issues. Indeed, neither of these makes a good headline.

For Dovland and Cutajar, the main task now is to prepare negotiating texts for the next session, dubbed Bonn 2, which takes place in June. ”If this process were a marathon, I would say that the runners are gathering their stamina for the final sprint,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC.

Change in attitude
If there was anything to write home about from Bonn, it is the welcome change in attitude by the negotiating parties. Following the last session in Poznan, Poland, in which parties were described as ”defeated” and ”fractious”, this new spirit of engagement was welcome.

Some of this was undoubtedly brought on by the United States’ re-engagement in the climate change discussions, seen as a new start for the country after the exit of the Bush administration, which anticipated a peak in emissions only in 2025.

In contrast to the country’s outing in Bali 18 months ago, when its chief negotiator was booed by other delegates, the first address by the Obama administration’s special envoy for climate change in Bonn was met with applause.

And perhaps the parties are also starting to hear the ticking of the clock. Only three meetings were planned in the run-up to Copenhagen this year, providing parties with a total of six weeks negotiating time. By the end of the Bonn session, the convention had agreed to hold two additional meetings before then.

De Boer said South Africa — along with India, China. Mexico and Brazil — was as one of the developing countries noted as taking an active approach to formulating climate change strategies, despite the lack of leadership from industrialised countries. Beaumont says this is a reference to the research work South Africa has done on long-term mitigation scenarios for climate change.

South Africa maintained a high profile at the talks and took an active role in the negotiations. In addition, the Africa Group requested that South Africa coordinate its discussions on the Kyoto Protocol and long-term cooperative actions.

”It’s an indication of confidence in our ability to coordinate the group and present the group’s position,” added Beaumont.