United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted in 1992 at the Rio Summit and provides a principles of equity for a multilateral agreement on addressing climate change including the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’. This reflects the rich, industrialised nations’ overwhelming contribution to historical emissions and therefore their responsibility in acting first to bring down their national emissions.
After a number of years of intense negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11th December 1997 and it the Protocol attempts to implement the principles of the Convention agreement. The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012 and governments are currently negotiating the second commitment period of the Protocol.
These talks are scheduled to be completed in December 2009.
Kyoto comes into force
The Kyoto Protocol came into force on 16th February 2005 after the Russian Parliament ratified the treaty in 2004. Kyoto commits industrialised countries who have ratified it to individual, legally binding targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to and average of 5% from 1990 levels in by 2012.
The US government remains the only industrialised country refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol despite being a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The US is the world's biggest polluter – despite having around only four per cent of the global population it is responsible for around 25 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions.
See Friends of the Earth US website for more information on domestic demands for George Bush to wake up to climate change.
UN climate talks every year – The 2007 Bali climate talks
The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the "supreme body" of the Convention, that is, its highest decision-making authority. It is an association of all the countries that are Parties to the Convention. The
COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise.
Since the Kyoto Protocol came into force in 2005, the annual COPs are also joined by Meeting of the Parties (MOP) of the Kyoto Protocol. The most recent talks were from the 3rd to the 14th December 2007 in Bali. In the leadup to the Bali talks Fara Sofa, then Deputy Director of Friends of the Earth Indonesia made the following statements on behalf of Indonesian civil society:
“Indonesia is an example of a country is already and will be a victim of climate change. We have been accused of damaging our forests that are important for the global community, yet Indonesia is being eyed as a long-term source of raw materials for the aggressive growth of the global industrial complex with no due regard to the recurrent catastrophes and threat to sustainability of our communities.
This is an issue of development and human rights, and that of humanitarian assistance, which goes beyond the charity notions of aid. Those countries with the greatest responsibility for historical and continuing greenhouse gas emissions who have sufficient wealth that defines their capacity to act.”
outcomes from Bali
Bali delivered two main decisions which are the timetable for the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I, and the Bali Action Plan which is a collection of many different aspects of UNFCCC obligations of mitigation, technology, finance and adaptation. Both are really short on content, and negotiating timetables for the next two years. This is expected to deliver a final decision on Copenhagen in 2009 which will become the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
The Bali Action Plan was the decision taken after a not-seen-before backlash against the USA in which the USA was forced to reverse their position and accept that they had obligations to reduce emissions and to take special consideration of the least developed countries and small island developing states who have comparative low emissions and are extremely vulnerable to climate change. This was widely reported as the 'Bali outcome' and by itself is a really weak decision because it has emissions’ reduction ranges of between 10-40% in a footnote.
The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments of Annex I - which does actually have emissions reduction ranges of 25-40% by 2020 for industrialised countries, a global peak and decline of emissions by 2015 and keeping temperature below 2 degrees. This is a Kyoto Protocol decision so doesn't apply to the USA - but theoretically provides an 'in' for the USA once there is a change of administration and predicted change of policy on Kyoto.
In Bali there was an unprecedented civil society presence that highlighted the impacts of climate change and proposed solutions. Friends of the Earth believes that a global climate justice movement is necessary to ensure that the responses to climate change are socially and environmentally justice, and that demand a high level of ambition, commitment and action from political leaders.
Alliance-building work in Bali culminated in the
establishment of a network called Climate Justice Now! - made up of
organisations such as Third World Network, Via Campesina and World
Rainforest Movement and Indigenous Peoples organisations.
http://www.foei.org/en/media/archive/2007/whats-missing-from-the-climate-talks-justice/
what's next?
The negotiations are continuing and the next COP will be held in Poznan, Poland in December 2008.
