Day 1: Expectations for Barcelona

 

UNFCCC negotiations convene today (2 November) for the final five days' negotiations before the Copenhagen climate conference begins on December 7 in the Danish capital. The UK is going all out over the remaining few weeks in order to get an ambitious, fair and effective deal at Copenhagen.

 

The resuming talks in Barcelona are the ninth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and the seventh session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA). They are a direct continuation of the Bangkok talks held in September/October.

 

What's being discussed?

 

Throughout the five negotiating days, the AWG-LCA 7 is expected to continue focusing on the key elements of the Bali Action Plan through six contact groups on: adaptation, capacity building, finance, mitigation, shared vision, and technology. The aim is further consolidation of text on these areas. At some point - if not now, then early in the Copenhagen weeks - the text of these six contact groups will need to be brought into one coherent text.

 

The AWG-KP 9 is expected to work through four contact groups focusing on: Annex I parties' emission reductions in the post-2012 period; other issues, including the flexibility mechanisms and land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF); potential consequences; and legal matters. In previous negotiation rounds, the lack of US involvement in the group’s work meant progress was slow.

 

With attention firmly focused on Copenhagen, the UNFCCC negotiating process has, this year, included:

 

• Bonn 29 March – 8 April: The first negotiating session in the critical Copenhagen year. Working Groups  (AWG-LCA and AWG-KP) have spent 2008 discussing key policy areas. This is the first UNFCCC conference following agreement in Poznan (COP 14) to move to 'full negotiation mode'. Focus included gaining a better sense of both where we already have a solid foundation for agreement, but also where input is still lacking for a workable agreed outcome in Copenhagen.
• Bonn 1 – 12 June: Negotiating text for Copenhagen is tabled for the first time. The text is 'live text' and begins at 56 pages, ending two weeks' later at 200 pages.
• Bonn 10 – 14 August (informal):  An informal consultation of the two working groups (AWG-KP and AWG-LCA). Negotiators focus on getting the negotiating text and get it to a manageable size. Going into this negotiations round in Bonn, all of the text is square bracketed, meaning nothing is agreed and everything  is still in play.
• Bangkok 28 September – 9 October: A direct continuation of the August session, negotiators continue to consolidate text and start finding areas of consensus.
• Barcelona 2 – 6 November: The last official negotiating round before Copenhagen, aiming for consolidation of text – currently 200 pages – into a manageable, workable size for Copenhagen.

 

Related links

Climate change glossary, BBC News