Your Daily Guide to COP18

Your daily guide to COP18

Day 4 – 29th November

www.climatejusticeonline.org

Time for Climate Justice is a global movement led by ACT Alliance members, working closely with the World Council of Churches and partners in the Global North and South. Take Action: create a message telling world leaders what your ideal world look like at www.climatejusticeonline.org or visit the Ideal World 2030 Exhibit

Negotiations update

Half-way through the first week of COP and nothing to show for it

During the third day of COP 18 in Doha and not much work in terms of negotiations has been done. The parties have continued to hold on to their strong positions, and others, like Poland seems to pull even farther behind in their pledges towards mitigation targets in the Kyoto Protocol track of negotiations. The EU, which is strategically positioned to provide leadership under Kyoto Protocol has dozed off into a non-committal mode.

The negotiations for the second period of Kyoto Protocol still suffers the malady of low ambition as well as disagreements on how to address the surplus hot air (otherwise known as the Assigned Amount Units) from the first to the second commitment periods. Developing countries, led by Africa and Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and other members of the G77 have held their stand on limiting the transfers of AAUs amidst the opposition from some Annex 1 parties. Carrying over AAUs will in essence reduce the amount of emissions that parties will actually cut.

Under the long term cooperative action (LCA) track of negotiations, the parties are still disagreeing on whether to proceed with the text that the LCA chair has proposed as a basis of negotiations. The chair’s text presents several options that parties could choose from, and includes some texts that were provided by parties. There is still challenges related to understanding of what it actually means to conclude or close the LCA track of negotiations, and particularly on what to do with unresolved issues within this track.

The ad hoc working group on Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) track of negotiation began its first roundtable focusing on the 2015 agreement. The amicable atmosphere within the roundtable was welcome and parties were eager to contribute their views on how to incentivize participation in the 2015 agreement. While parties still differ in their opinion about the architecture of the future climate agreement, there is a general feeling that open and honest discussions around the table would lead to a legitimate process that will ultimately give the world a fair and legally binding agreement in three years time.

Christian Aid and Aprodev side event summary (Reported by www.iisd.ca )

Closing the Equity Gap: Is Equity an Enabler or Barrier to Increasing Ambition?

Moderator Mohamed Adow, Christian Aid, asked panelists to address how equity and ambition can be integrated into the climate negotiations, to forge a fair and ambitious way forward.
Matthew Stilwell, Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD), said an equitable outcome should: limit global warming to safe levels; share the effort to address climate change fairly; and share the means of implementation equitably. He said the mitigation targets currently proposed by developed countries have a 40% chance of limiting warming to 2°C. Stilwell underscored developed countries have not kept their fast start finance promises. He said closing equity gaps is an essential deliverable for COP 18 and the climate process.
Harald Winkler, University of Cape Town, South Africa, said some countries would like to see the binary Annex I versus non-Annex I differentiation between countries disappear altogether, but in his view, it should become more nuanced and allow for graduation between the two Annexes, as allowed for in the UNFCCC.
Ambassador Andre Correa do Lago, Brazil, called on countries to use the next period of climate change action to stimulate cooperation, rather than justify inaction as they did in the first two phases. He also called for the climate negotiations to be linked to global discussions on poverty and sustainable consumption.
Doreen Stabinsky, College of the Atlantic, US, highlighted several studies indicating a decline in food production due to global warming, even with adaptation action. She called for enhanced mitigation and adaptation action, and for the negotiations to consider compensation and rehabilitation in cases where loss and damage is not prevented.
Edward Cameron, World Resources Institute (WRI), said there are multiple approaches to equity, all of which are legitimate and contestable. He said equity is not only about sharing failure, but also about sharing success, and called for a focus on what a future low-carbon, prosperous society could look like. He said history is relevant in the context of unkept promises such as those on finance, but quoting Winston Churchill said “if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we risk losing the future.”
Tim Gore, Oxfam, addressed the role of civil society

In the debate on equity. He called on civil society to conceptualize, clarify, coordinate, challenge and communicate. He agreed that using a single formula to define an equitable outcome may not be possible in the negotiations. Instead, he called for an “equity corridor,” where equity principles and objectives can be agreed.
In the discussion that followed, participants discussed: the importance of challenging assumptions that are not based on facts; intrastate equity and human rights; and equity and gender.

What you can do today

In Doha: You can also visit the Time for Climate Justice Campaign next to ACT Alliance booth to leave your message!