Analysis: Draft agreement represents hard work for COP21
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The 195 countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held last week the last working meeting prior to COP21. The meeting, which took place in Bonn, Germany, has resulted in the document proposed by the session's co-chairs as the basis for work, growing from 20 to 55 pages. The final draft of the agreement, officially published on Friday, October 23, presents options that will be a complex work during the COP21, which will take place from November 30 to December 11 in Paris, France.
As Efe Verde explains, the disagreements in Bonn centered mainly on the issues of ambition and financing, and practically no points have been finalized, because the text in question presents 1,490 parentheses (compared to 231 in the initial working document) in which almost all options are still being considered. However, as indicated by the French ambassador to the negotiations, Laurence Tubiana, the negotiators have a much more concise negotiating basis for COP21 than at the COP in Copenhagen, where the basic text contained almost 300 pages, and which ended up being a failure.
For more clarity on the latest meeting and the short road to Paris, ConexiónCOP spoke with climate change specialists, who explained that more understanding will be needed at COP21. Enrique Maurtua, of the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN) and the Climate Action Network, explained that Bonn produced a stronger draft agreement, compared to the text at the beginning of the week, and left the loose options in the co-chairs' document reduced. However, he explained that much work still needs to be done, for which high-level meetings prior to COP21, such as the Pre-COP and the G20, will be important to make progress on what is needed: equity, fairness and ambition.
“As a result, countries are more comfortable with the text and were able to negotiate in greater detail, with progress on issues such as transparency, finance and adaptation. Between now and Paris, ambition still needs to be improved, and the agreement must clearly establish how the nationally determined contributions will be improved, and how those most in need and most affected by climate change will be taken care of; to this end, the issue of damages and losses must be observed,” said Maurtua.
The most vulnerable to climate change
One of the regions on the planet most affected by climate change is Central America. Its population is highly vulnerable to climate variations and in this regard, Tania Guillén of the Humboldt Center and CAN-LA, said that in Bonn the Central American countries added their voice to request the inclusion of Central America as a group of countries highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The specialist also indicated that Latin America (with the exception of Mexico) was negotiating with the G77 + China - a negotiating group representing 77 developing countries plus China - on the issues of adaptation and loss and damage.
“As progress for the region, it should be mentioned that the text presents the different approaches, contrary to the document that had been presented by the co-chairs, which was unbalanced in the approaches. The news of Hurricane Patricia reaching Mexico highlights the urgency of climate action to mitigate climate change, but also to prepare communities for extreme events related to it. It should be noted that the G77 + China explicitly requested that observers witness the negotiations, but developed countries blocked the request and all sessions were behind closed doors,” said Guillén.
Hard work during COP21
When the negotiations began in Bonn, there was an extremely concise working document, which, according to Mariana Panuncio, Director of Climate Change in Latin America for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), generated a lot of controversy because it was so short and left out several of the countries' options.
“The governments worked in Bonn in a swift and efficient manner to produce a draft that reflects the different positions that are currently on the table and that need to be negotiated in order to have a transformative, ambitious and equitable agreement for all,” said Panuncio.
Panuncio also explained that there are several issues that have not yet been resolved, among which are: that the global agreement should set ambitious goals, presenting on the one hand a mitigation goal that puts on the table a proposal to reduce emissions, and on the other hand a global adaptation goal that commits all countries to face climate change. He also indicated that contributions are important but not sufficient, and therefore a lasting agreement with greater cooperation is needed. Finally, he stressed that clarity is needed on the loss and damage mechanism and financing that will enable the implementation of low-carbon and climate change-resilient economies.
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