International Campaigns

United Nations Negotiations on Climate

From December 3-17, 2007, representatives of 188 nations met in Bali, Indonesia as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Their goal was to launch negotiations for a new international agreement on global warming, to take effect when the emission reduction commitments negotiated in Kyoto a decade ago expire in 2012.  The Bali climate conference was the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP-13) to the Framework Convention, and the 3rd Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. For more information on the UNFCCC go to:  www.unfccc.int.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro launched the international response to climate change with the signing of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, or "Framework Convention"), which the U.S. Senate ratified the same year.  The convention established a long-term objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere "at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic [human-caused] interference with the climate system." It also set a voluntary goal for developed countries of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2000—a goal that most did not meet.

The Kyoto Protocol
Recognizing that stronger action was needed, participating countries negotiated the Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention in 1997.  This accord set binding targets to reduce global GHG emissions 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2012.  More than 140 nations have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, although to date the U.S. has yet to do so. The protocol officially entered into force in February 2005, and participating countries (including all major industrialized nations except the U.S.) are implementing national plans that will enable them to meet their emission reduction targets during the first compliance period of 2008-2012.  Many developing nations, such as Brazil, India, and China, are also participating in the protocol through the Clean Development Mechanism, which allows wealthy nations to finance global warming pollution mitigation projects in developing countries through the purchase of emission reduction credits.

Bali Action Plan
The 3rd meeting of the Kyoto parties, and 13th meeting of the UN Framework Convention parties, was held in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007.  The Bali conference launched formal negotiations on a new international global warming agreement and set a firm deadline for its adoption of December 2009 when the 15th Conference of the Parties will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark.  One of the most important developments of the “Bali Action Plan” was that for the first time, developing nations expressed willingness to take on their own emissions reductions.  The United States, however, maintained its long-held rejection of binding numerical commitments for emissions reduction targets. 

The official “Bali Road Map” can be found at: unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_13/application/pdf/cp_bali_action.pdf

Read a summary of what happened in Bali

Key topics for the international negotiations:

• Emission Reductions
• Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (REDD)
  
• Adaptation
  
• Technology and Finance
  
• U.S. Participation

Emission Reductions

While the purpose of the next two years of negotiations is to determine what the new term of emissions reductions should be, much of the Bali talks were aimed at setting some guidelines for those negotiations, building largely on the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties (AWG on Article 3.9) under the Kyoto protocol had approved language in the meetings prior to the Bali conference which suggested that the next round of emission reductions by developed counties should be guided in the range of 25 - 40% below 1990 levels.  Early drafts of the decision also suggested that countries agree that global emissions should peak in 10 - 15 years and decline to "well below half" of 2000 levels by 2020.  The U.S. took the position that there should be no numerical guidelines in the opening negotiating text, fearing this context would "prejudice" the negotiations.  The final compromise relegated any numerical targets to a footnote reference in the IPCC reduction scenarios in its Fourth Assessment Report.  The final decision also called for the development of a long-term global reductions goal.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation

Since the Montreal talks in 2006, the UNFCCC has been considering options for developing countries that would incentivize forest conservation, thereby avoiding emissions from deforestation activities.  The hope was that the Bali decision would conclude those discussions and include a specific proposal for the new agreement on how to provide those incentives.  Reducing deforestation does not qualify as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project, which is currently the only structured way for developing countries to get credit for emission reduction activities under the Kyoto Protocol.  Due in part to opposition by the U.S., no clear agreement was reached, but progress was made.  The Bali Action Plan encourages tropical forest countries to undertake demonstration projects and sets up a new committee to consider “policy approaches and positive incentives” for reducing emissions from deforestation.  The key questions facing that body are whether the incentives will come in the form of carbon credits or direct financial assistance and whether or not sub-national projects will qualify.

Adaptation

Just prior to the Bali negotiations, the United Nations Development Program estimated that the adaptation needs of developing countries to cope with the impacts of global warming will cost more than $80 billion up to 2015, making adaptation a key issue for many developing countries.  Overcoming U.S. objections, the Bali Action Plan provides a solid basis for creating the necessary adaptation assistance, calling for better access to more assistance for both adaptation and emissions reduction activities in developing countries.  It includes a call for “innovative means of funding,” which references proposals including levies on international aviation and maritime fuels.  Negotiators also reached agreement on implementation of the Adaptation Fund that was created under the Kyoto Protocol by resolving a dispute between developing and developed countries about which institution should oversee the fund.  The Global Environment Facility (GEF), which many developing countries felt has not adequately met their needs and is governed by a council controlled by developed countries, will be the day-to-day implementing body for the fund.  But the adaptation operations of the GEF, including its choice of projects and programs, will be overseen by an executive board comprised of a majority of developing country representation from the countries that belong to the Kyoto Protocol. 

Technology and Finance

There is general agreement that they key to reducing emissions globally lies in the accelerated deployment of clean technologies. But issues around intellectual property rights have bogged down these discussions for several years.   The UNFCCC secretariat earlier this year issued a paper on financing of mitigation and adaptation as a way to shift the focus of the discussion.  The developing countries came to Bali determined to get a commitment to make progress on this issue, which they demonstrated just minutes after the ceremonial opening, by requesting that technology be added to the UNFCCC committee on implementation (the Subsidiary Body on Implementation).  In addition to adding the words “measurable, verifiable and reportable,” to the technology and adaptation language in the final deal, the Bali decision reconstitutes an ‘experts group’ with a 5-year mandate to establish a strategy for overcoming the barriers to technology transfer.

U.S. Participation

Throughout the talks, there were proposals offered to set up a separate negotiating track to determine the emission reduction goals for non-Kyoto countries, (U.S., Kazakhstan, Belarus and Lichtenstein).  But none of those prevailed.  Over the next two years parallel negotiations will take place on developing country commitments under the UNFCCC, and under a more detailed process that has been set up under the Kyoto protocol.  The Bali Action Plan language guiding the UNFCCC discussion was clearly designed to create a space for eventual U.S. re-entry, establishing that the U.S. would have to agree to:  "Measurable, reportable and verifiable nationally appropriate mitigation commitments or actions, including quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives," consistent with those of developed country Parties under Kyoto but also "taking into account differences in their national circumstances."  The U.S. has agreed to fully participate in the UN negotiations in 2008.  Most leading presidential candidates also support mandatory caps in the U.S., setting up a hopeful expectation by other nations that the U.S. will join the successor agreement in 2009.