http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2203025/bangkok-climate-talks-prep-the-ground-for-doha

 

International climate change talks in Thailand have ended today with the head of the UN climate change secretariat insisting they have "prepared fertile ground" for the next major summit in Qatar.

 

Governments today held the final round of informal talks in Bangkok, completing the precursor to the Doha COP 18 conference that will run from 26 November to 7 December this year.

According to various reports, the week had been marred by ongoing clashes between rich and poor nations, attempts to re-open talks on the controversial topic of measuring, reporting and verifying different countries' emission reductions, and the future of the Long-term Cooperative Action (LCA) working group, which is focused on climate funding, adaptation and technology transfer mechanisms.

However, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), yesterday said negotiators had made "good progress" and prepared "fertile ground" for Doha.

The talks focused on three areas, including extending and amending the Kyoto Protocol, which commits industrialised countries to emissions cuts, before it lapses at the end of the year; delivering a roadmap for a new legally-binding treaty, which is scheduled to be agreed by 2015 and brought into effect by 2020; and working out a new roadmap for the LCA working group.

"The investment in Bangkok has paid off," said Figueres. "Government negotiators have pushed forward key issues further than many had expected and raised the prospects for a next successful step in Doha.

"There are still some tough political decisions ahead, but we now have a positive momentum and a greater sense of convergence that will stimulate higher-level political discussions ahead of Doha and set a faster pace of work once this year's conference begins."

In Bangkok, the Kyoto working group produced a draft document outlining potential decisions on the future of the treaty and exploring ways to resolve clashes over the length of the second commitment period.

Madeline Diouf, chair of the working group for the Kyoto Protocol, is now expected to produce a negotiating text ahead of the Doha summit.

The LCA working group was also said to have made "significant progress" in a number of areas, including making plans for a new market-based mechanism to boost international co-operation on climate action, a paving the way for a planned international scientific review that will from next year provide a "reality check" on the threat of climate change.

The group tasked with delivering a roadmap for a new legally-binding treaty is also reported to have started preliminary discussions.

Governments began talking about the new agreement and how it could fit in with other principles of the UNFCCC as well as how to make it fair for every nation.

Jayant Moreshver Mauskar and Harald Dovland, co-chairs of the new working group, said the Bangkok talks had built confidence about the prospect of a new universal agreement and an increased ambition on tackling climate change.

However, critics of the long-running talks were again quick to condemn a lack of substantive progress, raising fears that negotiators will now have just two weeks in Doha to finalise a new version of the Kyoto Protocol before it lapses at the end of the year.