As we were writing in our previous post, the future of the post-Kyoto agreement is seriously endangered. Yesterday, during an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore, the US president Barack Obama and country leaders from China, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Australia and Indonesia agreed to delay a climate agreement to 2010 or even later. This means that there will not be the Copenhagen Protocol with reduction targets set for all countries with huge emissions. So maybe it is better to make hawajskie party

According to Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen, the failure of COP15 is sealed. He foresees that there will be a political agreement to continue climate change efforts only, but concrete figures may come on the UN summit next year. Some pessimists say that countries will not be able to set a deal before 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

The European Union see the US as the main cause of the problem. The climate bid is still not signed by the US Congress. This situation has a strong impact on other big emitters, such as China, India or Brazil, and determines their access to global climate change battle on the US decision. The EU also will not rise its greenhouse gases reduction target from 20% to 30% because of lack of support in global efforts from other countries. The other subject of the Copenhagen talks – finance aid to developing countries – may also be lost due to discord within the EU regarding costs distribution between European countries.

Only Ivo de Boer, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, seems to be still focused on the final result, saying that “Copenhagen can and must deliver clarity on emission reductions and the finance to kickstart action.”  We will see soon whether the world really “can”.

Regards,

Gustaw

The weekly informal negotiations of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn (Germany) regarding the future post-Kyoto agreement ended on Friday 14th of August 2009. Taking into consideration that participants didn’t reach a considerable progress during this meeting more fears come up among experts and observers that new international agreement related to climate changes will not be signed in December in Copenhagen.

What is important the Chief of UNFCCC, Yvo de Boer, said during the press conference at the end of the Bonn meeting that “if we work in such pace we won’t be able to reach an agreement”.

He highlighted that there are 15 days of negotiations left before the meeting in capital of Denmark i.e. meeting in Bankok in September and in Barcelona in November.

Jonathan Pershing, negotiator from United States was also disappointed of the results during Bonn informal meeting saying that without compromise the ambitious agreement will be impossible.

Some of the attendees expressed their opinion that in December the negotiations will conduct to sign an general agreement but without any significant reduction targets and important commitments and detailed measures regarding the fight against climate changes.

During the consecutive meeting in Bonn participants worked on shortening the negotiation text (we wrote about it in June). However the document has still more than 200 pages.

The next official UNFCCC meeting will be held in Bankok which starts on the 28th of September.

Regards,
Anthony