The ability of cities and the way smarter use of land can unlock greater action on climate change now and into the future came to the fore in Bonn as governments work towards a new agreement in Paris in 2015. The positivity around the past two week’s meetings culminated at the close when governments asked that the elements of a draft treaty be made available by July in advance of the next meetings in Bonn in October. Kishan Kumarsingh and Artur Runge-Metzger, the Co-Chairs of the Working Group tasked to construct the 2015 agreement said in a joint statement: “The cooperative and positive atmosphere so self-evident here in Bonn has now translated into a significant step forward towards the elements of a draft treaty that needs to be a key outcome by the end of the year in Lima, Peru.” “We are determined to ensure we make these available in July towards a comprehensive new treaty in 2015 that will protect the planet and its people from dangerous climate change,” they added.
Delegates during the Bonn meetings heard how many cities working with organizations like ICLEI and C40 have already initiated ambitious measures to improve urban wellbeing and address climate change. Many are accelerating policies to build resilience into their urban environments. In some cases they are targeting ‘carbon neutrality’; balancing emissions and absorptions by 2050 or earlier. Under the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) actions and policies implemented nationally and with high potential for emission reductions are being showcased as examples for others to emulate as they prepare for the new 2015 agreement which is set to come into effect in 2020. In March the ADP, the body tasked to construct the new agreement and raise immediate ambition to address climate change, brought forward inspiring examples in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
During the June meeting, which closed on 15 June, the focus was on urbanization and land use as pathways to raise that pre-2020 ambition. “An increasing number of governments spoke of the growing understanding that Paris 2015 needs to be a turning point where decisive and defining pathways are put in place towards not only a low carbon but ultimately carbon neutral world,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “That is where the science tells us we need to go as a global community if we are to manage the risks and seize the opportunities from addressing climate change,” she said. Malmö in Sweden for example has put in place the policies to be carbon neutral by 2020 and to run on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
Only a small percentage of cities have international credit ratings which can limit their ability to access capital markets and invest in accelerating low carbon infrastructure. The World Bank is assisting cities through ‘Creditworthiness Academies’ and other support. The Ugandan city of Kampala for example expects to secure a full rating in 2015 and is already scaling-up transformation in public transport and features such as solar street lighting. Brazil spotlighted how it had achieved a near 80 per cent reduction in deforestation since 2006 through a range of transformational policies and actions. It is one of several countries engaged in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation known as REDD+ with the support of countries like Norway. Brazil has become the first developing country to submit key data on emissions from its forestry sector to the UNFCCC. China has set a target of increasing forest cover domestically by 40 million hectares over 2005 levels by 2020. The meeting heard how China had already achieved 60 per cent of its target and is on track to the 2020 re-afforestation goal.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that land use including deforestation is responsible for just under a quarter of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. During the June meeting members of the IPCC were present to explain directly to delegates the implications of their findings for policy going forward.
Atmosphere of Cooperation and Positivity
“The meetings here in Bonn this June may perhaps go down as a point in time where governments showed new and higher levels of cooperation and positivity towards a meaningful agreement in Paris and the goal of limiting a global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius,” said Ms Figueres. “The highlighting of opportunities from the urban and land use areas – building on our March meeting spotlighting opportunities for accelerating energy efficiency and the penetration of renewables – is building confidence, raising pre-2020 ambition and triggering calls for greater policy and financial support to realize these transformations,” she said. “The UNFCCC stands ready to play a catalytic role, matching the interest and demand from governments with those who can deliver the skills and the finance ranging from sister UN agencies and the Bretton Woods institutions to NGOs, business and private finance sector,” said Ms. Figueres.
The Bonn October meetings will take these ‘Technical Expert Meetings’ forward into opportunities for greater climate action in the areas of non-C02 gases like HFCs and methane and Carbon Capture, Use and Storage. The June meeting also for the first time included two days of ministerial meetings where Environment Ministers from several countries also spoke in different ways of the need for a long term vision of a carbon neutral world in the second half of the century.
Milestones Towards Paris
The June Bonn meeting will be followed by the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in September; the October Bonn meeting; a ‘social pre-COP’ in Venezuela in November and the 20th Conference of the Parties in Lima, Peru in December where governments want a draft agreement to be tabled.
Other central issues at the meeting included:
National Contributions to Address Climate Change
Governments are engaged in national processes to shape their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions to address climate change post-2020 to be communicated well in advance of the 21st Conference of the Parties in Paris. In Bonn, Parties made significant progress in preparing a decision at Lima on how these contributions will be communicated and considered.
Green Climate Fund
Ms. Figueres said in order to build further trust to underpin progress in Lima and success in Paris, governments needed to capitalize the recently established Green Climate Fund, which will finance both mitigation and adaptation support for developing countries in balanced measure, as early
as possible and with at least an initial $10 billion.
Doha Amendment
China and Norway announced they were the 10th and 11th countries to ratify the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, the existing international agreement that binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. Ms. Figueres said the ratification of a further 133 countries, needed to ensure that the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol enters into force, remains a necessary and additional element of trust that developed countries are taking the lead in global mitigation efforts.
Other Key Outcomes
The Bonn meeting was also the annual forum for the two technical advisory bodies (SBSTA and SBI) which work on substantive issues that underpin implementation of the Climate Change Convention. These meetings delivered progress across a wide part of the core implementation issues that can assist in supporting the Paris agreement. These issues include:
Continued support for adaptation and progress on loss and damage
- On the newly created Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, countries gained more clarity on the membership of the mechanism’s governing body and discussed how to create a structure that enables delivery.
- Under the process launched in Cancun on adaptation, developing countries will receive support to lay the groundwork for their national adaptation (NAP) processes through global support programmes funded through various channels.
Continued strengthening of technology cooperation
- The technology mechanism, which aims to facilitate enhanced action on technology development and transfer, is now fully operational and is ready to receive requests and to provide responses to support concrete adaptation and mitigation action by developing countries. This has the potential to significantly boost technology cooperation.
Moving to more accurate and stringent verification
- The revision of the guidelines for the review of greenhouse gas data reported by developed countries advanced considerably, creating a foundation for completing the guidelines in Lima.
- This work, which also takes on board the latest scientific guidance from the IPCC, will result in more accuracy and greater transparency with respect to mitigation actions of all developed countries under the Convention. It will enable an effective start, in 2015, of the review processes for the Kyoto Protocol Parties in the second commitment period under the Protocol.
Approaching final accounting for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol
- The final date of the completion of the review process for the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol was agreed. This means that the timing for the final accounting of emissions and assigned amounts in that commitment period is also agreed.
- Also Parties agreed on accompanying the accounting process with additional information, to make that process fully transparent, also in view of the need to have information of the accounting for the first commitment period prior to the UNFCCC conference in Paris in 2015.
Greater clarity on developed country targets and developing country actions
- Developed countries clarified what role emissions trading and actions in land use in achieving their emission reduction targets for 2020.
- Developing countries may undertake nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) that are in line with their sustainable development goals.
At the June meeting, countries took stock of the diversity of NAMAs and identified lessons learned, which will be important going forward.
Increased activities on agriculture
- Agriculture and food production both contribute greenhouse gas emissions and are in need of adaptation measures to ensure production going forward.
- Countries decided on the scope of work under this important item for the next two years with a greater focus on adaptation, but also covering practices and technologies to enhance productivity in a sustainable manner.
Further refinement of actions on forests
- Countries continued to consider non-market approaches with a focus on mitigation, but also including adaptation in the context of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
- Countries also continued to consider non-carbon benefits, which can for example be social in nature, from actions on forests aiming at emission reduction.
Greater public awareness
- The second dialogue on public awareness, public participation and public access to information was held at the meeting. Countries discussed good practices of stakeholder participation amongst other issues. The dialogue is important to raise awareness on climate change and its solutions, not only internationally, but importantly, also at the domestic level.
Review of efforts
- In 2010, countries agreed on a long-term global goal to reduce GHG emissions so as to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The 2013-2015 review (the Review) was set up to consider the adequacy of this goal, the progress made towards it and strengthening the long-term global goal.
- At the Bonn meeting the Parties were informed of the most recent scientific findings contained in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Parties also agreed to conclude the review in June 2015, which means that it can inform the 2015 agreement.
Full collection of updates on the Bonn conference
Highlights of the Technical Expert Meeting on urban environment
Highlights of the Technical Expert Meeting on land use
Summaries of side events in Bonn
About the UNFCCC
With 196 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 192 of the UNFCCC Parties. For the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. In Doha in 2012, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol adopted an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, which establishes the second commitment period under the Protocol. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
Read the release on the UNFCCC website
Photo: UNFCCC
Source: UNFCCC Media alert from 15.06.2014
The ability of cities and the way smarter use of land can unlock greater action on climate change now and into the future came to the fore in Bonn as governments work towards a new agreement in Paris in 2015. The positivity around the past two week’s meetings culminated at the close when governments asked that the elements of a draft treaty be made available by July in advance of the next meetings in Bonn in October. Kishan Kumarsingh and Artur Runge-Metzger, the Co-Chairs of the Working Group tasked to construct the 2015 agreement said in a joint statement: “The cooperative and positive atmosphere so self-evident here in Bonn has now translated into a significant step forward towards the elements of a draft treaty that needs to be a key outcome by the end of the year in Lima, Peru.” “We are determined to ensure we make these available in July towards a comprehensive new treaty in 2015 that will protect the planet and its people from dangerous climate change,” they added.
Delegates during the Bonn meetings heard how many cities working with organizations like ICLEI and C40 have already initiated ambitious measures to improve urban wellbeing and address climate change. Many are accelerating policies to build resilience into their urban environments. In some cases they are targeting ‘carbon neutrality’; balancing emissions and absorptions by 2050 or earlier. Under the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) actions and policies implemented nationally and with high potential for emission reductions are being showcased as examples for others to emulate as they prepare for the new 2015 agreement which is set to come into effect in 2020. In March the ADP, the body tasked to construct the new agreement and raise immediate ambition to address climate change, brought forward inspiring examples in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
During the June meeting, which closed on 15 June, the focus was on urbanization and land use as pathways to raise that pre-2020 ambition. “An increasing number of governments spoke of the growing understanding that Paris 2015 needs to be a turning point where decisive and defining pathways are put in place towards not only a low carbon but ultimately carbon neutral world,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). “That is where the science tells us we need to go as a global community if we are to manage the risks and seize the opportunities from addressing climate change,” she said. Malmö in Sweden for example has put in place the policies to be carbon neutral by 2020 and to run on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.
Only a small percentage of cities have international credit ratings which can limit their ability to access capital markets and invest in accelerating low carbon infrastructure. The World Bank is assisting cities through ‘Creditworthiness Academies’ and other support. The Ugandan city of Kampala for example expects to secure a full rating in 2015 and is already scaling-up transformation in public transport and features such as solar street lighting. Brazil spotlighted how it had achieved a near 80 per cent reduction in deforestation since 2006 through a range of transformational policies and actions. It is one of several countries engaged in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation known as REDD+ with the support of countries like Norway. Brazil has become the first developing country to submit key data on emissions from its forestry sector to the UNFCCC. China has set a target of increasing forest cover domestically by 40 million hectares over 2005 levels by 2020. The meeting heard how China had already achieved 60 per cent of its target and is on track to the 2020 re-afforestation goal.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that land use including deforestation is responsible for just under a quarter of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. During the June meeting members of the IPCC were present to explain directly to delegates the implications of their findings for policy going forward.
Atmosphere of Cooperation and Positivity
“The meetings here in Bonn this June may perhaps go down as a point in time where governments showed new and higher levels of cooperation and positivity towards a meaningful agreement in Paris and the goal of limiting a global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius,” said Ms Figueres. “The highlighting of opportunities from the urban and land use areas – building on our March meeting spotlighting opportunities for accelerating energy efficiency and the penetration of renewables – is building confidence, raising pre-2020 ambition and triggering calls for greater policy and financial support to realize these transformations,” she said. “The UNFCCC stands ready to play a catalytic role, matching the interest and demand from governments with those who can deliver the skills and the finance ranging from sister UN agencies and the Bretton Woods institutions to NGOs, business and private finance sector,” said Ms. Figueres.
The Bonn October meetings will take these ‘Technical Expert Meetings’ forward into opportunities for greater climate action in the areas of non-C02 gases like HFCs and methane and Carbon Capture, Use and Storage. The June meeting also for the first time included two days of ministerial meetings where Environment Ministers from several countries also spoke in different ways of the need for a long term vision of a carbon neutral world in the second half of the century.
Milestones Towards Paris
The June Bonn meeting will be followed by the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in September; the October Bonn meeting; a ‘social pre-COP’ in Venezuela in November and the 20th Conference of the Parties in Lima, Peru in December where governments want a draft agreement to be tabled.
Other central issues at the meeting included:
National Contributions to Address Climate Change
Governments are engaged in national processes to shape their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions to address climate change post-2020 to be communicated well in advance of the 21st Conference of the Parties in Paris. In Bonn, Parties made significant progress in preparing a decision at Lima on how these contributions will be communicated and considered.
Green Climate Fund
Ms. Figueres said in order to build further trust to underpin progress in Lima and success in Paris, governments needed to capitalize the recently established Green Climate Fund, which will finance both mitigation and adaptation support for developing countries in balanced measure, as early
as possible and with at least an initial $10 billion.
Doha Amendment
China and Norway announced they were the 10th and 11th countries to ratify the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, the existing international agreement that binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. Ms. Figueres said the ratification of a further 133 countries, needed to ensure that the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol enters into force, remains a necessary and additional element of trust that developed countries are taking the lead in global mitigation efforts.
Other Key Outcomes
The Bonn meeting was also the annual forum for the two technical advisory bodies (SBSTA and SBI) which work on substantive issues that underpin implementation of the Climate Change Convention. These meetings delivered progress across a wide part of the core implementation issues that can assist in supporting the Paris agreement. These issues include:
Continued support for adaptation and progress on loss and damage
- On the newly created Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, countries gained more clarity on the membership of the mechanism’s governing body and discussed how to create a structure that enables delivery.
- Under the process launched in Cancun on adaptation, developing countries will receive support to lay the groundwork for their national adaptation (NAP) processes through global support programmes funded through various channels.
Continued strengthening of technology cooperation
- The technology mechanism, which aims to facilitate enhanced action on technology development and transfer, is now fully operational and is ready to receive requests and to provide responses to support concrete adaptation and mitigation action by developing countries. This has the potential to significantly boost technology cooperation.
Moving to more accurate and stringent verification
- The revision of the guidelines for the review of greenhouse gas data reported by developed countries advanced considerably, creating a foundation for completing the guidelines in Lima.
- This work, which also takes on board the latest scientific guidance from the IPCC, will result in more accuracy and greater transparency with respect to mitigation actions of all developed countries under the Convention. It will enable an effective start, in 2015, of the review processes for the Kyoto Protocol Parties in the second commitment period under the Protocol.
Approaching final accounting for the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol
- The final date of the completion of the review process for the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol was agreed. This means that the timing for the final accounting of emissions and assigned amounts in that commitment period is also agreed.
- Also Parties agreed on accompanying the accounting process with additional information, to make that process fully transparent, also in view of the need to have information of the accounting for the first commitment period prior to the UNFCCC conference in Paris in 2015.
Greater clarity on developed country targets and developing country actions
- Developed countries clarified what role emissions trading and actions in land use in achieving their emission reduction targets for 2020.
- Developing countries may undertake nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) that are in line with their sustainable development goals.
At the June meeting, countries took stock of the diversity of NAMAs and identified lessons learned, which will be important going forward.
Increased activities on agriculture
- Agriculture and food production both contribute greenhouse gas emissions and are in need of adaptation measures to ensure production going forward.
- Countries decided on the scope of work under this important item for the next two years with a greater focus on adaptation, but also covering practices and technologies to enhance productivity in a sustainable manner.
Further refinement of actions on forests
- Countries continued to consider non-market approaches with a focus on mitigation, but also including adaptation in the context of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
- Countries also continued to consider non-carbon benefits, which can for example be social in nature, from actions on forests aiming at emission reduction.
Greater public awareness
- The second dialogue on public awareness, public participation and public access to information was held at the meeting. Countries discussed good practices of stakeholder participation amongst other issues. The dialogue is important to raise awareness on climate change and its solutions, not only internationally, but importantly, also at the domestic level.
Review of efforts
- In 2010, countries agreed on a long-term global goal to reduce GHG emissions so as to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The 2013-2015 review (the Review) was set up to consider the adequacy of this goal, the progress made towards it and strengthening the long-term global goal.
- At the Bonn meeting the Parties were informed of the most recent scientific findings contained in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Parties also agreed to conclude the review in June 2015, which means that it can inform the 2015 agreement.
Full collection of updates on the Bonn conference
Highlights of the Technical Expert Meeting on urban environment
Highlights of the Technical Expert Meeting on land use
Summaries of side events in Bonn
About the UNFCCC
With 196 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 192 of the UNFCCC Parties. For the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. In Doha in 2012, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol adopted an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, which establishes the second commitment period under the Protocol. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
Read the release on the UNFCCC website
Photo: UNFCCC
Source: UNFCCC Media alert from 15.06.2014