Updates from The UN Climate Change Conference 2013
The UN Climate Change Conference (meeting No. 19) was held during 11-22 November 2013 at Warsaw in Poland. This is the annual meeting of the Parties (195 countries that are signatories to) the UNFCCC to decide further approach. In the last meeting in 2012 at Doha, the countries had adopted an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol to extend the second commitment period from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020. The detailed agreement in this regard is to be finalised by December 2015.
Thus, this meeting was important in context of the future of CDM among other issues. A brief summary of the important decisions and events is presented here.
The participant countries will meet for meeting No. 20 in Lima, Peru during 1-12 December 2014. Further, the meeting No. 21 will be held in during 30 November to 11 December 2015 in Paris, France.
The countries agreed to work towards international agreement that will come in force (be effective) in 2020. The countries will send plans of domestic actions for intended national contributions towards the agreement by the first quarter of 2015.
The countries agreed to work on considering better emission reduction targets (close ambition gap) by intensifying technical work and frequent ministerial level meetings.
The Conference decided to establish “Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage” to for protection to vulnerable populations from loss caused by extreme weather events and rising sea levels. The work on the agreement will begin next year.
The countries will support developing countries to curb emissions and adapt to climate change. The developing countries are requested to submit biennial reports on their updated strategies and approaches. These will be used to scale up finance for the activity during 2014 to 2020.Many countries including Norway, the UK, EU, US, Republic of Korea, Japan, Sweden, Germany and Finland committed finance towards public climate finance for supporting developing countries.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) Board will comence its initial resource mobilization and developing countries were requested for ambitious, timely contributions by COP 20 (December 2014) for effective operationalisation.
A landmark decision was made on ways to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and the degradation of forests (REDD+). The Warsaw Framework for REDD+ is backed by pledges of 280 million dollars financing from the US, Norway and the UK.
In another milestone, world’s 48 poorest countries finalised a comprehensive plan to deal with impacts of climate change and become more resilient. These national plans will be funded by the Adaptation Fund with aid or pledges of over 100 million dolars from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland.
The Climate Technology Centre and Network is operational and requested developing countries to set up focal points for advice and assistance to accelerate the technology transfer.
Specific Decisions on CDM (Guidance 4, CMP 9)
Expressed concern over difficult market situation currently faced by participants in CDM and loss of institutional capacity related to the mechanism
Encouraged countries to make greater use of CDM to ensure continued success of mechanism beyond the first commitment period
Requested Executive Board to work on reducing transaction costs for all projects
Requested Executive Board to work on the development of country-specific baseline and additionality thresholds for sectors
Recognized that a new project activity or component project activity could be registered at the same physical or geographical location at which a project activity or component project activity whose crediting period has expired existed, if the new project activity or component project activity is not a continuation or modification of the old project activity or component project activity
News Coverage on COP 19
1) EU official: U.N. needs global warming answer by 2015 – USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/24/un-needs-global-warming-answer/3693173/
2) Journey has started’ towards 2015 UN climate deal – EurActive
http://www.euractiv.com/climate-environment/journey-started-2015-un-climate-news-531922
3) It’s a weak deal at Warsaw – The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/its-a-weak-deal-at-warsaw/article5383720.ece
4) UN climate talks bring about a deal, but fail to resolve major issues
5) Warsaw climate talks set 2015 target for plans to curb emissions – The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/24/warsaw-climate-talks-greenhouse-gas-emissions