We are determined to go to the next conference in Bali to achieve a result.
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Source: WWF www.panda.org
Under the auspices of the UN, governments are meeting to continue their preparatory talks under the BALI MANDATE, which was negotiated last December at the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP13). The Bali Mandate compels governments to agree on a new climate deal by December 2009 that will cover the issues of emission reductions, mitigation mechanisms, adaptation, finance, technology and forests. However, the Bali meeting agreed only on the broad brushstrokes of the topics that the negotiations should cover; specifics need to be worked out in a negotiating marathon of which the Bonn talks are the second step (after talks in Bangkok in April). Bonn prepares for a full-blown meeting at ministerial level in Poznan, Poland, in December this year.
Key Issues:
2008 is a year that requires intense work from government negotiators. Governments need to come to Bonn with the intention to clearly progress toward an ambitious outcome at the Poznan COP. “It would be wrong to think that the real work only starts in 2009 – that attitude would mean that the negotiations will fail,” says Kim Carstensen, Director of the WWF Global Climate Initiative. “It is a step-by-step walk on the road to Copenhagen – we need real steps forward to arrive at the goal.”
Government delegates in Bonn need to narrow down the options for a negotiations framework to be agreed in Poznan that will then subsequently be negotiated in 2009. “Governments need to put ideas on the table on how to mobilize the technologies needed to tackle climate change.” says Kathrin Gutmann, WWF Climate Policy Coordinator. “Industrialized and developing countries are equally responsible for fleshing out those details.”
Industrialized countries have to live up to their responsibility, show commitment to taking up new national emission reduction targets, and commit to a mid term reductions at the top end of the 25-40 per cent reduction range by 2020 the IPCC concluded would be needed. “Industrialized countries need to respect their obligation and responsibility to take the lead in fighting climate change,” says Diane McFadzien, WWF Climate Policy Coordinator for Asia Pacific. “There is a clear difference between developing and industrialized countries; just compare China and the US, with per capita emissions per person of five tonnes versus 20.”
