All parties were in congratulatory mood at the closing of the second session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP 2-2) at Bonn in Germany. They said that the roundtables and workshops held at the session would be very useful in bringing clarity to the concepts and issues that would form the 2015 agreement. (The new, global agreement will seek to meet a UN goal of limiting global warming to a maximum 2°C over pre-industrial levels.) At the same time, they called for a “more focused and structured mode” of discussion at the Conference of Parties (CoP) in Warsaw, Poland in November.
They praised the work done by co-chairs Harald Dovland from Norway and J M Mauskar from India, and welcomed the incoming co-chairs Artur Runge Metzger from the European Union and Kishan Kumarsinghe representing Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).
Now, only four formal rounds of negotiations remain before the final gathering at Paris. Parties are, therefore, anxious to advance steps towards starting to hold discussions in contact groups and draft legal texts.
The closing positions of most parties remained unchanged in their fundamental elements. G77 and China reiterated that any agreement in 2015 would have to be under the convention and be subject to its principles and provisions, particularly those concerning equity, Common But Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR) and Respective Capabilities (RC).
Australia, speaking on behalf of the Umbrella Group (all major emitting developed countries except the EU) reiterated that any agreement will have to be a global endeavour and “we must all work together.” Some parties called for ex-ante or upfront clarity on individual agreements that come by 2014. While some parties did not spell out exactly where they were looking for in terms of clarity, some did. Sandea De Wet from South Africa said, “We believe the discussions thus far are somewhat lacking in balance. Any chance of averting global catastrophe would need clear understanding of fair shares and equitable sharing of effort for each country which will also provide for equitable access to sustainable development.” He said that the 2020 agreement will need a set of rules for fair and equitable effort.
Chile, speaking for Association of Independent Latin American and Caribbean states (AILAC), proposed the need for a system for nationally determined targets. A formal discussion on whether a top-down or bottom-up approach should be used in determining parties’ contributions to the agreement is yet to be held. As parties move into more focused discussions, this issue is bound to come up again and could be the defining issue for how any future agreement will come into force.
The Arab Group, known for its not-so-constructive engagement, intervened to say that the countries within this group “will, no doubt, resume their fair share of global efforts. It (the group) will delink emissions from its growth strategies and implement new and renewable strategies.” Having said that, it issued a warning saying, “It will not accept those who want to sidestep the Convention and shift the burden to developing countries from developed countries.” It reiterated that the 2015 agreement will need to have a principled approach grounded in science and equity (see 'Group positions').
GROUP POSITIONS
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