COP22: Developing nations say Paris climate deal must be guided by CBDR principle

The Ad Hoc Working Group on Paris Agreement (APA)—a negotiating body responsible for formulating rules and modalities regarding various elements under the Paris Agreement—presided over by the co-chairs, Sara Bashaan (Saudi Arabia) and Jo Tyndall (New Zealand), launched substantive work programme on its Agenda items. Under each Agenda element, the co-chairs announced work to be conducted within informal consultations that would be convened by two facilitators. The Agenda items included:

1. further information on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), which are country-specific climate action plans, for more clarity, consistency, comparability and transparency
2. guidance on Adaptation Communications which are and would be an important component of the country’s national action plans
3. modalities, procedures and guidelines for transparency framework
4. matters relating to global stocktake for assessing collective progress towards long-term goals of the Paris Agreement
5. procedural issues regarding implementation of Paris Agreement

On various items mentioned above, altogether there were 86 submissions received from the Parties by the Secretariat. They have been compiled and uploaded on the website of the UNFCCC.

On Agenda item dealing in further information on NDCs, the Parties’ submissions are related to what guidance would actually be helpful, how to build on existing UNFCCC and Kyoto structures and institutions for this agenda item. The co-facilitators responsible for convening work were from Singapore and Austria.

On the issue of guidance on adaption communication, co-chairs proposed that negotiations should deal with how adaptation could be measured and how it could add value to a country’s climate actions.

On the Agenda item dealing in global stocktake, it was agreed that the global stocktake should have a technical and political component which needs to be clearly defined. The last agenda item relating to procedural issues and institutional matters regarding implementation of the Paris Agreement would be convened by the co-chairs themselves.

The co-chairs agreed that the APA’s work approach has to be coordinated with Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and there needs to be a common understanding on cross-cutting issues. Noting that the APA’s closing plenary would be held on November 14, when it shall conclude its work, the co-chairs called for accelerated progress that would result in tangible and useful outcomes.

Even though the APA has only one week to finish its work, the co-chairs did not rule out the possibility of conducting work in the second week, after November 14, in the form of technical informal consultations, informal workshops or dialogues.

Developing countries suggested that the work programme under APA must not be mitigation-centric. According to them, all the elements must be given balanced treatment and the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibility (CBDR) must guide the formation of rules and modalities under each agenda item. The developed countries, on the other hand, pressed for work under the APA to continue in the second week, informally, noting that there’s less time for the completion of work.