COP17

At the cusp of another lost decade

 The climate talk at Durban is heading for a stalemate. I do not see any major breakthrough other than some sort of “Durban declaration / mandate” to take the negotiation process forward. We might also have some decision on Green Climate Fund and its architecture, which the host South Africa and the African Union is pushing for. 

New REDD+ draft decision circulating!

The discussion on the latest draft decision text and language has been thrown open, for Tuvalu has made a strong and determined representation against the use of new market mechanisms as instruments of climate mitigation in the climate treaty of the future.

We are scanning the document. More on it later.  

New AWG-LCA text out!

Durban, December 7: It is a humdinger.  At 138 pages of bracketed text, and paragraph shifts, this exemplar of sharp and concise decision-making is longer than the one the Chair circulated on Saturday, December 3, 2011.

Let’s look at an immediately notable ‘change’ between the two drafts, for now only in the text related to ‘A shared vision for long-term cooperative action’.

Green Climate Fund: Yes and NO

Durban, December 7: Today, Wedsensday 7 December, 2011, the high-level segment will discuss the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Ministers will put their wise heads together and decide the fate of the GCF, which has had quite a stormy year since its inception at the Cancun CoP in 2010. Their goal is to create what is called a ‘cover decision’ that adopts the governing instrument and puts in place an interim arrangement until the GCF is finally operational.

3.2.5: A humble sub mission, italics added

Agenda item 3.2.5: Various approaches, including opportunities for using markets, to enhance the cost-effectiveness of, and to promote, mitigation actions, bearing in mind different circumstances of developed and developing countries

India's environment minister says "equity is central to any debate on climate change"

Makes her first public address in Durban at a side event organised by CSE in association with the ministry

The imperative of equity for an effective climate agreement

By Sunita Narain, director-general, CSE

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Equity and the transition to a low carbon economy

By Chandra Bhushan, deputy director, CSE

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Furthering Climate Justice : Protecting the Vulnerable, Compensation for Impacts

By Ambuj Sagar, Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Professor of Policy Studies Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

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What’s critical at Durban: removing the firewall between developing and developed countries

Durban, December 6: Remove the firewall at all costs: this sums up what the rich countries are doing in the climate negotiations at Durban to remove the differentiation between past polluters – responsible for climate change impacts currently occurring – and the future polluters, who need ecological space to grow. 

This is the core of the politics at the Durban conference on climate change. The rich countries are doing all they can, in different ways, to remove this distinction, for until the distinction remains, they will have to take action first to reduce and create carbon space for the poorer countries to increase their emissions.