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’.

This is the section of the amalgamated texts where delegates’ interests are currently focussed on. This is the centre of deliberative focus: this is the terrain on which a future treaty as well as a Durban outcome hinges.

The pre-ambular text remains the same. Delegates have obviously no complaints about it.

The first shift—we still don’t know how tectonic it is going to be—occurs immediately after the preambular text ends. 

Paras 34-38 have been pushed up here. Note that para 34 is related to text on equity. Paras 35-38 are related to text on historical responsibility. 

Para 43 argues for an “equitable allocation framework wherein developed country Parties take the lead in undertaking deep binding emission reductions in the short-, mid- and long-terms that reflect their historical and current responsibility for global emissions and in providing finance, technology and capacity-building to developing countries, consistent with their commitments under the Convention.”

This is strong language, and between the two versions of December 3 and December 7, there is no change. 

Para 35, the first of 3 paras under the heading ‘Historical responsibility’, reads as follows: ‘Acknowledging that the largest share of the historical global emissions of greenhouse gases originated in Annex I Parties and that, owing to this historical responsibility in terms of their contribution to the average global temperature increase, Annex I Parties must take the lead in combating climate change and the adverse effects thereof;’

Here, too, there is no change in the language between the two versions.

Obviously, the BASIC attempt to foreground and make their concerns an inseparable part of the Durban outcome have been noted. At the same time, they have merely been noted. This is still a draft text, equally humungous.