UNFCCC PRESS RELEASE ON 'CANCUN AGREEMENTS'

UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún delivers balanced package of decisions, restores faith in multilateral process 

(Cancún, 11 December 2010)

The UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico, ended on Saturday with the adoption of a balanced package of decisions that set all governments more firmly on the path towards a low-emissions future and support enhanced action on climate change in the developing world. 

The package, dubbed the —Cancún Agreements“ was welcomed to repeated loud and prolonged applause and acclaim by Parties in the final plenary. 

Cancún has done its job. The beacon of hope has been reignited and faith in the multilateral climate change process to deliver results has been restored,“ said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. —Nations have shown they can work together under a common roof, to reach consensus on a common cause. They have shown that consensus in a transparent and inclusive process can create opportunity for all,“ she said. 

Governments have given a clear signal that they are headed towards a low-emissions future together, they have agreed to be accountable to each other for the actions they take to get there, and they have set it out in a way which encourages countries to be more ambitious over time,“ she said. 

Nations launched a set of initiatives and institutions to protect the poor and the vulnerable from climate change and to deploy the money and technology that developing countries need to plan and build their own sustainable futures. And they agreed to launch concrete action to preserve forests in developing nations, which will increase going forward. 

They also agreed that countries need to work to stay below a two degree temperature rise and they set a clear timetable for review, to ensure that global action is adequate to meet the emerging reality of climate change. 

This is not the end, but it is a new beginning. It is not what is ultimately required but it is the essential foundation on which to build greater, collective ambition,“ said Ms. Figueres. 

Elements of the Cancún Agreements include: 

• Industrialised country targets are officially recognised under the multilateral process and these countries are to develop low-carbon development plans and strategies and assess how best to meet them, including through market mechanisms, and to report their inventories annually. 
• Developing country actions to reduce emissions are officially recognised under the multilateral process. A registry is to be set up to record and match developing country mitigation actions to finance and technology support from by industrialised countries. Developing countries are to publish progress reports every two years. 
• Parties meeting under the Kyoto Protocol agree to continue negotiations with the aim of completing their work and ensuring there is no gap between the first and second commitment periods of the treaty. 
•  The Kyoto Protocol‘s Clean Development Mechanisms has been strengthened to drive more major investments and technology into environmentally sound and sustainable emission reduction projects in the developing world. 
• Parties launched a set of initiatives and institutions to protect the vulnerable from climate change and to deploy the money and technology that developing countries need to plan and build their own sustainable futures.
•  A total of $30 billion in fast start finance from industrialised countries to support climate action in the developing world up to 2012 and the intention to raise $100 billion in long-term funds by 2020 is included in the decisions.
•   In the field of climate finance, a process to design a Green Climate Fund under the Conference of the Parties, with a board with equal representation from developed and developing countries, is established. 
• A new —Cancún Adaptation Framework“ is established to allow better planning and implementation of adaptation projects in developing countries through increased financial and technical support, including a clear process for continuing work on loss and damage. 
• Governments agree to boost action to curb emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries with technological and financial support. 
• Parties have established a technology mechanism with a Technology Executive Committee and Climate Technology Centre and Network to increase technology cooperation to support action on adaptation and mitigation. 

The next Conference of the Parties is scheduled to take place in South Africa, from 28 November to 9 December 2011. 

About the UNFCCC 

With 194 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 191 of the UNFCCC Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system

From Broken-Hagen to Can-not-Cun?

Its the last day at the Cancun Climate Talks in Mexico. There has been considerable effort at building consensus around key issues but a solid decision to move the process forward has yet to be found.In the dying hours of COP 16 everyone is keeping their fingers crossed that something tangible shall be agreed upon......

The AYICC team in Cancun has been working well in representing the continent and yesterday held a side event with the Topic:Towards Climate Justice in Cancun:Perspectives of the African Youth.The AYICC team had Sena Aluoka(AYICC Founder),Abel,JP among others as panelists where they clearly outlined the views of African youth and the way forward.It however remains to be seen whether their voices(ideally our voices) were heard in the maze that is the UNFCCC negotiations and whether this will reflect in the final Cancun Outcome.

Photos from the AYICC side event in Cancun Mexico:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150342974460323&set=a.10150342973615323.572170.573875322&notif_t=photo_tag&pid=157

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150342974445323&set=a.10150342973615323.572170.573875322&notif_t=photo

The African youth have been clear in their submissions, just as civil society, instrumental in delivering key messages but is Africa and its leaders listening to the voices from our great motherland???Seemingly not, Kenya is now being accused going back on the gains made towards a common African position following remarks made by Kenya's Prime Minister, Raila Odinga. 'Speaking on Tuesday evening, he suggested a second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol wasn't essential????? He further  suggested that the $100bn pledged in Copenhagen last year for developing countries was sufficient – even though Africa has agreed that the minimum that would even come close is six times this!!!!!!

Reports are circulating that the speech was written by a Japanese economic advisor seconded to the prime minister's office – and his words, coincidently, are remarkably in line with Japan's announcement that it would “in no circumstances” sign up to a second commitment period of the protocol, which was signed on its own soil!!!!!

The PM and his office (read government) has been at pains to retract the comments with claims of being misunderstood etc and identify with Africa's common position something which now puts Kenya in an awkward position!!!

On a positive note the PM had earlier announced that Kenya will soon establish a panel to monitor and follow up recommendations reached at all global climate change conferences and negotiations which is a huge step forward.

As things stand now Russia has  already said it will not commit to the second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol, ''Russia will not participate in the second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol… Russia has repeatedly stated, including at the highest political level, that the adoption of commitments for the second commitment period under he Kyoto protocol as it stands now would be neither scientifically, economically or politically effective.'' 

But KP must stay,being the only legal document in this process.Countries such as Japan andCanada seem to share the same view as Russia.This ideally means that we have a long way to go before a consensus is reached.For us in Africa and the developed world,it just might be too little too late!!!

On the other hand efforts to craft an agreement on protecting tropical forests—long seen as likely the most “gettable” deal at this year’s United Nations climate change summit—hit a wall this week over seemingly intractable differences among key nations on whether to allow market-based financing to support forest-protection efforts, how to protect the rights of indigenous forest populations and how to verify that forest-related emissions cuts claimed by developing nations are real.

While delegates and some environmentalists said that a forests deal is within reach, they remain worried that a final agreement may provide too few ironclad protections for forests and contain loopholes that would allow continued logging by developed countries without an accompanying emissions penalty. Forest Provisions Hit Snag In Climate Talks :: Energy regulation | Clean energy news | The Energy Daily Network

The Executive secretary of the UN climate secretariat Christiana Figueres has been quoted saying that, ''If you find your national position is in opposition to that of others, don't ask for compromise, think of our common planet and offer the compromise first. The deal here in Cancún will not guarantee all your short-term national interests, but reaching no outcome here in Cancún will endanger everyone's long-term well-being'' The question is whether anyone,especially in the Annex I bracket is listening?????

Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon has compared the negotiations to an airplane disaster movie. At an event he said:

“Sometimes I think we fail to understand that we're all passengers in the same vessel, in the same aircraft, or the same vehicle. Our aircraft has now seen the disappearance of the pilot. Something happened in the cabin. And all the passengers are responsible for the aircraft, and we're squabbling about these matters. Whether the guilt lies with those in the tourist class or those sitting up front in first class and the plane continues to go down. It's as if we were in a truck on a winding road and the driver has had a heart attack, and we're all on the edge of hitting a tree, going over into a ravine, squabbling again. I think, friends, somebody has to take control of the aircraft or put on the brakes.”

The situation in Cancun looks grimmer by the hour,with little promise that Mexico will deliver on a fair and  binding deal but we wait still, with bated breath and a somewhat resigned anticipation.The horse must have bolted long before!

It is indeed true what is said, that ''The Earth is one but the World is not one''