News | Climate Change

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Bonn-meet-to-clear-road-for-climate-talks/602103/

Fresh three-day talks will begin in Bonn on Friday to lay down the time table for preparatory meetings in a run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, beginning November.

The schedule will depend on how the parties decide to build on the outcome of the Copenhagen conference. At the end of the conference in December, member countries took note of the legally non-binding Copenhagen Accord, and extended the mandate of two working groups to proceed on long-term action and further emission reduction commitments by developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol.
In order to gain synergy between the twin-track negotiations and the Accord, the UK has floated a new proposal to have two treaties if one does not come through. While developed countries could extend their emission reduction targets beyond 2012—when the first commitment phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires—another treaty could be for countries like the US, which did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and developing countries, which are not obliged to cut emissions under the Protocol. While developing countries like China and India are in favour of continuing the Kyoto Protocol, they are opposed to undertaking legally-binding emission reduction targets. In fact, they were instrumental in crafting the Copenhagen Accord, which requires them to communicate their voluntary emission intensity cuts to the UNFCCC.
In keeping with the Copenhagen Accord’s requirements, 75 countries— which contribute 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions—have submitted their national pledges to reduce or limit their emissions by 2020 to the UNFCCC.