News | Climate Change

http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261023/post-copenhagen-clear-air

Weekend talks expected to focus on procedural issues, but subject will inevitably turn to post-Copenhagen fall out and race to replace Yvo de Boer

Negotiators from more than 170 nations meet in the German city of Bonn today at the first round of international climate change talks since last year's Copenhagen Summit ended in diplomatic recriminations and widespread disappointment.
The hastily convened meeting was organized after a number of countries, including the UK, called on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat to organise an extra summit ahead of the next scheduled round of talks in Bonn in June.
Officially the meeting is intended to tackle some of the procedural issues that blighted the fortnight-long Copenhagen Summit and to ensure that all the working groups are clear on what they have to do when they next gather in June to work on the draft treaty intended to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
Privately, however, insiders admit that the extra round of talks will also attempt to clear the air after the fractious final hours of the Copenhagen Summit, which saw industrialised nations accuse China of deliberately blocking any chance of a deal being finalised, emerging economies accuse the US of failing to deliver sufficiently ambitious emission cuts, and many poorer nations complain that they were being sidelined by larger countries.
"The [Bonn] meeting... is going to be very important to rebuild confidence in the process, to rebuild confidence that the way forward will be open and transparent on the one hand, and efficient on the other," UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer told reporters in a conference call held last week.
In addition, the meeting will attempt to set out the schedule for this year's negotiations with a number of countries lobbying for at least two more meetings to be fitted in ahead of the summit in Cancun, Mexico in November. Insiders have argued that additional negotiating time is required to avoid a repeat of the log jam that marred the Copenhagen Summit.
In another key difference with last year's negotiations, De Boer stressed that no one would be looking to finalise a Treaty within the next 12 months, reiterating his view that this year should focus on delivering a clear framework for a deal "so that a year later, you can decide or not decide to turn that into a treaty". The shift in focus effectively gives negotiators almost two years until the South Africa summit in late 2011 to finalise an agreement.
While much of the weekend's negotiations will focus on procedural issues, talk on the sidelines of the meeting will inevitably turn to how the Copenhagen Accord that was agreed last year can be used to help reinvigorate the UN negotiations and whether the $30bn (£19.7bn) of climate financing pledged by rich nations as part of the agreement is being distributed fast enough.
There will also be speculation about who will replace De Boer when he steps down after the next Bonn meeting.
Ban Ki-Moon has said he will consult with an 11-country group at this weekend's meeting about who should take up the role.
Barbados, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Ecuador, Pakistan and South Africa have all put forward nominees and the front runners are believed to be India's former environment secretary Vijai Sharma and South Africa's former Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, who would have the advantage of hosting the meeting next year where the negotiating process is expected to culminate.