Durban

Posting from Durban

The Durbanator reports
Sunday, December 11, 2011 - 15:18
 

cop17.jpgSaturday morning, December 10th

Our assessment: "The Durban Conference is a turning point in the climate change negotiations as even though developing countries have won victories, these have come after much acrimony and fight. At Durban the world has agreed to urgent action, but now it is critical that this action to reduce emissions must be based on equity. India's proposal on equity has been included in the work plan for the next conference. It is clear from this conference that the fight to reduce emissions effectively in an unequal world will be even more difficult in the years to come. But it is a conference, which has put the issue of equity back into the negotiations. It is for this reason an important move ahead."

Some decisions and what they imply

 

 
The Durbanator reports
Saturday, December 10, 2011 - 02:12
 

Durban, December 9: Following is the text of the minister's speech:

Indaba Session:December 10, 2011 – 1800 hrs

Remarks by Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan, Hon’ble Minister for Environment & Forests

Thank you Madam Chair. I do not know how to start. I have heard people across the room carefully. I am from India and I represent 1.2 billion people. My country has a tiny per capita carbon footprint of 1.7 ton and our per capita GDP is even lower.

 
 
The Durbanator reports
Friday, December 9, 2011 - 22:52
 

Chandra Bhushan

Durban, December 9: Today morning at 8.00 am the Indaba Text, which is a proposal of the CoP Chair on the major outcomes from the Durban conference, was released. The text has the following elements which could eventually form the basis of a Durban declaration or agreement:

 
The Durbanator reports
Friday, December 9, 2011 - 21:31
 

 Sunita Narain

Durban, December 9: The halls outside are full of people who are now waiting for some action. But strangely enough, there is no sense of anticipation or excitement. Strange in a world, which is increasingly seeing the pain of climate change impacts, and which knows that time is running out. 
So what was the agenda for this conference, and what is the expected outcome?

 
The Durbanator reports
Friday, December 9, 2011 - 13:43
 

cop17.jpg

December 10, 2011 Durban, Saturday 10:30 am

New draft of Indaba text available. Shows hardening of stand of EU -- text now proposes only one date of 2015, by when the new protocol or another legal instrument applicable to all parties should have to be adopted. 

Clearly, there seems to be no sign of a resolution to this COP. 

Now Indaba is meeting again, plenary will meet soon (no specific time given). 

The meeting may well extend into Sunday at this rate. 

 
The Durbanator reports
Thursday, December 8, 2011 - 20:10
 

Durban, December 8, 2011: At the deliberations on REDD+ in the meetings of the SBSTA (Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice), India has reportedly devoted its time and energy in ensuring safeguards for the rights of indigenous communities and for conserving natural forests, giving the lie to the impression that nothing was being done on the issue. In fact, Indian negotiators point out that of the three elements under discussion in the SBSTA (safeguards, MRV and benchmarks), safeguards is the only one which has been thoroughly discussed.

The Durbanator reports
Thursday, December 8, 2011 - 16:24
 

Durban, December 8: The latest version of the draft text on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is out.

The Durbanator reports
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - 22:45
 

Durban, December 7: Transcript of the US press briefing by Todd Stern, Durban, December 7, 2011

Todd Stern: Negotiations are continuing...Both Kyoto and what happens in the future, questions and the issues relating to implementation of Cancun Agreement... Let me take your questions.

 
The Durbanator reports
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - 16:52
 

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.  

 
The Durbanator reports
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - 16:41
 
 

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’.

 
The Durbanator reports
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - 14:17
 

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.

 
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - 17:21
 

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.

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - 15:55
 
Chris_Huhne_MP.jpgEquity and per capita entitlement has to be the basis for fair climate deal says UK Climate minister
Durban, December 6: Speaking at the side of a press briefing organised by UNEP, Chris Huhne, UK Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change said that equity and per capita entitlement has to be ultimately the basis for a fair climate treaty.
 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - 15:42
 
cop17.jpgJayanthi Natarajan's statement in Durban on the issue of a new legally binding treaty
"I have come to Durban with an open mind. But I would like to know whether it would be binding only for mitigation and whether it will be the same for Annex-1 and non-Annex1 countries.
 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - 15:09
 

Durban, December 6: The verbal battle of Durban was fought in a plenary at the Nkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre.

It was fought on December 5, 2011, 10:00 am to 11:30 am.
Here is a no-holds barred version of the battle.
We apologise for this rather lengthy posting.
It was, after all, a verbal battle.
If you only want to know how India weighed in, rhetorical mace and all, scroll to the last bit.
Thanks for your patience. Here goes:

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - 14:58
 

Durban, December 5: 
Q from The Independent: Any circumstances in which China will go for a legally binding global deal to cut emissions?

So far, multilateral talks have been going on for 20 years. Many countries have spent great efforts. The UNFCCC and KP are legally binding documents, all parties are working hard to implement consensus in the Copenhagen Accord. We need a review of all these efforts. We need to base future decisions on current actions and what has been achieved so far. We will consider 2020 only after that.

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Monday, December 5, 2011 - 17:32
 

Durban, December 5: At the AWG-LCA plenary meeting held today, the divide between developed and developing countries turned to a chasm. The purpose of the meeting, called by the Chair of the AWG-LCA, was to solicit the reactions of countries to the 130-page amalgamated text circulated on Saturday. The amalgamated text now forms the basis of negotiations in this negotiating track.

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Saturday, December 3, 2011 - 19:26
 

At an informal meeting today between BASIC and AOSIS, the AOSIS group has reportedly given an ultimatum to BASIC, saying that it will not support BASIC unless the major economies come up with some sort of ambitious mitigation targets.

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Saturday, December 3, 2011 - 18:22
 

At 1 o’clock on December 3, 2011, halfway through CoP 17, the President of CoP 17 held a plenary to take stock of the work done so far. She first thanked the delegates for the “flexibility” they’d shown so far, thus “allowing work to happen”. She was pleased to inform the plenary that work on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) had progressed a lot: indeed, today was a crucial day in the GCF negotiations, such that the Chair wasn’t able to attend the ‘informal stocktaking’, as this particular briefing has been termed. She informed that after 2 rounds of informal consultations on GCF, “a number of countries are willing to accept a report”. 

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Saturday, December 3, 2011 - 03:39
 

Durban, December 2: As the UN climate change talks enter the 5th day in Durban, tempo in the negotiation rooms is gradually picking up.  While about 50 odd items are being discussed and the chairs of the different groups are trying to piece in the negotiating texts by Saturday, before the high level ministerial segment begins, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have proposed a middle-of-the-road solution to keep the climate change talks active. A draft proposal the LDCs submitted advocates a set of parallel treaties that will not only take into account emissions reduction targets for the Annex 1 parties but also for non-Kyoto parties like the United States and emerging economies like China and India.

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Thursday, December 1, 2011 - 06:11
 

Durban, December 1: Arguments and stalemates are a passé at UN climate change conferences. UN’s 17th Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP17), being hosted at Durban, South Africa saw its first impasse after three days of the negotiations, when a group of countries from disparate economic standing stopped the adoption of a report that could help set up the $100 billion a year fund to combat the effects of global warming in developing countries.

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - 23:16
 

November 30, 2011: India and China cannot  be blamed for lack of progress in the global climate change negotiation, a senior negotiator from the Africa Group said today. Speaking to Down to Earth, at the sidelines of the COP17 in Durban, Seyni Alfa Nafo, a negotiator from Mali and the spokesperson of the Africa Group said: “India and China are doing their fair share,” and that developing countries combined efforts to reduce green house gas emissions was more than that of the developed countries.

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 11:12
cop17.jpg

November 28, 2011, Durban: Key players at the climate negotiations in Durban presented a preview of their tactics which they might adopt over the next 14 days. On the opening day of CoP17, China made it clear that without finance and technology transfer on the table, the talks were doomed. The US on its part wanted the Cancun Agreement, signed last year, to be operationalised. The European Union stuck to its recent demand that a solution to global warming is only possible if emerging economies like China and India take emission reduction targets.

 
THE DURBANATOR REPORTS
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 10:51
 

November 28, 2011, Durban: On the opening day of CoP17 in Durban, India managed keep the issues of equity, intellectual property rights and unilateral trade mechanisms on the negotiation table, even though developed countries like the United States and Singapore opposed their introduction.

 

 

 
IMPACT
Sunday, November 27, 2011 - 11:22
 

As the world continues to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the global temperatures could rise by 3°C by mid-century, says a soon-to-be-released report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Read more

 

 

 
MITIGATION
Friday, November 25, 2011 - 17:48
 

Read to find out what are the major source of North-South differences and the past, present and future of climate change negotiations

Read more

 
MITIGATION
Friday, November 25, 2011 - 17:48
 

In 2007, the US had less than 5 per cent of the global population, but it accounted for 20 per cent of global CO2 emissions. India, with almost 17 per cent of global population, accounted for less than 5 per cent of the emissions.  More on who is emitting and how much.

Read more

 
MITIGATION
Friday, November 25, 2011 - 17:48
 

A report by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency says the developed world will meet their Kyoto Protocol target and blames India and China for the increase in global CO2 emissions in 2010. But that is not true. Read the analysis  that brings out the bias in the report

Read more

 
MITIGATION
Friday, November 25, 2011 - 17:40
 

Was the Cancun CoP successful? What happened between Copenhagen and Cancun, that made countries vulnerable to climate change give their nod to the Cancun Agreement

Read more

 
MITIGATION
Friday, November 25, 2011 - 17:40
 

Countries are likely to debate on the fate of the Kyoto Protocol in the forthcoming Conference of Parties at Durban. How likely is a deal? Read more to find out what are the other issues on the table at Durban

Read more