COP16 ends with Cancun Agreements
As expected, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) COP16 in Cancun, Mexico ended Dec. 9th without a binding treaty or cementing a Kyoto Protocol extension. However, flexibility in the interpretation of the consensus rule resulted in the adoption of the Cancun Agreements despite vocal protests by Bolivia, and seems to have rekindled commitment to a UNFCCC process that many were beginning to question.
The Cancun Agreements represent the outcome of the two parallel UN negotiating tracks on climate change: the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) aiming to develop a post-2012 agreement through an extended and strengthened Kyoto protocol; and the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA), aiming to develop a post-2012 agreement endorsed by all members of the UNFCCC.
The Agreement emerging from the AWG-LCA is the more substantive of the two agreements. It formally integrates the commitments and structure of the Copenhagen Accord, which was noted but not ratified by parties in COP15, into the UNFCCC process. Key elements in the Agreement include: agreement to keep temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels; specific language and the outlining of formal systems for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV); provisions for a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program (REDD+); fast-track and long-term financing commitments consistent with those in the Copenhagen Accord, including the creation of the Green Climate Fund with the World Bank invited to serve as the Fund’s interim trustee; and provisions for technology transfer and capacity building initiatives.
Then-Environment Minister John Baird described the conference as “significant step towards an international climate change agreement”. Opposition officials have also expressed support for the Cancun agreements, with NDP environment critic Linda Duncan calling them a “breakthrough” and Liberal environment critic Gerard Kennedy describing them as “consequential.”
Activism at the Cancun proceedings included a dose of dark humor, particularly from young environmental groups. On Dec. 4th, many young climate action proponents wore shirts emblazoned with “You’ve been negotiating all my life,” echoing a 2009 statement by a 17-year-old COP15 visitor.
COP16 ran at a smaller scale than last year’s COP15 in Copenhagen, with organizers hosting 12,000 participants as opposed to COP15’s 45,000. COP17 will be held Nov. 28th-Dec. 9th 2011, in Durban, South Africa.
By Eva Berton
