Our friends over at Taking IT Global put together an excellent blog covering the recent climate change negotiations in Accra, Ghana that took place at the end of August. Below is an explanation by the UNFCCC (the body responsible for putting the meeting together) of what the negotiations in Accra consisted of.
The latest round of United Nations climate change negotiations took place in Accra, Ghana, between 21-27 August. The Accra Climate Change Talks took forward work on a strengthened and effective international climate change deal under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as work on emission reduction rules and tools under the Kyoto Protocol. This is part of a negotiating process that will be concluded in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. Over 1600 participants attended the Accra meeting, which was the third major UNFCCC gathering this year.
What that means exactly? Basically, the governments of the world got together to continue discussions on how to deal with the giant issue of climate change. Accra is one of the interim meetings where details are discussed in preparation for the larger annual meetings – the next annual meeting being this December in Poznan, Poland.
Below are some insights from the Taking IT Global folks:
The good people from the Climate Action Network staged quite the intervention during the closing plenary of the AWG-KP on Wednesday. While staying positive throughout, they managed to highlight a few major needs for work to be done before and during Poland, but cautioned the group that without accelerated action, the world’s people (the poorest in particular) will face some dire circumstances.
Climate Action Network AWG-LCA intervention exerpt:
I had hoped, as a Ghanaian that I would be able to find inspiration and hope during this week in Accra, that your presence here in my country, and the obvious climate threats we are facing, would spur you to further action. I am, however, worried for the pace of these negotiations, and the pathway forward to achieving an ambitious post-2012 agreement is still unclear to me and the pace of your progress dangerously slow.
The Taking IT Global folks on Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF):
Luckily, the LULUCF informal consultations and contact group made some headway. The five options around forest management that were presented at the beginning of the week were condensed to four (yippee!). They also included an explicit statement that Article 3.4 activities (additional activities) other than forest management would be discussed in due course. Things are getting simpler and not being left behind!
More from the Taking IT Global folks on adaptation:
The adaptation session within Monday’s LCA resembled yet another brainstorming session, as Parties put all of their desired criteria and contentious issues straight on the table.
Scaling up financial and technological conduits between the global North and South and incorporating climate change into all poverty related policy (since the two are now inextricably linked) were two major non-A1 issues. Also, the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) called for adaptive technology specific to their region.
All Parties agreed that the distinction between immediate climate shocks and long-term climatic changes needs to be drawn and incorporated into policy and action.
Basically, it seems like things are moving ahead but much too slowly. The world has less than 15 months to come up the a global agreement on climate change that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol. That’s not much time for roughly 200 countries to come to consensus on an issue of this magnitude.
