COP20
CMP10
Lima,
Peru, December 2014
COP20
and CMP10 concluded in Lima at 1:28 am on Sunday 14 December 2014 – 1,5 days
later than expected. The delay in the conclusion of the 2014 climate
negotiations was mainly due to two key items on the agenda: progress under the
ADP (Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action) and
climate finance under the COP. Both these two streams of negotiations were
unlocked in the final hours of the Lima meeting, thanks to the involvement of
some key Ministers present in Peru.
Under
the ADP, Lima was expected to produce the first draft negotiating text with the
view to finalize the 2015 climate agreement in Paris next year by COP21 as well
as clarity on information to be included by all Parties when submitted their
Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The final decision under
the ADP, the Lima Call for Climate Action, covers both those aspects. The Lima
Call for Climate Action is four pages long and includes the Annex ‘Elements for
a Draft Negotiating Text’. In broad terms, the Lima Call for Climate Action
fails to provide the expected results and in some key areas simply reiterates
what already decided one year ago in Warsaw (COP19). Lack of progress must be
registered especially in terms of:
- scope the new agreement;
- differentiation between developed and developing countries, and within developing countries;
- consideration of some key elements of the new agreement;
- clarity on information to be included in the INDCs;
- acceleration of implementation for the pre-2020 phase.
The
Annex ‘Elements for a Draft Negotiating Text’ is 38 pages long and it includes
all views expressed by Parties on the elements and details of the 2015 climate
agreement. As footnote 1 at the beginning of the text indicates, the draft
negotiating text reflects work in progress and does not “indicate convergence
on the proposals presented nor [it] precludes new proposals from emerging in
the course of the negotiations in 2015”.
No negotiation among
Parties took place around this text in Lima. Thus, it is very difficult to
estimate what will happen in 2015. Definitively, the language and quality of
the text clearly shows that Parties are still far apart as to the form and
content of the future agreement.
On
climate finance the following decisions were adopted by COP20:
- Long-term climate finance
- Report of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF)
- Report of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to the COP and guidance to the GCF
- Report of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to the COP and guidance to the GEF
- Fifth review of the financial mechanism
The
next COP (COP 21) will take place in Paris – France and is expected to conclude
the post-2012 negotiations on the new climate change regime on the basis of the
Durban mandate. Therefore, 2015 will be a critical year for the UNFCCC climate
negotiation process with at least 4 global negotiating sessions (February,
June, October, December) to be held with the view to adopt the 2015 climate
agreement in Paris.
