Lima results

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.