Environment Management Project Report 2

Durban Summit Salient Points

Table of Contents
1.

The Event............................................................................................................................3

2.

The negotiating process......................................................................................................4

3.

Outcomes of COP17 in Durban..........................................................................................4

4.

Those with their thumbs up say:.........................................................................................6

5.

Those with their thumbs down say:....................................................................................6

6.

COP17 Durban - Conclusion..............................................................................................7

Sources of Data:.........................................................................................................................8

1. The Event

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, was held from 28
November - 11 December 2011. The conference involved a series of events, including the
seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the seventh meeting of the Conference of the
Parties serving as the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 7)1.

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The Conference drew over 12,480 participants,

including over 5400 government officials, 5800
representatives of UN bodies and agencies,
intergovernmental organizations and civil
society organizations, and more than 1200
members of the media.
The expectations for the conference were
relatively modest. The UNFCCC negotiating
process was in a precarious position at the start of Durban as it was still recovering from
COP15 (Copenhagen, 2009). Despite some solid progress made at COP16 in Cancn
(December 2010), it was crucially important for the future of the process and any
internationally binding agreement that Durban delivered on key issues such as the post-2012
regime, adaptation and climate finance2.
Politically, there were four essential ingredients to the deal: Developing countries and South
Africa in particular were adamant that Kyoto not die on African soil. Europe was adamant
that it would only do another round of Kyoto if Durban launched new talks toward a
comprehensive binding agreement. The United States (along with Japan, Australia, Canada
and Russia) was adamant that any such agreement include major developing countries too.
And, for the first time, China, India and other emerging economies appeared to agree3.
Governments meeting at the COP17 Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa, have agreed to
adopt some form of a universal legal agreement on climate change as soon as possible, but
not later than 2015. For the first time, the worlds three major emitters of greenhouse gases China, the United States and India - responsible for around a half of total emissions have
agreed to begin negotiations for an international protocol.
The Durban Summit - which was attended by representatives of most governments in the
World, including the leading 35 industrialized countries - also agreed to a second
commitment period of the Kyoto Protocoldue to expire next year from 1 January 2013.
Parties to this second period will turn their economy-wide targets into quantified emission
limitation or reduction objectives and submit them for review by 1 May 2012.
The second commitment is significant because the Kyoto Protocols accounting rules,
mechanisms and markets all remain in action as effective tools to leverage global climate
action and as models to inform future agreements. Shortly after the Durban meeting,
however, Canada announced its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol.
2. The negotiating process

To understand the difficulties in the negotiating process, one needs to appreciate the fact that
there were two separate non-technical and multilateral negotiating streams in existence prior
to Durban. One was a Working Group on emissions reduction commitments and only
included developed countries that had ratified the Protocol and therefore excluded the US. A

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Durban Summit Salient Points

second Working Group focused on global efforts on

climate change in addition to the Protocol and
included both developed and developing countries4.
One of the critical problems of this set-up was the
lack of integration and consolidation between both
streams which often led to a fragmentation in the
negotiations and difficulties in finding consensus on
transcending issues. Particularly, some developing countries were typically reluctant to accept
any binding commitments on their side, as long as there was a lack of clarity on the future
commitments of the developed world under the Protocol. Given the absence of the US and
China from the Protocol and the resulting unwillingness of countries like Japan, Russia and
Canada to commit to any further commitments under that same framework, the deadlock was
perpetuated.
The agreement at Durban, for the first time, breaks down this firewall between developed
and developing countries which is a significant achievement. The next steps are to agree a
work plan in the first half of 2012. Officially the process is called, in UNFCCC parlance, the
Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action.
The UN process, however, continues to be fragile and there is no doubt that the debates in the
next few years will be stormy. There is no guarantee that there will be an outcome that will
produce the emissions reductions needed.
3. Outcomes of COP17 in Durban

The Kyoto Protocol - due to expire at the end of 2012 has been extended to 2017.

Negotiators agreed to start work on a new climate deal (to replace the Kyoto Protocol)
that would have legal force and require both developed and developing countries to cut
their carbon emissions. The conditions for this new legally binding agreement need to be
agreed by 2015 and will come into effect from 2020. The Durban Platform for Enhanced
Action is now in charge of developing the new legally binding protocol which will be
applicable under the U.N. climate change convention (UNFCCC) 5.

Biggest achievement in Durban:

o

China, the world's biggest emitter, agreed to be legally bound to curb their
greenhouse gases

The US, the second biggest emitter, also agreed the new agreement should be
legally binding

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Durban Summit Salient Points

Green Climate Fund The conference also resolved to establish the

Green Climate Fund to support policies and activities in developing
countries. A work programme will be established to look at sources of
long-term finance for developing countries, with the aim of mobilising
at least $100 billion per year by 2020.

A REDD-plus scheme to help preserve the rainforests of the Amazon Basin and
Indonesia. It will create financial incentives for developing countries to reduce carbon
emissions from deforestation and invest in conservation and sustainable management
efforts.

Technology The Technology Mechanism will become fully operational in 2012. The
full terms of reference for the operational arm of the Mechanismthe Climate
Technology Centre and Networkare agreed upon, along with a clear procedure to select
the host. The UNFCCC secretariat will issue a call for proposals for hosts on 16 January
2012.

People from Non-Government Organisations, Indigenous Peoples and Civil Society

Organisations are unhappy that negotiators failed to raise emissions cuts to a level high
enough to reduce global warming (so we are still moving towards a 4 degrees increase in
temperature). Scientists have shown evidence
that if the earths temperature rises above 2
degrees Celsius, we will have to deal with catastrophic climate
change. Scientists have even said that
we need to limit temperature rise to
1.5 degrees, but governments have not
agreed any plan for being able to
achieve this.

One

Other developments

of the core principles of the UN framework

Figure 1: The door to 2 degree
convention, common but differentiated
Celsius is closing
responsibilities (CBDR) and respective
capabilities is not in the new mandate. But without a clear formula for effort sharing and
implementation of climate equity in the global climate regime we will fail to raise the
necessary ambition and also risk a complete breakdown of the process.

o Reporting guidelines for developed and developing countries;

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Durban Summit Salient Points

o The creation of the Adaptation Committee, which will provide advice and ensure
coherent action on adaptation; The establishment in 2012 of the Technology
Executive Committee, to facilitate the development of low-carbon technologies;
o Further details of the framework for reducing emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation; a process for establishing new market-based mechanisms to
deliver effective reductions in emissions at least cost.
4. Those with their thumbs up say:

Getting 194 nations to agree on anything with legal force is a huge achievement6.

The agreement includes China, India and the US, the major emitters in the world (the EU
emits roughly around 14-15% of total world CO2 emission). Previously, poorer nations
have insisted that they should not bear any legal obligations for tackling climate change.
And given the US failed to ratify the Kyoto agreement, this is a historical outcome.

Although a modest outcome, it paves the way forward and removes important obstacles.
As Lord Stern, former World Bank chief economist and author of the landmark 2006
review of the economics of climate change, said: "...(the platform) could allow, for
example, the US to play a more participative and constructive role in the future."

5.Those with their thumbs down say:

All that was achieved in Durban was a pact that in four-year time we will have achieved
something that was deemed critical to achieve four years ago (but crashed and burned at
the Copenhagen Summit 2009).

Governments failed to address the warnings from the scientific community that stronger
and more urgent action is needed to cut emissions, instead spending crucial time
negotiating over wording. There was little talk of the actual scale of emissions cuts
required to avert disaster.

Whilst the worlds biggest emitters already have targets to reduce their greenhouse gas
emissions, and these will continue to apply until the new treaty takes over, they are not
legally-binding and scientists say they are not enough to hold global temperatures to 2C
above pre-industrial levels, which, according to scientists, is the limit before climate
change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.

Experts warn that a 4C change would result in a world crippled by drought. It would call
for the shifting of agriculture to new areas, impinging on wild ecosystems. It would mean
dramatic sea level rises, widespread disease and an increase in extreme weather events.
In such a 4C world, the limits for human adaptation are likely to be exceeded in many
parts of the world", said Rachel Warren, climate expert at the University of East Anglia.

Figure 2: India's chief climate change negotiator Natarajan at

the Durban Summit

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Durban Summit Salient Points

One thing is certain whilst this is

complexity, one that

6.

undoubtedly an issue of extreme

cannot be rectified overnight,
climate change wont pause whilst
we figure it out. Temperatures
will keep rising, the face of the earth
will keep changing, and lives will
continue to be affected. Urgent,
concrete action is required now.
COP17 Durban - Conclusion

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne, who led the UK delegation
at COP17 in Durban, gave a statement to the House of Commons on Monday 12 December
on the outcomes of the Conference. The key points of the statement are summarised below.

"The Durban conference represents a significant step forward. It has re-established the
principle that climate change should be tackled through international law, not through
national voluntarism. It has persuaded the major emerging economies to acknowledge, for
the first time, that their own emissions commitments will have to be legally bound7.

"It has encouraged all countries, also for the first time, to admit that their current climate
policies must be strengthened. It has established the Green Climate Fund to support the
poorest countries in tackling and responding to climate change.

"And it has preserved the invaluable legal framework of the Kyoto Protocol, while at the
same time opening the path to a new, more comprehensive and more ambitious global
agreement. It was a clear success for international cooperation.

"We still have much to do. Durban alone will not limit global warming to 2 degrees above
pre-industrial levels. But we have taken a clear and vital step toward our goal."

Sources of Data:

1. Durban Climate Change Conference - Summary & Analysis

http://climatechange.mtnforum.org/en/content/durban-climate-changeconference-summary-analysis
2. SUMMARY OF THE DURBAN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE
http://www.iisd.ca/vol12/enb12534e.html
3. Durban

How
Big
a
http://www.c2es.org/blog/diringere/durban-how-big-a-deal

Deal?

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Durban Summit Salient Points

4.

Durban
Blues

With
a
Hint
http://m.uk.mercer.com/articles/1446125?detail=D

of

Green

5. Global climate change treaty in sight after Durban breakthrough

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/11/global-climatechange-treaty-durban
6. The
Durban
Platform:
http://www.sustainabletable.org.au/TableTalk/tabid/53/EntryId/26/TheDurban-Platform.aspx
7. COP17

Durban

Key
Achievements
http://ukinhongkong.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/working-with-hongkong/climate-change/durban-summit/cop17-key-achievements