Introduction
COP19 ended in Warsaw, Poland on the 23rd of November after intense negotiations. The final segment of the Conference ran well into the night on Saturday following 38 hours of non-stop negotiations. Although some progress was made on the agriculture negotiations many believed much more could have been done. Notable progress was achieved in a number of other key issues including the Durban Platform, loss and damage and REDD+. Clearing the last remaining stumbling blocks for implementation of REDD+ was perhaps the most celebrated achievement of COP19, marking what many described as a great leap forward in a key area after six years of negotiations. For many in the agriculture community, the breakthrough on REDD+ brought renewed belief that the seemingly endless negotiations on agriculture will one day bear fruit.
Agriculture
As per the last communication, no decisions were made on advancing agriculture in the climate change negotiations held at COP19. The only activity at this COP on agriculture was a scheduled workshop on the technical and scientific aspects of agriculture and climate change held on the 12th of November. The workshop saw substantive engagement on issues of agriculture and food security, how climate change is impacting the sector and how science and technology can be applied to inform response measures. Presentations were made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and several government delegates on behalf of different negotiating blocks. Discussions revealed a broad range of technical and scientific options and countries appeared to be moving gradually beyond their polarized positions. A workshop report will be available in March for parties and observer organizations to comment ahead of substantive negotiations at the next SBSTA session scheduled for June 2014 in Bonn, Germany.
Despite this encouraging start to COP19, no further negotiations on agriculture were held in Warsaw, largely because the G77&China (comprising developing countries), which is the largest negotiating block, strongly opposed any further discussions before the release of the workshop report. Our meetings with them revealed that they feared that any further negotiations at COP19 before the workshop report would open a parallel track to the science-based discussions held at the workshop which should form the basis for moving forward. In their view, any parallel negotiations on agriculture would open doors to political wrangling. To keep negotiations on one track, the G77&China resolved to push all further discussions on agriculture to SBSTA40 (June) in Bonn next year.
Key people at the center of the agriculture negotiations were highly optimistic that 50% of the remaining work on agriculture will be done in Bonn, with a possible deal on the table in Peru at COP20. More cautious optimists predicted that agriculture will only get a deal in Paris at COP21.
Outcomes from other key issues discussed at COP19
1. The Durban Platform (ADP)
A key area of the climate change negotiations is a negotiation track that is referred to as the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action or ADP. Formed at COP17 in Durban, the ADP aims to accelerate the development of a universal agreement to succeed the Kyoto protocol. The new agreement will be a legally binding instrument with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties. It is scheduled to be adopted at COP21 in Paris (2015) and will only come into effect and be implemented from 2020. Under this new agreement, countries will agree on new mitigation ambitions and the options for a range of actions to be taken with a view to ensuring the highest possible mitigation efforts by all countries.
At Warsaw countries agreed on what is being seen as a key step in keeping negotiations on tract for an agreement in 2015. The Parties requested the ADP “to further elaborate, beginning at its first session in 2014, elements for a draft negotiating text, ..…..on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer, capacity-building and transparency of action and support’. The agreement will also see all countries submitting their ‘intended nationally determined contributions’ towards achieving mitigation efforts.
2. Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage
After intense and often highly polarised negotiations between developed and developing countries, the conference also decided to establish an international mechanism to provide the most vulnerable populations with better protection against loss and damage caused by extreme weather events and slow onset events such as rising sea levels. Detailed work on the so-called “Warsaw international mechanism for loss and damage” will begin next year.
3. REDD+
Perhaps the most notable area of progress, COP19 agreed on a significant set of decisions on ways to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and the degradation of forests, which account for around one fifth of all human-generated emissions. At the closing press briefing President Korolec highlighted this achievement saying “I am proud of this concrete accomplishment. We are all aware of the central role that forests play as carbon sinks, climate stabilizers and biodiversity havens. Through our negotiations we have made a significant contribution to forest preservation and sustainable use which will benefit the people who live in and around them and humanity and the planet as a whole. And I am proud that this instrument was named the Warsaw Framework for REDD+.” The Framework essentially completes the much-need rule book for the implementation of the scheme, comprising a package of measures that will provide results-based payments to developing countries for preserving forests.
The deal marks a great leap forward after six years of work on the issue, where Donors have been looking for appropriate rules that would allow them to verify the emissions reductions achieved through the scheme. Germany, Norway, the UK, and the US agreed to a financing package worth US$280 million in support of REDD+. The plan, dubbed the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes, aims to kick-start efforts geared towards REDD+ in Developing Countries.