Tiempo Climate Newswatch

As the Bangkok Climate Change Conference opened, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, set a clear focus for the negotiations through the remainder of the year. For the next climate change summit to be a success, she said, "the unanswered political questions need to be addressed - most importantly, the level of ambition and the legal nature of mitigation commitments after 2012." The summit will be held in Durban, South Africa, in December.

As the meeting ended, Figueres was positive that progress had been made as far as future of the Kyoto Protocol was concerned. "It was pretty clear that there is no country that is fundamentally opposed to a second commitment period," she said. "Whether they individually participate in it or not is a different issue, but there is no country fundamentally opposed to a second commitment period." Much of the Bangkok meeting had, however, been pre-occupied with procedural matters, with lengthy argument over the roadmap for 2011 and just what should be achieved in Durban threatening to block progress. As far as developing countries are concerned, the Cancún Agreements represent a step forward but they do not cover all the issues on the agenda of the Bali Action Plan. The developed nations want to work through the technicalities of the Cancún Agreements in a step-by-step fashion, without tackling other matters. Agreement was finally reached on the way forward, but the process undermined the momentum generated by Cancún. "Thank god we came up with an agenda," commented Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, chair of the Africa Group. "It's a pity it took so long. What does it say for the rest of the year?" he added. Referring to the discussion as necessary and very healthy, Figueres did confess that she wished that the process had been faster, but so be it. "They have taken the time that they needed," she said. She warned that the negotiators would have to take every opportunity to advance the work, for example, making use of other venues and informal workshops, in order to arrive in Durban with a solid basis for agreement.

As the Bangkok Climate Change Conference came to an end, Pablo Solón, Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations, denied that developed nations are taking the leading in emissions reductions. "What's on the table in these negotiations is that 65 per cent of emission reductions happen in developing countries and just 35 per cent happen in developed countries, even though it is they who caused the problem of climate change." Solón said. "This is like someone burning down your crops, making you do all the work to replant them and then acting like a hero when they give you a tiny discount on the seeds," he continued.

It has been estimated that a global emissions reduction of 14 gigatonnes a year by 2020 is needed to meet the goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. Current pledges lodged with the United Nations total between 6.and 8.7 gigatonnes. "Of these inadequate pledges," Solón observed, "in the worst case scenario, only three gigatonnes are included in rich countries pledges, in contrast to 3.6 gigatonnes in developing countries - giving up the lie that it is developed countries which are 'leading' emission reductions."

Ozone depletion over the Arctic has reached record levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). By the end of March, low winter temperatures in the upper atmosphere had contributed to a 40 per cent loss of ozone, compared to the previous record of 30 per cent.

"The Montreal Protocol actually works, and the amount of ozone-depleting gases is on the way down, but quite slowly," commented Geir Braathen, a WMO senior scientist. "In the meantime, we have some winters that get much colder than before and also the cold periods last longer, into the spring. So it's really a combination of the gases still there and low temperatures and then sunshine, and then you get ozone loss."