Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The Durban Climate Change Conference went into extra time over the weekend as negotiators battled exhaustion to achieve a deal on future commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general, welcomed the new agreement as "essential for stimulating greater action and for raising the level of ambition and the mobilization of resources to respond to the challenges of climate change."

The resulting agreement covers the launch of a new protocol or legal instrument that would apply to all parties to the convention (to be adopted no later than 2015), a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol (to start 2013) and the launch of the Green Climate Fund. The Technology Mechanism, which will promote access by developing countries to clean, low-carbon technologies, and the Adaptation Committee, responsible for the coordination of adaptation activities world-wide, were formally established. "I salute the countries who made this agreement. They have all laid aside some cherished objectives of their own to meet a common purpose - a long-term solution to climate change," Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC executive secretary, said.

The Durban Climate Change Conference made progress on two of the major issues concerning the future of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major industrialized nations agreed to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which will start on January 1st 2013. Parties to this second period will turn their existing targets into quantified emission limitation or reduction objectives for review by May 1st 2012. "This is highly significant because the Kyoto Protocol's accounting rules, mechanisms and markets all remain in action as effective tools to leverage global climate action and as models to inform future agreements," commented Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC executive secretary.

The Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action will begin work immediately to "develop a new protocol, another legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force" that will cover all parties to the convention, including the developing nations. This legally-binding agreement should be adopted as soon as possible, but by 2015 at the latest, and will be operational by 2020. "Where Kyoto divides the world into two categories, we will now get a system that reflects the reality of today's mutually interdependent world," said Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action. "I think in the end it ended up quite well," commented United States chief negotiator Todd Stern. "The first time you will see developing countries agreeing, essentially, to be bound by a legal agreement." Sunita Narain from the Centre for Science and Environment in India described the outcome as an important turning point. "At this conference, the matter of equity has been re-asserted; but the open resistance of the rich countries to sharing global ecological and economic space has also been noted. The fight is out in the open," she said.

The Durban Climate Change Conference committed to full implementation of the package to support developing nations agreed a year ago in Cancún. "This means that urgent support for the developing world, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable to adapt to climate change, will also be launched on time," said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The package includes the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Committee and a Technology Mechanism.

With start-up costs already pledged, the Green Climate Fund can be made ready in 2012. A standing committee, to maintain an overview of climate finance, will consist of 20 members, with equal representation from the developed and developing world. A focused work programme on long-term finance was agreed. This will contribute to the scaling up of climate change finance and analyse options for the mobilization of resources from a range of sources. The goal of the Adaptation Committee is to improve the coordination of adaptation actions at a global scale. It was agreed that, above all, the adaptive capacities of the poorest and most vulnerable countries are to be strengthened and the most vulnerable are to receive better protection against loss and damage caused by extreme weather events related to climate change. National Adaptation Plans will allow developing countries to assess and reduce their vulnerability to climate change. The Technology Mechanism will become fully operational in 2012 and the full terms of reference for the operational arm of the Mechanism, the Climate Technology Centre and Network, have been agreed, along with the procedure to select the host. Finally, a registry to record developing country mitigation actions in need of financial support will be established and match these with support.