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Stephan Singer, WWF International,
and Christoph Bals, Germanwatch
Published in: e-mission 55 Newsletter
Bonn left a number of crucial issues untouched - Tricky technicalities are the main challenges of the Marrakech climate conference.
The Climate Summit in Marrakech (COP 7) will very likely not create as much media attention as did COP 6bis in Bonn earlier this year for the attendance of a large variety of stakeholders. However, it would be false to assume that COP 7 is not important, or even that everything is going smoothly now.
Major deal and a notable exception
Contrary to common belief not everything was agreed upon earlier this year at COP 6bis in Bonn, when a major deal was struck amongst all parties with the notable exception of one country.
It is true that the Bonn political agreement paved the way towards the major articles of the Kyoto Protocol with a view to making it ratifiable, particularly after the breathtaking failure of COP 6 at The Hague last year and after the rude refusal to participate in the treaty by the Bush administration in March.
Efforts are being made to re-open some issues
However, the overall satisfactory political deal reached in Bonn cannot disguise the fact that many underlying technicalities have still to be agreed upon in Marrakech. And some countries have already threatened to re-open or at least re-negotiate certain issues.
This holds true for Russia and some non-European OECD countries. The issues they are seeking to re-open concern the allocation of sinks (in the case of Russia which is asking for considerably higher allowances for domestic carbon sequestration under forest management) or the highly contentious issues of compliance, where Japan, Australia and Canada are likely to become nasty.
Behind the main technicalities to be discussed and agreed in Marrakech (in technical papers attached to the political agreement of Bonn) are key issues of greenhouse gas inventories, verification and monitoring ("5,7,8" issues, according to articles 5, 7, and 8 of the Kyoto treaty).
Verification and monitoring is important for the eligibility of countries and industries to participate in the Flexibility Mechanisms, e.g. Emissions Trading, Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation.
Definitions and modalities for sink projects
But environmentally safe standards also have to be agreed upon for the use of sinks, in addition to the application of proper monitoring and verification before even one tonne of carbon sequestered in forests or soils can be credited. The Bonn agreement asks the subsidiary bodies of the Convention and the IPCC to develop definitions and modalities for sinks projects under the CDM by COP 9 in order to avoid leakage, nonpermanence and projects detrimental to biodiversity. This needs strong support.
Similarly, no baselines have as yet been agreed against which investors can credit carbon reduction resulting from additional efforts under the CDM in a host country – true for both energy and reforestation projects. Although the Bonn agreement still emphasises preferential treatment for renewable and small energy efficiency projects, as compared with the more mainstream investments in the CDM, modalities for implementation have yet to be discussed. In conclusion, technical issues figure high on the agenda - at first sight less attractive than the "big picture" stuff. But these technical issues are highly political for ratification, implementation, and not least for the credibility and environmental effectiveness of the Treaty.There have been many examples in the past of all kinds of cases where underestimated technicalities proved to be the major bottlenecks for sound agreements.
A sound agreement is needed
History has frequently proven that the more detailed and the more technical the agreements struck, the better this has been for the security of participants (and investors) as well as for clarity from the governments’ point of view.
And that is what is needed: sound
agreements with a high degree of technical security - so that governments
can start to ratify the treaty immediately after Marrakech, in order to
ensure that it can enter into force by Rio+10.