From November 28 to December 11, 2011, delegates from 194 countries met in Durban, South Africa for the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). With the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol’s initial commitment period looming at the end of 2012, the Durban conference delegates were focused on reaching an agreement to extend or replace the existing UN climate regime.
The negotiators ultimately reached an agreement entitled the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (the Platform is available online). While the absence of specific details as to what is to be agreed by 2015 introduces considerable uncertainty, for the first time a number of nations which contribute significantly to global GHG emissions have agreed to accept legally binding targets on GHG from 2020. This list includes Brazil, China, India and the US.
Four key actions were agreed upon to build towards a global carbon agreement requiring all major emitters to reduce emissions:
- Kyoto Protocol Extension. The Kyoto Protocol has been extended for a second commitment period and 35 developed country parties committed to taking on binding emission-reduction commitments after the Kyoto Protocol expires on December 31, 2012. This second commitment period will run from January 1, 2013 to either December 31, 2017 or December 31, 2020, with the final expiration date to be decided upon next year. The parties who committed to a second round of reduction obligations were primarily from the European Union (EU) and have already committed to internally binding emission reduction targets. Certain other industrialized parties, such as Australia, will not take on targets under a second commitment period until a new international climate agreement has been finalized. Japan and Russia have also declared that they will not submit to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol.
- Global Carbon Agreement. All UNFCCC parties are required to establish, by 2015, “a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force” that would come into force in 2020. This agreement will replace the Kyoto Protocol and impose binding emissions reductions on both developed and developing nations (including the US, China and India). The goal remains to limit global warming to 2° Celsius. Nations did ot change the emission reduction commitments they made at the 2009 Copenhagen and 2010 Cancun climate talks. Rules will be developed in 2012.
- Green Climate Fund (GCF). It was agreed that up to US$100 billion per annum by 2020 will be transferred to developing nations for mitigation and adaptation measures. However, it still remains to be seen how the parties will finance the GCF, but it is expected that the GCF will leverage private sector capital to source results-based investments in emission reduction projects.
- Work Plan. Starting in the first half of 2012, the Durban Platform Working Group will plan its work on matters such as mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer, transparency of action, and support and capacity-building.
Other key outcomes include:
- Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). CCS was approved to qualify for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and earn carbon credits (under the Kyoto Protocol). 5 per cent of credits issued will be held in a reserve to ensure carbon dioxide does not leak from approved CCS projects for 20 years.
- Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). Supportive market-based mechanisms and funding will be discussed through 2012.
As a result of the extension of Kyoto and a second commitment period, emissions offset markets based on the CDM and Joint Implementation (JI) will remain active. Although details have not been finalized, it is likely that the EU will continue to accept certified emission reductions (CERs), which are awarded under the CDM to emission reduction projects in developing countries, and emission reduction units (ERUs), which are awarded under the JI to such projects in certain developed countries. The EU has committed to a third phase of its Emissions Trading System, which contemplates the continued use of international offset credits such as CERs and ERUs.
It is anticipated that carbon markets will continue to play an important role in the new international climate treaty to be established by 2015. According to Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, the extension of Kyoto will enable its accounting rules, flexibility mechanisms and markets to remain as models to inform future agreements.
Within a day of the negotiations closing, Canada announced that it will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol before the end of the year, with the intent that it will no longer have an enforceable emissions reduction commitment. Canada will, however, remain a party to the UNFCCC and a participant in international climate negotiations.
The next key date is February 28, 2012 when parties must submit their views on raising what the conference called the “level of ambition” to achieve significant mitigation, so that a work plan can be launched. The next round of UNFCCC negotiations will take place in Qatar from November 26 to December 7, 2012.