Expectations Low for Upcoming Durban Climate Talks

The 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will take place in the Durban, a resort in South Africa, from Nov. 28 to Dec. 6. The meeting will be the last chance for the parties to reach a legally-binding treaty to carry out the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, whose first phase will expire in 2012.

The conference will be attended by representatives of governments, international organizations and the civil society. The discussion will seek to advance the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol in accordance with the Mandate of the Bali Roadmap, agreed in 2007, and the Cancun Agreements, reached last December.

Three UN climate talks have been held since Cancun in Bangkok, Bonn and Panama City. The Bangkok climate talks, held in April of this year, were unable to bridge the gaps between emission reduction pledges of developed and developing countries. But participants did set the roadmap for the upcoming Durban Conference.

The Bonn talks, which spanned two weeks in early June, made “clear advances” on such issues as extending carbon trading mechanisms, climate fund management and slowing deforestation, United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres said at the closing press conference. Panama talks conducted from Oct. 1 to 7 were the last preparatory negotiations in the lead-up to the Durban conference. They were expected to lay a solid foundation for the Durban Conference, but made little substantial progress.

The lack of progress at this year’s preliminary meetings has diminished expectations for the Durban talks. Questions expected to be addressed at the conference include the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, the implementation of the Cancun Accord and various aid to be provided by developed countries to help developing ones meet emissions targets.