The next round of United Nations climate negotiations begin tomorrow in Cancun, Mexico. This is the first major round of climate talks since the Copenhagen conference, which despite initially high expectations was regarded by many as a failure. Slow progress during intermediate negotiations throughout this year has left pretty much everyone involved in the process
Rock Crushing Machine downplaying the likelihood of anything major coming out of the Cancun talks. These talks will last for two weeks, running until 10 December. Unlike Copenhagen, world leaders will not be converging on Cancun but countries will be represented by their senior climate negotiators and a high-level segment at the end of the conference will see the arrival of environment ministers from most countries.
The first stream, in the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA), will be considering what form a post-2012 climate agreement should take. This doesnt mean we will begin to see the form of any post-2012 agreement, but some of the likely content should become clearer. There will also be debate over the role of the Copenhagen Accord, which some countries
Coal Grinder Mill Machine see as critical to a future agreement and others want to see shelved.There is also likely to be some progress on measuring, reporting and verification (MRV in UN-speak) for countries actions to combat climate change, including on emission reductions. However, the AWG-LCA is unlikely to see a great deal of debate around the thorny issue of countries pledges on reducing carbon emissions, a key long-term issue in any future agreement.
Within AWG-LCA much work will be focussed on financial issues and the establishment of a fund to channel the $100 billion a year by 2020 to assist developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change that was
Bentonite Processing Plant committed to in Copenhagen. Progress on financing is an issue of keen interest to the WCA. It will be key to providing and motivating the finance necessary to facilitate the demonstration and deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology (see the recent article in Ecoal on this topic). Financing to help reduce deforestation will also be an important issue for the AWG-LCA and there is some hope that there can be progress on these two issues.
The second stream of work will take place in the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) which will be considering the future of the only major climate agreement to come out of the UNFCCC process in 1997. Debate here will focus around a potential second commitment period after the current period expires in 2012. There is, however, strong disagreement about any second
Manganese Ore Beneficiation commitment period as the Kyoto Protocol only contains binding targets for industrialised countries. Developing countries like its compliance provisions and that it shelters them from tougher obligations while they deal with the pressing issue of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. For many developing countries, securing a second commitment period is a key pre-condition for supporting a more comprehensive post-2012 climate agreement.
