Negotiations on Monday commenced the final week of climate talks. The ADP Group considered the progress made thus far and began negotiations on a draft decision 1/CP.21. The negotiations picked up the pace in addressing more substance related issues, political questions and the potential structure for the new global climate agreement. The focus was placed upon a more concise, tailored and manageable draft of the Paris Agreement.
Negotiations also continued where the SBI contact groups and informal consultations continued under both SBI and SBSTA, and towards the latter part of the day, the second part of the 4th meeting of the Durban Forum on Capacity Building and in-sessions workshops on gender-responsive climate policy was held.
In terms of SBI, there was a revision of the “Guidelines for Preparation of National Communications by Parties included in Annex 1 to the convention, Part II: UNFCCC Reporting Guideline on National Communications,” on Monday. They also reviewed the modalities and procedures for the development mechanism.
Further, the ADP also provided a working document which recorded observations on consolidating different paragraphs and considered options that have come up during the negotiations.
The ADP Contact group mainly dealt with the need to have clarity and simplicity of the text; the negotiations also moved in to the structure of the 1/ CP.21 decision, while the facilitated group meetings were held on time frame, capacity building and technology. With reference to the structure for decision 1/CP.21, parties have noted that it should capture the following aspects:
The Subsidiary Bodies held the 4th meeting of the Durban Forum on Capacity Building which mainly focused on INDC preparation and implementation. Negotiations on Monday highlighted the importance of starting to start negotiations relating to the text of the new agreement.
(c) UNFCCC
The day was more focused on the negotiation of the SBI, where they considered revision of the” Guidelines for preparation of national communications by Parties included in Annex 1 to the convention, Part II: UNFCCC reporting guideline on national communications”, and delivered the outcome of the first round of the international assessment and review process. They also reviewed the joint implementation guidelines of draft text on capacity- building under the Convention. There were intergovernmental meetings and the draft text was negotiated in light of budget performance for the biennium 2014-2015.
In terms of ADP, there were facilitated meetings on Finance, Mitigation, Capacity Building, Technology development and Transfer, Adaptation and Loss and damage.
The Facilitated group meeting on finance and work stream 2 were convened.
In terms of finance, the facilitated group negotiations commenced with the Co-Chair announcing a revised document, while the parties noted the importance of streamlining the text.
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US and Switzerland for the EIG, recommended that the paragraphs on contributions should come under the legal agreement while Brazil, for the developing countries suggested that ADP mandate can be fulfilled by addressing scale.
China, supported by many of the developing countries suggested that finance should be reflected in all the relevant sections of the text.
With reference to work stream 2, the Co-facilitator Aya Yoshida announced questions to guide parties discussion on Technical Examination Process.
Mali made an announcement on improvement of access to TEP by country experts; and fast paced implementation mechanism and MRV of support and invited the Secretariat to prepare a technical paper analysing the gaps in MOI provision.
Maldives made a submission on ways to enhance actions, to make better use of the institutions and to have better institutional support.
With reference to institutional arrangements EU noted that TEP should remain under the COP while New Zealand, Australia recommended that it should be “housed” under the SBI, while Peru noted that a combined SBSTA-SBI agenda would be possible.
The developing countries in general highlighted a party-driven process and noted that TEM should address adaptation as well.
US, EU and Australia have noted that, on transforming TEP into practical action on the field, they need to evolve further and should be reviewed and improved on a daily basis.
Japan, EU, Norway and Bangladesh noted the importance of timely delivery of TEM outcomes to policymakers.
One of the important suggestions made by Bolivia was to include a 1.5 oC or 2oC limit and many parties wanted to use the Proposal of the African Group as a starting point.
The negotiations also continued with reference to capacity building, technology in terms of ADP. The subsidiary bodies also convened as contacts groups to address methodological guidance for REDD+, accounting, reporting and review requirements for annex 1 parties and clarifications of the text in section G of the Doha Amendment to Kyoto Protocol.
One of the interesting highlights of the day was the workshop on Gender Responsive Climate Policy moderated by Veronica Gundu, which addressed mitigation and technology development and transfer. There were presentations on gender aspects of CTCN and TEC work, gender mainstreaming efforts of the GEF, GCF gender policy and action plan, improvement of gender components, gender-responsive climate financing and gender-responsive mitigation technology needs in Africa.
SBSTA agenda has reached a considerable progress given to willingness to compromise and adopt a flexible approach, while the SB items in the agenda and the ADP negotiations were hampered by various issues such as the extensive focus on procedure as opposed to the substantive elements of the text.
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