Threads of hope

The COP8 began in New Delhi in October 2002, with participation from 167 member countries, three observer states, 213 intergovernmental organisations and NGOs, and many media outlets. The seventeenth sessions of the COP’s Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) were also held during the COP8. Two things were primarily on the minds of participants: how to kickstart the Kyoto Protocol implementation and how to address the issues of transfer of technology and capacity building of developing countries? The COP8 also marked a new phase because the last four conferences were all about negotiating and drawing an action plan to implement the Kyoto Protocol, as the following will illustrate:

* COP4: Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA);

* COP5: Bonn, where preparatory work for next Conferences was taken up;

* COP6: Bonn Accords;

* COP7: Marrakesh Accords.

Being held in New Delhi for the first time, it was natural that the issues of concern to developing countries got a fair amount of attention. In addition to the capacity building and transfer of technology issues, there was also an emphasis on development priorities, poverty eradication and adaptation concerns. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities was often highlighted.

Discussions at COP8

COP8 opened with the outgoing COP7 President underlining the importance of the Marrakesh Accords and how these need to be triggered to begin the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. The incoming President, the Indian Environment and Forest Minister, T Baalu, echoed the outgoing President and emphasised that the Kyoto Protocol should be brought into force without delay. He also highlighted the importance of sustainable development and how it was inextricably linked to climate change. To quote him:

“The links between climate change and sustainable development had highlighted the problems of poverty, land degradation, access to water and food, human health, and the use of energy. {…} Climate change in the context of sustainable development would be addressed in the envisaged Delhi Declaration”

Bringing the Kyoto Protocol into force was still not a done deal because of the US having pulled out. The initial condition of ratification by 55 developed countries accounting for 55 per cent of the 1990 emissions was still unmet. While the EU and Japan had ratified in 2002, the Protocol needed to be ratified by Russia, which was holding out. A ‘cold war’ flavour had thus entered climate change negotiations.

There were a lot of discussions on how developing countries could improve their national communications and how to improve transparency in administering financial assistance to developing countries. These discussions on processes only served to delay the actual financial assistance to developing countries.

Another feature of COP8 was that the US was back as a ‘player’, though it continued to have an observer status officially. The US struck bilateral ‘nature for debt’ swap deals with a few developing countries such as Thailand, Belize and El Salvador, which led to a feeling among many members that the US was undermining the official COP negotiations. The US stance on the Kyoto Protocol also took a U-turn, saying that it did not expect developing countries to take any binding commitments and that each developing country could decide its own response to climate change.

The EU, on the other hand, continued to strongly advocate the need to put the Kyoto Protocol into force. Other developed countries such as Canada, Australia, Japan also supported the Kyoto Protocol but also emphasised the need for flexibility and the importance of market-based mechanisms such as emissions trading and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

In parallel with the conference, the Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) discussed many important issues such as the national registries of greenhouse gases, review of information on emission reduction units (ERUs), certified emissions reductions (CERs), assigned amount units (AAUs), removal units (RMUs), and activities implemented jointly (AIJ). There were numerous proposals submitted and discussed: a proposal by the EU to discuss a system of accounting that included temporary certified emissions reductions, a proposal by G77 on non-permanence of carbon sequestration in forests under the CDM and finance developing countries to enhance forest stocks because of this non-permanence, a proposal by Brazil to set differentiated emission reduction targets for Parties according to the impact of their historic emissions on temperature rise etc.

The Delhi Declaration

At the end of the Conference, even though there was no progress on implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, countries managed to put together a Declaration. The Delhi Declaration will be remembered for putting developing country positions and sensibilities such as adaptation on an equal footing with mitigation issues. COP8, in fact, came to be called the ‘Adaptation Conference’. The salient features of the Declaration were:

* All relevant Annex I Parties must ratify the Kyoto Protocol as soon as possible.

* Climate change objectives in the areas of water, energy, agriculture, and biodiversity should be integrated with the national sustainable development programmes. The resolutions in the World Sustainable Summit on Development (WSSD) in this regard were recalled.

* Special attention must be paid to the adverse effects of climate change and implementation of response measures, particularly in developing countries, and they must be compensated for these adverse effects.

* Parties should continue to meet targets set out in previous national communications and in line with the Kyoto Protocol, irrespective of its ratification or not.

* Technology transfer and capacity building in developing countries must be speeded up to enable them to address challenges of adaptation and mitigation.

* Adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change is a high priority for all countries, in particular for vulnerable developing nations. This is important, especially from the point of equity and justice, since the developing nations are disproportionately affected by climate change but have contributed the least to it.

Conclusion

While the COP8 did not make any headway in the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and differences persisted between developed and developing countries, it did manage to strike a few successes. For one, a consensual declaration kept the political interest alive in the climate change issues. Other important issues that were highlighted were developing country issues of technology transfer and capacity building. But above all, the issue of adaptation was highlighted for the first time and was put on an equal pedestal as mitigation issues.

The writer is Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Mass Education Extension and Library Services and Department of Cooperation, Government of West Bengal