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| No Danish text, small drafting groups to meet |
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| Written by Meena Raman | |||
| Monday, 04 January 2010 17:57 | |||
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Copenhagen, 17 Dec (Meena Raman) -- The basis of negotiations at the climate conference would be texts that are outcomes of the Working Groups that had worked until Wednesday and not any texts prepared by the Danish Presidency. This was confirmed during the resumed meetings of the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as well as the COP serving as the Meeting of Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) on Thursday, 17 December. The Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, who is the President of the COP and CMP clarified the way forward as regards the negotiations, following heightened anxieties among developing country Parties that the Prime Minister would "parachute texts from the sky" in what they feared would be an undemocratic and nontransparent process. With only one day remaining before the Heads of States meet on Friday, 18 December to adopt decisions, small drafting groups will now meet to work on draft texts from the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) and the Ad-hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex 1 Parties on the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). These have been agreed to by Parties and adopted as the basis for further work, as these texts contain many unresolved differences as reflected by options and square brackets in the texts. The Danish Prime Minister first convened the meeting of the COP, which was then followed by the CMP. Rasmussen said that after consultations with the G77 and China and with other regional groups and Parties, the documentary basis for the decisions to be adopted by the Heads of States would be the draft texts of from the AWG-LCA and the AWG-KP and there would be no other texts. As for the method of work, Rasmussen clarified that the resolution of outstanding issues would be through the establishment of two contact groups - one relating to the work of the AWG-KP and the other of the AWG-LCA. Both these contact groups would be chaired by Minister for Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard, who was appointed the special representative of the Prime Minster. The mandate of the contact groups is to work on any unresolved issues and that the deadline would be short. Ms. Hedegaard is to also convene open-ended drafting groups as needed and the intention is for the small groups to work efficiently and transparently. Co-chairs will be selected "from people whom we know and trust" said the COP President. He also said that the contact group under the CMP (relating to the Kyoto Protocol outcome) will meet first, followed by the contact group under the COP (to work on outcome of the Bali Action Plan). Ambassador Lumumba Stanislaus DiAping of Sudan, speaking for the G77 and China at the CMP meeting, referring to the Danish Prime Minister's reference to "people whom we know and trust", said that Parties have in the process been working with co-chairs and facilitators for two years and their Ministers are also here in Copenhagen. DiAping expressed a preference for them to take on the job at hand, as they understand the issues and the nuances related to the issues. He said that unless these are the persons who will be tasked with the work, the G77 and China will not be able to agree on the matter, as these have been the people who have been guiding the Parties. The G77 and China also wanted confirmation that the result of the process will produce two separate documents for the COP and the CMP and it is these documents that will be forwarded to the Heads of States. No other documents which have not been agreed to by Parties should be presented, said DiAping. "This is what democracy, transparency and equal voice means in this house," he added. The G77 and China also wanted the prioritization of the agenda with the contact group on the KP to start work first, to be followed then by the contact group under the COP. In the meeting of the COP Sudan, represented by Bernarditas Mueller who spoke for the G77 and China wanted clarity on the "short deadline" mentioned by the COP President. She said that two precious days of negotiations on the text were lost as there was no clarity of the process. It was not the fault of the G77 and China that the process was unclear, she said. In the consideration of the deadline for negotiations, Mueller said that the lost days must be taken into account and allow Parties to work to ensure a successful outcome. In response to the G77 and China, the Danish Prime Minister said that the contact groups can decide on the time needed. He confirmed that negotiations will be carried out in the two-track process and that the KP contact group will be the first to start work. In his concluding remarks, Rasmussen said that the Conference was at a critical juncture and there was need to take the extra step to make a deal that is expected. He said that Parties have come a long way in identifying the "make or break issues". Parties must address them, as in the next 36 hours, the Conference would be joined by "decision-making power that the world has never seen in many years". There is need to make the conference a turning point, he said. Immediately following these two meetings, the 2 contact groups chaired by Ms. Hedegaard met to organize their work. Small drafting groups chaired by the same persons as in the AWG-KP and AWG-LCA went straight to work. The drafting groups will report back to the contact groups late afternoon on Thursday. TWN Update No. 21 Copenhagen News Update 17 December 2009 Published by the Third World Network www.twnside.org.sg Like it? Share it!
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