By IPS Correspondents
BONN, Jul 24 2001 (IPS)

Developing countries’ delegates at UN climate talks here have regained diplomatic ground lost during negotiations last November in The Hague, Netherlands.

A broad political agreement reached Monday by 180 members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on rules for implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol was made possible by the “constructive role” played by the developing countries’ Group of 77 (G-77) and China. Particularly significant was the role of G-77 chairman, Bagher Asadi, who is Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in New York.

Germany’s Environment Minister Juergen Trittin paid homage Saturday to “the members of the G-77 and China and its chairman for the constructive role they have played in the Bonn negotiations.”

Jan Pronk, the Dutch environment minister and conference president, further credited Asadi with helping steer negotiators toward Monday’s agreement.

For his part, Asadi described the political agreement as “the triumph of multilateralism and cooperation over unilaterialism”. This was an obvious reference to US President George W. Bush, who pulled out of the Kyoto process in mid-March and decried the treaty as “fatally flawed” and harmful to the US economy.

“This (the Bonn political accord) should, no doubt, augur well for the future of this process and other multilateral processes,” said Asadi. “Let us hope the achievement here today would prove conducive to the early re-engagement of all members of the international community in the continuation of the process.”

It was at the insistence of the G-77 and China that UNFCCC members have agreed to establish a special climate change fund and a fund for least developed countries under the 1992 Framework Convention to help developing countries adapt to climate change impacts, obtain clean technologies, and limit the growth in their emissions of greenhouse gases.

In addition, a Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund will be established to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes.

The amount of money to be made available to the three funds is not mentioned in the agreement adopted Monday. Rather, the 15-nation European Union (EU) and other donor nations issue a political declaration, saying: “We take full account of the need for predictable and adequate levels of funding to help developing countries meet their obligations under the Convention and to prepare for entry into force of the Protocol.”

They said they were prepared to contribute 410 million dollars per year by 2005 and would review the level of support in 2008.

The declaration says the donors are “committed to prompt start and effective operation” of the funds and the so-called Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The CDM is intended to encourage industrialised countries to invest in climate-friendly projects in developing countries by allowing them to receive credits for the greenhouse emissions averted by these projects. In turn, they can use these credits to offset the amount by which they must reduce their own emissions.

The rules specify that energy efficiency, renewable energy, and forest sink projects can qualify for the CDM, while wealthy nations are to refrain from using nuclear facilities in the CDM. An executive board has been set up to oversee the mechanism.

“Today’s agreement will keep up the pressure for early emissions reductions by governments and the private sector in the developed world,” said Michael Zammit Cutajar, executive secretary of the convention.

“It should also strengthen financial and technological support to developing countries to enable them to take action on climate change. The next step is for developed country governments to ratify the Protocol so that it can enter into force as quickly as possible – preferably by 2002.”

One of the most difficult issues to resolve was how much credit developed countries could receive toward their Kyoto targets through the use of sinks, which absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

The meeting agreed that the eligible activities would include re- vegetation and the management of forests, croplands and grazing lands. Individual country quotas were set; the result is that sinks will account for only a fraction of the emissions reductions that can be counted towards the Kyoto targets.

Other rules agreed address the international emissions trading regime, which enables developed countries to buy and sell emissions credits amongst themselves, and the Joint Implementation regime, under which OECD countries can invest in projects in countries with economies in transition.

The Bonn agreement emphasizes that all three of the above mechanisms should be supplemental to domestic action and that domestic action shall thus constitute a significant element of the effort made by each Party.

The Protocol also includes a compliance mechanism. A Compliance Committee with a facilitative branch and an enforcement branch will oversee the implementation. For every ton of gas that a country emits over its target, it will be required to reduce an additional 1.3 tons during the Protocol’s second commitment period, which starts in 2013.

Additional compliance procedures and mechanisms will be developed after the Protocol enters into force.

The sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 6), as it is known is UN jargon, was suspended last November in The Hague. It resumed in Bonn Jul 16.

The Kyoto Protocol will enter into force and become legally binding after it has been ratified by at least 55 parties to the convention, including industrialised countries representing at least 55 percent of the total 1990 carbon dioxide emissions from this group. So far, 36 countries have ratified, including one industrialised state, Romania.

The Kyoto Protocol commits signatories to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent by 2008-2012, relative to 1990 levels.

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