Key Copenhagen negotiating text available online

Friday, 15 May 2009 09:11

Key UN negotiating texts, which will form the basis of an ambitious and effective international response to climate change, to be agreed in Copenhagen in December, are now available on the website of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The draft negotiating texts that will be discussed under the "Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP)" are available on the web as follows:

• Document on amendments to the Kyoto Protocol:
  http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/awg8/eng/07.pdf
• Document on other related issues:
  http://maindb.unfccc.int/library/view_pdf.pl?url=http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/awg8/eng/08.pdf

One key document under the Kyoto Protocol constitutes a "proposal for amendments to the Kyoto Protocol pursuant to its Article 3, paragraph 9."

This document lays out the options for emission reduction commitments of industrialised countries for the second phase of the Protocol (post-2012).

The second document presents text largely in the form of decision language, covering the following issues:  emissions trading and the project-based mechanisms; land use, land-use change and forestry; greenhouse gases, sectors and source categories; common metrics to calculate the carbon dioxide equivalence of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks; and methodological and other issues.

The "Negotiating text for consideration at the sixth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA)" is scheduled to be posted at the beginning of next week.

This text covers the issues of a shared vision for long-term cooperative action, along with enhanced action on adaptation, mitigation and finance, technology and capacity-building.

All texts will discussed at the UN Climate Change Talks this year in Bonn (1-12 June). The gathering is expected to be attended by around 3,000 participants, including government delegates, representatives from business and industry, environmental organizations and research institutions.

The venue will be the Maritim Hotel in Bonn where negotiations will take place. In addition to the negotiations, more than one hundred side events will be held. The UN Climate Change Secretariat, Parties and observer organizations will brief the media in the course of the gathering.