The third round of UN
climate change negotiations this year kicked off on Monday with
representatives from 178 governments meeting in Bonn, Germany. The
Bonn UN Climate Change Conference (2 to 6 August) is designed to
prepare the outcomes of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún
in November and December.

Governments have a responsibility this year to take the next
essential step in the battle against climate change,”said UNFCCC’s
newly appointed Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. “How
governments achieve the next essential step is up to them. But it’s
politically possible. In Cancún, the job of governments is to turn
the politically possible into the politically irreversible,”she
said.

The government delegates will discuss the second iteration of
the text to facilitate negotiations under the Ad Hoc Working Group
on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA). The
negotiating group is tasked to deliver a long-term global solution
to the climate challenge.

The Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I
Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) is also meeting in Bonn
in parallel to the AWG-LCA. The focus of this group is on emissions
reduction commitments for the 37 industrialised countries that have
ratified the Kyoto Protocol for the period beyond 2012.

As the UN’s top climate change official, Figueres pointed to the
opportunity to capture the promises, pledges and progress that
governments have already made, in accountable and binding ways.
Governments now need to resolve what to do with their public
pledges to cut emissions, she noted.

“More stringent actions to reduce
emissions cannot be much longer postponed and industrial nations
must lead.” Christiana Figueres

All industrialized countries have made public pledges to cut
emissions by 2020 and 38 developing countries have submitted plans
to limit their emissions growth.

Ms. Figueres said governments must agree to a comprehensive set
of ways and means to allow developing countries to take concrete
climate action.

This includes adapting to climate change, limiting emissions
growth; providing adequate finance; boosting the use of clean
technology; promoting sustainable forestry; and building up the
skills and capacity to do all this.

Figueres also noted the urgent need for industrialized nations
to turn their pledges of funding into reality. Last year, these
countries promised 30 billion dollars in fast-track finance for
developing country adaptation and mitigation efforts through
2012.

Developing nations see the allocation of this money as a
critical signal that industrialised nations are committed to
progress in the broader negotiations.

Governments need to achieve clarity on how institutional
arrangements, particularly financial arrangements, lock into other
issues. “For example, how could institutional arrangements for
financing be linked most effectively to an operational technology
mechanism or action on adaptation?”

Finally, Figures pointed to the fact that governments must agree
that pledges need to be captured in a binding manner but they need
to decide how to do it. “

Governments need to deliver this
combination of accountability and binding action so that civil
society and business can be confident that clean, green strategies
will be rewarded globally, as well as locally.

The Bonn gathering is being attended by around 3100
participants, including government delegates, representatives from
business and industry, environmental organisations and research
institutions.

The next UNFCCC negotiating session is scheduled to take place
from 4 to 9 October in Tianjin, China, before the UN Climate Change
Conference 29 November to 10 December in Cancún.