The European Union has welcomed the outcome of the Doha climate conference which lays the basis for more ambitious international action against climate change in the short term, paves the way for a new global climate agreement to be finalised in 2015 and enables a second period of the Kyoto Protocol to start on 1 January 2013.
Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, says: “In Doha, we have crossed the bridge from the old climate regime to the new system. We are now on our way to the 2015 global deal. It was not an easy and comfortable ride. It was not a very fast ride either. But we have managed to cross the bridge. Very intense negotiations lie ahead of us. What we need now is more ambition and more speed.”
Durban Platform for Enhanced Action
As requested by the EU, the conference agreed a workplan for 2013 and beyond under the Durban Platform. The Platform has a dual mandate: to draw up a new global climate agreement with all countries, to be adopted in 2015, and to identify ways to achieve more ambitious global emission reductions for 2020 in order to close the gap between current emission pledges and what is needed to hold global warming below 2°C. The workplan agreed in Doha sets out a schedule of events and suggests themes to be addressed under both workstreams. The intention of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to convene a summit of world leaders on climate change in 2014 will give added political momentum to this work.
Streamlining Negotiations
The international climate negotiations process was streamlined through the successful closure of the parallel working groups on the Kyoto Protocol and on long-term cooperative action under the UN climate convention. The Durban Platform will thus be the sole negotiating forum for the 2015 agreement.
Climate Finance
The EU is the world’s leading provider of official development assistance and climate finance to developing countries. In Doha the EU has demonstrated that it is on track to provide the full €7.2 billion it has pledged in ‘fast start’ finance for the period 2010-12 and has assured its developing country partners that climate finance will continue after this year. Several EU Member States and other developed countries announced specific finance pledges for 2013 and in some cases up to 2015. A package of decisions on finance encourages developed countries to keep climate finance in 2013-15 to at least the average level of their fast start finance. The decisions also extend a work programme on long-term finance for a year, with the aim of helping developed countries identify pathways for scaling up climate finance to US $100 billion per year by 2020 from public, private and alternative sources in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparent implementation by developing countries.
Loss and Damage
Doha addressed a key concern of developing countries by agreeing to establish institutional arrangements, such as an international mechanism, to address loss and damage associated with the impacts of climate change in particularly vulnerable developing countries. The arrangements will be established at the UN climate conference to be held at the end of next year inWarsaw.