Special ON CLIMATE CONFERENCE 2011
DURBAN CLIMATE TALKS UNDERWAY
Bangladesh suffers the most the climate change impacts Photo: Anisur Rahman
The seventeenth conference of parties (COP17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) got underway in Durban, South Africa on Monday 28th November with a colourful Zulu dance and powerful speech by the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. The presidency of the COP was officially passed on by the Foreign Minister of Mexico who chaired COP16 in Cancun, Mexico last year, to the South African Foreign Minister who will now chair COP17 for the two weeks in Durban. The skills of South African leaders in bringing political enemies to compromise and end apartheid will stand them in good stead as they try to bridge the gap between the developed and developing countries at this COP. There are two major issues and three relatively minor (but nevetheless important) issues to be agreed in Durban by 9th December. The most important is the fate of the Kyoto Protocol. Durban will either bury Kyoto or renew it. However things do not look positive in the first week as Kyoto parties such as Canada and Japan say they are unwilling to continue while non-Kyoto parties such as the US, China and India refuse to join a legally binding agreement. However, so far the parties are simply stating their maximum positions and will need all the skills of mediation by the South Africans to get some compromise. The second major issue is the formalisation of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) which is supposed to manage the 100 billion US Dollars a year from 2020 from developed to developing countries. This has more chance of being achieved, although the USA and Saudi Arabia are not yet on board. The three other issues are adaptation, reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) and technology transfer are expected to achieve agreement by 9th December. Of course besides the official negotiators from 195 countries there are also many thousand participants from civil society, private sector, media and academics from all over the world in Durban who are organising and participating in hundreds of side events around Durban city. A major advantage of the COPs is the opportunity it gives to so many people to meet, network and share solutions to climate change. The Bangladesh delegation in Durban is over a hundred strong due to the Government's enlightened attitude to allowing all civil society representatives from Bangladesh to be included in the official delegation. The delegation is also very well organised with individuals and teams assigned to different negotiating tracks and holding daily team meetings. Next week, after the Minister for environment and Forest arrives, Bangladesh will be hosting two important high level side events. The first will be on the Climate Vulnerable Forum on 4th December and the second on 5th December on the topic of Loss and Damage which is an important new agenda item in Durban. These two events will enable Bangladesh to play a leadership role in the second, high level, week of the Durban talks.
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