The agreement reached at the UN climate conference in Durban can be considered a breakthrough in the fight against climate change. After two weeks of negotiations, the 195 Parties to the UN climate change convention agreed on a roadmap, proposed by the EU and supported by Least Developed Countries, Small Island States and many Latin American countries, for drawing up a new legal framework for climate action by all countries. The Durban conference also agreed that there will be a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. It made operational the new Green Climate Fund for developing countries and put into full operation the Cancun agreements.

Durban Platform for Enhanced Action

Durban launched a process – the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action – to develop a new Protocol, another legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force that will be applicable to all Parties to the UN climate convention. It will take into account each country’s responsibility and respective capability to act, going well beyond the simple dichotomy between developed and developing countries. The new instrument is to be adopted by 2015 and to be implemented from 2020.

At the initiative of the EU and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), the conference also agreed to identify, in 2012, options for closing the “ambition gap” between current emissions reduction pledges for 2020 and the goal of keeping global warming below 2 °C. In November 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme published The Emissions Gap Report, which states that the implementation of the high end of Cancun pledges and of strict accounting rules would lead to about 60% of the emission reductions required to stay below 2 °C global temperature increase. The remaining 40% of reductions will require substantial additional efforts.

Kyoto Protocol

In the Durban Package it was formally decided that a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol will run from 1 January 2013, thus avoiding a gap at the end of the first commitment period, which ends in 2012. New rules on forestry management approved as part of the package will improve the Protocol’s environmental integrity. However, the USA, Russia and Japan declared that they would not sign up to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which implies that less than 15% of global emissions will be covered under Kyoto.

Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, at the negotiations in Durban, South Africa. Green Climate Fund and other new bodies.
The Durban outcome makes operational the new Green Climate Fund (GCF) by agreeing on its broad design and governance arrangements. The GCF is expected to be one of the major distribution channels for multilateral climate finance and to have a catalytic role in promoting low-carbon climate resilient growth. In Durban, Germany pledged €40 million and Denmark €15 million for the GCF. As the next steps the Board will have to be appointed and the interim Secretariat to be established. Moreover, the new Technology Mechanism and Adaptation Committee have also been agreed and can start operating in 2012.

Transparency

The Durban Package improves the measurement, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and of mitigation actions taken by developed and developing countries. This is a key measure for creating transparency and building trust between Parties, and will allow monitoring the implementation of the voluntary pledges by more than 60 countries, including all the major economies, outside the Kyoto Protocol.

New mechanisms and sectors

A new market-based mechanism will be established in the coming year to enhance the cost-effectiveness of actions to reduce emissions, which will complement the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). A process is also launched to consider climate issues related to agriculture, with a view to taking a decision at the end of 2012. These provisions are highly relevant for Latin American countries.

Overall, Durban provides a good basis for a stronger international climate change treaty and for enhanced cooperation between developed and developing countries in designing and implementing concrete measures to fight climate change and adapt to climate change.