Event reports
The Warsaw Climate Change Conference - the 19th Conference of Parties (COP 19) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - took place last November and was attended by 194 countries, several NGOs and various environmental organizations.
Among other important outcomes, the Summit concluded with reaching significant new decisions on further advancing the Durban Platform, the Green Climate Fund and the Long-Term Finance Work Programme as well as the Warsaw Framework for REDD Plus and the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.
Regarding the Durban Platform, participants took a small but important step towards getting closer to a global deal on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which is expected to be signed at the Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 and which is supposed to provide for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol after 2020.
Avoiding a failure, after all the NGOs abandoned the Summit, participants have managed to reach this last minute agreement that, although modest, prevented the Warsaw process from breaking. Such an agreement does not only provide for a roadmap towards a binding global pact in 2015, but there was also made progress regarding the Green Climate Fund. The purpose of this Fund is to combat climate change through the transfer of money from the developed to the developing world. This money should be used in order to assist the latter in adaptation and mitigation practices. The contributions should start by COP 20.
The developing countries will also receive help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and the degradation of forests. The respective regulatory instrument was named the Warsaw Framework for REDD Plus and is supposed to be presented in Paris.
Moreover, this roadmap is embodied in a document that provides for the establishment of an international mechanism for the protection of the most vulnerable populations. The so-called Warsaw Mechanism for Loss and Damage focuses on protection against loss and damage caused by extreme weather events and slow onset events. Its operation should be detailed next year.
Pivotal to the achievement of this agreement has been the pressure exerted by developing countries, China and especially the Philippines, which had suffered the consequences of Haiyan Typhoon with more than 5,000 dead and 11 million harmed.
According to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the “COP 19 was an important stepping stone towards a climate deal in 2015. But much more needed to be done in the next two years to keep the global temperature rise below the two-degree Celsius threshold”.
Despite the need for extra working hours in order to avoid a failure of the conference and despite the postponement of many important decisions until the next meetings, the Warsaw Summit did deliver some significant new developments.
Now governments must return to do their homework so they can put their plans on the table ahead of the Paris conference in 2015.
