Wednesday, December 9, 2009

fairness. consistency. transparency.

Meeting of the Parties to Kyoto - Plenary Session.
Wed. Dec. 9, 2009 * 3pm

I only stayed for agenda item 6 at this session, which was issues relating to the CDM status. The CDM (clean development mechanisms) has been a controversial part of the negotiations form what i have seen. There are challenges to its implementation - particularly finance issues as well as whether to include CCS (carbon capture & storage) as a mechanism under the CDM.

Here are some of the issues and comments brought up under this agenda item with the caveat that i am making broad generalizations about what the countries stated and i only have the benefit of a small part of this session - so i am sure more breadth and depth are given to these issues than what i have heard. With that...

CCS:
Oil producing countries favor the addition of CCS under the CDM (of course, because that = enhanced oil recovery and the ability to continue producing and exporting oil).

Zambia was reluctant to endorse CCS because the environmental impacts are unknown.

Brazil supports CCS, but not as a CDM mechanism.

Republic of Korea was also concerned about endorsing CCS under the CDM - though they felt it had great potential to address climate change.

Revision of the CDM process:
African nations and other LDCs (Least Developed Countries) feel the CDM implementation process is not transparent and not easy to implement. Additionally, of the over 1,000 projects around the world, only about 1.8% of them are located in African nations and about 70% of the projects are concentrated in 3 countries (which the Democratic Republic of Congo did not want to name names). Mali for example has prepared 30 projects, but only 2 have been implemented.

The African nations support a process of regional distribution of projects or sector projects as well as limiting the amount of credits allowed for each project.

China agreed that the CDM process needed to be more open and transparent. In fact, the title of this blog - fairness. consistency. transparency comes from the extreme overuse of these 3 words by the China delegation in there more than 6 min. rant (remember the max is 3). If i would have known, i would have begun counting - but it was a lot.

India supported the view of China but did not agree with African nations about distributing porjects by sector because that would, in their view, limit the flow of technology and economy.

Equador supports the African nations requests for equitable distribution of CDM projects.

So, this gives a small example not only of the diverse discussions in the plenary - but of the debate that goes on. Though CDM is a large part of Kyoto and the question of what Kyoto will look like after 2012, it is only one part of the debate - but as these few comments allude, there is definite disconnect between nations - and the views are valid for the interests of those countries.

I can't even imagine how any work gets done or compromise made with so much friction on the issues - it really is an amazing process - but no wonder it takes so long!

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