UN Climate Change Conference in Bali 2007
| UN Climate Change Conference 2007 | |
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Yvo de Boer , Secretary General of the UNFCCC , at the opening of the conference on December 3, 2007
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| place | Bali , Indonesia
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| date | 3rd-15th December 2007 |
| Attendees | Members of the UNFCCC |
| Website | Profile on unfccc.int |
The climate conference in Bali was the 13th Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the third Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol . It took place from December 3 to 15, 2007 in the town of Nusa Dua on the Indonesian island of Bali and thus lasted a day longer than originally planned. The conference should define a negotiation schedule and content for the next few years so that a new climate protection program can seamlessly come into force after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Indonesia hosted the UN climate conference . The Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar led the negotiations at the conference with around 10,000 environmental politicians and experts from 192 countries.
Conference objectives
The European states are calling for global CO 2 emissions to be halved by 2050 in order to curb global warming . The United States wanted to participate in a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, said the American chief negotiator Harlan Watson. Emerging countries viewed the goals critically, they feared a slowdown in economic growth in their own country. They wanted the industrialized countries to play a pioneering role in limiting the emission of climate-damaging gases.
The conference was preceded by a special UN conference in September 2007, at which seventy heads of state and government emphasized that they wanted to find a solution in Bali. The World Climate Conference held in Nairobi , Kenya in 2006 had not yet resulted in any results.
The general goal of the negotiations was a follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which is to come into force on January 1, 2013. In addition to the industrialized countries, today's emerging economies, which will grow into large emitters in the foreseeable future, should also participate. The follow-up protocol should be adopted by the end of 2009 in order to leave enough time for ratification in the individual member states.
Positions of selected participating countries before the summit
Europe
The European Union would like to emit 30 percent fewer emissions by 2020 than in 1990. The reduction is different in the countries, in some cases the emissions of some EU states have even increased by large parts since 1990, as in Spain and Greece.
United States
The USA is the only industrialized country that has not yet ratified the previous agreement on climate protection, the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, the nation is the largest emitter of CO 2 worldwide. In Bali the negotiator Harlan Watson sat at the negotiating table for the United States, who called for understanding to respect the decision of the Americans - not to join the Kyoto Protocol. At the same time, the US did not want to be a hurdle in the negotiations and wanted to commit itself to a successful conclusion of the negotiations and to participate in them.
At the conference, the USA pursued the course of avoiding concrete reduction figures for emissions; instead, “effective climate protection” should not only be environmentally friendly, but also “economically sustainable”.
China, India and emerging markets
The fast-growing countries China and India did not want any restrictions on pollutant emissions for emerging countries. They argued with the historical development of industry: So far it has been possible for all major industrial nations to emit CO 2 unhindered by regulations . For this reason, emerging countries should be given the right to grow economically - accompanied by increased carbon dioxide emissions - before they are subjected to a climate regulation that limits emissions.
The emerging countries believed that only with economic growth could they reduce poverty in their countries.
The "Bali Communiqué"
On the sidelines of the climate conference, 150 international companies (including companies operating in Germany) wrote a statement on the summit on November 30, 2007. In it, the companies, under the patronage of Prince Charles , demanded legal regulation of the requirements for companies by the UN. In addition, it was warned of the costs for poor countries and at the same time it was stated that an investment in climate protection would pay off in the long term. The communiqué was developed by scientists from Cambridge University .
The communiqué appeared on a double-page spread in the Financial Times .
Resolutions reached
As a first result, a reversal of environmental policy in Australia was recorded. Besides the USA, the country was the only industrial state that had not yet signed the Kyoto Protocol . The first official act of the newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was to ratify the Protocol - his negotiator announced this at the conference.
China announced that in 2010 it would bring its emissions of energy and emissions down to 20 percent below the level of 2005. Relief has been created for developing countries in general; they do not have to participate in avoiding emissions to the extent that the industrialized countries demanded at the beginning of the summit. At the same time, the industrialized countries should provide more aid to the emerging countries. This is to be managed by an adjustment fund with a volume of 300-500 million US dollars per year by 2012, which is to be filled from emissions trading taxes and administered by the Global Environment Facility within the framework of the World Bank . This sum is too small for critics. At the same time, the emerging countries should receive help from experts from the industrialized countries in the implementation of climate protection in the field of energy and technology through a technology transfer. The project will not be launched until 2012, however, as the exact implementation has not yet been negotiated.
The protection of tropical forests should be taken into account in the following climate agreement. It is hoped that this will avoid 20 percent greenhouse gases per year. Emerging countries receive money from a single pot for the conservation of certain rainforest areas. Germany pays around 60 million dollars on a one-off basis, other countries more than 100 million. Membership in this “Forest Carbon Partnership Facility” is voluntary for donor and recipient countries.
After tough negotiations, the Climate Change Conference ended with the so-called Bali Roadmap ( Bali roadmap ). This is the negotiating mandate requested by the participants, on the basis of which the follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol is to be drawn up. Contrary to the hopes of some states to record concrete figures for the reduction of greenhouse gases, the pressure from the USA only resulted in a reference to the results of the investigation by the IPCC - this calls for a 50 percent reduction in CO 2 emissions by 2020, on the other hand There are also less restrictive models, due to which global warming would rise further than the two degrees Celsius previously accepted .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Climate Conference in Bali: Haggling for Every Word ( German ) Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
- ↑ Tagesschau: "Climate conference agrees after chaos meeting". Tagesschau.de, archived from the original on April 15, 2013 ; Retrieved March 22, 2013 .
- ↑ USA promise their constructive cooperation ( German ) Basler Zeitung. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
- ↑ a b Tagesschau: World Climate Conference - In Bali there is cautious optimism
- ↑ a b c Bali: Negotiating to negotiate ( German ) Deutsche Welle. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ↑ a b Australia ratifies the Kyoto Protocol ( German ) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ↑ a b In Bali old contradictions come to light ( German ) Handelsblatt. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
- ^ The Bali Communique ( English ) University of Cambridge Program for Industry. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
- ↑ Wish kite for the climate ( German ) Die Welt. Retrieved December 14, 2007.
- ↑ a b c d Tagesschau: “The resolutions of the Bali summit at a glance”. December 15, 2007, accessed December 30, 2016 .
- ↑ First results in Bali - but sticking points still unsolved ( German ) Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved December 14, 2007.
See also
Web links
- United Nations Climate Change Conference - Official website of the UN for the conference
- (English)
