World Leaders to Meet in Cancun for Climate Talks

From November 29 through December 10, representatives from 194 nations will meet in Cancun, Mexico, to seek agreement on strategies to avoid and adapt to climate change. These negotiations come one year after the climate summit in Copenhagen, in which negotiators were unable to reach a comprehensive binding agreement on reduction of greenhouse gases, which contribute to climate change .

What did emerge was the Copenhagen Accord, which was largely negotiated by President Obama with key developing nations to obtain commitments to greenhouse gas reductions. The Accord also included an announcement to jointly mobilize $100 billion in private and public funds annually by 2020 to finance mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries, and included an initial commitment on guidelines for monitoring, reporting, and verifying emissions reductions, among other things. The Accord has been signed by more than 110 nations.

While several governments and institutions are downplaying the likelihood of reaching a binding emissions reduction goal agreement in Cancun, there is widespread speculation on what level of progress can be achieved on key issue areas. Most notable among them are:

• Formalization of the pledges made by 85 countries at Copenhagen to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
• Potential agreement on a goal for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program, an initiative to value forests as carbon stores and promote sustainable management and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
• Monitoring, Reporting, and Verifying (MRV) discussions focused on achieving uniform and trusted guidelines to account for emissions reductions across borders. Discussions between the U.S. and Chinese delegations will be critical to making progress on this front.

Several other areas have potential for progress, including defining a clearer path forward in absence of a binding emissions agreement, developing revenue streams for the $100 billion climate fund, and possibly consolidating the multiple negotiation forums or “tracks” that now exist in the UN process.

Please visit www.eesi.org for updated information as the conference progresses in Cancun.