Climate Talks Resume in Bangkok

Steve Zwick

Formal climate talks began today after a three-month hiatus, and we’ll be focusing our coverage on efforts to bring the REDD+ Mechanism into reality, and on the REDD+ Partnership, which meets the week after formal talks, as well as on the Green Climate Fund, which aims to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

Formal climate talks began today after a three-month hiatus, and we’ll be focusing our coverage on efforts to bring the REDD+ Mechanism into reality, and on the REDD+ Partnership, which meets the week after formal talks, as well as on the Green Climate Fund, which aims to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

3 April 2011 | Negotiators from nearly 200 countries have gathered in Bangkok, Thailand, to develop mechanisms for implementing agreements laid out in Cancíºn.   This week-long meeting wraps up on Friday, and is followed the week after by the year’s first meeting of the REDD+ Partnership on April 10 and 11.

On a broad level, the talks remain split into two tracks: one focusing on the obligations of developed countries (the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol, or “AWG-KP”), and one focusing on efforts to define the role of developing countries (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action, or “AWG-LCA”).

The goal is to converge the two tracks by the time year-end talks begin in Durban, South Africa – a goal that was also set for Copenhagen talks that wrapped up at the end of 2009.

One area of convergence is REDD (reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries), and REDD+ (which adds folds mechanisms that promote sustainable forest management and the enhancement and conservation of existing forest carbon stocks into mechanisms that save endangered rainforests).   The Cancun Agreements officially launched the  REDD+ Mechanism, and now parties have to agree on the details.

Our coverage will focus on REDD+ and other land-use issues, as well as on efforts to more clearly define Green Climate Fund was also established in Cancun.   That fund is targeted at helping developing countries deal with the consequences of climate change, while REDD+ is targeted at helping reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.   It aims to channel $100 billion to developing countries by the year 2020 – an admirable amount, but one that falls well short of projected needs.

For broader (and more technical) coverage of all negotiations, visit IISD Reporting Services.

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Steve Zwick is Managing Editor of the Ecosystem Marketplace.  He can be reached at [email protected].

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