The resumed ninth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) was held in Barcelona, Spain, from 2-6 November 2009. This was the final round of negotiations before the Copenhagen conference in December.

At Copenhagen, the AWG-KP will present the results of its work on the consideration of emission reduction commitments for industrialized countries for subsequent commitment periods of the Kyoto Protocol at the fifth session of the CMP.

Discussion in Barcelona remained focused on the scale of emission reductions to be achieved by Annex I Parties in aggregate and individually. The Group had a frank exchange on whether the pledges of Annex I Parties can be scaled up, what conditions would enable such scaling up, and also the reason why some of these pledges cannot be scaled up.

The assumptions behind the pledges were also discussed. That is: what percentage of the pledges constitutes domestic action, including the domestic land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector, and what percentage constitutes offsets. A gap still remains between the pledges on the table and what science recommends.

With regard to the collective level of ambition, a suggestion was made of possible financial support for additional mitigation action in developing countries. This and other suggestions will be discussed in Copenhagen.

There was widespread preference for using 1990 as a base year; possibly as part of a package that includes other base years. Some creative ideas on how reference years can be documented were also put forward. Parties agreed to discuss practical considerations surrounding a 5-year and an 8-year commitment period. The option of two commitment periods of 5 years is also still under consideration, with Parties moving towards consensus on this issue.

With regard to LULUCF, a revised text that includes a draft decision was proposed. There is a strong sense that an agreement on LULUCF will be greatly facilitated by transparent numbers regarding the expected share of sinks in the overall target that the Parties are pledging. The role of forest management in particular is seen as one of the more important issues that needs to be clarified. In that regard, a standardized format for presenting forest management data was created for Parties. Provision of this key data in a consistent format is essential to reaching an agreement.

Greenhouse gas emissions fall into two parts: international travel, which forms by far the largest part; and secondly, local emissions of the host country covering such things as energy consumed and waste generated at the conference venue, hotel accommodation and local transportation. An initial estimate of overall emissions put the figure at 40,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The Danish Government has identified sustainability as one of its top priorities for the Conference, and has publicized a number of steps:

• The Conference organizers at the Bella Center are to achieve a 20% reduction in CO2 leading up to COP 15 by implementing a range of energy saving measures
• Hotel owners have been encouraged to expand the number of environmentally friendly, certified hotel rooms
• Delegates are encouraged to use the public transport system to reach the Bella Center, drink tap water to avoid bottle waste, and minimize paper waste
• There will be no gifts or conference bags for delegates. Instead, money saved has been invested in 11 scholarships for students from around the world, who will attend a fully financed two-year MA education in Denmark.

To ensure the conference will be climate neutral, the Danish Government, in partnership with the government of Bangladesh and the World Bank, has decided to replace outdated brick kilns in Dhaka. The heavily polluting, existing kilns will be replaced by 20 new energy efficient ones, which the Danish Energy Agency calculates will cut more than 50,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year and improve air quality in one of the world’s most polluted cities. The Danish government has set aside 0.7 million euros as part of this year’s state budget for this purpose. Details can be found here.

In an effort to build on growing interest in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Africa, partner UN agencies and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) have announced they will organize a second all-Africa Carbon Forum at the United Nations Gigiri complex in Nairobi, Kenya, on 3–5 March 2010.

In November 2006, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the Nairobi Framework, aimed at spreading the benefits of the CDM. Since then, interest in the mechanism in Africa has grown, and with it the number of projects and hosting countries. Still, Africa accounts for less than 2% of the more than 1,900 CDM projects registered to date in 58 countries.

The Clean Development Mechanism – a clear success of the Protocol – continues to create incentive for investment in climate change mitigation and generate funds for adaptation. That the private sector is anxious to see another carbon market event in Africa is a good indication of CDM’s potential on the continent. The first all-Africa Carbon Forum was held in Dakar, Senegal, in September 2008.

CDM photo and video contest shortlists announced

The UNFCCC secretariat has announced the top 25 shortlisted images and the top 8 shortlisted videos for the CDM International Photo and Video Contest 2009, on the theme "CDM Changing Lives." The winners will be announced at a ceremony during COP 15 in Copenhagen.

The winning entries will be posted on the UNFCCC website. The images on the front page of this newsletter are among the photo contest shortlisted entries.

For information on the photographers and videographers and the related clean development mechanism projects, click here.