by Bogdan Zymka and Lara Shirley
Since these were the first two days of COP19, not much exciting has happened: only a couple contentious discussions in various forums.
In the COP (Conference of the Parties), the G77+China strongly emphasized the need for a finance roadmap and strong mitigation targets calling it “an implementation COP”. Definite finance targets are on track to become a key issue in striking a deal at COP19. The European Union called for progress on a loss and damage mechanism.
In the CMP (Conference of the Meeting of the Parties), AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States), LDCs (Least Developed Countries), African Group (African Group), LMDC (Like Minded Developing Countries), and AILAC (Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean) stressed the need for ambition and commitments in the speedy ratification of the Doha Amendments to the Kyoto Protocol.
In the SBI (Subsidiary Body for Implementation), the G77 has put forward concrete draft texts outlining a mechanism on loss and damage.
In the SBSTA (Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice), Fiji for the G77 opposed a contact group for agriculture while the United States, European Union, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia supported the contact group. Brazil proposed SBSTA take on recommendations for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) develop degree measures for historical emissions in line historical responsibilities.
In the ADP, China stressed that the ADP is not an agreement only on mitigation but one of mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, and capacity building.
The SBSTA and SBI have been split up into contact groups, each session will likely be open for the first meeting and all subsequent sessions will likely be closed.
some resources for further reading:
Earth Negotiations Bulletin Updates:
http://www.iisd.ca/vol12/enb12583e.html
http://www.iisd.ca/vol12/enb12584e.html
Third World Network Updates:
http://twnside.org.sg/title2/climate/news/warsaw01/TWN_update1.pdf
http://twnside.org.sg/title2/climate/news/warsaw01/TWN_update2.pdf
Earth in Brackets Updates: