COP17 Durban: The Breakdown
The Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change happens this time every year.
We’ve always covered the event, but what’s it all about?
Every year, since 1995, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is made up of nearly 200 countries, holds a meeting called the Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss climate change and negotiate global strategies for dealing with it. The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is “to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.” This year will be the 17th of such meetings. Hence, COP17.
COP also serves as the meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol, and this year will be their 7th meeting. The Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, legally binds fewer than 40 nations to caps on emissions in an effort to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. The United States is not included in those nations, as it never ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
Why is climate change the focus issue?
Climate change, caused by an increase in CO2 emissions through human activities, will impact all countries, but especially developing countries that lack the funding necessary for adaptation and are more vulnerable to variable weather patterns. Depending on the region, climate change can lead to more intense flooding, stronger storms, and increased drought, affecting crops, water supply, and livelihoods. It will also raise the sea level, putting coastal cities and villages at risk of being submerged under water. It is estimated that by 2020 there will be 50 million environmental refugees, so even countries more able to deal with changes in climate will face an influx of people fleeing countries less able to adapt or harder hit. Climate change is a global threat.
What are some possible outcomes of the talks this year?
The enthusiasm around any worthwhile outcomes coming from these talks is limited. In 2010, governments agreed that emissions need to be reduced so that global temperature increases are limited to below 2 degrees Celsius. This year, they will try to agree on ways to implement changes that will lead to those reductions.
The Kyoto Protocol is set to expire in 2012, which means a new protocol needs to be drawn up, or the current one needs to be extended. Many countries hope for an extension of the current protocol to 2020 with new emissions caps set for richer countries. In any event, the government officials would need to come to some agreement on the Kyoto Protocol to maintain it. There is also the possibility of creating a Green Climate Fund, which would manage money for poorer countries to fund climate change adaptation strategies. This was another part of last year’s agreements that has not yet been implemented.
Where is it located this year?
Every year the location changes, but this year the conference will be held in Durban, South Africa from November 28th through December 9th.
Who participates in these meetings?
The conference typically draws tens of thousands of participants, including government officials, organizational representatives, representatives of UN bodies and agencies, and members of the media.
For more information on COP17, the UNFCCC, or the Kyoto Protocol, please see the COP17 website or UNFCCC website.
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United Nations Ambassador Phillip Muller of the Marshall Islands said there is no sense of urgency to find not only those answers, but also to address the causes of climate change, which many believe to be responsible for rising ocean levels.
“Even if we reach a legal agreement sometime soon, which I don’t think we will, the major players are not in the process,” Muller said.
Those players, the participants said, include industrial nations such as the United States and China that emit the most carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases. Many climate scientists say those gases are responsible for global warming. Mary-Elena Carr of Columbia University’s Earth Institute said what is now an annual sea level rise of a few millimeters will increase dramatically by the year 2100. “The biggest challenge is to preserve their nationality without a territory,” said Bogumil Terminski from Geneva. International legal experts are discovering climate change law, and the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is a case in point: The Polynesian archipelago is doomed to disappear beneath the ocean. Now lawyers are asking what sort of rights citizens have when their homeland no longer exists.
t present, however, there appear to be at least three possibilities that could advance the international debate about ‘climate refugee’ protections and fill existing gaps in international law.
The first option is to revise the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees to include climate (or environmental) refugees and to offer legal protections similar to those for refugees fleeing political persecution. A second, more ambitious option is to negotiate a completely new convention, one that would try to guarantee specific rights and protections to climate or environmental ‘refugees
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