Bangkok climate change talks 2008
Three months after the landmark agreement on a road map towards strengthened international action on climate change reached in Bali, Indonesia, the next round of negotiations shifts to the neighbouring country of Thailand and its capital, Bangkok. The climate change talks in Bangkok will convene sessions of both the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (first session) and the Ad hoc Working Group on further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (first part of the fifth session), during which Parties need to advance the Bali Road Map agreed last December.
The challenge is to design a future agreement that will successfully halt the increase in global emissions within the next 10-15 years, dramatically cut back emissions by 2050, and do so in a way that is economically viable and politically equitable worldwide. The Bangkok meeting of the Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention needs to map out how to tackle this enormous challenge and begin by establishing without delay a clear work programme for the next two years. Concretely, Parties meeting in Bangkok will identify the areas that need to be further clarified as well as the issues where work needs to be done and in what order that should happen. They will also establish what input is needed from the UN at large, the business sector and others, and how this will be integrated into the overall work plan.
The issues that the new Working Group needs to address were clearly defined at Bali. In addition to the goal of achieving agreement on long-term global action, work on on-going issues such as deforestation and technology needs to be advanced.
Background
The Bali Action Plan, agreed upon by UNFCCC COP-13, in Bali in December 2007, calls for enhanced action on disaster risk reduction related adaptation including: risk management and risk reduction strategies, including risk sharing and transfer mechanisms such as insurance; disaster reduction strategies and means to address loss and damage; vulnerability assessments, capacity-building and response strategies; integration of adaptation actions into sectoral and national planning, specific projects and programmes; means to incentivize the implementation of adaptation actions; other ways to enable climate-resilient development and reduce vulnerability.
Provisional schedule for the Bangkok climate change talks 2008:
Monday 31 March (morning)
Welcoming ceremony and AWG opening plenary
Monday 31 March (afternoon)
AWGLCA opening plenary
Tuesday 1 April (morning)
AWG in-session workshop
AWGLCA informal plenary
Tuesday 1 April (afternoon)
AWG in-session Workshop
AWGLCA informal plenary
Wednesday 2 April (morning)
AWG in-session workshop
AWGLCA informal plenary
Wednesday 2 April (afternoon)
AWG in-session workshop
AWGLCA informal plenary
Thursday 3 April (morning)
AWG in-session workshop
AWGLCA informal plenary
Thursday 3 April (afternoon)
Informal groups
Friday 4 April (morning)
informal groups
Friday 4 April (afternoon)
AWG and AWGLCA closing plenaries.