The Bonn Climate Change Talks, June 2008

The twenty-eighth sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is taking place from 4-13 June 2008 in Bonn, Germany.

The second session of the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) and the second part of the fifth session of the Ad hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) is taking place from 2-12 June 2008.

More than 2,400 participants, including government delegates from 172 countries and representatives from business and industry, environmental organizations and research institutions are attending the two-week meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A central part of the Bonn talks is work on a strengthened and effective international climate change deal, to be clinched in Copenhagen by the end of next year. On the one hand, the Bonn talks are taking forward the negotiation process on strengthened international action against climate change, as agreed in Bali last December. This stream of negotiations in Bonn includes special focus on adaptation, finance and technology. On the other hand, talks on further commitments for Parties to the Kyoto Protocol include considering the possible tools available to industrialized countries to achieve future emission reductions. AWG-LCA is undertaking substantive work on the main elements to enable the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention through long-term cooperative action, including: mitigation and adaptation of climate change, technology development and transfer, provision of financial resources and investment. AWG-KP continues on the analysis of means that may be available to Annex I Parties to reach their emission reduction targets and the identification of ways to enhance their effectiveness and contribution to sustainable development. These means include: Emissions trading and the project-based mechanisms; land use, land-use change and forestry; greenhouse gases sectors and source categories... The third session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 3) and the first part of the sixth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP 6, part I) will be held from 21 August to 27 August 2008 in Accra, Ghana.