LATIN AMERICA’S SITUATION IN NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE *

By: Christiana Figueres **.

The Fifth Conference of the Parties (COP5) of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change was held at Bonn, Germany from October 25 through November 5, 1999.  Representatives from 166 countries and observers from non-governmental organizations and industrial associations participated in it.

At COP4 previously held at Buenos Aires, a work plan was agreed on for implementing the Kyoto Protocol.  During COP5, agreement was made on procedures necessary for implementing that Buenos Aires Action Plan by establishing a clear decision making process with defined deadlines.

Realizing that expectations for COP5 were low, the most surprising thing about this Conference was the interest countries showed in getting the Kyoto Protocol ratified by 2002, the year in which the tenth anniversary of the Earth Summit will be celebrated.

Several matters were discussed at COP5 that are of importance for Latin America and the Caribbean: the Pilot Phase for Joint Implementation Activity Projects (JIA), the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), inclusion of projects for Land Use Change and Forestry Projects in the CDM, and Voluntary Commitments.

PILOT PHASE FOR JOINT IMPLEMENTATION ACTIVITIES

In 1995 the Pilot Phase for Joint Implementation Activities began, which would last until the end of the nineties.  As this phase drew to a close, there were no clear rules for beginning operations with the CDM.  For this reason, Latin American countries supported a continuation of this phase until guidelines to be followed in the CDM were established.  With this decision, COP5 seeks to minimize the uncertainty of investing in new projects and provide an opportunity to countries that had not yet been able to participate in this stage so they could gain experience in this process.

Latin America has 26 internationally approved projects under the pilot Phase; these projects do not have any loans under the Convention.  One of the most difficult issues is the transition between projects of this kind and projects that will have loans under the Kyoto Protocol.  Even though some countries refuse to provide loans to projects under the Pilot Phase, Latin American countries supported the accreditation of projects to be completed after the year 2000, provided they fulfill the characteristics defined by the CDM.

CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM

The Buenos Aires Action Plan calls for developing three flexibility mechanisms: Marketing, Joint Implementation and the Clean Development Mechanism.  The CDM is the most important one for Latin America, because it is the only one that allows access for developing countries.

At COP5, discussions on these mechanisms were quite fruitful.  Agreement was made on proposing rules of the game for the three mechanisms by June, 2000, so they can be approved in COP62.  This would lead to the start of the CDM by the year 2001.

The nations of Latin America are supporting a quick start for the CDM.  However, there is lack of agreement among them on the date from which project accreditation will be granted.  Some nations support the thesis that any projects that eventually comply with the criteria established for the CDM may be accredited as of the year 2000, as provided by the Protocol.  Other countries in the region argue that projects may only be accredited after the date on which all the rules of the CDM are decided.  This is another matter that should be defined at COP6.

INCLUSION OF FORESTRY AND LAND USE CHANGE PROJECTS IN THE CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM

Emissions due to land use changes represent approximately 22% of all man-made emissions of greenhouse effect gases.  This issue is in article 3, parts 3, 4 and 7 of the Kyoto Protocol, and it is a part of the quantified emissions reduction for industrialized countries.  The three land use change activities that are mentioned in these three parts are: forestry, reforestation and deforestation.  However, these activities are vaguely defined; nor is there any definition of what additional land use activities will serve as reduction commitments by the industrialized countries.

In article 12 of the Protocol which creates the Clean Development Mechanism, Land Use Change Projects are not mentioned.  This is the issue that has caused the most friction in the Latin American position.  Brazil and Peru are opposed to these projects being a part of the CDM for two basic reasons: the difficulty of quantifying them and lack of permanency in carbon fixing.  Most of the countries in the region are in favor of the inclusion of these projects; Chile, Argentina, Bolivia , Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay so stated at COP5.

In order to have a scientific basis to help resolve this conflict, COP requested a special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which presented its first conclusions at COP5.  The final version of this document is expected in the early months of this year.  Afterwards it will be discussed from a technical point of view and a decision will be made on it at COP6.

VOLUNTARY COMMITMENTS

Without a doubt, the hottest issue at COP5 was on voluntary commitments by developing countries.  The Kyoto Protocol only obliges industrialized countries to commit to emissions decreases, and exempts developing countries due to their lesser historical responsibility. However, U.S. petroleum and automobile industries are putting strong pressure on their country’s government for getting some developing countries to also accept “voluntary commitments” for decreases.  These industries are alleging that in the absence of such a commitment, U.S. industry would lose its competitiveness.

During COP5, Argentina confirmed its interest in assuming voluntary decrease commitments.  The Argentine delegation announced a decrease goal of 2-10% below projected emissions for the 2008-2012 period, depending on the GIP growth the country has for those years.  The Argentine announcement separates it from the position of the other countries of Group 77 and China, which reject any pressure that the United States would like to put on them.  However, Argentina has clarified that it has no intention of entering into the industrialized countries group with responsibilities set by the Convention and the Protocol; rather, what it is looking for is a “third option”.  The new Argentine government will have to decide how strongly it is requesting this new legal option internationally.

CONCLUSION

The next twelve months will see a lot of hard work within the framework of Convention negotiations on Climate Change.  Two technical meetings are being planned during 2000: one in Bonn in June and the other in September in Paris.  As a result of these two meetings, the design elements of the CDM as well as the rest of the components which will enable the Kyoto Protocol to become operational must be proposed to COP6.  For Latin America, this means the formal beginning of the international carbon market.  Governments in the region have been working for several years to get this market set up, and now the private sector needs to prepare itself for channeling the potential benefits of that market toward the economies of our countries.

REFERENCES

1.For the Protocol to become effective, it must be ratified by 55 countries representing 55% of the emissions of the industrialized countries.  Currently only 16 countries have ratified the Protocol, none of which are industrialized.

2.The Sixth Conference of the Parties will be held at the Hague, November 13-24, 2000.
 

* Article first published in Calidad Ambiental, Vol. V, N. 1, Jan-Feb. 2000, p. 16.

** Christiana Figueres has a bachelor degree by the Swarthmore College and a master’s degree by the London School of Economics. In 1994, she founded the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas (CSDA) and since then has participated actively in programs of prevention of climate change in Latin America that include her presence in international panels and the publication of articles on the subject. She has also supported the institutionalization for the mitigation of the global climate change in most of Latin American countries and has been the official negotiator of the United Nations Convention on Climatic Change since 1995. In addition, she was Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United States Export Council on Renewable Energy and also Counselor of the Hawthorn Group. For more than twenty years she has been working with the Government of Costa Rica, in the United Nations Development Program and as an independent consultant.