Cancun Update: LCA Text Released
Posted on 05. Dec, 2010 by astark in U.S.A.
Jonathan Pershing's intervention at the COP stocktaking plenary session this afternoon.
This afternoon, the Chair of the LCA track discussions, Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe, released the long-awaited revised version of her compromise text less than an hour before the COP stocktaking session was scheduled to begin. The text manages to winnow down the lengthy negotiating text that delegates were working on going into the Cancun negotiations, but still leaves open different options on several issues that negotiators will have to find compromise on before a final agreement is reached. You can read the text (if you have a strong constitution and a working knowledge of UNFCCC jargon) here.
Although delegates had not had time to pore over the text thoroughly and promised to respond with full reports later this weekend, they did add some of their thoughts in the discussion this afternoon. The Alliance of Small Island States, Bolivia and Venezuela, traditional bugbears of the developed countries at these talks, stressed the fact that the mitigation targets in the text were not sufficiently ambitious to reach the goal of keeping rises in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. Some countries like Brazil argued that certain options had been unfairly excluded from the text. Head of U.S. delegation Jonathan Pershing spoke on behalf of the United States, noting that “on transparency, we don’t have the level of operational detail that would be needed to move forward on the other elements of the package.” U.S. concerns over transparency link back to the fundamental disagreement with China and others in the G-77 (developing countries group) that revolves around how countries will report their progress on emissions reductions to the COP.
However, all parties seemed to agree that the text marked the important progress that has been made in Cancun thus far, and that a balanced package of decisions is still well within reach here. Pershing commented that “we still have time, but only if we move expeditiously.” The release of this text, as well as the arrival of high-level ministers which has already begun, will add a sense of urgency and momentum to the process going in to next week.
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