ADP: a Roadmap for Streamlining

As Co-chairs ended the closing plenary this afternoon, we can finally say it: we have a first (very LONG) draft of negotiating text for Paris.

Call it achievement or not, now we need to move forward.

Parties have four months until the beginning of the first of 3 Bonn-sessions, so by June they will have to get very clear ideas on how to proceed with the next crucial phase: streamlining the 86-pages text.

By next Monday, Parties will bring back home the draft to study it and share it with national institutions; following that, they will have to decide country and regional positions to bring forward.

Once in Bonn, it is likely to expect countries/groupings to initially shorten the text by getting rid of paragraphs with redundant contents, as well as by finding an agreement on universally-agreed concepts like intergenerational equity, which seems to find a good common ground between Parties.

After solving the “easy” topics, things will get harder at UNFCCC’s headquarter.

Themes such as long term goals, differentiation, commitment periods and reference years will require very long and debated negotiations, with at least a few of the big decisions which won’t likely be solved until Paris.

But if Parties will not lose the Geneva Spirit, I am sure COP21 will be able to deliver us the best ever present under the Christmas’ tree.