Australia’s needs to commit to KP2

Australia’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue at the UN climate negotiations

The UN climate negotiations began on Thursday, and it seems that whether it comes to carbon markets or the Kyoto Protocol, Australia’s been on the tip of everyone’s tongue ever since.

It began as most UN climate negotiations do; about an hour late.

But before the opening speeches were even made there where whispers circulating the corridors, and I could hear echoes of “Australia joining the Kyoto Protocol 2” crawling around corners and floating on the edge of speculation.

It is critically important there is progress here in Bangkok if there is going to be anything achieved in Doha, because as you can imagine, legally binding decisions on climate change aren’t made overnight.

They’re a little like Rome, only they seem to take longer.

And like Rome, their foundations are the first things that need to be established. And that is largely what is going to happen here in Bangkok over the next week. If anything’s going to happen this year in terms of Climate Change negotiations on the international level, there needs to be good progress made here.

And from what I can see, it seems that Australia will play a big role in whatever progress is made on two key fronts: Carbon Markets and the Kyoto Protocol.

The first of these issues has really jumped out of nowhere, but only 2 days before the conference began, Australia announced that it had made plans with the EU to link its Carbon Price with the EU’s ETS in a unified carbon market by 2018. This has offered a great deal of hope for many negotiators here in Bangkok that an international market for carbon will become a reality.

But it has also raised a great deal of questions from a number of the NGO’s here who are worried that linking with the EU’s variable ETS might damage the strength of our fixed price. And on the other side of the coin, there are concerns that the EU’s superior carbon credit certification schemes might be damaged by linking with ours.

My hope is that by linking the two, both schemes will develop through a mutually beneficial market evolution, rather than devolve into the lowest common denominator of cheapest possible fit. The outcome will inevitably be shaped by geopolitical developments and domestic pressure, but it has nevertheless given people here something to talk about.

It is also shown that real actions are being taken to move the world forward on mitigating climate change.

But the other “elephant in the room” here in Bangkok has been whether Australia and New Zealand will or will not continue its commitment to the Kyoto protocol. The Kyoto Protocol was officially ratified by Australia in 2007, and concluded its ‘first commitment period’ in 2012. Last year at the Conference of Parties in Durban, European nations jumped on board a “second commitment period”. But Australia, Russia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand were less jumpy…some even jumped overboard.

So the Kyoto Protocol 2 has lost some of its gusto, as Australia and New Zealand were seen as key commitment keepers in a climate of abandonment. At the time, we blamed the “domestic political environment”. But 2 weeks ago, even the liberals got behind the idea as Liberal party climate spokesman Greg Hunt, gave his “in principle” backing to signing up for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

The domestic side should no longer be an excuse. Signing onto KP2 could even help solidify it and alleviate feelings that we are “doing it alone” by showing Australians how our domestic commitments are feeding into the international regime. And considering the amount of emphasis that is being put on it here, now is the perfect time to make our actions speak louder than words. I know that I will not be the only one applauding if we do!

As the Soloman Islands just stated: “Australia and New Zealand have both talked a lot about ‘building confidence’, but how can they ‘build confidence’ when they have not yet made any commitments under the second Kyoto Protocol”.

Yesterday a delegate stressed his concern to me that “a number of parties here are making a lot of things contingent here at the negotiations instead of treating different negotiating tracks on their own merits”. I have to agree with him, but I can understand it. The Durban Platform last year was presented as a package that included developing nations increasing ambition and the continuation of the second Kyoto Protocol. That was the promise made to developing nations that gave the “the confidence” that they could enter the Durban Platform as a globally binding agreement.

Right now, I can totally understand that many developing nations feel that ambition has not increased, and the KP2 remains an empty vessel full of hot air from the EU and without the commitment of key nations such as New Zealand and Australia.

But in this environment of “uncertainty” and “distrust”, surely it offers Australia an unprecedented opportunity to reaffirm their commitment and really put the wind back into the sails of not only the Kyoto Protocol, but the whole Climate Change regime!

So the question now is, will we once again show the world that we are committed to action on climate change, and rekindle our commitment to the only legally binding solution to what former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the “greatest moral challenge of our time”?

Only time will tell.

But if there is going to be any progress here in Bangkok, it may well rely on whether Australia or New Zealand are willing to make this commitment sooner, rather than later.