Doha Climate Change Conference

Climate change is a complex problem, which, although environmental in nature, has consequences for all spheres of existence on planet. It either impacts on-- or is impacted by-- global issues, including poverty, economic development, population growth, sustainable development and resource management. 

Convention on Climate Change, cooperatively consider what they could do to limit average global temperature increase and the resulting climate change, and to cope with whatever impacts were, by then, inevitable came into being in the form of UNFCCC on 21 March 1994. The 195 countries that have ratified the Convention are called Parties to the Convention.

Preventing “dangerous” human interference with the climate system is the ultimate aim of the UNFCCC.

By 1995, countries realized that emission reductions provisions in the Convention were inadequate. They launched negotiations to strengthen the global response to climate change, and, two years later, adopted the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. The Protocol’s first commitment period started in 2008 and ends in 2012.

The UNFCCC secretariat supports all institutions involved in the international climate change negotiations, particularly the Conference of the Parties (COP), the subsidiary bodies (which advise the COP), and the COP Bureau (which deals mainly with procedural and organizational issues arising from the COP and also has technical functions). 

The Doha Climate Change Conference that concluded on 8th December, 2012 has resulted in three decisions (clubbed together as ‘Doha Climate Gateway’) aimed at advancing the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol (KP). 

The key questions for the Doha conference were: amending the Kyoto Protocol to implement the second commitment under the Protocol; successfully concluding the work of the Bali Action Plan (BAP); and planning the work under the Durban Platform (DP) for Enhanced Action which was agreed to at Durban last year. The Conference addressed all the three issues and came out with a package which balanced the interests and obligations of various countries. 

The Doha Conference has succeeded in carrying out amendments to the Kyoto Protocol making the second commitment period (CP2) of emission reduction by parties effective immediately beginning January 1, 2013. Although the emission reduction obligations undertaken by the Annex I parties are not as ambitious as required by science, the parties have agreed to implement the targets over an 8 years period (2013-2020), thus providing relative degree of certainty to the carbon markets. 

EU, the major KP Party will reduce its emissions by 20% by 2020 compared to 1990. It has been agreed that the KP parties will revisit their targets in 2014 with a view to increasing their ambition; this will be unconditional and will have no linkage with the work of the Durban Platform. This decision, along-with provisional application of the amendments on an ‘opt-in’ basis has ensured that there will be no gap between the first commitment period under the KP ending on December 31, 2012 and the second one commencing on January 1, 2013. 

The decision permits the parties to carry over their accumulated surplus Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) from the first commitment period to the second. However, the carryover of the Certified Emission Reduction (CER) units or Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) from the first period will be limited to the extent of 2.5%. The use of these units will be permitted only for meeting the shortfall in domestic emissions reduction target. Moreover, the trading between two parties in the AAUs will be limited to 2% only of the reserve. 

As per the agreement, only those KP parties that have agreed to take mandatory targets under the KP in the CP2 will be able to use the flexibility mechanisms such as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and Joint Implementation (JI). While the facility of trading in CERs and ERUs will be available only to such KP parties, the rules allow all Annex-I KP Parties to continue to participate in ongoing and new project activities under CDM. This has created a possibility for the Annex-I parties other than those having targets under the KP to trade in units from projects as and when modalities for operation of new market mechanisms covering such projects are developed by the SBI. 

At the Doha Conference, India protected its interests fully and succeeded in bringing the three issues of Equity, Technology-related IPRs and the Unilateral Measures firmly back on the table. These outstanding or unresolved issues under the Bali Action Plan (BAP) are now part of the planned or continuing work of various bodies of the Convention. At Doha, India also ensured that agriculture, being a sensitive sector of our economy, was prevented from being included in the mitigation work programme proposed to be launched at the global level. 

The reassertion of the principle of Equity and CBDR which have remained muted since Copenhagen was the single biggest gain from Doha. The Conference has explicitly recognized that the action of parties will be based on equity and CBDR including the need for equitable access to sustainable development. The decisions have also avoided quantitative target for global emissions reduction or global peaking that could place a cap on emissions of developing countries and restrict their development space. 

Amongst the key concerns which the Conference could not address are those relating to financing commitments of developed countries, sectoral actions and the issue of compensation for loss and damage arising from Climate Change. While the Conference stopped short of giving a mandate to the ICAO or IMO to initiate steps for curtailing emissions in the respective sectors, the absence of a decision on sectoral framework for such actions has left the open the possibility of such actions being initiated in such sectors by the respective international organisations on their own. 

The Conference could not take ambitious or meaningful decisions on financing commitments of developed countries. No specific targets for mid-term financing (2013-2020) were adopted resentment amongst developing countries. The work programme on long term finance has been extended with a view to continue discussion on sources of likely finance in the long term. The Standing Committee (on Finance) of the Convention has been entrusted with the task of recommending suitable arrangements for accountability of and reporting on its functions by the Green Climate Fund to the Conference of Parties. Despite pitched demand from vulnerable countries, there could be no satisfactory agreement on compensation mechanism for loss and damage resulting from climate change. 

On efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation, a mechanism known as REDD+, decisions on how to measure, report and verify emissions reductions, set baselines against which to measure actions and how to finance results-based actions, were pushed to next year.  However, countries did agree to discuss next year the role that forests play in providing benefits beyond carbon reduction, including forest biodiversity, which is essential for the conservation of natural forests.

A spate of scientific reports released during the two-week meeting provided compelling new evidence that the Earth's climate is warming. They also predicted dire consequences - from rising sea levels to more severe droughts, floods and storms - unless action is taken to reduce climate-changing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.