United Nations climate talks

After a number of years of intense negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11th December 1997 and it the Protocol attempts to implement the principles of the Convention agreement. The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012 and governments are currently negotiating the second commitment period of the Protocol as well as addressing the 'implementation gap' of other Convention commitments for finance, technology transfer and adaptation.

 

These talks are scheduled to be completed in December 2009.

 

Kyoto comes into force

The Kyoto Protocol came into force on 16 February 2005 after the Russian Parliament ratified the treaty in 2004. Kyoto commits industrialized countries who have ratified it to individual, legally binding targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to and average of 5% from 1990 levels in by 2012.

 

Climate negotiations continue in Poznań

 

Each year the UNFCCC holds negotiating sessions known as the "COP" (conference of parties). The next is COP14,  scheduled for the small Polish city of Poznań from 1-14 December 2008 and will continue to work on the "Bali Action Plan" which was agreed at COP 13. The purpose of the Bali Action Plan is to commence implementation on Convention obligations that have not been met thus far, and also design the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to start after 2012.  

 

Friends of the Earth International believes that for the outcomes of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol under the current negotiations to be deemed as legitimate, any agreement reached must be socially, politically, economically and ecologically just and compliant with human rights. Only with a radical global change which is based on climate justice we will be able to prevent the worst consequences of climate change which would hit the poorest people hardest in a sustainable way.

 

A post-2012 agreement must commit developed countries (Annex I) to make immediate steep emission reductions, support for the respect of land rights and the conservation of the world’s last remaining forests. In addition Annex I countries must make large-scale financial transfers for developing country appropriate adaptation and mitigation with arrangements for appropriate and fair multilateral mechanisms to distribute funds.

 

Such an agreement should also ensure that the human rights impacts of climate change are taken into account and that the public and civil society have rights of information; public participation and access to justice to ensure that its provisions are developed and applied in an open, fair, transparent and just way.

 

Friends of the Earth International - the world's largest grassroots-based environmental federation with more than 70 national member groups in as many countries - will be at the talks in Poznań lobbying and holding governments accountable, and building a diverse civil society movement to achieve climate justice.

 

We will be co-hosting a side event presenting a critical analysis of one of the key issues under negotiation in  Poznań "reduced emissions from deforestation in developing countries" (REDD) on Tuesday 2 December at 1pm with Global Forest Coalition and International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Forest Peoples. We will be showcasing our new report REDD Myths.

• Find out more about the REDD Myths report
  

 

Friends of the Earth International will be reporting from Poznań throughout the duration of the conference. Check back here for updates.

news 

forest carbon trading exposed

[Nov 27]

read our climate position paper for the talks

[pdf]

 

further reading

read Friends of the Earth International's analysis of COP13 in Bali (2007) 

find out what happened at the intersessional negotiations in Accra, Ghana (2008) 

media contacts

Friends of the Earth International media line : +31-6-5100 5630 (Dutch mobile number)