9 December 2011, 06:00 a.m.
COP17 is a high-level climate change conference, taking place in Durban, South Africa this year.
Approximately 15,000 delegates from 195 countries are attending the negotiations on climate change. According to the official United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) website, “The discussions will seek to advance, in a balanced fashion, the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action Plan, agreed at COP 13 in 2007, and the Cancún Agreements , reached at COP 16 last December.”
What is COP17?
The negotiating process on climate change revolves around the sessions of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP), which meets every year to review the implementation of the Convention. The COP adopts decisions and resolutions, published in reports of the COP.
Successive decisions taken by the COP make up a detailed set of rules for practical and effective implementation of the Convention. It also serves as a meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP), which adopts decisions and resolutions on the implementation of its provision.
Who is attending?
Participation in COP 17 and CMP 7 is restricted to duly nominated representatives of Parties, observer States, accredited observer organizations and accredited press/media.
The UN estimates that more than 1,400 journalists are accredited to report on COP17. Those Parties to the Convention that are not Parties to the Protocol may participate as observers in the meeting of the Parties.
COP also attracts environmental lobbying groups, activists and NGOs such as Greenpeace.
The Goals of COP17
As COP17 negotiations enter the second week, it is widely feared that no tangible agreement will be reached at the Durban conference.
There are three main goals that COP17 needs to achieve:
The Green Climate Fund (Cancún Agreements)
The first goal is seen as the most achievable by commentators; that is that participating countries need to fix the detail of the initiatives agreed on in Cancún, mainly on the Green Climate Fund. The aim of the agreement is to establish a $100-billion fund by 2020 to assist developing countries to bring down their carbon emissions and to aid them to adapt to global warming.
A further aim is to distribute green technology to these countries. The US and Saudi Arabia are refusing to sign the agreement.
The second goal, which is receiving most of the attention, is for all the countries to reach an agreement to ensure the future existence of the Kyoto Protocol. The countries that are refusing to commit for a second period includes the US (who never signed the agreement in the first place), Canada, Japan and Russia.
China declared that they will agree to binding commitments after 2020, subject to a number of conditions. Many observers warn that this is not new, and suggest that further clarity on China’s announcement should be obtained.
The Kyoto Protocol is the only global, legally binding instrument for developed countries to cut carbon emissions. The Protocol’s first commitment period started in 2008 and will end in 2012. The Protocol does not curb the emissions of developing countries, which are now 58% of the total; China emits 23%.
China is a signatory to the Protocol, but has previously been seen as a developing country and only had to make voluntary commitments to reduce its emissions. The second-biggest polluter, America, is emitting 20%, and has not ratified the treaty.
EU Roadmap (Bali Action Plan)
The EU will only agree to sign a second term (of five years), if the major emitters such as China and the US support a road map to set a new binding agreement to be completed by 2015 and which will come into force by 2020 - when the existing timetable of voluntary pledges has run its course.
The US have announced that they cannot support a legal framework of which the content is not set out in detail. China and India indicated that they are opposing the EU roadmap. The EU roadmap suggests that all major economies, including Brazil, China, India, South Africa, and the US, all be subject to legally binding emissions targets.
The roadmap is supported by the poorest countries and small island states that are exposed to rising sea levels.
Lobbying groups, activists and lobbying groups
Demonstrators and activists handed over list of demands to the UNFCC, requesting governments to meet the following targets by the end of the COP17:
COP17 and Africa
Africa is especially exposed to the increased risks of extreme weather. The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, says that Africa is facing disasters such as droughts which cause less food security and famine, storms, cyclones and floods.
Experts also warn of a new era of deforestation in Africa. Frances Seymour, director-general of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has informed delegates at COP17: "It is urgent to safeguard Africa's forests, not only because they slow climate change, but also because they act as a final barrier to creeping desertification, underpin sustainable agricultural production, and support the livelihoods of tens of millions of rural poor".
The president of the African Wildlife Foundation , Helen Gichohi says that between 1995 and 2005 across sub-Saharan Africa, 9 % of forest cover have vanished, representing an average loss of 40 000 square kilometres of forest per year. As an example, Kenya has lost the majority of its forest cover to settlements and agriculture, leaving only 1.7 % of its land still forested.