23 November 2010
AWG-LCA Chair Addresses Pre-COP 16 Ministerial Meeting
story highlights

Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe presented her vision of what Cancun could deliver, stressing the need to address the apparent deadlock over mitigation commitments by developed country parties under the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol.

5 November 2010: A Pre-COP Ministerial meeting took place in Mexico City, Mexico, from 4-5 November 2010.In her statement to the meeting, Margaret MukahananaSangarwe, Chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA), indicated that her consultations with parties during the session in Tianjin, China, revealed a shared desire for a balanced outcome and agreement that the Cancun outcome should not prejudge prospects for a legally-binding outcome in the future. She expressed her opinion that the appropriate way to present the LCA outcome to the Conference of the Parties (COP) would be through one draft decision that encompasses the full scope of the AWG-LCA outcome.

Mukahanana-Sangarwe also outlined the state of play on the issues to be reflected in the Cancun outcome, noting that: agreement can quickly be reached on adaptation, REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable use of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks), agriculture and technology; the use of market-based mechanisms, other approaches to enhance the cost-effectiveness of mitigation actions, or the issue of capacity building, will need further work; and a long-term global goal for emission reductions could be confirmed.

She underscored the need for progress on the difficult issues at the core of a package in Cancun, namely: mitigation, including measurement, reporting and verification (MRV); and finance, including governance and long-term financing. She stated that, in order for Cancun to deliver an outcome, the apparent deadlock over mitigation commitments by developed country parties under the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol need to be addressed.

In concluding, she stressed that “there is now too much to lose to allow disagreements to overshadow the fundamental underlying agreement on most of the important issues,” and called for international action on climate change to be accelerated. [AWG-LCA Chair Speaking Notes]


related events