4 September 2015: The tenth part of the second session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP 2-10) was the penultimate of several meetings under the UNFCCC in preparation for the Paris Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in France in November-December 2015. The Paris Conference is mandated to adopt “a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all parties,” which is to come into force in 2020.

ADP 2-10 took place in Bonn, Germany, from 31 August-4 September 2015. The meeting brought together over 2,000 participants, representing governments, observer organizations and the media.

In December 2014, the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the UNFCCC requested the ADP to intensify its work, with a view to presenting a negotiating text for a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all parties before May 2015. In February 2015, in Geneva, Switzerland, the ADP adopted the Geneva negotiating text (GNT) (FCCC/ADP/2015/1), which serves as the basis for the negotiations of the 2015 agreement. The GNT is a compilation of options and proposals by parties, and is 90 pages long.

In their scenario note (ADP.2015.4.InformalNote) of 24 July 2015, ADP Co-Chairs Ahmed Djoghlaf (Algeria) and Daniel Reifsnyder (US) identified the objective of the Bonn session as the production of a clearer understanding and articulation of the elements of the Paris package with regard to workstream 1 (2015 agreement) and workstream 2 (pre-2020 ambition), including by the development of bridging proposals and the crystallization of options for further negotiation.

To guide the work at ADP 2-10, ADP Co-Chairs produced, at the request of parties at ADP 2-9, a “Tool,” annexed to their 24 July 2015 scenario note. This Tool is based on the streamlined and consolidated text of 11 June that is the product of the efforts of parties at ADP 2-9 to streamline the GNT. The Tool also reorganizes the GNT without omitting or deleting any option or position of parties. The Co-Chairs also released a document containing elements for a draft decision on ADP workstream 2 (pre-2020 ambition).

At ADP 2-10, delegates worked throughout the week on the various parts of the Tool in facilitated groups and “spin-offs,” or informal meetings of the facilitated groups, addressing sections on: general/objective; preamble; adaptation and loss and damage; mitigation; finance; technology development and transfer; capacity building; transparency; timeframes; implementation and compliance; and procedural and institutional provisions. The groups considered placement of the various paragraphs in the Tool, engaged in conceptual discussions on key issues, and in some cases started developing textual proposals.

At the end of the session, Parties agreed that the ADP Co-Chairs would prepare, with the assistance of the Co-Facilitators and the Secretariat, a non-paper constituting negotiating text taking into consideration the views and positions of parties as the basis for work for ADP 2-11 in October 2015. Co-Chair Djoghlaf added that negotiations will take place in an open-ended drafting group with spin-offs as necessary. The non-paper is to be made available during the first week of October 2015. [IISD RS Coverage of ADP 2-10] [ADP 2-10 Website] [UNFCCC Press Release]