2 August 2010: The 11th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 11) and the 13th session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP 13) opened in Bonn, Germany, on 2 August 2010.

AWG-LCA 11 will consider the Chair’s revised text, which was circulated in July. The text contains sections on shared vision, mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology and capacity building. These discussions are expected to focus on mitigation by developed countries, mitigation by developing countries, institutional arrangements for financing, and market-based approaches to mitigating climate change.

AWG-KP 13 will focus on: the scale of emission reductions from Annex I parties to the Protocol; legal issues, including addressing a possible gap between the Protocol’s first commitment period (2008-2012) and subsequent commitment periods; and “other” issues such as land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF). There will also be an in-session workshop on the “scale of emission reductions to be achieved by Annex I parties in aggregate and the contribution of Annex I parties, individually or jointly, to this scale.” In her opening statement, Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, stated that governments represented in Bonn have been “steadily building” common ground since the UNFCCC began. She added that in Cancun, delegates will have the responsibility and the opportunity to “take the next essential step: to turn the politically possible into the politically irreversible.”

The AWG-LCA and AWG-KP will present the outcome of their work to the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 16) and sixth session of the Conference of the parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 6), to be held in Cancún, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010. [IISD RS Coverage] [Figueres’ Statement] [IISD RS Archives: Earth Negotiations Bulletin coverage of UNFCCC negotiations]