Eighth meeting at the leaders' representative level of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate also recommends focus for Tianjin climate change talks.
21 September 2010: The eighth meeting at the leaders’ representative level of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate took place in New York, US, from 20-21 September 2010, and was attended by officials from the 17 major economies, as well as the UN, Barbados, Denmark, Egypt, Singapore and Spain.
Participants discussed how to advance prospects for a successful outcome at the Cancun climate change conference to be held in late 2010. Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, the incoming President of the Conference of the Parties (COP), emphasized the importance of success in Cancun for the credibility of the multilateral system and stressed the need to agree on a balanced package of decisions in Cancun, recognizing that it will not be possible to agree on all of the details.
Participants expressed concern about the pace of negotiations. Support was expressed for concluding, in Cancun, a balanced package of decisions potentially including: adaptation; mitigation and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable use of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+); monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV); finance; and technology. With respect to the breadth and depth of decisions, many participants suggested that they should be “comprehensive but not necessarily exhaustive,” and that for more difficult issues, follow-up work may be identified to be undertaken issue-by-issue.
Views were divided on the Kyoto Protocol. Some participants attached great importance to the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, including for its “rule-based” approach; while others stated that they will not agree to a second commitment period. And yet others expressed willingness to agree to a second commitment period if certain conditions were met concerning an agreement covering the major economies. A range of views was also expressed regarding what equity refers to and how it applies in the context of the international regime on climate change.
Participants recommended that the next round of negotiations in Tianjin, China, scheduled from 4-9 October 2010, should focus on key issues, including through focused break-out groups, and “extract” from the negotiating text what should be decided upon in Cancun. [Chair’s Summary]