by Nathan Thanki
Saturday saw thousands march through the streets of Warsaw towards to Stadium where the negotiations are being held. 600 people arrived on a train from Brussels. The march ended in a rally which included speakers from the Philippines Movement for Climate Justice.
Negotiations, meanwhile, continued as contact groups and informals before convening as plenaries late into the night and on in to Sunday morning. The SBSTA closing plenary began around midnight and ended around 3am after adopting conclusions and forwarding draft COP decisions on many issues, including the Nairobi Work Programme, the report of the Adaptation Committee, response measures, research and systematic observations, and most methodological issues under the Convention and Protocol. On agriculture, text was agreed that largely went along with G77 positions. G77 negotiators were pleased with this and stressed the role of agriculture in adaptation. Methodological guidance for REDD+ was agreed, but remained with bracketed (unagreed) text pending decisions on REDD+ finance. Other areas that had no agreement included the “Brazil proposal” to ask IPCC calculate historical responsibility, the joint report of the TEC and CTCN, and REDD finance. Those issues will be carried forward in some other capacity. Another area with no agreement was on markets. In the absence of consensus and based on the Rules of Procedure, the discussions will go forward to SBSTA 40 in Bonn and not to COP19 in Warsaw, as the Umbrella group and EU). Many developing countries did however object that the text that parties worked on until 3am yesterday (and failed to find agreement on) did not go forward to SBSTA40, as in the absence of consensus the chair had put the original chair’s text to be discussed again at SBSTA40.
The SBI plenary reconvened around 1am and managed to adopt conclusions on the review of Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation, National Adaptation Plans, Least Developed Countries, the Adaptation Fund, Capacity Building, and response measures. The issue off loss and damage had a conclusion adopted but as it is a politically contentious issue work is on-going among negotiators before it gets taken to the ministers. The SBI did not manage to reach consensus on the 2014-15 budget nor on the Consultative Group of Experts (CGE) and the plenary could not conclude at 5am due to lack of quorum.
The ADP convened a stocktaking plenary in which Parties reiterated many of the same points they had made in the previous stocktaking. NGOs took time off on Saturday for movement building in the form of the rally and NGO party.
Resources for further reading
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/climate/news/warsaw01/TWN_update12.pdf
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/climate/news/warsaw01/TWN_update11.pdf
http://www.iisd.ca/download/pdf/enb12589e.pdf