SOURCE: Climate Home News
DATE: June 27, 2019
SNIP: Talks wrapped up on Thursday evening in Bonn, Germany with diplomats defiantly standing up for the scientific community against Saudi Arabia – but the petrostate won the day.
After a week of backroom discussions, a key report on 1.5C warming was scrubbed forever from formal UN climate talks after the Saudis repeatedly tried to load a statement with equivocation on the science.
Brazil continued to stall efforts to regulate carbon credits, clinging to a demand that negotiators warned would “kill” the Paris Agreement.
Countries clashed over how carbon should be traded under the Paris Agreement and particularly how closely the new scheme should tie in with the system developed under the Kyoto Protocol, the clean development mechanism (CDM).
Countries also sparred over how to avoid double-counting emission reductions – in other words, how not to credit one national climate target with an emission reduction that is then also sold to another. At present, most countries support a mechanism that would prevent credits from being used twice.
Brazil led the charge for weaker accounting, followed by Saudi Arabia, on behalf of like minded developing countries (LMDCs) and Egypt on behalf of the Arab Group.
Ultimately, the discussion was kicked down the road by negotiators, with a draft text filled with square brackets, leaving all countries’ preferences still on the table. “It’s clearer and easier to follow,” said Dufrasne. “But it does give the impression of returning to where we were in Bonn one year ago.”