Doha Gateway: What was agreed at COP18 climate summit

Kyoto Protocol

-8 year extension to the Kyoto Protocol from 2013-2020 signed by the EU, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Monaco and Liechtenstein.

-The Protocol’s Market Mechanisms – the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Joint Implementation (JI) and International Emissions Trading (IET) – continue as of 2013.

-Access to the mechanisms will be uninterrupted for all developed countries that have accepted targets for the second commitment period.

-Australia, the EU, Japan, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway and Switzerland clarified, through declarations attached to the Doha decision on the second commitment period, that they will not purchase assigned amount units (AAUs) from other Parties.

2015 global deal

-A “significant number” of meetings and workshops are to be held in 2013 to prepare the new agreement and to explore further ways to raise ambition.

-Elements of a negotiating text are to be available no later than the end of 2014, so that a draft negotiating text is available before May 2015.

-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to convene world leaders in 2014 to mobilize the political will to help ensure the 2015 deadline is met.

Finance

-No timetable agreed, but developed countries reiterated commitment to deliver on long-term climate finance support to developing nations, with a view to mobilizing 100 billion USD both for adaptation and mitigation by 2020.

-Germany, the UK, France, Denmark, Sweden and the EU Commission announced concrete finance pledges in Doha for the period up to 2015, totalling approximately 6 billion USD.

Green Climate Fund is expected to start its work in Songdo, South Korea in the second half of 2013, which means that it can launch activities in 2014.

-Work will commence on a loss and damage mechanism although no element of legal liability has been discussed

Other developments

-Delegations agreed to ‘strive for gender balance’ in their negotiating teams, in a move that many hope will raise women’s needs higher up the agenda.

-New work programme to build capacity through climate change education and training, create public awareness and enable the public to participate in climate change decision-making has been agreed in Doha.

What was not agreed

-Attempts to include agriculture – responsible for 14% of global emissions – into the process failed, with disagreements over whether its role should be in reducing or mitigating carbon emissions.

-No decision on measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of emissions reductions from REDD+. Attempts to integrate forestry into the 2015 agreement will continue in 2013.

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