Durban Platform for Enhanced Action

8 December 2011

Preamble/objectives:

The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric

concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) at levels that would prevent
"dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."25 So one obvious
objective of the Durban Platform outcome, as an instrument to be negotiated
"under the Convention," is what might be called "climate effectiveness."
Two other oft-mentioned goals are benefit-cost optimization and climate justice.
The Durban outcomes looked to address these challenges in a more
connected way by embodying a pdf-icon road map for implementation over a
longer time horizon than has commonly been the case in the history of the
Convention. On this map, four main areas of coordinated and complementary action
and implementation, designed also to build and preserve trust among countries,
were agreed:

1) Second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol

The continuation of the current international legal system through a second
commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, under which developed countries commit
to greenhouse gas cuts and which enshrines existing accounting rules and models
of international cooperation that may inform future efforts.

2) Launch of new platform of negotiations

The launch of a new platform of negotiations under the Convention to deliver
a new and universal greenhouse gas reduction protocol, legal instrument or other
outcome with legal force by 2015 for the period beyond 2020. This new negotiation
critically includes finding ways to further raise the existing level of national and
international action and stated ambition to bring greenhouse gas emissions down.

3) Conclusion in 2012 of existing broad-based stream of negotiations

A decision to conclude within 2012 the work of the existing broad-based
stream of negotiations that includes all member nations under the Convention. This
includes work to make existing national emission reduction or emission limitation
plans more transparent. It also encompasses the launch and long-term
implementation of the comprehensive global support network that will deliver
funding and technology to help developing countries build their own clean energy
futures and construct societies and economies which are resilient to climate change.

4) Global Review
To scope out and then conduct a fresh global pdf-icon Review of the
emerging climate challenge, based on the best available science and data, first to
ensure whether a maximum two-degree rise is enough or whether an even lower
1.5 degree rise is required, and then to ensure that collective action is adequate to
prevent the average global temperature rising beyond the agreed limit.
Members/concurring states:

The concurring states that were present during the adoption of the Durban
Platform for Enhanced Action were the same parties present during the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The UNFCCC has 197 parties
including all United Nations member states, United Nations General Assembly
observer State of Palestine, UN non-member states Niue and the Cook Islands and
the supranational union European Union.

Content:

The Durban Platform represents a finely balanced compromise among the

principal negotiating groups in the UN climate-change regime: The European Union
(EU), supported by small-island and least-developed countries (LDCs), sought a
fast-start mandate to negotiate a new legally-binding instrument engaging all
countries, as a condition for its agreement to a second commitment period under
the Kyoto Protocol.3 The Durban Platform addresses this demand by establishing a
process to negotiate "a treaty, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with
legal force," which begins this year and is scheduled to conclude in 2015.4 In
exchange, the European Union agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol for another five
to eight years, through adoption of an amendment at this year's Conference of the
Parties (COP) in Doha, Qatar, providing for a second commitment period for the
period 20122017 or 20122020.
In Durban, governments clearly recognized the need to draw up the blueprint
for a fresh universal, legal agreement to deal with climate change beyond 2020,
where all will play their part to the best of their ability and all will be able to reap
the benefits of success together. In short, all governments committed in Durban to
a comprehensive plan that would come closer over time to delivering the ultimate
objective of the Climate Change Convention: to stabilize greenhouse gas
concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent our dangerous
interference with the climate system and at the same time will preserve the right to
sustainable development.
The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action presents an important opening to
assess 20 years of experience under the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate (UNFCCC), and to set a new course for the international climate effort.
Adopted by UNFCCC parties in December 2011, the Durban Platform calls for
strengthening the multilateral, rules-based regime under the Convention. To that
end, it launched a new round of negotiations aimed at developing
a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force for the
period from 2020.
The negotiations are scheduled to conclude in 2015. Depending on the
outcome of these talks, the Durban Platform could initiate a new stage in the
evolution of the multilateral climate framework. From the start of the UNFCCC
negotiations, parties have struggled to choose between two competing models: a
top-down contractual approach favoring binding targets and timetables, and a
bottom-up facilitative approach favoring voluntary actions defined unilaterally. In
the course of the regimes evolution to date, parties have in fact produced
examples of both: the binding Kyoto Protocol, and the parallel voluntary framework
that emerged at the 2009 Copenhagen summit and was formally adopted a year
later in Cancn.
The recently concluded conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC held in
Durban, South Africa, (COP17) has opened a new and unexpected scenario in
climate change negotiations. In spite of the doom and gloom prevailing at the
opening of the conference, Parties have agreed on a comprehensive package of
decisions on a range of issues, including developments that may lead to sweeping
changes for the climate regime. The main breakthroughs of the conference were
political agreement on a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, and the
establishment of yet another treaty body (so-called Durban Platform) with the
mandate to launch a process to develop a protocol, another legal instrument or a
legal outcome under the Convention, applicable to all Parties, which is expected to
be adopted by 2015 and to be implemented from 2020.
At the end of the gruelling talks the world decided on the "Durban Platform
for Enhanced Action". The two-page document commits all countries to cutting
carbon for the first time. A "road map" will guide countries towards a legal deal to
cut carbon in 2015, but it will only come into affect after 2020.
It is a success in terms of keeping the climate change talks on track after it
was feared no decision would be reached, making a mockery of the UN process
especially after the collapse of the last high profile talks in Copenhagen in 2009.
The EU, who led calls for the so-called "road map" are hailing it as "an historic
breakthrough". The bloc point out that this is the first time that the worlds three
biggest emitters: The US, China and India have signed up to a legal treaty to cut
carbon.
However it is a failure in terms of the expectations of certain countries, like
the small island states, and the charities, who wanted a much stronger agreement.
They argue that the legal language needs to be a lot stronger to force countries to
act and dates should be brought forward to stop global warming. They point out
that carbon emissions will have to peak by 2020 and start to come down for the
world to limit temperature rise to 2C.
It has been estimated that the carbon footprint for the event could be in the
order of 15,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. However this does not include the flights
of the 13,000 delegates that is likely to increase the emissions to the annual
footprint of a small African country. Durban City Council is offsetting the footprint
by through an ecosystem rehabilitation project in the uMbilo catchment west of
Durban. It is expected to offset 16,000 CO2e.

Status of Implementation:

It remains crucial that all levels of government - national, sub-national and

local - take the bigger and bolder action that is required to keep the world on the
right track to reduce emissions, to deal with existing climate change and to help
smooth the way for an effective new global climate change agreement in 2015.

Similarly, it will be critical for the business and technology sectors and for
civil society to profit rapidly from the increasing number of opportunities being
presented by the national and international climate response, while building
environmentally sustainable and resilient societies worldwide.
The Durban outcome recognized, in its spirit and intention, that smart government
policy, smart business investment, and the demands of an informed citizenry, all
motivated by an understanding of mutual self-interest, must go hand in hand in
pursuit of the common goal.

References:

https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/durban-platform-negotiations-goals-and-o
ptions

http://www.iccgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/01_reflection_january_2012.p
df

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/climatechange/8949099/Durb
an-climate-change-the-agreement-explained.html

http://unfccc.int/key_steps/durban_outcomes/items/6825.php

"Parties to the Convention and Observer States". United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change. Retrieved 2013-06-25.

Group 5
Molina, Sheena Aira
Moralita, Marynell
Esplanada, Jocelle
Montes, Lemuel Jr.
Rocero, Honeylette
Pacoma, Arvin
Gonzales, Nina Lyn