25 March 2010

In an interview with EurActiv, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer stressed that the UN Climate Conference in Cancún next December (COP 15) must set the basis for a new climate change treaty in 2011.

The UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen last December (COP 15) had been designed for the adoption of a new, global climate agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. However, nations failed to agree on a legally-binding agreement but only adopted a political decision, the “Copenhagen Accord”.

"For me the first challenge for Cancún is to turn the Copenhagen Accord and turn the other decisions which were near agreement in Copenhagen into a functioning architecture on adaptation, mitigation, technology and finance, a functioning architecture that really gives developing countries the confidence that it’s going to be in their interest to move forward”, Yvo de Boer said.

He stressed that in order to reach a legally-binding agreement; nations would need to develop a common understanding of the nature of a legally-binding agreement. "Is it a treaty that's binding at the international level, is it a treaty that's binding at the national level, or is it a treaty that's binding through the implementation rules that it's given, or is it all three? That needs to be clear first."

"What we should be doing under the context of the Convention is setting the parameters for finance, identifying the countries that should receive priority support, identifying the issues that should receive priority support, identifying how support should be provided, for example within the context of nationally-approved adaptation and mitigation strategies," the UNFCCC Executive Secretary said.

"I think it is possible to reach a final agreement in 2011," Yvo De Boer argued. In order to do so, industrialized countries would have to show real leadership by reducing their national greenhouse gas emissions and by providing the prompt start finance in a way that developing countries will see as being directly in support of their needs.

Financing will be key to bridging the divide between the rich and poor countries, he stressed. “What we should be doing under the context of the Convention is setting the parameters for finance, identifying the countries that should receive priority support, identifying the issues that should receive priority support, identifying how support should be provided, for example within the context of nationally-approved adaptation and mitigation strategies.”

The next UN Climate Negotiations are taking place in Bonn, Germany, from 9 to 11 April 2010.

Read the full interview with Yvo de Boer

Note: Yvo de Boer has announced that he will step down from his position as Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC in July. To read more, click here.