Warsaw Conference: “Small steps forward while awaiting major decisions at the 2015 Paris Conference”

Abstract

Consensus was reached on the text on which the future global agreement in Paris 2015 on cutting emissions will be based. The countries will have to explain by means of biannual reports from 2014 onwards how they are going to fulfil the funding pledge in the long term. The establishing of requirements for the measuring, reporting and verification of emissions cuts and the financial flows remained pending. *The declarations by Japan, Australia and Canada on their mitigation plans increased concern about the viability of keeping temperatures below the danger level. Brazil’s proposal to develop a methodology for the distribution of mitigation efforts based on historical responsibility was not successful. *The disagreement between developed and developing countries remains in terms of the priority to fix the mitigation ambitions as opposed to that of fixing financial support and the transfer of capacities and technology. *The “Warsaw International Mechanism” and the “Warsaw Framework for REDD+” were set up. The first one, whose functioning has yet to be determined and which has no budget, is intended to address loss and damage. The second contains funding systems for REDD+ actions, together with methodological questions, and has an initial budget of 280 million dollars. *It was agreed that support should be given to the Adaptation Fund (which was provided with an additional amount of over 100 million dollars), the Clean Development Mechanism and the Joint Implementation, the continuity of which is in danger in view of the current price of carbon.