The Doha amendment to the Kyoto Protocol (KP) will probably be the most important contribution from the 2012 sessions of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled in Qatar from November 26 to December 7.
This was revealed by Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), yesterday on the occasion of the official signing ceremony of the Host Country Agreement with Qatar.
Commonly referred to as COP18/CMP8, the 2012 sessions will mark the 18th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the parties to the KP.
Incoming COP18/CMP8 president and chairman of Qatar Administrative Control and Transparency Authority, HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah and Figueres signed the agreement.
It was in 1992 that countries joined the UNFCCC, an international treaty, to co-operatively consider what they could do to limit average global temperature increases and the resulting climate change, and to cope with whatever impacts were, by then, inevitable.
By 1995, countries realised that emission reductions provisions in the Convention were inadequate. They launched negotiations to strengthen the global response to climate change, and, two years later, adopted the KP, which legally binds 37 States (consisting of highly industrialised countries and those undergoing the process of transition to a market economy), to emission limits and reduction commitments.
With 195 parties, the UNFCCC has near universal membership and the KP has been ratified by 193 parties. The ultimate objective of both the treaties is to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
The KP's first commitment period started in 2008 and ends in 2012. At COP17 in Durban, governments of the Parties to the KP decided that a second commitment period, from January 1, 2013 onwards, would seamlessly follow the end of the first commitment period.
"The length of the second commitment period is to be determined in Doha, whether it is going to be five years or eight years," Figueres said while giving a hint about the contents of the anticipated amendment.
The UNFCCC executive secretary described COP18/CMP8 as "an absolute strategic opportunity for countries of the Gulf region to show a commitment and 'most have realised it is in their interest to explore the potential of solar and wind energy".
Shedding more light on the COP18/CMP8, Figueres said: "We will be going to new heights with respect to the availability of IT for all participants."
There will be a very high level event on the impact of climate change on women and children, a first for COP.
Observing that the COP18/CMP8 will be a training ground for Qatar with respect to climate change, the UNFCCC official stated that the event puts Qatar on the pinnacle of multilateral and political leadership.
"Doha will be a very important step in the history of the climate change conference," she added.
Since the UNFCCC came into force in 1995, the COP have been meeting annually to assess progress in dealing with climate change.
The COP adopts decisions and resolutions, published in reports of the COP. Successive decisions taken by the COP make up a detailed set of rules for practical and effective implementation of the Convention.
'Oil and gas does not mean pollution'
The oil and gas industry is being made a scapegoat by some who accuse it of pollution, Qatar Administrative Control and Transparency Authority chairman HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah stated yesterday. "Oil and gas does not mean pollution. There are other pollutants. Blaming is easy, especially to blame others for one's own problems," he observed. HE al-Attiyah, a former minister of energy and industry, was speaking at a ceremony where he signed the Host Country Agreement for the 2012 sessions of the UN Climate Change Conference, scheduled in Doha from November 26 to December 7. "We have to be pragmatic. We need a mix of energy sources. Qatar should have a big future in solar (energy). Qatar is the biggest producer of LNG, the cleanest fuel," he said. Page 2