World Wildlife Fund

The Bali Roadmap - Developing a framework to tackle climate change

Bali, Indonesia, provided an evocative backdrop for the UN climate change conference as delegates worked through two intense weeks of negotiations. Representatives from 187 nations were in Bali to gain agreement on a comprehensive, legally binding United Nations framework to tackle climate change. The conference begins a two-year negotiating process and was not expected to produce a final agreement setting specific levels of emissions and other key issues. And while most environmental organizations – including WWF – felt the Bali action plan fell short, there was widespread relief that the most important climate change conference in a decade produced enough agreement on the essential elements of a plan to move forward.

WWF was an active participant in the climate debate. In Bali, the WWF climate team, many of whom also served as official delegates representing their respective countries, played a central role in reaching an agreement.

At the conference
The formal negotiation process took place through plenary sessions of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Conference on Climate Change, its subsidiary bodies (addressing issues such as technology and implementation), the Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol, and a meeting of high-level officials (a “ministerial segment”) in the second week. Negotiations were conducted in the six official languages of the United Nations with simultaneous translation. There were also many small, informal, closed negotiating sessions among parties to problem-solve and reach preliminary agreements that were then concluded in the open sessions.

In addition to the formal negotiations, there were many side events and activities. Many of these were intended to influence the negotiators, while others were designed to share information. Among the notable WWF happenings were 

• WWF issued a new report focused on the impact of the weather records that were broken in 2007 as the result of global warming. In Breaking Records in 2007 – Climate Change, WWF reported developments ranging from the sharp decline of Arctic sea ice to some of the most catastrophic flooding on record.
• WWF released a report that detailed the many ways climate change is speeding up the destruction of the Amazon, with predictions that a “vicious feedback loop of climate change and deforestation could wipe out or severely damage nearly 60 percent of the Amazon forest by 2030.” The Amazon's Vicious Cycles
• WWF announced that the penguin population of Antarctica has come under serious pressure from global warming in a report titled Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change.
• WWF announced Earth Hour, a global initiative in which cities and communities will turn out their lights for one hour on March 29, 2008, to symbolize their commitment to finding solutions for climate change. Cities across Europe, North America, Asia and Asia Pacific – among them Chicago, Copenhagen, Manila, Melbourne, Sydney, Tel Aviv and Toronto – were named as the flagship participants in the March 29 event, with more expected to join in the days ahead.
  

Mission achieved
To the relief of all, an international consensus was reached in Bali. The agreement is not specific enough on many fronts, but it does provide a mandate and a roadmap for future negotiations. It sets the goal of completing negotiations by 2009 so that a new treaty can take effect when the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period expires in 2012. Even if the United States is currently unwilling to move as far as most of the rest of the international community, there is ample opportunity within the plan for a future administration to engage in serious negotiations appropriate to the urgency of the climate change crisis.

Download the full action plan 

Analysis of the Bali Action Plan (COP 13 decision)
Following on the scientific findings of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the plan recognizes that climate change is unequivocal, emphasizes the urgency of addressing climate change, and recognizes that deep cuts in global emissions will be required to achieve the ultimate goal of the convention. All countries, developed and developing, are called on to undertake enhanced action on mitigation of climate change, but the principle of differentiated responsibilities is maintained. The plan includes a provision for “a long-term global goal for emission reductions,” but does not endorse a specific target at this time, leaving this for future negotiations.

The agreement includes four “building blocks” that address important components for a future treaty:
1. Mitigation (actions to limit or reduce emissions)
2. Adaptation and funding mechanisms for adaptation
3. Technology development and transfer
4. Provision of financial resources and investment

In one area, the Bali Action Plan goes far beyond previous UN climate change agreements to bring reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation within the convention mandate. This corrects a major deficiency of previous accords that essentially left forest-rich developing countries out the process by failing to include emissions reductions from avoided deforestation while allowing credits for forestry and agriculture for developed countries. The Bali Action Plan launches a comprehensive process to include “policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries.”

Over $3 billion will begin to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation
There was also explicit recognition of the need for new and additional financial resources—public and private, market-based and fund-base — and the acknowledgment that to be truly effective, “new” financing will need to be sufficient to deter deforestation. The World Bank launched its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, a $300 million fund to support the development of national frameworks for mitigation through reduced deforestation in some countries and an anticipated portfolio of “early action” demonstration projects to generate measurable reductions in forest-based emissions. The government of Norway pledged $2.725 billion over a 5-year term to promote mitigation in developing countries through development of sustainable forest management projects. We expect to see similar moves by other major governments this year, as well as increased investments from investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and other sources of venture capital.

WWF is working to secure an effective global climate agreement
WWF maintains that an effective agreement must address

• Stabilization targets / agreed emissions-reductions objectives: This is the foundation on which a future climate change regime must be grounded. It is essential to limit the global average increase in temperature to 2°C above preindustrial levels. This is an extremely ambitious target based on the increasing body of scientific evidence that shows threats to natural and socioeconomic systems of increases even below 2°C.
• Early action: It is urgent to start taking concrete measures to reduce emissions in the highest emitting sectors. The continuation of the negotiations should not be used to delay emissions reductions that can be achieved today or the development of institutional or technical capacity to implement an agreement once it is reached.
• Energy efficiency: Energy efficiency must become the world’s top energy priority. It not only directly reduces emissions, but also slows growth in energy demand and thus can forestall some installation of traditional fossil fuel power generation.
• Renewable energy: There are many options for deployment of bio-energy, solar, wind power, geothermal, and other renewable options. The post-Bali framework must provide incentives for governments to work with stakeholders to increase reliance on these options, but with careful attention to standards that ensure implementation does not inadvertently contribute to deforestation, depletion of water resources or other environmental problems.
• Adaptation: The world is already committed to disruptive levels of climate change and must adjust practices and systems to prepare for unexpected climate conditions. The new framework must address financing, institutional, and capacity issues to support local adaptation efforts.
• Market mechanisms: There are many ways to increase economic efficiency. The framework should effectively use these mechanisms to ensure that emissions reductions are achieved at the least cost and with the greatest environmental integrity.
• National implementation: no single policy option (e.g., cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, etc.) will fit all countries. The post-2012 framework must recognize this and address the issue of monitoring and verifying national implementation treaty obligations.
• Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation: Reducing deforestation and maintaining healthy forests is a crucial component of slowing climate change and is also necessary for conservation of critical habitats and preservation of biodiversity. Early action and capacity building efforts must be accelerated.

WWF News releases during the conference
Learn more about WWFs successful efforts to help launch the Coral Triangle Initiative
Dec. 19, 2007
Bali Launches Climate Negotiations, Week on Substance
Dec. 17, 2007
US Government Proposal Has Potential to Derail Bali Climate Conference, Warns WWF
Dec. 13, 2007
Amazon Deforestation Rates Decreasing, Rainforests Still Threatened
Dec. 11, 2007
Penguins in Peril as Climate Warms, WWF
Dec. 11, 2007
WWF Applauds US Senate Committee Approval of Landmark Climate Change Legislation
Dec. 7, 2007
Climate Change speeds up Amazon's destruction, says WWF
Dec. 5, 2007
Record Breaking Year for Climate, says WWF
Dec. 3, 2007
150 Global Business Leaders Call for Legally Binding UN Framework at Bali COP to Tackle Climate Change
Nov. 30, 2007