Bali Road Map

After the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference on the island Bali in Indonesia in December, 2007 the participating nations adopted the Bali Road Map as a two-year process to finalizing a binding agreement in 2009 in Copenhagen. The conference encompassed meetings of several bodies, including the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 13) and the 3rd Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP 3 or CMP 3).

The Bali Road Map includes the Bali Action Plan (BAP) that was adopted by Decision 1/CP.13 of the COP-13. It also includes the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP)^[1] negotiations and their 2009 deadline, the launch of the Adaptation Fund, the scope and content of the Article 9 review of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as decisions on technology transfer and on reducing emissions from deforestation.^[2]

Bali Action Plan

Pillars

The Conference of Parties decided to launch a comprehensive process to enable the implementation of the Convention through long-term cooperative action, now, up to and beyond 2012, by addressing: (the called pillars or building blocks)

• A shared vision for long-term cooperative action, including a long-term global goal for emission reductions.
• Enhanced national/international action on mitigation of climate change.
• Enhanced action on adaptation.
• Enhanced action on technology development and transfer to support action on mitigation and adaptation.
• Enhanced action on the provision of financial resources and investment to support action on mitigation and adaptation and technology cooperation.

Cutting emissions

The nations acknowledge that evidence for global warming is unequivocal, and that humans must reduce emissions to reduce the risks of "severe climate change impacts" and emphasized the urgency to address climate change. There was a strong consensus for updated changes for both developed and developing countries. Although there were not specific numbers agreed upon in order to cut emissions,the Decision recognized that there was a need for "deep cuts in global emissions" (plural countries proposed 100% reduction in 2050) and that "developed country emissions must fall 10-40% by 2020".^[3]

Mitigation

Enhanced action on mitigation of climate change includes, inter alia:

• Nationally appropriate mitigation commitments or actions by all developed countries.
• Nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) by developing countries.
• Cooperative sectorial approaches and sector-specific actions (CSAs).
• Ways to strengthen the catalytic role of the convention.

Forests

The nations pledge "policy approaches and positive incentives" on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in developing countries; and enhancement of forest carbon stock in developing countries This paragraph is referred to as “REDD-plus”.^[4]

Adaptation

The nations opt for enhanced co-operation to "support urgent implementation" of measures to protect poorer countries against climate change, including NAPAs. impacts.

Technology

In technology development and transfer, the nations will consider how to facilitate the transfer of clean and renewable energy technologies from industrialised nations to the developing countries.This includes, inter alia:

• Removal of obstacles to, and provision of financial and other incentives for, scaling up the development and transfer of technology to developing country Parties in order to promote access to affordable environmentally sound technologies (renewable energies, electric vehicles).
• Ways to accelerate the deployment, diffussion and transfer of such technologies.
• Cooperation on research and development of current, new and innovative technology, including win-win solutions.
• The effectiveness of mechanism and tools for technology cooperation in specific sectors.

Finance

Provision of financial resources and investment includes:

• Improved access to predictable and sustainable financial resources and the provision of new and additional resources, including official and concessional funding for developing country Parties (dcP).
• Positive incentives for dcP for national mitigation strategies and adaptation action.
• Innovative means of funding for dcP that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change in meeting the costs of adaptation.
• Incentivisation of adaptation actions on the basis of sustainable development policies.
• Mobilization of funding and investment, including facilitation of climate-friendly investment choices.
• Financial and technical support for capacity-building in the assessment of costs of adaptation in developing countries, to aid in determining their financial needs.

Ad Hoc Working Groups

The Conference decided to establish two subsidiary bodies under the Convention to conduct the process, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP), that were to complete their work in 2009 and present the outcome to the COP15/MOP 5.

The AWG-LCA and AWG-KP presented draft conclusions to COP15 and CMP5, which contained many unresolved issues. The working groups were subsequently asked to report to COP16 and CMP6 in Cancun, Mexico.

Timescales

Four major UNFCCC meetings to implement the Bali Road Map were planned for 2008, with the first to be held in either March or April and the second in June, with the third in either August or September followed by a major meeting in Poznań, Poland in December 2008. The negotiations process was scheduled to conclude at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

See also

• Agenda 21
• Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
• Carbon financing
• Climate Technology Initiative (CTI)
• Expert Group on Technology Transfer (EGTT)
• Flexibility mechanism
• Global Environment Facility (GEF)
• Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• LULUCF
• Monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV)
• Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN)
• Risk assessment
• Technology Needs Assessment (TNA)
• UNDP
• Zero-carbon economy

References

External links

• Part of the UNFCCC site dedicated to the Bali Roadmap
• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | At a glance: Bali climate deal
• Bali Action Plan (.pdf) on United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change gateway
• Full text of the Framework Convention, agreed 9 May 1992
• Conference official blog
• Video clips of key moments on the last session of the Conference and interviews with Hilary Benn and Myron Ebell on Channel4 News: Bali: a deal of sorts
• Draft report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol on its tenth session
• Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention. Draft conclusions proposed by the Chair.