The 195-nation UN climate talks resume on Monday when rank-and-file diplomats gather in Bonn to lay the foundation for a global climate pact to be signed in December.
On Friday, the UN revealed it is seeing official national climate action plans submitted at a faster rate than had been widely expected ahead of this December’s Paris Summit, fueling hopes progress toward an international agreement can be made at next week’s latest round of talks.
The UNFCCC climate secretariat provided an update on Friday, revealing that climate action plans, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, had been submitted by over 50 countries, which together accounted for almost 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, AFP reported.
However, dozens of issues have stymied the negotiations, now into their third decade under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Here are the key points of contention:
Mitigation
All countries agree that greenhouse-gas emissions, which drive warming, must be curbed. But by how much?
The UN has endorsed a ceiling of 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.
But poor countries and low-lying, small-island states—which will be hit first and hardest by climate change—say 2 degrees C is not good enough, and favor a tougher goal of 1.5.
Timing is important too: To have a 50/50 shot at 2 degrees C, global carbon dioxide emissions must peak by 2025 and drop dramatically thereafter.
By 2050, humans must no longer be adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Fairness
The 1992 UNFCCC charter enshrines a principle that rich countries historically caused the problem and should do more to fix it.
That divide was entrenched in the Kyoto Protocol that went into force in 2005 and placed emissions-curbing targets on industrialized nations only, excluding the United States that did not sign up.
Much has changed: Fast-growing China and India have become the world’s No. 1 and No. 4 carbon emitters respectively, and others who were labeled “developing” countries 25 years ago, have since scaled the economic ladder.
At the same time, the European Union and United States have slowed their carbon pollution.
Whether, or to what extent, the original “differentiated responsibilities” principle should be abandoned or modified is hugely contentious in determining how to set emissions goals, verification rules and the flow of financial aid.
Money
One of the few concrete decisions to come out of the 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen was a pledge from rich economies to muster $100 billion per year in financial support for poor countries, starting from 2020.
Some of that money will help poor and developing countries adopt technology to curb their own emissions. The rest will be earmarked for measures to adapt to climate impacts, like rising seas and spreading deserts, which can no longer be avoided.
Where that money will come from and how it will be distributed still has to be worked out.
More recently, least-developed countries, small-island and developing states have presented an additional demand for compensation for climate “loss and damage” to come—a non-starter with rich nations.
Review
The proposed Paris accord will have as its backbone a roster of voluntary national pledges for reducing carbon emissions.
China, the US and the EU—which together account for more than half of global carbon dioxide pollution—have already submitted theirs.
But scientists say the sum of global commitments is unlikely to meet the 2 degrees C objective.
As a result, some countries have proposed putting in place a strict review process, starting in 2020, to see if the goal is on track and, if not, how countries can ratchet up their contributions.