- The agreement also encourages developed countries to increase efforts to provide finance between 2013-15 at least to the average annual level with which they provided funds during the 2010-2012 fast-start finance period. This is to ensure there is no gap in continued finance support while efforts are otherwise scaled up.
- Governments will continue a work programme on long-term finance during 2013 under two co-chairs to contribute to the on-going efforts to scale up mobilization of climate finance and report to the next COP on pathways to reach that target.
- Germany, the UK, France, Denmark, Sweden and the EU Commission announced concrete finance pledges in Doha for the period up to 2015, totalling approximately 6 billion USD.
Other Key Outcomes of COP18/CMP8 in Doha
Review
- Governments have launched a robust process to review the long-term temperature goal. This will start in 2013 and conclude by 2015, and is a reality check on the advance of the climate change threat and the possible need to mobilize further action.
Adaptation
- Governments have identified ways to further strengthen the adaptive capacities of the most vulnerable, also through better planning.
- A pathway has been established towards concrete institutional arrangements to provide the most vulnerable populations with better protection against loss and damage caused by slow onset events such as rising sea levels.
- Ways to implement National Adaptation Plans for least developed countries have been agreed, including linking funding and other support.
Support of Developing Country Action
- Governments have completed a registry to record developing country mitigation actions that seek recognition or financial support. The registry will be a flexible, dynamic, web-based platform.
- A new work programme to build capacity through climate change education and training, create public awareness, and enable the public to participate in climate change decision-making has been agreed in Doha. This is important to create a groundswell of support for embarking on a new climate change regime after 2020.
New Market Mechanisms
- A work programme has been agreed to further elaborate the new market-based mechanism under the UNFCCC, and also sets out possible elements for its operation.
- A work programme to develop a framework for recognizing mechanisms established outside the UNFCCC, such as nationally-administered or bilateral offset programmes, and to consider their role in helping countries to meet their mitigation targets, has also been agreed.
Actions on Forests
- In Doha, governments have further clarified ways to measure deforestation, and to ensure that efforts to fight deforestation are supported.
Carbon Capture and Storage
- Governments meeting in Doha have looked at ways to ensure the effectiveness and environmental integrity of projects under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism that capture and store carbon emissions.
Development and Transfer of Technology
- Countries have taken forward work on enabling the development and transfer of technologies that can help developing countries adapt and curb their emissions.
Avoiding Negative Consequences of Climate Action
- In some cases, the implementation of actions that reduce emissions could result in negative economic or social consequences for other countries. In Doha, governments discussed measures to address such consequences in a special forum.
About the UNFCCC
With 195 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 193 of the UNFCCC Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
Source: 2012 COP18/CMP8 Doha Qatar.
[Photo: Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the COP18/CMP8 President, signals an end to negotiations as Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, looks on. © UNFCCC]
