France – Addressing the Challenge of Climate Change

The climate negotiations in Bangkok ended on 9 October. They are an important stage in the process of preparing the Copenhagen Conference. The great majority of participating countries demonstrated their firm desire to achieve an ambitious international agreement in December.

At this Bangkok session significant advances were made on the negotiating text, precursor to the Copenhagen agreement, by clarifying and reducing the number of options on the table. In the wake of the New York summit, the heads of State had mandated the negotiators to speed up their discussions on the draft agreement.

In particular, the Bangkok discussion confirmed the key role of the major emerging countries in drawing up the “post 2012″ regime.

The European Union reiterated the importance it attaches to fulfilment of the commitments undertaken under the Kyoto Protocol and to its achievements whose provisions have been broadly transcribed into EU and individual member countries’ legislation and which the Europeans are keen to integrate into the future international regime.

As regards the financing from which the developing countries expect a great deal, the European Union repeated that it was determined to play its part in the effort and would set out its position in more detail, particularly regarding the principles of implementation and architecture, at the European Council at the end of October.

The discussions in Bangkok made clear progress on some technical chapters on which there is already a political consensus. This is the case for adapting to the effects of climate change, development and technology transfers. On the other hand, balanced positions in the agreement, particularly regarding national commitments on numerical targets and mitigation timetables, still have to be achieved. Working in liaison with her European partners and the other countries determined to succeed, France remains convinced of the need to organize a summit between now and Copenhagen, as President Sarkozy announced on 22 September in New York, to assemble the main political elements needed for an agreement. Bangkok showed that this idea is beginning to gain acceptance.

The French and European position on the climate is based on a fair balance in all the negotiating chapters:

• commitments to an ambitious reduction in developed countries’ emissions and efforts to slow down the increase in developing countries’ emissions,
• establishment of an international framework to provide greater support for measures to adapt to the effects of climate change and address the tragic consequences of global warming for the poorest and most vulnerable countries;
• an international mechanism to speed up the deployment and spread of low-carbon technologies and best practices particularly with respect to energy efficiency;
• an efficient financial architecture, based on a balanced effort, able to support a large number of emission reduction or adaptation measures in developing countries;
• need to take full account in the general mechanism of forests, soils and international transport systems which account for an important proportion of the greenhouse gas emission reduction potential at global level.

source : French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.