On 1-12 December, the United Nations Climate Change Conference met in Poznan, Poland involving other sessions such as the fourteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 14) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the fourth Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 4).

The main focus in Poznan was on long-term cooperation and the post-2012 period, when the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period expires. The conference was the step towards the 15 December 2009 deadline as set by the negotiators meeting in Bali in December 2007.

The conference ended without significant agreements and negotiators now face a hectic twelve months of talks leading up to the 15 December 2009 deadline in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Poznan conference adopted a number of conclusions by the subsidiary bodies, some of them were: The adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol; the 2009 work programmes of the AWG-LCA and AWG-KP, and outcomes on technology transfer; the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), capacity building, national communications, financial and administrative matters, and various methodological issues.

Plenty of critical work remains for 2009 under the Bali Roadmap. The key tasks remain unfinished for both the AWG-KP and AWG-LCA. They both must generate formal negotiating texts that must be communicated to the parties at least six months before Copenhagen to comply with legal formalities.

The group will have to finalize an agreement on all four building blocks and a shared vision. It is the only body where all countries, including the US and developing countries, participate in discussions on mitigation. Thus, negotiations on a global long-term goal, comparability of mitigation efforts by developed countries and MRV in the context of nationally appropriate developing country mitigation actions are expected to be central. Importantly, MRV also applies to developed country support to developing countries through technology, finance and capacity-building, so ways of doing this will have to be identified. With regard to financing and technology, the AWG-LCA faces the challenge of reaching agreement on the architecture to both finance mitigation and adaptation actions, and facilitates technology development and transfer. Evaluation of proposals contained in the assembly document will be part of this task.

The AWG-KP has a clear objective for 2009: to agree on further commitments for Annex I countries in the post-2012 period. Some developing countries were therefore somewhat disappointed at the lack of clear sequencing of tasks in the AWG-KP's 2009 work programme. Many developed countries were, however, pleased with text reaffirming the programme's iterative nature and agreement to "maintain a coherent approach" between the Convention and the Protocol in relation to Annex I parties' commitments.

The result of the Poznan conference made many negotiators feel that agreement on the most critical issues, including mid- and long-term emission goals and finance, will not be reached before Copenhagen. This has led some to reconsider their expectations of what would constitute success in Copenhagen, and how many details of the new climate regime will need to be finalized after 2009.

EDITOR's NOTE:
Complete coverage of the POZNAN meeting is available at International Institute for Sustainable Development Reporting Services website.