A briefing from the COP 19 President

Today the COP 19/CMP 9 President, Polish Minster of Environment Marcin Korolec, took time out of his busy schedule to hold a briefing for Observer Organizations. After being introduced by the
Chair of the meeting, Mr. Korolec gave his briefing on the ambitions of COP 19 and how they will lead to successful negotiations at the future COPs, specifically COP 21 in Paris in 2015.

There has been a lot of focus on the 2015 COP 21 conference in Paris because the Kyoto Protocol, the original legally binding international agreement to reduce carbon emissions, commitment period expired in 2012. It was supposed to be replaced with a new, legally binding agreement to reduce emissions at COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009. For a variety of reasons the creation of a new, legally binding treaty failed and nothing with binding emissions reductions replaced the Kyoto Protocol. However, at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa, it was agreed that a new, legally binding treaty would ready by 2015, hence the high expectations from parties and observers alike.

It is because of this that Poland has insisted on transparency and inclusiveness at the COP 19 conference, in the hopes that it will lead to agreements from the Parties on structure and implementation essential to getting consensus on a new treaty in Paris at COP 21. The level of openness has been extended to us in Civil Society as well, allowing for us to sit in on informal consultations and other meetings not normally available to us.

Once the President of the COP made his introductory remarks summarizing the goals of this COP, he opened the floor to questions from the observers, on all areas of the conference. While all of the questions were very insightful to many issues, there were definitely some that I found more interesting.

Many people at COP 19 have felt that the juxtaposition of the World Coal Association Conference in Warsaw next week is inappropriate considering the goals of this COP. However Mr. Korolec said that efforts to reduce CO2 emissions would not benefit from a good guy versus bad guy mentality. Coal has played an important part in Poland's development and is still used in the production of most of their energy. After their economy was stimulated, as a result of energy from coal, their GDP increased by 200%, which has allowed them to put financial resources toward the reduction of their own emissions.

There is also much frustration in the delegates here over lack of action after the devastating typhoon in the Philippines. It was felt by many Parties and NGOs that this should stir action in the negotiations but so far in the conference it does not seem to have added any urgency to the processes. The COP president reminded the NGOs that the UNFCCC is a Party process and, while many feel this way, not all Parties are ready for action or share the urgency for action. It is both the beauty and the curse of the UNFCCC process.

Several NGOs brought up the fact that, despite the promise of transparency, many sessions that had been previously listed as open were closed to Civil Society. The President deferred to the chair of the SBI, who did not know why so many sessions were closed to Civil Society against direct instructions to be open, but promised to investigate the situation.

While it is obvious that transparency at the conference is still something that needs to be worked on, there is definitely an effort being made. Especially by the President of the COP, which is a welcome change and a fascinating process to watch.