User:Sean Heron/UNFCCC/Whats it about

Text dump from email to BrianMc:

[ (you don´t need bother reading this paragraph, just check the wikipedia link below) OK, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (wait thats UNFCCC, so am I going to the UNFCCC conference...?) is, as far as I understand, the set of rules that the Kyoto treaty has been worked out under (so the Kyoto treaty is a sub-treaty). For about as long as the Framework convention has been in place I think there have been annual (there was usually one a year) meetings taking place, in which the implementation of the treaty (Kyoto protocol, etc.) have been discussed. Last year this Conference of the Parties (to the UNFCCC) and Members of the Protocol), that is the COP/MOP, met in Nairobi to chat, and (I think)there were some hopes that they´d get talk started on a post-Kyoto protocol, but, to put it bluntly, they did fuck all. This years COP (not sure on MOP) is in Bali.] hmm, maybe this explains the exterior better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change

OK. So you may have heard that climate change was relativly high on the Agenda in Heiligendamm at the G8 meeting. The upcoming problem (which is also an opportunity) is that the Kyoto protocol is set to run only till 2012 (don´t ask me if early or late '12). So as more or less everybody is now aware of the threat climate change poses, people in principal agree that a follow up agreement has to be made. And apparently (I`ve read this in a good many comments, and been told so by a fellow I met at the G8 from Germanwatch), concrete talks on this agreement (and a timetable) need to be started and set now, because it´s going to take a while till an agreement is reached and then implemented. Of course the crunch is that really, they don´t need to just start talking, but start working towards an agreement. And I personally (and the Germanwatch guy was of the same opinion) don´t see any agreement other than one with every nation on the planet setting enforced caps on Greenhouse gases (GHG) as making much sense. And thats where the big bartering session starts... In my opinion, the big questions that are going to have to be answered before an agreement can be reached are:
 * What is the global cap going to be (as in how fast and how much is current GHG output to be reduced); Big polluters and fossil fuel exporters (say the Saudis) are going to push for less reduction I´m guessing.
 * Who´s going to get what share of the allowed amount (the USA and China/ India will presumably be in strong disagreement on this)
 * Are and if so how are Forests going to be counted towards emmisions. (Indonesia and Russia have, I think, pushed this issue previously)

I don´t think any of these questions are even nearly going to be agreed on (this December), but I reckon there must be a basic consensus for talks to begin.