The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ended last 11 December in Cancun in frank success. 2 long weeks of intense – and often tense – high-level international negotiations have achieved a substantial deal which covers several of the issues that had blocked talks one year ago at COP 15 in Copenhagen.

The agreement spells out the need to urgently step up action to curb greenhouse gas emissions and "affirms that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time". Those who may feel this is a basic statement may also acknowledge that it has not always been easy to get overall consensus on the matter, with the shadow of climate negationism cast on international discussion fora.

The final agreed text recognises that current emissions’ reductions pledges need to rise, and it does so with the support of delegation traditionally opposed to this type of declarations such as the US. Certainly, Russia and Japan have secured wording that leaves them a possible exit from the Kyoto Protocol’s legally binding emission cuts, while strongly implying that the Protocol has an effective future – a key demand of developing countries.
The text also sets an important framework of parameters and financial incentives for countries not to deforest. Last but not least, it establishes a Green Climate Fund to channel money from the West to developing nations to tackle climate change.

The Green Climate Fund is intended to deploy $100bn a year by 2020 to protect poor nations against climate impacts and assist them with low-carbon development. As a final compromise, the World Bank will be in charge of the set up and management of the Fund over its first 3 years of life. A new Adaptation Committee will support countries as they establish climate protection plans.
At the opposite end, there are indeed things that have not been achieved. Deeper emissions cuts have not been established in a legally binding manner, nor the mechanisms for negotiating them identified. Decisions on the legal status of any new global agreement and the possible extension of the current Kyoto Protocol for a second phase are still pending.

Realistically, following the pre-COP negotiations held in Tianjin (China) back in October and given the limited time available in Cancun, no delegation was expecting an international agreement on these last points. But no delegation fully believed that real progress could be made in Cancun either. And there is where COP 16’s success lies.

The success of re-establishing international trust in multilateralism, while setting a realistic basis for a full year of negotiations ahead of the next COP. The scars of frustration left by the Copenhagen gathering last year were erased when international delegates cheered speeches from governments that had caused the most friction during negotiations – Japan, China, even the US – as one by one they endorsed the draft.

Full credit should be given to the Mexican state of Quintana Roo – where Cancun is – for guaranteeing the right organisational setting and especially to the Mexican host government for constructing a process that strived to include everyone, and that faced the real stumbling blocks by means of small negotiating groups of interested parties that kept working constructively on thorny issues until a compromise was found.

Certainly the final text did not gain the endorsement of Bolivia, who openly opposes a deal that it finds demands too little from developed nations. But then again, Mexico taught the World a lesson on multilateralism by noting Bolivia’s position on the text, while reminding that consensus does not mean unanimity and that it was important to preserve the work and progress of 193 national delegations over 2 weeks.

An important third success complements the trilogy. For the first time ever, subnational governments have gained full recognition in an UNFCCC agreement. The text on Long-Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) “recognises the need to engage a broad range of stakeholders at global, regional, national and local levels, be they government, including subnational and local government (…)” and “invites all Parties to enhance action on adaptation under the Cancun Adaptation Framework, taking into account their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and specific national and regional development priorities (…)”. Planning, prioritising and implementing adaptation actions (…) should be “identified in national and subnational adaptation plans and strategies”, it adds. When it comes to the text on Further Commitments of the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-FCCC KP), it is decided that, “where appropriate, in order to enhance the environmental integrity, efficiency and regional distribution of the Clean Development Mechanism, standardised baselines shall be used on a national or subnational level (…)”.

nrg4SD has been working over the past years individually and with partners such as The Climate Group, ICLEI and UCLG to influence the process in this sense. This wording constitutes a clear message for the regional level to capitalise on, in order to keep turning citizens’ growing awareness of climate matters into daily action. It also represents an unprecedented context for subnational governments to contribute to adapting international climate change governance to modern times. The human, economic and environmental challenge that goes hand in hand with climate change is crying out for international and national governance structures capable of reflecting, amongst other aspects, the crucial role of subnational governments towards a multilevel, complementary and consistent approach in tackling this global challenge. In good and modern governance lies the key for understanding globalisation and its huge challenge of climate change in terms of opportunities. And in this positive reading of the challenges of the XXI century also lies the key for generating climate action leadership guided by ambition and realism, and decoupled from populism and demagogy.

Borrowing BBC environment correspondent Richard Black’s words “Copenhagen was the Great Dane that whimpered and Cancun has been the Chihuahua that roared”. Regions have the capacity and now the unprecedented opportunity of keeping the Chihuaha running in international climate discussions with their eyes set on COP 17 in Durban, South Africa, next year.

Maruxa Cardama
nrg4SD Secretary General