"There is little time left to get a solid negotiating text on the table. Clearly the clock is ticking," Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told some 1,000 delegates from 160 countries at the opening of the six-day meeting.
Little progress so far
The meeting is the third UN climate change conference since nations committed, in Bali, to adopting a global climate pact by no later than December 2009.
But progress was slow at the last two meetings, in Bangkok and Bonn. Moreover, onlookers believe disagreements between developed and developing nations - as well as uncertainties about the direction of US climate policy after President Bush leaves office, the economic slowdown and the recent collapse of global trade talks at the WTO - will mean delegates at the Accra talks will be uneager to make any firm commitments.
Tough talks on tools
In Accra, experts are to attempt to "reach agreement on the rules and tools" that developed nations can use to reach their emission reduction targets, de Boer explained.
Among the means being considered are Japanese-led proposals for "sectoral targets" – a 'bottom-up' approach whereby different emissions reduction targets would be set for individual industry sectors, such as steel or power generation, according to their specific characteristics and circumstances.
But developing countries are wary of such approaches. They fear that developed nations could use sectoral benchmarks, such as the amount of energy required to produce a tonne of cement, as a means of effectively blocking goods from developing countries' less efficient industries. "We feel extremely uncomfortable with the kind of sectoral approaches that are being discussed," Reuters quotes Indian delegate Ajay Mathur as saying.
Rewards for curbing deforestation
Delegates will also explore new mechanisms that could be set up in an attempt to win over developing nations, such as including forests in carbon markets, by offering carbon credits for halting deforestation. Because trees store carbon as they grow and release it when burnt, curbing tropical deforestation could reduce man-made greenhouse gases by up to 20%. But environmentalists are warning that such proposals could backfire.
The 'land grab threat'
Green NGO Friends of the Earth International warns that including forests in carbon markets is simply another ploy for developed countries to avoid real carbon emissions reductions at home. Indeed, such a scheme would enable them to buy up large tracts of forest to gain carbon credits that can count towards their own emission reduction targets.
"The inclusion of forests in carbon markets enables developed countries to avoid real carbon emissions reductions at home," the group said in a statement issued ahead of the Accra meeting.
FoE further warns that increasing the value of forests in this way could "trigger a rapid increase in land rights' abuses due to a rapid expansion of state and/or corporate control over forests without regard for the customary or territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities".
The NGO says negotiations should instead focus on the root causes of deforestation, such as increased consumption of biofuels, meat and timber products.
Preparing for Poznań
The next major climate meeting is scheduled for December 2008 in Poznań, Poland and the UN hopes to get negotiations over tools over with so that delegates can begin to discuss actual emission reduction targets. "These negotiations [on the means that may be available to Annex I Parties to reach their emission reduction targets] are expected to be concluded in Accra, thus laying the groundwork for parties to move on to negotiate emission reduction ranges in Poznań in December," states a UNFCCC press release.
But speaking to the Times of India, Yvo de Boer conceded that clinching a deal on mid-term targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions in Poland would be difficult. "It would be difficult to discuss national targets before the next US administration is in place," he said.
