The final round of climate negotiations ahead of the twentieth Conference of the Parties (COP 20) got under under way at UNFCCC headquarters in Bonn, Germany on October 20th. The COP 20 meeting in Lima is the penultimate conference before the hoped for global climate agreement which is due to be signed in 2015 at COP 21 in Paris.
The Bonn meeting will focus on fleshing out more details of the draft climate agreement that will serve as the negotiating text for the final agreement. The goal is to provide negotiators in Lima with a list of what each country will contribute to the final deal. These contributions will take into account national realities.
The overarching context of these discussions is the “aspirational goal” agreed upon at COP 15 of limiting temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.
The two themes being addressed by in what is known as “Technical Experts Meetings” (TEMs) are:
1. Carbon capture and storage technology.
2. Non-CO2 greenhouse gases such as methane and hydrofluorocarbons.
Earlier this year TEMs have focused on policies designed to increase renewable energy and energy efficiency, urban design and land use issues.
