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REVIEW OF THE SEVENTH CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE UNFCCC

The Seventh Conference of the Parties (Cop-7) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Marrakech, Morocco from October 29 to November 10, 2001.

Attending the conference were official delegations from 172 countries, representatives from more than 160 media organizations, and members of 234 environmental and other international and regional organizations. The total number of attendees at the Conference was estimated at nearly 4,460 people. The countries with the largest number of delegations included Morocco (115), Japan (roughly 100), Belgium, France and Germany with approximately 60 delegations each.

The Ukrainian delegation headed by S. Kurykin, the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, included V.Lipinsky, V.Kononov, O.Velychko, V.Vodolaskov, V.Bakarchuk. On November 7, Minister S. Kurykin addressed the evening’s High-level Segment meeting. For more detailed information about the Ukrainian delegation’s participation at the Cop-7 please see the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR) website

  • Rules for the implementation of flexible mechanisms including: international greenhouse gas emissions trading, clean development mechanism (CDM), joint implementation (JI), and eligibility for participation in these mechanisms;
  • UNFCCC compliance criteria and each country responsibility for non-compliance with the assigned amounts of GHG emissions (the adoption of legally binding responsibility was postponed to one of the next conferences);
  • Reporting procedures;
  • Establishment of а new emission reduction unit to measure the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Agreements Reached

Mechanisms and Reporting

  • To consider emission reduction units under all three Kyoto mechanisms equal in value;
  • To establish а removal unit (RMU) to measure the emission reductions caused by greenhouse gas absorption by sinks in Annex I countries. These units can be used only in the commitment period they were generated;
  • To consider the depositing of the GHG allowance credits that exceeds the required emission reductions by а country. However, banking of excess credits from JI or CDM is limited to 2.5% of the Party’s assigned amount under the Kyoto Protocol.
  • Annex I countries that don’t fulfill the Kyoto Protocol’s GHG emission requirement may host JI projects, given that the project development and approval procedure is similar to the one of the CDM mechanism;
  • To put into effect Bonn Agreement requirement allowing Annex I countries to sell up to 90% of their emissions allowances while not exceeding the five times overall emissions volume reported under the most recent inventory.

Compliance

In Marrakesh, the Parties failed to reach an agreement on legally binding provisions for compliance. In particular, they didn’t decide whether or not the law should apply sanctions to countries that are not compliant. Another issue not resolved at the meeting concerned the dependence on country participation to achieve accuracy and clarity in the reporting on the Kyoto mechanisms. The final decision on these issues was postponed until the first Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol when the Protocol takes effect. At the same time, it was agreed that annual reports on GHG emissions would continue to be prepared according to the existing rules and would not be overwhelmed with additional technical data. It was very important for many Annex I countries to uphold this position, since extremely detailed information could significantly increase the cost of the inventory procedure.

Sinks

Under the Kyoto Protocol, the countries can acquire emission reduction units gained through the carbon removal by forests, soils and other sinks. The Bonn Agreements stipulated the measures that account for GHG removal and established quantitative limitations for use of sinks for each Annex I country specifically. As а result of negotiations in Marrakesh, Russia got an increase from 17.63 to 33 million tones of annual carbon removal by forests that are to be counted as fulfillment of its commitments.

To be eligible to participate in the emissions trading and other mechanisms, Annex I countries must include information about the use of sinks in their reporting. The information reported may be updated at the end of the commitment period. In addition, the Annex I countries should submit reports on biodiversity conservation including conservation of available sinks and the creation of new sinks.

Other issues addressed:

  • A capacity-building framework for GHG mitigation activities in countries with economies in transition was adopted. The Conference identified 12 priority areas that include: preparation of national GHG inventories, development of climate policies and measures, adaptation measures, research projects to study the problem and regular observations, training and enhancement of public awareness of the climate change problems, transfer of environmentally sound technologies, preparation of the national communications and national action plans, introduction of the national systems for estimation of GHG emissions, reporting commitments, participation in the mechanisms for joint implementation and emissions trading.
  • The pilot phase of “Activities Implemented Jointly” was prolonged;
  • GHG reduction projects launched in 2000 were considered as measures to fulfill the requirements under Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol.
  • The funding needs of the Convention and Kyoto Protocol.

Despite the difficulties in the negotiations, the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC was quite successful. The development of mechanisms to implement the Kyoto Protocol internationally was completed, therefore paving the way for its ratification and adoption. Finally, the COP participants agreed that the Eighth Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC will be held October 23 to November 1, 2002 in India.