The 5th Conference of the Parties (COP) will meet in Bonn, Germany, October 25. The two- week meeting will draw delegates from 150 nations, and NGO observers from around the world. Sovereignty International will have five representatives among the expected 5000 participants. This session will continue negotiations in two major issue areas: (1) defining the rules by which so-called "flexibility mechanisms" will be implemented, and (2) determining the consequences for non-compliance. The Kyoto Protocol failed to address either of these issues.
The so-called "flexibility mechanisms" include:
CDM is envisioned to be a system that would allow a developed country to receive "credit" toward its Kyoto emissions target by financing a "sustainable" project in a developing country.
JI is envisioned to be a system that would allow a developed country to receive "credit" toward its Kyoto emissions target by contributing to a project in another developed country, particularly a country in Europe or the former Soviet Union.
The Emissions trading regime is envisioned to be a system to allow developed countries to buy and sell emissions credits among themselves.
Final agreement on these issues is not expected to be reached until COP 6, to be held in the Hague, next year or early in 2001. Among the more contentious issues to be resolved, is how to measure emissions reductions. No agreement has yet been reached on how to establish a baseline that is applicable to all countries, how to measure emissions generation, or how to measure reductions.
Equally contentious, is how to estimate removal and storage of carbon by forests and other natural "sinks." No agreement has yet been reached on what constitutes a carbon sink, or how changes to a forest may affect its capacity to remove and store carbon.
Nor have the negotiations begun to define how to measure the capacity of sinks for the purpose of credits toward the Kyoto emissions targets. In addition to the unresolved issues, the negotiators must also begin seriously to define what "legally binding" means. COP 1 adopted the "legally binding" language in 1995, reaffirmed it at COP 3 in Kyoto, but delegates are just now beginning to discuss what the term acutally means.
Two major issues of concern to Americans are not on the agenda:
While no final decisions are expected from this negotiating session, there will be indicators of where the negotiations are heading. The carbon sink discussions are of particular interest to Americans, especially in view of the President's announcement that he intends to "protect" 40-million acres of additional wilderness. This is precisely the kind of action that is envisioned as necessary to claim credit toward the Kyoto targets.
The matter of consequences for non-compliance is of equal importance, since America is not expected to meet its target.
Sovereignty International will be reporting daily on this web site, through WorldNetDaily, and through a network of approximately 2000 radio stations in America, and by short-wave, to nearly 80 nations .