Bangkok Climate Change Meeting

The first UNFCCC meeting of 2011 took place in Bangkok Sunday, 3 April through Friday, 8 April 2011. The meeting featured workshops requested by the member countries in Cancun that spurred discussion of emission reduction plans of industrialized countries and the emission efforts of developing countries as well as exploring opportunities for greater cooperation to deploy clean technology solutions.

In Bangkok, delegates wrestled with the difficult question of the future of the Kyoto Protocol and an agenda of work for the year that would implement the agreements reached in Cancun to advance global cooperation in adaptation, forests, climate finance and technology transfer. The Bangkok session made clear that while the Cancun Agreements provided some key opportunities in these areas, it left unresolved important questions of how to close the gap between emissions reductions pledged and the much higher level of greenhouse mitigation that is needed to avert the most dangerous consequences of global warming.  Delegates agreed to an agenda that enables them to discuss both the implementation of the Cancun Agreements and these unresolved questions.  They also made clear that resolution of the question of a second round of emissions commitments under the Kyoto Protocol is a critical task for 2011. The Bangkok negotiating session left many process issues undecided, which will put great pressure on the meetings in Bonn, Germany in June and later in the year if they are to succeed in crafting specific, operational decisions to propose to the Ministers in Durban this December.