UNFCCC Executive Secretary Third Briefing.

Christiana Figueres delivered the UNFCCC Executive Secretaries third briefing on Friday 2 December.

In this briefing she announced that:

• ·         SBSTA and SBI meetings closed on Saturday

o   SBSTA has agreed on a work program for loss and damages and will shortly report back on its work to date.

• ·         AWG’s will continue to work for as long as is needed.

o   AWG-LCA has presented a rough draft for negotiating text for ministers to consider.

o   AWG-KP are working on a framework to determine possible options given the current positions of the EU, Japan, Russia, Canada and China.

• ·         Parties are engaging in a series of Indaba meetings.  Indaba is a South African word that means to bring leaders together and collaboratively build a common knowledge and understanding.

• ·       The first $30 billion of high level finance has been pledged.  An interactive map showing donors and recipients is available here: http://unfccc.int/pls/apex/f?p=116:4:534051768383465:RECIPIENTWD:::RID:9

o   Work continues to work out the process to ramp funding up from $30 billion/year to $100 billion/year.

• ·         The Russian proposal to amend the convention for a periodic review of the annex parties continues.

o   It will be under informal consultation between the parties for the next few days.

o   A delegate will be appointed by the president to ascertain parties views and then report back to the president next week.

I imagine that non-annex parties, particularly Saudi Arabia will oppose the Russian proposition, however it is an interesting one and deserves further monitoring.  The principle of the Indaba meeting is a very interesting one as it looks like an effort to build ministerial consensus and understanding, possibly as a way of breaking out of the established pattern that has seen the KP2 issue remain unresolved.