Copenhagen fails on bunkers

In the end COP15 produced no progress whatsoever on bunker emissions or finance; in fact the texts to come out of the meeting do not even mention them. At the start of negotiations to addresses these emissions at IMO the EU made it clear that if there was no global action taken then it would prepare regional measures of its own. The EU didn't push hard enough for a fair, ambitious and binding agreement in Copenhagen but they have probably done everthing that could reasonably be expected of them to get global measures on bunker emissions and they now have a green light for regional mesures and in particular the inclusion of emissions from ships visiting EU ports in an EU emissions trading scheme.

Little news, no progress

Despite informal negotiator level drafting group meetings yesterday there has been little progress on the bunker issue. Saudi Arabia and others overnight refused to allow further "informals", suggesting instead that the issue be left to ministers. There remains many differences of opinion in the draft text and it is unclear what ministers could do with it in its present form. With only a handful of environment NGOs people still in the conference centre the information coming out of the negotiations has slowed but what there is suggests that the negotiations are still a long way from agreement on bunkers (and indeed many of the other issues) and that time is running out.

Come on EU

In a press release issued in the last hour Environment NGOs have responded to the recent Norway proposal by calling on the EU to fight back with the least developed countries and others who still believe that a strong deal is both necessary and possible.

Norway’s proposal sends responsibility for action on bunkers back to ICAO and IMO without any sense of urgency or commitment to absolute reduction targets other than a vague reference to keeping warming below 2 degrees. There is also no reference to the pivotal role that bunker revenues can play in climate finance. Norway’s proposal risks continued inaction and political paralysis. The whole idea of raising the aviation and shipping issue in Copenhagen was to use the occasion of wider negotiations to break the political deadlock and agree a fast track to introduce reduction measures. That chance is now slipping away as is the likelihood of releasing billions of dollars of urgently needed additional climate finance.

In order to break the bunkers deadlock, environmental NGOs call on:
* All delegations to act on the urgency of the situation and have Copenhagen link early global action to reduce bunker emissions to a significant program of climate finance for developing countries.
* The Copenhagen Agreement to set the level of ambition, the framework for revenue distribution and a fast track timeline to agree on global measures in ICAO and IMO.
* The United States to declare its willingness to use revenues from bunker mitigation as climate finance. Such a declaration from the USA would quickly trigger a developed country (Annex 1) offer of climate finance in return for global bunker mitigation.
* Emerging economies to agree to participate in a global bunker mitigation process or see regional measures imposed by the EU and USA without any access to the revenues generated.
* Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) to support bunker measures on the condition that routes to their countries will be exempted and revenues will flow to the most vulnerable states.
* Latin American countries to accept that any trade impacts will be low for them and, in any case, more than compensated by access to climate financing.
* OPEC to support bunker measures provided a proportion of revenues are used for clean technologies within the sector.

Bunkers in the news

This morning has seen a flurry of press interest in the bunkers issue at Copenhagen, with stories on Reuters, in The Australian national daily, and in the UK's Daily Telegraph. Gordon Brown and Richard Branson are reported as supporting action on bunkers. While Reuters is down beat, the others suggest a deal is still possible. More general reporting on the summit this morning is gloomy and the chance of bunkers bucking the trend diminished last night with the appearance of an extremely weak proposal from Norway. More on this later.

Bunkers a late finisher?

The general feeling about the talks is gloomy to say the least but hope remains that bunkers mitigation, helped by its potential to raise funds for climate adaptation, may rise to the surface of the talks and provide ministers and heads of state with a success story. While the actual negotiations have disappeared into the hallowed halls of ministers and heads of state and taken the old negotiator's text with them, the issue is increasingly visible in the comments and publications of key players in the talks. Bunkers remains high on the agenda of the host country and COP15 President, the EU presidency today described fees from maritime and aviation as "crucial" for a climate deal, and the French jointly with Ethiopia (representing the Africa Group) have called for "taxes on sea freight or air transport". A number of obstacles remain, but the future of the bunkers issue now almost certainly lies with ministers and heads of state and the intersecting of a number of other elements of the negotiations.

US gets bunkers fossil

The fossil of the day award, given by environment and development NGOs to the country that has done most to hinder progress during the negotiations, goes to the US today for its blocking of discussions on bunker finance. The US has been supported in this by Saudi Arabia with the informal ministerial meetings making little progress as a result. Developing countries that might counterbalance the effect of the US and Saudi Arabia are having trouble covering all the meetings and have not made it to the bunkers meetings in the numbers needed.

NGO appeal to ministers

In an open letter to environment ministers attending COP15 Norwegian NGOs supported by others at the summit have today made an appeal to the Norwegian Environment Minister to show strong leadership and pilot the talks towards an ambitious and equitable outcome to reduce GHG emissions from shipping and aviation.