Letter from the President

With the upcoming negotiations at the UNFCCC meeting in Bali rising to the forefront of global discussions in recent weeks, the world will anticipate a promising outcome for a post-2012 international climate agreement. The conference gets underway on Monday, Dec. 3. The negotiations will focus on outlining a roadmap for the next two years of the larger negotiation process, which will lead to the next stage of a post-2012 international climate change agreement. While the details of the process are important, we must not lose sight of the bigger picture.

There are two views of this picture. The one laid out by the Bush Administration relies on individual countries to make voluntary pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. A second, more widely accepted international view is that the process requires a combination of binding commitments from industrialized nations, along with a package of incentives to encourage key developing countries to go beyond the impressive unilateral GHG reduction efforts they have already put into action.

The test in Bali will be how well the process can produce an international agreement along the lines of the broader vision that joins nations together to go beyond lowest common denominator pledges, and at the same time build a structure that creates mutual incentives for an even greater level of global GHG reductions.

To read the rest of the President's letter, click here.

CCAP’s Daily Update from Bali

To see pictures from CCAP's events, click here.

Thursday, December 13, 2007
Today marked the final day of CCAP events at the UN Bali conference.  CCAP continued to focus on the importance of unilateral actions developing countries are taking – and will continue to take – to reduce emissions by holding a press breakfast briefing with Leif K. Ervik, Director General for the Tax Policy Department in the Norwegian Ministry of Finance.

During the breakfast, Helme and Minister Ervik discussed with reporters how developed countries can provide incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions and still sustain economic growth. Norway has developed an approach in which developed nations would set aside a percentage of each developed country's carbon emission allowances to finance adaptation, reductions in deforestation, and new technology in developing countries.

This approach to the finance of reduced deforestation and reforestation is also contained in the Lieberman-Warner U.S. legislation, which was adopted by the Senate Environment and Public Works last week. 

"Germany has also taken this approach and it promises to become a trend," Helme told the media.  "It offers developing countries concrete financial incentives that produce additional emissions reductions while moving the world closer to the ultimate climate goal of holding temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius."

Staying on a similar track, CCAP completed the evening with a side event which highlighted the proposals they had touted throughout the week in Bali: post-2012 strategies for developing countries to continue to reduce emissions, which included presentations on the Sector-Based “no lose” approach and the Dual Markets Approach to reducing emissions from deforestation (REDD).

Draft language for the so-called Bali roadmap – which UN negotiators are expected to reach agreement on Friday night – calls for encouraging expanded developing country action via consideration of a package of incentives to help overcome cost barriers, transfer climate-friendly technology, and drive innovation.  As mentioned in CCAP updates throughout the week, two of those incentives - Sector-based "no lose" targets and incentives for REDD – are proposals CCAP has brought to the forefront in a number of forums here in Bali.

Additionally, with the U.S. delegation remaining under fire for taking hard-line positions that have the potential to sink the negotiations, today CCAP signed a letter with 7 other environmental groups urging the other negotiators to pressure the United States delegation to stop blocking progress on crucial international climate policy.

Wednesday, December 12th
On the third day of CCAP events at the Bali conference, Ministers from more than 30 countries said that any final agreement produced at the UN climate change negotiations in Bali must include a package of incentives to encourage developing countries to build upon their unilateral actions to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reduce deforestation . These environmental and finance ministers stated their cases at a breakfast discussion in Bali, which CCAP hosted with the Governments of Mexico and Norway.

During the discussion, Helme emphasized that developing countries’ contributions would be a key part of any international agreement for the post-2012 phase when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

“Key developing countries are enacting aggressive unilateral policies which, when fully implemented, are expected to significantly reduce GHG emissions,” he said. “These countries are financing most of the programs domestically and independent of the funding mechanisms in the Kyoto treaty. But in order to do more, developing countries need incentives from developed countries in order to sustain economic development, improve air quality, energy security and job creation.”

According to a new CCAP report on developing country unilateral actions in 2007, the combined emissions reductions in China, Brazil and Mexico are estimated to be greater than the reductions under the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union’s reduction commitments in 2020, and reductions estimated in the Lieberman-Warner legislation, which is currently being debated in the United States Congress.

Tuesday, December 11th
On CCAP’s second day at the Bali conference, President Ned Helme participated in two key side events, where he focused on the innovative sector-based approach and reducing emissions from deforestation (REDD).

Helme outlined various key elements of sector-based approaches for the post-2012 international process as part of a high level European Commission side event, including the “no lose” sector-based approach, and CCAP’s ongoing and future work on these approaches in key developing countries.

Later in the afternoon at a deforestation side event with IDDRI – CCAP’s partner in its European Dialogue – Helme presented CCAP’s new Dual Markets Approach for REDD in developing countries, including the significance of this approach for a post-2012 international climate agreement. CCAP developed this approach through its Future Actions Dialogue.

These two approaches will be key components for the countries at the UN climate conference in reaching a post-2012 international climate agreement – particularly for the unilateral actions developing countries are taking to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. CCAP has been a major international player in pioneering both of these approaches.

Monday, December 10th
CCAP began its week of events during the second week of the UNFCCC meeting in Bali with a focus on climate policy in the European Union: a joint press briefing with its European Dialogue Partner, IDDRI. At the event, CCAP President Ned Helme and IDDRI President Laurence Tubiana unveiled the Dialogue's new vision paper, which offers specific policy recommendations to the European Commission on how to implement its target of reducing carbon emissions by 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

“The key to achieving the EU’s bold climate protection goals lies in setting tough carbon caps for both the EU trading system and for European Union Member State actions to reduce emissions in sectors like transportation that are not covered by the EU ETS,” Helme told reporters. Tubiana informed the press that two critical building blocks underlie the EU strategy – energy efficiency and renewable energy goals.  "The Commission needs to lay out specific policies and measures to incentivize energy-saving actions, along with providing flexibility to participating countries to use trading and market mechanisms to meet the renewables mandate," she said.

Later in the evening, CCAP slightly switched gears to highlight the importance of the transatlantic partnership between the European Union and the U.S. when it comes to climate and energy policy by hosting an exclusive iscussion among U.S. Congressional senior staffers, CCAP President Ned Helme, U.S. Senator John Kerry and Portugal Secretary of State Humberto Rosa. In particular, Sen. Kerry emphasized that the EU - U.S. partnership could become stronger only if and when the U.S. joins the rest of the world on the same level in its fight against climate change. With the U.S. remaining isolated in the second week of the UNFCCC negotiations here in Bali, the rest of the participants agreed with Sen. Kerry’s assessment.

CCAP Schedule of Events

Download CCAP's schedule of side events and briefings.

For the Media

Click here for Media Coverage of CCAP News in Bali

Media Advisories
CCAP and Government of Norway to Hold Press Conference on Status of UN Negotiation Process in Bali - Dec 12
CCAP Announces Participation in Major Events as UNFCCC Climate Negotiations Kick Off in Bali - December 3, 2007
CCAP and IDDRI to Release Diverse Dialogue's Reccomendations on Implementation of EC Climate Program - Dec 4

Press Releases
Ministers at CCAP Breakfast Agree to Strategies for Developing Country Actions - Dec 13, 2007
CCAP/IDDRI European Dialogue releases groundbreaking climate change vision paper at Bali talks - Dec 10, 2007
CCAP Says Dual Markets Approach is necessary to Reduce Carbon Emissions from Deforestation - Dec 8, 2007
CCAP Says Developing Countries' Actions to Reduce Emissions will be key to Post-2012 Framework - Nov 28, 2007

Contact Information:
Jessica Gillman, Communications Officer, jgillman@ccap.org
Lawrence Pacheco, Communications Consultant, lawrence.pacheco@dittus.com

General Contact Information

Erin Silsbe, Adaptation Policy Analyst
(62) 081-338-979-601

Diana Movius, International Policy Associate
(62) 081-338-976-730

Jake Schmidt, International Program Manager
(62) 081-338-979-612

Lawrence Pacheco, Comm. Consultant
(62) 081-338-979-623

Jessica Gillman, Comm. Officer
(62) 081-338-979-634

Matt Ogonowski, International Senior Policy Analyst
(62) 081-338-984-880

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