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The Negotiations

This time negotiations were especially tough. In July 2001 at COP 6 part II Parties reached the Bonn Agreement, a political agreement on the main issues of the Kyoto Protocol. Now, in Marrakech, it was up to the delegations to work out the Agreement in more detail, thus preparing the way for their governments to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. General aim is to have the Kyoto Protocol ratified before the World Summit on Sustainable Development, August-September 2002 in Johannesburg.

Unfortunately, as was foreseen, some Parties tried to break open the Agreement again in an effort to gain more 'profit' out of it for their respective countries. This was especially true for Russia, Japan, Australia and Canada. At stake was a higher allowance of sinks, particularly for the two countries mentioned first, whereas Australia made trouble over compliance rules. Japan and Russia even held a joint press conference, something which had not been done for decades. Of course these countries were well aware of their position: without them the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol would fail since the USA had abandoned these negotiations already.

The result was that the negotiations were stuck for several days and the general atmosphere turned more and more grim. Many meetings took place behind closed doors, leaving observers such as the WCC-delegation in the dark. Thanks to a.o. the Climate Action Network*) (CAN) which has very good contacts, the WCC-delegation still got informed as well as possible.

As Russia proved to be the main troublemaker, CAN issued an open letter to President Putin and the Russian Duma at the beginning of the second week, urging the Russian policy makers to instruct their delegation to take up a more constructive attitude. The WCC-delegation contacted its Russian member, Larisa Skuratovskaya, who was in Moscow. She forwarded the CAN-letter to her church- and political contacts in Russia.

At previous COPs the European Union had played a forerunners role, negiotiating diplomatically with 'difficult' Parties. This time the EU was less inciting at least during the first week. The CAN awarded the EU the Fossil of the Day*) twice and maybe this helped to turn the EU round. In the second week the EU tried hard to get Russia on board again during numerous bilateral encounters behind closed doors.

It remained unclear until the very end whether the Bonn Agreement and with that the Kyoto Protocol would be saved or not. During the final plenary session, which took place on Friday 9 Nov. from 23.00h onwards until the small hours of Saturday, many delegates had to leave in order to catch their planes. It was not until the following day that it became clear that the Bonn Agreement had been saved after all.

But the price has been very high. Because of the higher allowance of sinks, the dominance of hot air (Russia) and some other adaptations, the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol has been weakened considerably. Had the Bonn Agreement already weakened the aims of the Kyoto Protocol, after COP 7 not much has remained of the original Kyoto targets. It was calculated that the net effect of the Bonn Agreement, even before COP 7, was overall only one third of the original Kyoto targets (with the USA on board), leaving emission rates just below 1990 levels in 2008-2012 (source: RIVM, Netherlands).

This means that, although the Kyoto Protocol has been saved formally, its effect will be minimal. Apparently it is as good as impossible for politicians to deal with real reality, which is something else than political reality. Real reality tells us that climate change has already begun (according to IPCC sources) and will not be stopped. In order to keep its devastating effects more or less under control, a severe battle will have to be fought during the coming years and probably decades. The churches have the obligation to engage in this battle; their input and pressure is more needed than ever.

The WCC organised a well attended colloquium on Saturday november 3, titled 'Colloquium on Religion and Environment with particular focus on Islamic and Christian Perspectives on Environment and Climate Change'. Two keynote speakers, the Islamic Professor Ahmed El Khamlichi and the Christian scholar Fr. Henri Madelin, both from Morocco, pointed out entries in their respective religions for an environmentally sound way of life. A panel of governmental representatives addressed the role of religions in promoting environmental awareness and action. An interesting discussion followed in which several COP-delegates among the public participated. In general it was felt that religion should become more important in addressing universal environmental problems such as climate change. The suggestion was made to organise a special workshop on this topic for COP-delegates in the near future. The WCC will determine whether and how this suggestion can be taken up.

On November 8 during the High-Level Segment Lic. Elias Abramides, member of the WCC-delegation, addressed the Plenary with a WCC-statement. In this statement attention was again drawn to the importance of interfaith dialogue and the role religion can play in addressing the climate problem. Also acknowledgement was given to the indigenous peoples' efforts; and support to their desire to attain special status as a working group on indigenous peoples within the UNFCCC.

Upon invitation Marijke van Duin, member of the WCC-delegation for ECEN, participated in a press conference of CAN, giving information on the past and present involvement of the WCC in the climate change issue.

Other members of the delegation were: dr. David Hallman, head of delegation and co-ordinator of WCCs climate working group, ms. Nafisa Goga d'Souza from India and ms. Mirjam Schubert from Germany as a WCC journalist.

Marijke van Duin

ECEN Climate Change Working Group Facilitator

*) The Climate Action Network is a worldwide network of NGOs working on climate change. During COPs a daily 'prize' is awarded to a country which has shown the least constructive attitude during negotiations: the Fossil of the Day.

This page was last updated on 10 March 2002