Report by Grian

SB 26 and AWG 3 adopted over two dozen conclusions, as well as completing text for several draft decisions due to be forwarded to CP-13/CMP-3 in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007.
SBSTA adopted conclusions and/or decisions on several important issues such as the Nairobi work programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, the development and transfer of technologies, reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries, methodological issues, and climate change mitigation.
SBI completed its work on national communications, the Adaptation Fund, the adverse effects of climate change and impacts of response measures, and capacity building.
Crucially—and very against precedent–after much concentrated work, including in particular strong lobbying from NGO’s in CAN, SBI also managed to adopt a draft decision on the Secretariat Budget for the 2008-2009 biennium.
These negotiations proved as difficult as ever due to a general (and longstanding) unwillingness by Parties to adequately finance the process. Additionally—and ultimately positively—the budget negotiations turned substantively more around the financing of the International Transaction Log (ITL) than Parties’ “business as usual” budgetary contributions. Ultimately, a deal on the ITL was successfully brokered by Helen Plume (NZ) and this enabled a larger deal on the overall budget to be completed amounting to a princely increase over the previous biennium of just 0.99%—obviously far below inflation in real terms.
Most importantly however, the AWG agreed an indicative range for reductions in emissions by industrialised countries of between 25-40% (below 1990 levels) by 2020.
The AWG also agreed the substance of a potential roadmap to bring negotiations forward from Bonn via an intersessional due for Vienna in August 2007, on to Bali in December 2007 and back to Bonn again by June 2008.
(See:
http://www.grian.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=278&Itemid=2 )
Conference website: http://unfccc.int/meetings/sb26/items/3919.php
ECO (CAN International daily newsletter): http://www.climatenetwork.org/eco/
ENB coverage:: http://www.iisd.ca/climate/sb26/