By Chris Lang, 13th December 2011
The agreement that came out of the Conference of Polluters (COP-17) in Durban included no new commitments to reduce emissions. “What we got instead was a clear signal that we might get another clear signal in 2015,” as Jonathan Grant, director of carbon markets and climate policy at PricewaterhouseCoopers told the Financial Times.
The Conference decided to create an Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, which is to start work “as a matter of urgency in the first half of 2012”. It is to complete its work “as early as possible but no later than 2015”. And its work is “to develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention”. Whatever that means. This is to be adopted at COP21 and will “come into effect and be implemented from 2020”.
