The Political Economy of UNFCCC's Bali Climate Conference: A roadmap to climate commercialization

Abstract

Md Shamsuddoha and Rezaul Karim Chowdhury critically review the key elements of the UNFCCC Climate Change Conference held in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007, which was intended to formulate a climate action roadmap to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. They argue that the transition plan for replacing the Kyoto Protocol aims to engage big business and the global financial institutions without committing any parties to tangible emissions cuts. They counter the concept of ‘climate commercialization’ on which Bali climate talks eventually fell, and argue the urgency of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Development (2008) 51, 397–402. doi:10.1057/dev.2008.43

Planning “Exceptionalism”? Political Economy of Climate Resilient Development in Bangladesh

“…COP13 in 2007 created a sharp divide between developed and developing countries about the financing mechanism; whether it should be bilateral or/and multilateral through existing mechanism of UNFCCC. The developed countries preferred bilateral mechanism through existing financial institutions (Shamsuddoha 2008) while developed countries voiced concern about bureaucracy of such mechanism. The COP13 also decided, for the first time, mitigation for the developing countries under long-term cooperative action together with adaptation supported by financing, capacity building and technology, which should be in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner (Bali Action Plan 2007).…”

“…They also supported the launch of new Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) by the World Bank, which will complement existing bilateral and multilateral efforts, until a post-2012 framework under the UNFCCC is implemented (Shamsuddoha 2008). The financing will be in the form of credit enhancement and risk management tools, such as loans, grants, equity stakes, guarantees and other support mobilized through donor contributions to the respective trust funds, which will be implemented in collaboration with the regional development banks (RDBs).…”

Clean Development Mechanism (Cdm)

“…According to the ''Bali road map'', the developed countries are mandated to commit quantified GHG reduction targets, whilst developing countries managed to ''get away with'' only committing to non-mandatory general mitigation actions. On the other hand, much to the discontent of the environmental lobby (Shamsuddoha and Chowdhury, 2008;Athanasiou, 2008;CSE, 2008), the road map suggested no overall tangible post 2012 emission reduction targets but generally agreed on tackling emissions from deforestation, enhancing technology development and transfer, and on stimulating financial flows to fund all climate change-related action. However, one of the most significant outcomes from the conference and one of the toughest issues discussed at the meeting, included a consensus on new modalities of climate mitigation technology transfer to the developing countries.…”