Shanghai- March 4th, 2015

The Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT) and Bridging the Gap Initiative (BtG) launched a report today summarizing the Ad Hoc Working Group on Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, Session 2-8 which took place from February 8th to 13th in Geneva, Switzerland.

The report states that principal goal of ADP 2-8 was achieved in the completion of a negotiating text that is Party-owned and is no longer a co-chairs’ draft, and there was general agreement that an inclusive Geneva text was needed to boost confidence that all Parties’ views will be considered during the COP21 negotiations. Many Parties expressed support to start informal discussions on streamlining the text, with support from the UNFCCC Secretariat during the intercessional period before ADP 2-9 in June 2015 in Bonn, Germany. Forthcoming non-papers may reflect further negotiations between Geneva and Bonn, along with potential informal ministerial and negotiator-level meetings between March and May. The June meeting in Bonn will likely be followed by additional meetings in August and October, in preparation for COP21 in December. 

The Geneva negotiating text has put Parties on a path to make history at COP21, and many delegates seemed cautiously optimistic about prospects for Paris, amidst a growing sense of urgency to increase areas of convergence among Parties in Bonn. Discussions at ADP 2-8 reflected important realignments among Parties and the emergence of many new negotiating groups have bridged the historical developed-versus-developing country divide. The strength of these new alliances was evident in references to the ‘Geneva spirit’ in the final plenary, which ended with a delegate from Venezuela quoting Victor Hugo in saying that ‘nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come’, foreshadowing a spirit of possibility en route to COP21 Paris.

In the coming months we will have to push the door more open for low carbon transport, and we must ensure that efforts at national and local levels also shift in this direction. Geneva has generated important and timely momentum toward a global deal in Paris, and this momentum must be sustained en route to Bonn and beyond.

For full text of the SLoCaT-BtG report, please click here.