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There are 192 countries represented at COP15 and nations with similar
issues and aims come together to form UN-recognized groups.
COP13's
Bali Action Plan called for a long-term action plan to reduce GHG
emissions, as well as increased levels of cooperation on mitigation and
adaptation. It also called for a final architecture for technology
transfer to the developing countries to allow them to develop
low-carbon economies. Finally, it called for a pledge on funds to
support these actions. However, at COP15 an agreement on these issues
is proving elusive, in part because of disagreement between the various
groups.
Major Groups
G77 : The largest of these groups is the G77
led by China. This 133 member group consists mainly of developing
countries and emerging economies. The Group was established on 15 June
1964 by seventy-seven developing countries' signatories of the “Joint
Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries,” issued at the end of the
first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) in Geneva.
The
G77 is the largest intergovernmental organization of developing states
in the United Nations. It provides the means for the countries of the
South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests.
The G77 also enhances their joint negotiating capacity on all major
international economic issues within the UN system, and promotes
South-South cooperation for development.
Industrialized Nations: Industrialized
countries outside the EU form an umbrella group that includes the US,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, Norway, and
Iceland. Led by the US this group is responsible for a considerable
portion of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). They are also amongst the
groups most critisized for not doing enough to push for a global
climate deal.
European Union: The next group is the European Union. The 27 members of the EU speak with one voice and negotiate as one.
Least Developed Countries (LDC): This
group is comprised of 49 countries, 33 African nations, 15 Asian
nations and Haiti. According to the UN, these are the world's least developed nations.
The LDC have the most to lose due to the effects of climate change and
they do not have the technology or the funds to adapt to its effects.
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS): This
group is most at risk from global warming. The group is made up of low
lying island nations that will be submerged if sea levels rise due to
melting sea ice.
The Alliance of Small Island States
is a coalition of small island and low-lying coastal countries that
share similar development challenges and concerns about the
environment, especially their vulnerability to the adverse effects of
global climate change. It functions primarily as an ad hoc lobby and
negotiating voice for small island developing States (SIDS) within the
United Nations system.
AOSIS has a membership of 42 States and
observers, drawn from all oceans and regions of the world: Africa,
Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Pacific and South China Sea.
Thirty-seven are members of the United Nations, close to 28 percent of
developing countries, and 20 percent of the UN's total membership.
Together, SIDS communities constitute some five percent of the global
population.
Serious adverse impacts are already being felt by
island states at the current 0.8°C of warming, including coastal
erosion, flooding, coral bleaching and more frequent and intense
extreme weather events. The U.N.'s lead agency on refugees has already
warned that some particularly low-lying island states are 'very likely
to become entirely uninhabitable'.
Subgroups
The African Union (AU): The African Union
is a subset of the G77. On 9 August 1999, the Heads of State and
Government of the Organisation of African Unity issued a Declaration
(the Sirte Declaration) calling for the establishment of an African
Union. The AU seeks to accelerate the process of integration in the
continent and to play a role in the global economy while addressing
multifaceted social, economic and political problems. The AU recently
held up proceedings at COP15 to encourage developed nations to do more
on climate change.
The Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC): The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) is a permanent intergovernmental organization, created at the
Baghdad Conference on September 10–14, 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Issue Oriented Subgroups
Reduction of Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD): This group is trying to come up with a mechanism for forest preservation and regeneration. The organization known as REDD was introduced into the COP agenda in 2005 at its eleventh session in Montreal.
The
IPCC (2007) estimated emissions from deforestation in the 1990s to be
at 5.8 GtCO2/year. It also noted that reducing and/or preventing
deforestation and the release of carbon emissions into the atmosphere
is the mitigation option with the largest and most immediate carbon
stock impact in the short term.
Technology Transfer:
The United Nations endeavors to secure the economic and social
well-being of people everywhere. As the global center for
consensus-building, the UN has set priorities and goals for
international cooperation to assist countries in their development
efforts and to foster a supportive global economic environment. The
UN's technology transfer
initiative seeks to develop a formula for transferring technology from
the developed world to developing countries. This initiative endeavors
to bring technology to less affluent countries for the purpose of
building low-carbon economies. This subgroup deals with key issues like
funding and intellectual property rights associated with technology
transfer.
Significant disagreement remains between the G77 and
industrialized nations. The groups at the UN are well known for their
disagreements, however they also work together. Earlier this year,
AOSIS was joined by the LDC, and together these 80 countries
collectively demanded that global temperature increases be kept as far
below 1.5°C as possible to limit the anticipated devastating effects of
climate change on the world's most vulnerable countries.
Unlike
Kytoto everyone must be included in the new deal, particularly big
emitters like the US and developing nations like China, India, and
Brazil. But before any climate change deal is signed, these groups must
come to an agreement.
