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Home > COP-13
COP 13 - Bali
The 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference
From December 3 to 15, 2007, the world’s governments met in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia for "COP-13", the United Nations annual climate change conference.
The conference set out the framework for negotiations of the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol, commencing in 2012, and attempted to lay the groundwork for strengthening global efforts to tackle climate change.
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The formal name of the COP-13 meetings is the Thirteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP-13). COP-13 was held concurrently with the Third meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP3 - the meeting of countries, including Canada, that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol). |
A concerted global effort is required to limit average global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, the widely accepted threshold beyond which human society faces unacceptable risks from dangerous climate change.
What progress had been achieved since Canada hosted the UN Climate Conference in Montreal in 2005?
The UN Climate Conference in Montreal in 2005 accomplished several important things. First and most importantly, concerted pressure from progressive governments and civil society prevented the Bush Administration from killing Kyoto after 2012. A similar effort saved it again at last year's conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Montreal Conference also launched Kyoto Phase II. The “Article 3.9 decision” called for completion of negotiations for a new round of binding emission reduction targets for industrialized countries to ensure "no gap" between the end of the 1st commitment period (2008-2012) and the new one. This was a critical achievement.
Why was the meeting in Bali important?
In 2007, scientists on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for their efforts "to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”
The IPCC is urgently recommending that world leaders and their policymakers take all necessary steps to ensure that average global greenhouse gas emissions peak no later than 2015 and then decline quickly afterwards. Scientists say if they fail to do this and average temperatures exceed the 2˚C mark, severe food shortages causing large scale human starvation, and mass species extinction of plants and animals, will certainly follow.
The Conference Outcome
For most of the conference in Bali, representatives of the Government of Canada, along with the United States and Japan, worked to oppose crucial elements of the Bali roadmap. During the conference, Canada was singled out by other countries and high-ranking UN officials for its obstructive behaviour. In virtual isolation at the end of the conference, Canada agreed not to block a weakened consensus agreement.
The first phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. The agreement reached at Bali launches a two-year negotiation process for the post-2012 “Kyoto Phase 2”. In addition to setting a range of emission reduction targets for industrialized countries, the Bali roadmap contains commitments to negotiate actions to control emissions in developing countries; financial agreements for adaptation and the transfer of climate-friendly technology; and an agreement to tackle the problem of deforestation in developing countries.
Prior to the Bali Conference, CAN Canada prepared a backgrounder on COP-13, which included a review of Canada's position in relation to the European Union, United States and Australia.
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