Bonn Climate Change Conference

The international climate change treaty (UNFCCC) held a conference during May 14 - 25, 2012 in Bonn, Germany to discuss key issues on climate change mitigation and adaptation. 

Trinidad and Tobago, as a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), attended the conference with a delegation consisting of Mr Kishan Kumarsingh, Head of the MEAU and Ms Jewel Batchasingh, the MEAU's Climate Change/Ozone Specialist, along with the Second Secretary of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations, New York, Ms Rueanna Haynes.

Bonn's Climate Change Conference comprised five meetings, taking place simultaneously:

1. 36th Session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 36)
2. 36th Session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 36)
3. 17th Session of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP 17)
4. 15th Session of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA 15)
5. 1st Meeting of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durham Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP 1)

Notably, Trinidad and Tobago represented by Mr. Kumarsingh, was nominated as Co-chair of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) for the period June 2013 to December 2014, through the Group of Latin America and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC). The first ADP meeting was considered contentious because countries believed that debating antagonistic issues such as election of officers of the ADP and the agenda was not the best start to negotiations of this new group.

Progress was made at Bonn for Trinidad and Tobago in the areas of carbon capture and storage (CCS), registry, measurement, reporting and verification of domestically supported Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), technical experts for International Consultation and Analysis (ICA), Technology Executive Committee (TEC), Climate Technology Climate Network (CTCN), loss and damage and response measures.

Mr Kishan Kumarsingh (left), Head of the MEAU, is to serve as the Co-Chair of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) during 2013-2014.

The ADP is a subsidiary body to the UNFCC Convention, charged with developing a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force, which will be applicable to all Parties under UNFCCC. Its work is expected to be completed in 2015.