CO 6112 416'IED U S Department of State Case No F-2016-01641 Doc No C06112416 Date 09 19 2017 CLASSI Fl CATI ON Page ·1 of From Sent To Subject 3 UNCLASSI Fl ED · RELEASE IN PART SMART Archive B1 1 4 D 9 24 2015 2 33 26 PM SMART Core Aug-Sept Bonn Climate Change Negotiations Leaves U S Reasonably Optimistic UNCLA§§IEIEP SBU Classified by Director A GIS IPS DoS on 08 18 2017 Class CONFIDENTIAL Reason 1 4 D B1 Declassify on 09 23 2030 DECONTROLLED REVIEW AUTHORITY David Van Valkenburg Senior Reviewer MRN Oate DTG From Action E O TAGS Captions Reference 15 STATE 112082 Sep 24 2015 241829Z SEP 15 SECSTATE WASHDC ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE 13526 SENV KSCA ECON UNFCCC KGHG SENSITIVE ROUTINE 15 STATE 74418 l§ §JAJE §614 14 §TATE 145§§2 m 14 STATE 76344 A B C Subject Aug-Sept Bonn Climate Change Negotiations Leaves U S Reasonably Optimistic 1 SBU SUMMARY Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC met in Bonn Germany from June 1-11 2015 for a meeting of the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action ADP which aims to finalize an international climate agreement at the Conference of the Parties COP meeting in Paris this December While Parties made important progress toward conceptual agreement on several key negotiations issues this progress · was difficult to capture given the unwieldy draft negotiating text and co-chairs' 11tool which formed the basis for -discussions in Bonn Recognizing the dearth of negotiation time between now and the Paris COP the Parties agreed at this meeting to give the ADP co-chairs a mandate to deyelop a new much shorter negotiating text by early October for consideration at the next negotiation session scheduled from October 19-23 in Bonn The United States strongly supported this agreement and is cautiously optimistic about the negotiations going forward END SUMMARY Discussions focused on major concepts and Agreement structure 2 SBU Parties spent five days reacting to some 80 pages of compiled Party proposals in a document that ADP co-chairs Dan Reifsnyder of the United States and Ahmed Djogloff of Algeria termed a 11 tool The co-chairs' tool moved beyond the 11 Geneva Negotiating Text GNT developed by Parties in Geneva in February by streamlining and consolidating· similar proposals and restructuring the GNT into three baskets- elements that are more appropriate for the agreement itself elements that are more appropriate for accompanying decisions and elements on which they felt more discussion of placement was required To reiterate an important point none of the co-chairs' tool or the GNT is agreed text 3 SBU Delegates addressed specific issues in facilitated sub-groups covering mitigation adaptation finance technology capacity building transparency and timeframes - i e how successive rounds of contributions will be structured The discussions did not seek to take proposals of Parties off the table but they did signal in some cases a subtle but significant narrowing of views most notably on the issue of differentiation in the context of mitigation contributions and the transparency system 4 SBU On loss and damage L D a critical issue for island states the United States tabled a proposal to mandate the CLASS Fl CATI ON Page 1 of UNCLASSI Fl ED 3 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2016-01641 Doc No C06112416 Date 09 19 2017 CO 6112 4 l 6'IED U S Department of State Case No F-2016-01641 Doc No C06112416 Date 09 19 2017 CLASSI Fl CATI ON Page ---2 of UNCLASSI Fl ED 3 continuation of the Warsaw International Mechanism WIM for Loss and Damage in a COP decision in Paris in order to address concerns that islands and others have that some Parties may try to sunset the WIM when it is under review in 2016 While there is not currently agreement on the U S proposal _it received a positive reaction The WIM was established as a body under the current UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United States believes this issue should continue to be addressed Under the existing Convention rather than under the 2015 Agreement 5 SBU A significant amount of time at the meeting was spent clarifying Parties' ideas for the storyline of each section of the Agreement To that end the United States highlighted the need for the Agreement to group related provisions together in order to be crystal clear on exactly what each Party is expected or obligated to do with respect to each element of the Agreement We emphasized that th structure used in the co-chairs' tool does not enable the required level of clarity Our proposals to restructure the text to ensure clarity were supported by many developed and developing country Parties but was opposed by the like-minded developing countries LMDC negotiation bloc - led by China India and Saudi Arabia - ----------------- Co-Chairs iven a mandate to draft a real ne otiatin text 6 SBU 1 4 D B1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ' The co-chairs did not face such resistance however when they announced to broad vocal support and no opposition that they will release a real draft negotiating text termed a non-paper of manageable size around the first week of October The text will consist of a draft agreement and accompanying decisions Enhancing pre-2020 ambition 10 SBU On enhancing mitigation ambition before 2020 - the period before the new agreement is to take effect - Parties continued to discuss elements for a·decision in Paris The United States and other developed countries supported the existing mandate of Workstream 2 to focus on mitigation ambition including furthering the technical examination process to explore mitigation opportunities while the G-77 and particularly LMDCs supported broadening Workstream 2 to include work on financial support technology and adaptation Parties agreed to ask the Co-Facilitators for this issue to produce new draft decision text for further work in October Process through Paris 6 SBU There is one more formal negotiation session planned before Paris It will take place in Bonn Germany from October 19-23 Discussions at that session will focus on the draft text expected to be put forward by the co-chairs in early October There is some talk of potentially adding additional days to that session or inviting ministers to attend part of it in order to make more progress before Paris No such decisions have been taken yet The French are expected to host a pre-COP ministerial in November of several days which will also aim to reduce differences among Parties on key issues 7 U Parties will also continue to meet informally The United States will convene the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate MEF in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York on September 29-30 and may host another MEF meeting in November to bring together developed and developing countries to focus on landing zones for the key issues in fhe negotiations Status of INDC Submissions 8 U As of September 15 2015 3 countries and the EU representing its 28 member States have formally submitted INDCs to the UNFCCC Most members of the Major Economies Forum have submitted including the United States China Russia Japan South Korea Canada Mexico and Australia as have a diverse group of countries from Central and South America Africa Asia Oceania and the Middle East INDCs on the table account for approximately 60% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and approximate_ly 70% of energy-related CO2 We expect many more countries to come forward with INDCs before Paris Talking Points ci C The recent negotiation session in Bonn gave Parties the time to discuss the core aspects of the Agreement through facilitated sessions on all major issues including mitigation adaptation and support While we continue to be concerned with the pace of progress we were grateful for the open and pragmatic manner in which most delegates approached the session We were able to build valuable understanding that helped us narrow divides on most issues which is key to reaching an agreement in Paris The decision to give the co-chairs the mandate to draft a negotiating text that reflects areas of convergence and potential landing zones was also a critical step forward We look forward to reviewing the co-chairs' text when it CLASSI Fl CATI ON Page 2 of 3 UNCLASSI Fl ED UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2016-01641 Doc No C06112416 Date -09 19 2017 CO6112416'1ED U S Department of State Case No F-2016-01641 Doc No C06112416 Date 09 19 2017 CLASS Fl CATI ON Page ·3 o f UNCLASSI Fl ED 3 is released next month Overall we believe that the most recent negotiations were a necessary step forward and we are reasonably optimistic that Parties are beginning to make the progress needed to reach Agreement in Paris J Signature Kerry Drafted By Cleared By Approved By Released By Info OES_EGC Camahan Kimberly C S SECC Talley Trigg OES EGC Camahan Kimberly C OES_EGC Camahan Kimberly C Sanchez Lauren K ROUTINE petersstanleymr@state gov Dissemination Rule Archive Copy ROUTINE UNCLA§§lflEP SBU CLASS Fl CATI ON Page 3 of 3 UNCLASSI Fl ED UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2016-01641 Doc No C06112416 Date 09 19 2017