Reporting on the various meetings, contact groups and informal consultations held Ambassador Diseko informed parties in the planary that a new approach based on equity and fairness was being considered for the ADP Bureau from now up to 2015 and that an agreement should be reached by the end of the day. Necessary as the additional intersessional before Doha, is unlikely to be held.
The ADP needed to start carving the main elements of the Durban compromise into something workable. Progress on agreeing the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol and how it can be made applicable to all by 2015, working on a pre-2020 mitigation work plan; concluding the AWG-LCA; and operationalising the institutions created in Cancun and Durban is required. Parties suggested that this could be moved forward by separating in two groups working parallel streams, and after the plenaries in the morning smaller contact groups were set up for the afternoon.
The first meeting of the two spin off groups (Mitigation by Developing Country Parties and Mitigation for Developing Country Parties) took place with the first making some progress while the latter still required guidance from the ADP on how to approach their work. Concern was expressed that developed world Parties were using these groups to'play musical' chairs and avoid real discussion. Parties called for timetables and milestones for making progress on all items and the need for a work programme on the development of a protocol or legally-binding agreement and how to enhance mitigation ambition. Suggestions included using 2012 as a "conceptual year" aimed at sharing ideas leading to developing a clear mandate at the COP for developing a post-2020 regime and working on pre- 2020 mitigation with an emphasis on implementation rather than renegotiation.
Nonetheless the ADP struggled to get started on any substantial work despite Interim ADP Chair de Wet invited parties to share their views on how they see work proceeding under the ADP during the rest of the week - although politically correct this approach opens up a new wave of discussions on what should be discussed rather than how to find solutions, it may come as no surprise that by the end of the week the only decisions that will have been made will be full adoption of the agenda on what to discuss rather than any substantive discussion clarifying the way forward..
Transport raised its head in several side events - but the focus was on aviation rather than land transport. However decarbonising the energy mix was a hot topic and at the launch of a new study by the WBCSD. David Hone, Shell, explained that decarbonising the energy mix would need a global high carbon price in the range of US$ 100-200 per ton of CO2 and that this would play a critical role in achieving the gross domestic product goals with a lower carbon intensity.