Montreal 2005: what happened, and what it means

The 2005 United Nations climate change conference in Montreal signalled both the start of full legal implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the launch of negotiations on industrialised country commitments post-2012, when it’s the current Protocol expires. This paper summarises the outcomes of the meeting and discusses likely implications. It is divided into two ‘tracks’: one concerning emissions mitigation, and the other focusing primarily on adaptation to climate change impacts.

Issues covered under the mitigation track

• implementation: the Marrakech Accords and the Kyoto Compliance Regime
• improvements: the Clean Development Mechanism
• what happened on ‘Post-2012’ and ‘Future Action’ negotiations
• ‘Post-2012’ and the issue of competitiveness
• the role of the United States

The main message from Montreal concerning emissions mitigation, according to the author, was that the Kyoto Protocol was not only fully operational, but was now the only viable existing multilateral effort to combat greenhouse gas emissions.

Issues covered under the adaptation track

• the issue of “compensation for damages due to unavoidable adverse impacts of climate change”, raised by the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) who suggested that if voluntary contributions are not working then binding commitments may be needed
• negotiations on the financial mechanisms highlights of which included
  • controversy over the choice of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) as an operating entity of the financial mechanism, and as the operator of the two Convention Funds
  • concerns over adequacy of funding

The paper finishes by considering the impact of the so called “Dion Dialogue” on future action concluding that it may prove a useful instrument, particularly for developing countries, to raise issues and ideas that have failed to get onto the summit agenda.