The key features
of the Protocol submitted by AOSIS were:
- Additional commitments for Annex I
Parties to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by the year 2005 to a level at least 20%
below that attained in 1990.
- Setting targets and timetables for other
greenhouse gases in a phased manner to be decided by the Parties to the Protocol; and
- Establishing a co-ordination mechanism to
facilitate international cooperation on specific economic, administrative and other
policies and measures to implement the Protocols objective.
AOSIS presented the
draft Protocol to the 11th Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating
Committee and requested that it be transmitted to the first session of the Conference of
the Parties to the Climate Convention for consideration in the context of the COPs
review of the adequacy of the commitments.
At the first session of
the Conference of the Parties in Berlin, parties agreed that new commitments were indeed
needed for the post 2000 period. In COP1 a new subsidiary body, the Ad hoc Group on the
Berlin Mandate (AGBM) was established to draft a "protocol or another legal
instrument" for adoption at COP-3 in Kyoto, in 1997.
The legal text submitted
by AOSIS remained as the basis and the framework for the negotiations that followed. The
objectives set out by the AOSIS was to protect the climate system for generations to come
and the emission reduction targets were based on rigorous science and thorough economic
assessments. Thus the AOSIS protocol proposal received tremendous support from leading
climate scientists and established environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the
Earth and World Wildlife Fund.
AOSIS played a very
important role in the negotiation process that started from Berlin and culminated in
Kyoto. AOSIS was very firm in its negotiating stance to ensure that the protocol clearly
meets its environmental objective and does not get ridden with loopholes and self
interest. The AOSIS remained true to science and worked hard to ensure that the reduction
targets were close to what the best scientific knowledge calls for.
The AOSIS spoke in the
negotiations with the strength of thirty five voices, representing almost a fifth of the
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.