03 WHAT’S ON THE TABLE AT DOHA? D O H

The last conference of the Parties that took place in Durban in 2011 has put climate negotiations at the crossroads again. The decisions taken at Cancun in 2010 supported a bottom-up approach where countries agreed to take on voluntary emission reduction commitments that were not legally binding. This, along with low expectations for the survival of the Kyoto Protocol post-2012 cast serious doubts on the continued role of UNFCCC and the future of a top-down, multilateral approach in climate negotiations. Durban put such doubts to rest, where an agreement was reached on a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol (KP-2) and a decision to agree to a new framework that would bring all countries under its ambit by 2015. On the one hand, Durban re-instilled some faith in the process by carving out a delicate compromise between developed and developing countries in what came to be called the Durban deal. On the other hand, this means that Doha is left with the tough job of stitching up all the cracks that the compromise package left for a later date. This includes a successful transition to a second commitment period, closure of the AWG-LCA track, a decision on how incomplete issues under the track will be carried forward and the operationalisation of 2