UNFCCC Climate Talks, 28 September - 9 October 2009, Bangkok

Governments convened in Bangkok for the ongoing negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (KP). These negotiations occurred after a flurry of recent international meetings - the Alliance of Small Island States Climate Change Summit, the Secretary-General's UN Summit on Climate Change, the opening of the UN General Assembly, the Major Economies Forum, and the G-20 Meeting in Pittsburgh.

The Bangkok sessions largely focused on reducing the negotiating text and a number of options in advance of the next sessions in Barcelona. Unlike during the previous meetings in Bonn, the discussions quickly centered on mitigation actions. A largely unified group of developed countries called for consideration of mitigation actions by developing countries. The USA, EU, Australia, and Japan together emphasized that their future pledges are conditional on developing country action. This is signaling that recent goodwill, especially with Japan's highly praised announcement of new and more stringent targets, has been replaced with harder negotiating positions.

The question of developing country action is largely dependent on potential financial transfers from developed countries. Disagreements remain over who should contribute to these funds and how they should be managed, with the role of existing institutions forming a core question. The upcoming sessions in Barcelona (2-6 November 2009, Spain) are likely to focus on these questions in order for the larger issue of mitigation actions to be resolved in Copenhagen.

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