Brazil unlocks climate impasse after negotiating with Ukraine and Russia – 7/5/2023 – Ambience

After mediating the dialogue between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine in the first half of June, Brazilian diplomacy arrived at a solution to unlock the carbon inventories of developed countries.

The instrument is linked to the central item on the COP28 Climate agenda, scheduled for the end of November, when countries must present a balance of climate actions implemented after the Paris Agreement.

In addition to providing transparency to the actions of the developed bloc, charged with historical responsibilities for climate mitigation and financing, emissions inventories are of strategic importance for Brazil: when presiding over COP30, in 2025, the country should lead the review of climate goals of the Paris Agreement.

The future stage will be based on the state of the art that countries must face this year, when they take stock of the actions taken so far.

However, developed countries’ inventories, relating to pre-Paris commitments, have been on hold since Russia invaded the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and began to report the region’s emissions in its carbon inventories. Under Ukraine’s protest, the countries were unable to reach a consensus to approve the inventories, which have been blocked since 2018.

After pressing for the issue to be resolved at the cross-sectional meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate in Bonn, Brazil was invited by the organizers of the implementation committee to mediate the dialogue between the two countries.

The exit sewn by Brazil consisted of a caveat recorded in the footnote of the decisions involving the Russian inventory.

“Information provided by Russia. The General Assembly addressed the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol in resolution 68/262 of March 27, 2014”, reads the footnote to the documents, published last week on the online page of the UN Framework Convention on Climate, together with the approval of the inventories.

The note was revised several times by Ukraine – which demanded to see the text in writing – before finally being published online on the conference website, which occurred only last week.

Even during the meeting, Russia and Ukraine backed down after consulting their capitals. Consensus between the two countries was only reached minutes before the final plenary, after a negotiation mediated by Brazil, in which the two countries were kept in separate rooms.

In addition to arguing that the inventories account for the emissions of the entire bloc of developed countries, without distinguishing each nation, the Brazilians relied on similar caveats in documents from other spheres of the UN.

The main one refers to the dispute over the Malvinas Islands, occupied by the United Kingdom and claimed by Argentina. Brazil cited a 1988 UN General Assembly decision indicating that a footnote would be added to publications whenever the Falkland Islands were mentioned.

The example helped to convince the Russians – who, like the British, have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council – and the Ukrainians, who saw in the Argentine example a way to protest against the occupation of their territory without blocking the agenda.

The example, however, raised the spirits of the British and Argentines in the final plenary of the meeting, which had criticism from both countries. The representative of Argentina cited the impossibility of including the carbon emissions of the Malvinas Islands in its inventory. The speech was answered by the British representation in the plenary, which affirmed that the occupation of the islands was legal.

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