The LCA group's closing plenary meeting, which lasted well until midnight Friday, has caught more attention especially from developed countries, after parties were engaged in fierce discussions over Japan's so-called "sectoral approach" on emission cut targets setting mechanism.
Japan has been pushing this "sectoral approach" very hard during the five-day LCA group session in Bangkok, which has been tasked with drafting a work plan for future negotiation following the Bali Roadmap agreed at last December's UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.
The basic concept of Japan's sectoral approach is to set midterm national targets for "each major emitting country" by calculating emission reduction potential in each sectors, such as power-generation, transport, and other energy intensive industries with certain indicators.
Japan had wanted to push it to be included at the very first session of negotiation procedures after Bangkok in a form of "workshop", but the idea faced strong boycott from developing nations which finally threw it from the table.
The original "sectoral approach" is defined in the Convention as a method option for developed countries to meet target improving energy efficiency technology.
Discussions on the final draft of the work plan which continued beyond schedule on Thursday broke after midnight as Japan was pushing so hard on the issue and countries failed to reach consensus.
Su Wei, director-general of China's Office of National Leading Group on Climate Change, told Xinhua that Japan's sectoral approach is actually attempting to transfer developed countries' emission cut responsibility as committed under the Convention and the Protocol, by using sectoral targets in individual industries in both developed and developing countries.
This attempt proves unpopular and hinders global cooperation infighting climate change, Sun said.
Over 1,000 representatives from over 160 countries attended theBangkok Talks. The next session will be held in June in Bonn, Germany, followed by a few more meetings, before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark by the end of 2009.
