The second day of the virtual combined twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (Part I) to the Vienna Convention and thirty-second Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (COP 12(I)/MOP 32) opened with parties considering the membership of Montreal Protocol bodies for 2021. These included the membership of the Implementation Committee and the Multilateral Fund (MLF) Executive Committee, as well as the co-chairs of the forty-third Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG 43). Parties also discussed the membership of the Technical and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) and its Technical Options Committees. They did express some concern that confirming TEAP nominations for four years at a virtual meeting may be short-sighted as the expertise needed for the future could be overlooked.
Following the plenary session, the Budget Committee and the contact group on the MLF Replenishment met. The MLF Replenishment contact group considered proposals to roll over remaining funds from the current fiscal period (2018-2020). Parties debated how to ensure that the rollover of funds balance as the proposed interim budget is solely for 2021. They also deliberated on how best to reflect this while ensuring that any decision taken on an interim budget does not disrupt the donor processes for MLF contributions in the 2021-2023 triennium.
Many parties reflected on the difficulty of negotiating in a virtual setting, stating that it makes in-depth conversations on text proposals difficult. There was also a concern that discussions that were previously closed were suddenly accessible to all. As one delegate remarked, the goodwill in the Ozone family should ensure that parties could trust these conventions will not be breached.
COP 12(I)/MOP 32 is meeting online from 23-27 November 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic from 2:00 – 4:00 PM East Africa Time.
The Earth Negotiations Bulletin will publish a summary and analysis of the meeting on Monday, 30 November 2020.
Selected Photos
OEWG 42 Co-Chair Alain Wilmart, Belgium
Ana Elena Campos, Costa Rica
Annie Gabriel, Australia
Nicole Folliet, Canada
Noluzuko Gwayi, South Africa
OEWG 42 Co-Chair Obed Baloyi, South Africa
Gilbert Bankobeza, Ozone Secretariat
Philip Owen, EU
Budget Committee
Yaqoub Almatouq, Kuwait
Paulo Braga, Brazil
John Thompson, US
Laura Berón, Argentina
Replenishment Contact Group Co-Chair Leslie Smith, Grenada
Ole-Kristian Kvissel, Norway
Ralph Brieskorn, the Netherlands
Philippe Chemouny, Canada
Ulrike Haupt, Germany, on behalf of the EU Presidency