12th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (Part I) and 32nd Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer

Inger Andersen, in her opening address to the virtual combined twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (Part I) of the Vienna Convention and thirty-second Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (COP 12(I)/MOP 32) high-level segment (HLS), lauded delegates for making progress despite the challenges of 2020. She also reflected on the key role science has played in the shaping of the 25-year history of the Vienna Convention and of its Montreal Protocol.

The final day of COP 12(I)/MOP 32 saw delegates spent much of their time in the HLS hearing updates from the Assessment Panels, as well as the activities of the Multilateral Fund (MLF) and its implementing agencies.

The MLF Replenishment contact group had reconvened briefly in the morning to conclude its work on a decision for the interim budget for 2021-2023, before returning to plenary to forward the decision to the HLS. Ultimately, COP 12(I)/MOP 32 adopted a number of decisions, including those on:

• financial reports and budgets for the Vienna Convention;
• critical-use exemptions for 2021 and 2022;
• an interim budget for the Multilateral Fund (MLF) for the triennium 2021-2023;
• the memberships of the various Protocol bodies;
• non-compliance of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea;
• convening an extraordinary MOP in 2021; and
• the financial reports and budgets for the Protocol.

As MOP 32 President Paul Krajnik (Austria) noted in his closing remarks, “We have sent an important signal that despite the difficulties, the work of the Montreal Protocol is well on track.”

Over 300 delegates took part in COP 12(I)/MOP 32, which met online from 23-27 November 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Delegates addressed a pared down agenda to address only those items that needed to urgently be addressed.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin summary and analysis of the meeting is available in HTML and PDF format.

Images from the Meeting

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.

Images from the Meeting

The first day of the virtual combined twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (Part I) of the Vienna Convention and thirty-second Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (COP 12(I)/MOP 32) opened with delegates paying their respects to Nobel Laureate Mario Molina, who died in October this year. Molina’s research, conducted with Sherwood Rowland, was instrumental in showing that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) could decompose the stratospheric ozone; this is the science that led to the formation of the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol.

For the Montreal Protocol to continue achieving positive results, one of the issues COP 12(I)/MOP 32 has to grapple with is how to ensure the Multilateral Fund (MLF) can continue its work to support  developing country (Article 5) parties in meeting their obligations under the Protocol. Parties spent much of their allotted time today discussing how best to ensure this could happen, given that no decision will be taken on the replenishment for the period 2021-2023 without in-person negotiations taking place.

Many parties supported the proposal to rollover unspent funds from the current fiscal period (the triennium 2018-2020) to allow the MLF Secretariat to continue their work in 2021. There was, however, a request for language explicitly calling for a replenishment decision to be taken in 2021. There was also a question on whether there were sufficient funds available to roll over to ensure that the MLF Secretariat could continue its operations. In the same vein, there was also a proposal for an Extraordinary MOP (ExMOP) to be held in 2021 to take a final decision on the MLF Replenishment 2021-2023.

A contact group was established to consider both these proposals in further detail.

Parties also briefly considered the financial reports and budgets of the Vienna Convention and Montreal Protocol trust funds. A budget committee was established to discuss these in further detail and will meet from Tuesday through Thursday outside of the core negotiating hours.

Images from the Meeting