Numerous formal and informal meetings and consultations were held before and during the international negotiations that led up to the Bonn Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This complex Agreement required a variety of informal and formal consultative approaches to negotiations.
Informal Plenary Sessions: For example, at the sixth Conference of the Parties to the agreement, held in The Hague, Netherlands, from 13-25 November 2000, Conference President Jan Pronk attempted to facilitate progress on the numerous disputed political and technical issues by convening high-level informal plenary sessions to address the key political issues, which he grouped into four “clusters” or “boxes.” These were: (a) capacity building, technology transfer, adverse effects and guidance to the financial mechanism; (b) mechanisms; (c) land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF); and (d) compliance, policies and measures, and accounting, reporting and review under Kyoto Protocol Articles 5 (methodological issues), 7 (communication of information), and 8 (review of information).
Informal High-Level Consultations: In preparation for the second part of this conference, a number of meetings and consultations were convened after the first segment. Later that year, President Pronk presented a consolidated negotiating text to delegates at informal high-level consultations. The text was intended as a tool to help negotiators reach a compromise.
Closed Negotiation Groups: The second part of the Conference began with three days of closed negotiating groups to reduce differences on texts for decisions on a range of issues related to the Protocol and the UNFCCC, including financial issues, compliance, and LULUCF.
During the subsequent g[high-level segment] of the Conference, President Pronk presented his proposal for a draft political decision. However, in spite of several Parties announcing that they could support the political decision, disagreements surfaced over the section on compliance. These disputes were resolved in consultations held by President Pronk and ministers ultimately agreed to adopt the original political decision. This decision, known as the “Bonn Agreements” was formally adopted by the Sixth Conference of the Parties.