Criticism was levelled at Japan when they attempted to tamper with results of a previous high-level UN meeting. Now, Japan is proposing strong constraints on developing countries, in regards to emission reduction actions. In so doing, Japan has now threatened to undermine the trust and cooperation needed to move forward.

"The Japanese government will have to build much more trust with major developing countries if they want to lead the G8 towards a reasonably good agreement at the upcoming summit in Hokkaido," said Kathrin Gutmann, Climate Policy Coordinator for WWF International.

"This can best be done if Japan turns around and campaigns vigorously for the G8 to agree to emissions reductions by industrialized countries of -25% to -40% by 2020," she added.

Post 2012 workplan
Despite these disturbances, the parties at the Bangkok talks negotiated the workplan for developing the global legal framework for emission reductions for the period after 2012.

The countries brought a number of constructive ideas to the table and started in delineating the main issues and the main fault lines that need further discussion.

Need for preparation
"The good news is that most parties have started to engage pro-actively," said Shruti Shukla, WWF India's climate and energy policy coordinator.

"The bad news is that many lack the level of preparation that is needed to successfully conclude the negotiations by the end of 2009. They will have to seriously step up their game by bringing concrete proposals to the table," Shukla added.

New ideas
Several countries proposed new ideas for further negotiations: Mexico put forward a proposal about organising funding for emission reductions and technology in developing countries.

The Small Island States – amongst the most threatened countries – introduced the idea of an insurance fund to enable their citizens to deal with climate disasters.

Shipping and aviation
WWF is concerned about a last-minute change about the inclusion of emissions from planes and ships: the wording is so loose that some industrial countries could well use this to escape these reduction obligations. Further negotiations will have to eliminate this potential loophole.