Paris climate agreement under pressure as talks end in Bonn
Countries leave Bonn under mounting pressure to deliver on their Paris climate promises
26 May 2016, Bonn. The first session of UN climate negotiations, after the historic Paris Agreement was forged, ends under mounting pressure on governments to deliver on their climate commitments. CARE International urges countries to keep the Paris spirit alive and scale-up efforts to stop global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Sven Harmeling, CARE International’s Climate Change Advocacy Coordinator said in Bonn:
“The Paris spirit is alive, but the implementation of the new climate deal remains a challenge. Some countries seem to be reverting back into their old position, questioning the positive processes started in Paris.”
“The civil society and the climate vulnerable countries fought hard to get the 1.5°C temperature limit into the Paris Agreement. As temperatures keep spiralling out of control, countries must urgently accelerate the transition away from dirty fossil fuels. Achieving the 1.5°C target will become extremely difficult, if countries are not able to close the gap between their ambition and actual climate actions.”
“There was some technical progress in helping vulnerable countries and people adapt, prepare and build resilience to the dangerous impacts of climate change on their livelihoods. CARE’s experience of working with poor communities shows that, to be effective, efforts must focus on promoting local gender-equitable adaptation plans and programmes. The potential new COP22 gender work programme could add to this. Unfortunately, in the negotiations on agriculture, countries remain largely divided on the way forward.”
“Next time countries will meet at COP22 in Marrakesh, Morocco. COP22 needs to be the next step on the road to a climate safer and just world, but countries need to be able to provide a clearer roadmap for this, including concrete plans for scaling up financial support for adaptation in the coming years and addressing unavoidable loss and damage.”
ENDS.
Notes
1. CARE International is a leading humanitarian organisation fighting global poverty and delivering lifesaving assistance in emergencies. In 90 countries around the world, CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women to equip them with the proper resources to lift their families and communities out of poverty. To learn more about CARE International’s work on climate change, please visit: www.careclimatechange.org
*********
| High-drama at low-key follow up to UN Climate Change Agreement in Paris |
Bonn, Germany - United Nations climate change negotiations today concluded their first session since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in December last year, including the first session of a new body called the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA) tasked with carrying out activities related to the implementation of the Agreement. What was touted as a "housekeeping meeting" following the high-drama of COP21 turned out in fact to be more eventful than expected.
On the closing day, controversy flared around proposed techno-fixes involving bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) with several dozen African social organisations and networks issuing a joint statement entitled "Sacrificing the global South in the name of the global South: Why the 1.5°C goal must not be met with land grabs."
This was followed by an announcement of plans to launch a new renewable energy initiative for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) following on from last year's breakthrough African Renewable Energy Initiative which has attracted $10 billion in pledges. The announcement was made during a press conference with Ambassadors from Sweden and Mali on behalf of the African Group, alongside the chief negotiator of the Alliance of Small Island States and the Chair of the LDCs.
Tense exchanges also took place throughout the week and boiled over in the closing plenary of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation around the issue of "conflicts of interest" with over 75 developing countries and many NGOs calling for climate talks to adopt measures which would limit the ability of fossil fuel corporations to advance their agenda, which runs contrary to the objectives of the negotiations.
As the negotiations wrapped up ahead of the next Conference in Marrakech, November 7-18, representatives from a diverse range of civil society groups expressed their views:
"We spent another precious week engaged in very procedural discussions, but the hard work had to be done. As Gandhi said, 'speed is irrelevant if you are going in the wrong direction'. Even as negotiations took place this week, the world has been dealing with record-breaking temperatures, and climate impacts. It's clear that vulnerable communities around the world urgently need support. They need help when they are displaced, and they need strategies to cope with extreme weather events and slow onset impacts. The climate change agenda going forward must reflect these realities" said Harjeet Singh of Action Aid.
"As we move forward to Marrakech, we hope that developed countries will not re-negotiate what they have agreed in Paris for the Agreement to be implemented in a balanced manner, on all the elements, including mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage and means of implementation for developing countries. They should not resort to tactics in the process which lead to mitigation centric outcomes which that will not be just and equitable. We hope that now the process can carry on in an open and transparent way to ensure that a balanced outcome results in Morocco without a re-negotiation of the Paris Agreement and in implementing pre-2020 commitments with urgency" said Meena Raman of Third World Network.
"If Paris is to be more than just a diplomatic success, catalysing the urgent transformation of our global energy systems must be the cornerstone to meeting the planetary goal of 1.5°C. An important first step was the successful launch in Paris of the African Renewable Energy Initiative - now Marrakesh must build on that by broadening this initiative to other vulnerable countries. By becoming the COP for Renewable Energy, it would be genuinely deserving of global applause, for concretely tackling climate pollution as well as delivering energy to the millions of people who have none" said Asad Rehman, Friends of the Earth England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
"If Marrakech is to live up to it's billing as an implementation COP, developed countries must come to the ministerial dialogue on climate finance with clear commitments - with amounts and timeframe - to meeting the $100 billion promised in 2010 and reaffirmed in Paris. This $100 billion is a floor - the real needs of tackling climate change and addressing the impacts are much greater" said Lidy Nacpil of the Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development.
"For many years we demanded a 1.5°C goal, which for Africa means significantly more warming and severe impacts on food security. For many years we were told it was not politically possible. Now that we have a 1.5°C in the Paris Agreement, we are being told that the measures to achieve it are not politically possible. Instead of changing the mode of production and consumption in the global North, we in the South are being asked to sacrifice our land and food security on the assumption that technologies such as BECCS will work. Let me be clear: they will not work for us. We cannot sacrifice our food security and land. Instead w
e need urgent and serious mitigation to keep to 1.5°C. The next 5 years are critical - we hope countries come to Marrakech ready to increase their pre-2020 ambition in line with their fair shares" said Augustine Njamnshi of Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance.
"The Paris Agreement swings the door wide open to non-state actors, including to the private sector, not only to enhance climate action but also to engage in the policymaking process. But no process currently exists to address the perceived, potential, or actual conflicts of interests that could result from that engagement. If we are serious about keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, Parties must overcome opposition from the US and others and ensure this process has safeguards in place to maintain the integrity of the UNFCCC, it's Parties and its outcomes" said Tamar Lawrence-Samuel of Corporate Accountability International.
All spokespeople can provide further quotes, interviews, and background upon request.
|
*****
On the closing day of the UN climate change negotiations in Bonn, Teresa Anderson, ActionAid’s Climate Change Policy Officer, said:
“Even with the 1°C of warming that the world is currently experiencing, we are already seeing the disastrous impacts of climate change. Countries’ agreement to a 1.5°C temperature goal at the Paris talks was a step forward but this week’s round of talks did not see a realistic conversation about what emissions pathways should look like.
“It’s extremely dangerous to assume that technologies such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) can be used to commit to the 1.5°C target and solve the climate problem. We know that such proposed solutions require massive and unfeasible amounts of land that will compete with food in an already hungry world. If we are to stay under the 1.5°C goal we must be brave and address the elephant in the room – how we reduce our out of control consumption in a world with limitations.
“Now that we are over the political hurdle of Paris, we must be honest about the planetary crisis that we still need to - and can - overcome. On our road to the next COP in Marrakesh in a few months’ time, we need to go back and do our homework. We need to come up with ways and finance to reach the 1.5° goal without destroying the lives of the very people the target is supposed to protect.”
******
BONN CLIMATE TALKS: NEXT STOP MARRAKESH – ‘THE RENEWABLE COP’
As climate talks in Bonn, Germany, came to a close today Christian Aid said countries still needed to deliver on the grand promises they made at COP 21 in Paris.
Christian Aid’s Senior Climate Change Advisor, Mohamed Adow, said: “The Paris summit marked a historic moment but as they stand the national emissions reductions pledges are inadequate to prevent dangerous warming.
“In Bonn countries made progress on developing a way forward around emissions, adaptation and how nations would be held accountable, but the real progress needs to be made later this year.”
Looking forward to the next UN gathering in Marrakesh, Morocco, in November, he added: “Marrakesh needs to be seen as the Renewables COP. It offers an enormous opportunity to shift the conversation from grand political rhetoric to the implementation of short-term concrete actions which will keep the agreed temperature goals of 1.5C and 2C within reach.
“In Marrakesh countries must support the urgent need for more renewable energy in developing countries. There are exciting enterprises like the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative and the Solar Alliance which were launched in Paris and are building on the global need for renewable energy.
“COP 22 should deliver a global programme on renewable energy and energy efficiency. Climate change is not merely an issue of cutting carbon pollution; it’s also about ensuring energy access to the poor and supporting those who are particularly vulnerable to climate impacts.”
Mr Adow also said it was time for developed countries to finally honour their finance promises.
He said: “In Marrakesh, rich countries will have to present their roadmap towards meeting their $100 billion a year climate finance commitment. They cannot postpone it any further. Poor countries are rightly asking them to deliver their promises of finance and adaptation support. The meeting on African soil would be a fitting place to do this.
“As the French pass the baton on to the Moroccans, they need to accelerate towards the finish line of really embedding the progress made in Paris.”
*********
Strengthening Global Action on Renewable Energy at COP22
Among the leaders calling for action were:
- Mr. Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group (LDCs, a group of 48 least developed countries);
- H.E. Ambassador Mr. Hussein Alfa Nafo, Chair of the African Group of Climate Change Negotiators (AGN, a group of 54 African states);
- Mr. Amjad Abdulla, Chief Negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS, a group of 44 small island developing states);
- H.E. Ambassador Anna Lindstedt, Ambassador for Climate Change, Sweden;
- Mr. Ayman Cherkaoui, representing H.E. Ambassador Aziz Mekouar, Government of the Kingdom of Morocco.
