Bonn: End of the third step towards the COP 22
By Houmi Ahamed-Mikidache
The two weeks UN climate Change meeting held in Bonn since governments adopted the landmark Paris Agreement closed last thursday.
Ahead of the COP 22, countries push ahead with the willing to implement stronger climate action and to construct the global climate regime “rule book” in order to guarantee the treaty’s fairness, transparency and balance between nations, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat. 
These weeks focused on several key issues : the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the role of finance, transparency ( the role of civil society…), the role of science, capacity building and technology cooperation linked to issues such as loss and damage, and the role of gender and youth in climate change.
National Determined Contributions
To the point of scientits,if all countries fully implemented their pledges global temperatures would increase by an estimated 2.7°C by the end of this century. 2.7°C is only met with a 50% chance and temperature would continue to rise after 2100. This is much better than before the Paris process, but still far away from “well below” 2°C, let alone 1.5°C. When parties sign and ratify the agreement, their INDCs become commitments (NDCs).
The Paris agreement establishes the principle that over 188 climate action plans provide a firm floor and foundation for higher ambition. Countries will submit updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) every five years, thereby steadily increasing their ambition in the long-term.
Several key issues are raised in the Paris agreement: mitigation; adaptation; loss and damage; a transparency system and global stock-take to account for climate action; and means of implementation, including finance, for nations to build clean, resilient futures.
To the point of experts who attended a side event in April in Addis Ababa, in parallele of the African Development Week, there is a potential for the Paris agreement to create the conditions for the mobilization of finance for the implementation of African countries aspects mentioned in the INDCs which cannot be financed from domestic resources. For such potential to be realized, the Paris agreement should develop a mechanism for quantifying the requirements of Least Developed Countries’s INDCs. It can therefore build through the capitalization of the Green Climate Fund.
Climate Finance
In the absence of any viable mesures to support developed countries, the Green Climate Fund may be the only mechanism to ensure that the Least Developed countries’s Nationally Determined Contributions may be enable to embark on low carbon climate resilient development pathways, said the experts during the Addis Ababa side event.
However, concerns are raised regarding the climate finance, specially for adaptation activities. According to the UN Environment Programme, the costs of the climate adaptation for sub-saharan Africa is estimated to $67bn by 2050. In Copenhagen in 2009 and in Cancún in 2010, developed countries committed to jointly raising $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries fighting climate change. One of the sources of this climate finance is the UN Green Climate fund. With $10.3 billion, GCF’s current pipeline includes 22 private and public projects with a total value of over USD 5 billion. But there is a long way to go for funding the Green Climate Fund, observers note. The $100 billion pledged in Copenhagen should include private and public sector money for adapation and mitigation projects.
In Bonn, the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility announced and recalled how they are supporting the Paris Agreement. The Green Climate Fund is allocated 2.5 billion US Dollars in 2016 for both adaptation and mitigation programmes and projects.
The Global Environment Facility announced how it will fund both mitigation and adaptation projects. 450 million USD is available for new projects while current projects to the value of 106 million USD are already being implemented. 250 million is allocated for projects on adaptation. The Global Environment Facility will also be part of the Moroccan Green Initiative during the COP 22.
Ahead of the Bonn Conference, the chairman of the Least Developed Countries( LDCs- 48 countries, included 34 countries in Africa), Tosi Mpanu Mpanu emphasized the necessity of pre-2020 action: « We cannot sit idly waiting for the Paris Agreement to commence, the window of opportunity to act on climate change is closing. We must harness the power of fresh global cooperation to strengthen pre-2020 action. »
In Bonn, during a press briefing, Mr Mpanu-Mpanu underlined that the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh will be an action and implementation. He even announced an initiative. “ With the LDC renewable energy and energy efficiency initiative we are following up on Paris and beginning to deliver concrete solutions vital to addressing climate change. »« The Least Developed Countries are committed to play our part in the global energy transformation, to provide clean and renewable energy, jobs and opportunities to vastly improve livelihoods for our people », he added.
In december, in Paris, during the COP 21, African countries launched the African Renewable Energy Initiative with partners to boost renewable energy on the continent to at least ten gigawatts of capacity by 2020 and at least 300 GW by 2030.
« Africa has taken a lead on renewable energy. With a mandate from 54 African Heads of State we have launched the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, with the transformational goal of ensuring universal energy access to all Africans and adding double current electricity generation through renewables by 2030, » said Seyni Nafo, Chair of the African Group, during the press briefing.
For Anna Lindstedt, Ambassador for Climate Change in the Ministry of the Environment of Sweden who attended also the press conference, Africa Renewable Energy shows an african meaningful leadership. « Sweden is proud to have supported the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative from the beginning and is very encouraged to see similar initiatives from other regions and groupings, » she explained.
Abdulla Amjad, chair of the small islands states which included 6 african countries and which is part of the LDCs. It approve the renewable initiative and gives also his view during the press conference. « AOSIS is proud to see that the UNFCCC process, including the talks on pre-2020 ambition that we have championed, yielding concrete results. COP22 presents a substantial opportunity to launch practical, concrete solutions towards achieving the 1.5 degree C goal we need to keep all people, including the most vulnerable and our islands, safe. »
