COP 23 : A half victory for developing countries
COP 23 : A half victory for developing countries The Un Climate Change negotiations ended at nearly 7 o’clock this morning with a song from the Fijians. Started two weeks ago, these negotiations make time to find any compromise between developed and developing countries. As usual. The story. By Houmi Ahamed-Mikidache The implementation of the Paris Agreement have many issues: adaptation and mitigation through the NDCs, loss and damage, adaptation, adaptation fund, finance, transfer of technology, transparency, support and capacity building. Most of all these elements have been taken separately through a facilitative dialogue launched during COP 21 in Paris and pursued in Marrakech during COP 22, then in Bonn with the Fiji presidency, and the Talanoa Dialogue, a conversation between north and south representatives to achieve the long term pathway to 1,5°Celsius. The Talanoa Dialogue “ We have been doing the job that we were given to do: advance the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement, and prepare for more ambitions actions for the Talanoa dialogue in 2018,” said the Prime minister of Fiji and president of COP 23, Frank Bainimarama. For the Prime Minister of Fiji, there has been a positive momentum in various areas in COP 23 : the global community has embraced the Fiji concept of grand coalition for greater ambition linking national governments, states and cities, civil society, the private sector and all women around the world.“ We have launched a global partnership to provide millions of climate vulnerable people an affordable access to insurance,” said the president of COP 23. For him, this COP has put people first. It has connected the people who are not experts on climate change to the UN Climate negotiations. According to him, putting people first showed to the world that these people are facing climate change in their daily lives. What has been achieved? Saturday, 2.40 Am, the African negotiators left again the negotiations rooms and were happy: “ We got it Adaptation Fund and Article 9.5,” said Ambassador Nafo from Mali and head of the African group of negotiators. The decisions adopted in Bonn explained that there will be modalities for the accounting of financial resources provided and mobilized through public intervention in accordance to the article 9 of the Paris Agreement. The Article 9.5 of the Paris Agreement has mentionned that the Developed country Parties shall biennially communicate indicative quantitative and qualitative information related to finance of both mitigation and adaptation. Back and Forth Last night was marked by Back and Forth from all the delegates. And it continued earlier this morning. At 3am, the Republic of Ecuador on behalf of the G77+...
COP 23: Au fond de l’eau
COP 23: Au fond de l’eau La conférence des Nations Unies sur les Changements Climatiques présidée par les îles Fidji se poursuit. Les demandes restent les mêmes et sont discutées à travers le Dialogue de Talanoa ( terme signifiant conversation) initié par les îles Fidji et organisé par des consultations informelles, alors que les chefs d’Etats et de gouvernement s’expriment à Bonn. Résumé des travaux. Par Houmi Ahamed-Mikidache Ce que pensent les îles Fidji Face au dialogue de Talanoa toujours en cours, les îles Fidji, premier Etat insulaire à présider la conférence des Nations Unies sur les Changements climatiques reste positives. Mais, elles ont rappelé que la question de la finance et le rôle du fonds d’adaptation font l’objet de 12 articles à l’ordre du jour des travaux de la mise en œuvre de l’Accord de Paris. « Nous, en tant que présidence des Fidji, exprimons notre intérêt spécial de voir comment le fonds d’adaptation va servir l’Accord de Paris et des dialogues sont en cours sur le financement des 100 milliards de dollars par an ( à partir de 2020), a déclaré lors d’une conférence de presse Nazhat Shameem Khan, l’ambassadeur des Fidji auprès des Nations Unies. Le président de la COP 23, le premier ministre Frank Bainimarama, à quant à lui souligné que l’Allemagne a annoncé, à l’ouverture de la COP, un financement de 50 millions d’euros à destination du fonds d’adaptation pour les pays les moins avancés. Quel est la position de l’Union Européenne? Cette semaine, l’Union Européenne se donne trois objectifs à atteindre : accomplir les progrès sur l’atténuation, centrés les points mandatés du programme de travail de l’Accord de Paris et maintenir l’équilibre imprimés à l’accord. Mais quelles ont été les demandes de la société civile? A l’ouverture des négociations sur le climat, la société civile, au nom d’un groupe d’ONGs, Third World Network, s’est manifestée lors de plusieurs conférences de presse pour une prise en compte des actions pré-2020 dans le cadre du protocole de Kyoto mis en application il y a vingt ans mais non ratifié par de nombreux pays dont les Etats-Unis d’Amérique. « On ne peut parler des actions post-2020, sans traiter des actions pré-2020 » à déclaré Mohammed Ado, de Christian Aids. Mardi, le Réseau Climat et Développement, représenté par Aissatou Diouf a exprimé ses inquiétudes face au déséquilibre des contributions nationales africaines. « La plupart des pays africains ont mis l’accent sur l’atténuation dans leur Contribution Prévue Déterminée Nationale, le volet adaptation ne doit pas être occulté : Il y a des soucis sur le financement aussi bien pour le fonds d’adaptation que pour le fonds vert. Le WWF international, quant à...
To Bonn and Beyond
To Bonn and Beyond Message from the Incoming COP 23 President Prime Minister of Fiji Frank Bainimarama Maintaining the momentum of the Paris Agreement Bula vinaka! Wherever you are the world, I convey my warmest greetings, along with the greetings of the Fijian people. Fiji assumes the Presidency of COP 23 determined to maintain the momentum of the 2015 Paris Agreement and the concerted effort to reduce carbon emissions and lower the global temperature, which was reinforced at COP 22 in Marrakesh. To use a sporting analogy so beloved in our islands, the global community cannot afford to drop the ball on the decisive response agreed to in Paris to address the crisis of global warming that we all face, wherever we live on the planet. That ball is being passed to Fiji and I intend, as the first incoming COP president from a Small Island Developing State, to run with it as hard as I can. We must again approach this year’s deliberations in Bonn as a team – every nation playing its part to combat the rising sea levels, extreme weather events and changing weather patterns associated with climate change. And I will be doing everything possible to keep the team that was assembled in Paris together and totally focused on the best possible outcome. “Our concerns are the concerns of the entire world” I intend to act as COP President on behalf of all 7.5 billion people on the planet. But I bring a particular perspective to these negotiations on behalf of some of those who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change – Pacific Islanders and the residents of other SIDS countries and low-lying areas of the world. Our concerns are the concerns of the entire world, given the scale of this crisis. We must work together as a global community to increase the proportion of finance available for climate adaptation and resilience building. We need a greater effort to develop products and models to attract private sector participation in the area of adaptation finance. To this end, I will be engaging closely with governments, NGOs, charitable foundations, civil society and the business community. I appeal to the entire world to support Fiji’s effort to continue building the global consensus to confront the greatest challenge of our age. We owe it not only to ourselves but to future generations to tackle this issue head on before it is too late. And I will be counting on that support all the way to Bonn and beyond....