Tag: AWG-ADP

Less Talk, More Money, More Action

Submitted by MBrockley on

“A little less conversation, a little more action” needs to be the soundtrack of this year’s Long Term Finance (LTF) Work Programme. The Fast Start period is behind us, and we are already starting the period that we used to call “Long Term Finance”, which makes little sense when it refers to yesterday, today and tomorrow. We’ve had processes under the UN Secretary General, the G20, and the UNFCCC. But to date these processes have failed to result in any decisions for, or commitments to, a given level of funding from now to 2020. So this year’s work programme must be different from last year’s in one fundamental respect: concrete outcomes on scaling up.

With the LCA finance negotiations behind us, and ADP negotiations on pre-2020 ambition focused on mitigation, this year’s LTF Work Programme is the main space for making progress on finance. If not here, where? If not now, when?

So unlike last year’s work programme, this year’s needs to be firmly geared towards options for decisions in Warsaw. These options then need to be discussed and agreed at the “in-session high-level ministerial dialogue” that the Doha outcome mandated for COP19. Failure to provide concrete options for ministers to consider would likely result in a missed opportunity that developing countries cannot afford. 

Today's Long Term Finance Work Programme event will focus on pathways for mobilisation of climate finance to USD 100 billion per year by 2020. ECO urges Parties to consider that by COP19, we need ALL developed countries to set out what PUBLIC climate finance they will provide over the period 2013-2015, and commit to a roadmap for scaling-up global PUBLIC climate finance, and reaching $100bn per year by 2020. ECO would like Parties to note that COP19 is already very, very late to make decisions on finance that should have been available from the start of 2013.

This year, we need new initiatives and increased ambition to close the mitigation gap and get on a pathway to staying below 2 degrees C of warming. This will be only be possible if there is an assurance that finance will be available for renewed mitigation efforts in developing countries. We also need agreement that a minimum of 50% of all public climate finance between now and 2020 will be spent on adaptation. And the Green Climate Fund must not be left an empty shell for a 4th COP in a row – that's one broken record we're tired of listening to.

Tags: 
Green Climate Fund
Long Term Finance (LTF)
Topics: 
Finance
Related Event: 
Bonn Climate Change Conference June 2013
Related Newsletter : 
ECO 2, June Bonn 2013, English

Equity for All

Submitted by MBrockley on

ECO hopes that the ADP discussions will focus on solving the equity puzzle. The world needs an effective, science-based, fair and ambitious climate agreement. Here is an attempt by ECO to demystify the climate puzzle we are facing. The fact that atmospheric CO2 concentrations recently reached the 400 ppm mark was an ominous reminder about the urgency of substantial actions to keep temperature rise well below 2 degree C, and the ultimate goal to return it to 1.5 degree C above pre-industrial levels. To resolve this challenge, developed countries must increase their pre-2020 pollution reductions and ramp up support for developing country actions through finance, technology and capacity building. Adaptation and loss and damage should also be given the necessary levels of support. These are the preconditions to rebuild the trust among Parties and for a successful outcome from Paris in 2015.

ECO believes that negotiations will never succeed unless Parties confront the equity challenge. More precisely, Parties need to deal with their differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, while protecting developing countries’ need to provide their citizens with sustainable living standards, as is available to citizens of any other country.

At the minimum, this means Parties need to develop a shared “Equity Reference Framework” that embodies the Convention’s core equity principles. ECO identified these as: a precautionary approach to adequacy, CBDRRC and the right to sustainable development. Along with the latest science, these core principles, taken from the Convention itself, including of course the call for developed countries to take the lead in climate mitigation – can be used as a benchmark when framing, setting and reviewing Parties’ pledges and financial commitments. Increasing ambition of pollution reduction should be based on a fair share approach.

To achieve this task in a time bound manner, ECO suggest that Parties need to take a systematic approach to make best use of the time and resources available. First, we need to hear Parties' focused ideas about core equity principles and respective indicators. We also need to hear Parties' ideas for a process by which relevant articulations of the core Convention principles and proposed indicators can be quickly distilled into a concise list. This list can then be used to establish the fair share commitments of Parties in what ECO calls the Equity Reference Framework. Over the next two weeks, the ADP should begin the discussions required for the 2015 agreement, in the context of standardised equity indicators and taking steps to realise this framework. ECO seeks an Equity Reference Framework that institutes a process to scale up Parties' commitments and pledges for the post-2020 agreement, by inviting Party submissions and a process that includes review of commitments by international experts.  

Parties must go beyond just the principles to develop standardised indicators. The present session should be sufficient to crystallise the indicator discussion, which will lead us to the development of the framework.

At the end of the day, of course, all of this will depend on Parties taking the equity challenge seriously and stepping forward to make the difference required for a successful ADP outcome in Paris. ECO will be closely watching, and that’s really not a surprise, as we are friends of equity and the ADP

Tags: 
Equity Reference Framework
Topics: 
Equity/effort-sharing
Related Event: 
Bonn Climate Change Conference June 2013
Related Newsletter : 
ECO 2, June Bonn 2013, English

Climate talks open as NGOS urge nations to make every moment count between now and 2015

Submitted by rvoorhaar on

Climate Action Network (CAN) urged countries to continue to make progress outlining the elements of a comprehensive, global agreement that puts us on the path to fair, sustainable development at the UN climate negotiations opening in Bonn, Germany, today.
 
“Every moment counts,” said Enrique Maurtua Konstantinidis from Climate Action Network Latin America. “Especially given that atmospheric carbon pollution concentration just pushed through the 400 parts per million landmark and that there is likely to be as few as five negotiating sessions between now and when the global agreement is supposed to be signed in 2015.” 
 
Key elements that need to be taken forward to the major talks in Warsaw in November include a way to fairly measure national climate action and financial support which takes into account differing circumstances as well as defining the structure and principles of the agreed international mechanism to deal with communities and cultures which are irretrievably lost as a result of climate change. 
 
Sivan Kartha, from the Stockholm Environmental Institute, said agreeing a way to measure fairness of climate action could be the key to unlocking progress towards the 2015 agreement. 
 
At the same time, Jason Anderson from WWF said countries need to commit to concrete steps to reduce carbon pollution before 2020. 
 
“CAN - the world’s biggest network of NGOs working on climate change - is urging countries to put their support behind a plan for leaders to increase their  2020 carbon pollution reduction commitments next year at a summit being held by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon,” Anderson said. 
 
“This is vital if we are going to rectify the fact we are not doing nearly enough to deliver a safe climate," Maurtua 
Konstantinidis said.
 
The year was not even half way over and we had already seen devastating floods in Argentina and the melting of Arctic sea ice being linked to not only Australia's harshest ever summer, where they needed new colors to define hot on the map but also a frozen spring in Europe and North America.
 
 
Contact:
 
For more information or for one-on-one interviews with the NGO experts, please contact Climate Action Network International’s communications coordinator Ria Voorhaar on +49 (0) 157 317 35568 or rvoorhaar@climatenetwork.org. 
 
Climate Action Network (CAN) is a global network of over 800 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels

 

Tags: 
bonn
impacts
equity
SB38
2015 global agreement
Topics: 
Adaptation
Equity/effort-sharing
Mitigation
Organization: 
AWG-ADP
UNFCCC
Related Event: 
Bonn Climate Change Conference June 2013

Overview Schedule- Bonn Climate Change Conference 2013

Submitted by Secretariat on

sb_38_overview_schedule_24_april_final_rev_lp.pdf

The overview schedule for the thirty-eighth session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 38), thirty-eighth session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 38)  and the third session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP3).

Tags: 
Bonn 2013
Overview Schedule
ADP 3
Region: 
Europe
Organization: 
AWG-ADP
Climate Action Network
UNFCCC
Related Event: 
Bonn Climate Change Conference June 2013

Bonn Climate Change Conference June 2013

The thirty-eighth sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 38) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 38), as well as the third session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP 3) will be held at Maritim Hotel from 3-14 June 2013 in Bonn, Germany. There will also be workshops on the implementation of methodological decisions related to the Kyoto Protocol. 

New focus on injecting fairness into climate talks a cause for hope

Submitted by rvoorhaar on

130503_news_release_adp2.pdf

 

Bonn, Germany - May 3, 2013:  Experts from Climate Action Network International welcomed a new, positive dynamic emerging from the year’s first UN negotiations in Bonn this week, but urged leaders to ensure that the 2015 climate plan is robust enough to save  the planet. 
 
While many countries continued to present their same hackneyed positions in the plenary sessions, there are more parties with constructive plans that ensure fair contributions to climate action by all and do more to reduce carbon pollution before 2020 injected fresh air and confidence into the talks.  
 
Mohamed Adow from Christian Aid said previous silence on the issue of fairness had  threatened to derail progress in the negotiations, but by beginning to openly tackle the problem now, confidence has been boosted among developing countries about agreeing a plan in 2015 to save the climate. 
 
“Countries now have to move to concrete discussions to capture the new energy created around equity in Bonn this week,” Adow said. “They can do this by agreeing to review climate action against an agreed framework based on the principles of equity.”
 
Jan Kowalzig from Oxfam Germany welcomed a plan by the Association of Small Island States designed to have countries commit to deeper cuts in carbon emissions in the next few years. 
 
“By the end of the year in November at Warsaw, leaders have to agree new action that will help shrink the gigaton gap between current pledges and what science says is necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change,” Kowalzig said. “This must include developed countries increasing their pathetically low emissions reduction targets as well as boosting financial support for developing countries to fight climate change.”
 
Climate Action Network’s Julie-Anne Richards urged countries not to weaken the structure of the 2015 climate plan only to ensure the sign on of countries such as the US. 
 
“We need a plan that secures us all a fair and sustainable future, not one that appeals to the lowest common denominator,” Richards said. 
 
 
 
  
Contact:
 
For more information or for one-on-one interviews with the NGO experts, please contact Climate Action Network International’s communications coordinator Ria Voorhaar on +49 (0) 157 317 35568 or rvoorhaar@climatenetwork.org. 
 
Climate Action Network (CAN) is a global network of over 800 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels
Tags: 
ADP2
Topics: 
Equity/effort-sharing
Mitigation
Review
Organization: 
AWG-ADP
Related Event: 
ADP Second Session 2013

NGO experts comment on close of the first climate talks of the year

Submitted by rvoorhaar on

130503_media_advisory_adp2_pc.pdf

 

Bonn, Germany - May 3, 2013:  NGO experts from the world’s largest network of NGOs working on climate change will brief the media on today at 14.30 on the outcomes of the year’s first session of the United Nations climate negotiations. 

Commenting on key developments of the week will be including growing coalescence around how countries' differing responsibilities and capacities to deal with climate change can and should be measured and the missing urgency around efforts to reduce emissions reductions before 2020:

  • Mohamed Adow from Christian Aid
  • Jan Kowalzig from Oxfam Germany
  • Julie-Anne Richards from Climate Action Network International 
  • What: NGO experts comment on the outcome of the first climate negotiations of the year
  • Where: United Nations Campus, Langer Eugen (Room 2105) Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10, 53113 Bonn, Germany.

 Contact:

For more information or for one-on-one interviews with the NGO experts, please contact Climate Action Network International’s communications coordinator Ria Voorhaar on +49 (0) 157 317 35568 or rvoorhaar@climatenetwork.org. 

Climate Action Network (CAN) is a global network of over 800 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels

Tags: 
Bonn ADP2
Organization: 
AWG-ADP
Related Event: 
ADP Second Session 2013

Time For a Timetable

Submitted by rvoorhaar on

The scope, structure, and design of the 2015 agreement must keep the global temperature increase below 1.5ºC. It must contain national, legally binding targets and actions on mitigation, adaptation and finance to achieve this goal within an overall framework of ambition, accountability and equity. 

There has been a lot of discussion here in Bonn on the process and timetable for developing such an agreement by COP21 in 2015. ECO suggests the following:


 

First, countries should agree at COP19 that mitigation action and finance will be evaluated in light of both the collective level of ambition needed to achieve the temperature limitation goal, and on the basis of a set of equity principles that helps assure the overall fairness of country efforts in relation to each other. 

The Science Review starting at the next Bonn session will help guide the first part of this evaluation. At COP 19 in Warsaw, Parties need to launch a parallel process to develop an equity reference framework. See the box on page 2 for the details. The key is that equity must become an enabler of increased trust and ambition. It is also critical that, when Parties pledge their targets, they should be aware that their pledges will be reviewed both against the science as well as equity criteria.
 
Ban Ki-moon’s Leaders Summit offers a timely opportunity for countries’ mitigation and finance action to be placed on the table in accordance with the requirements of ambition and equity. Submitting actions at this point will allow adequate time for a full review and subsequent submission of revised proposals before COP21 in Paris. Such a full review should evaluate the collective adequacy of these proposals in satisfying the agreed global temperature goal. Each individual proposal should also be evaluated in terms of its adequacy with regard to ambition and equity.
 
Turning to the other ADP Workstream, ECO fears that short-term ambition is in danger of becoming the poor cousin of the 2015 agreement – when in fact it is an essential precursor. Sufficient political will to reach a 2015 agreement cannot be built without clear evidence that countries have made progress on the short-term ambition front. If it’s apparent that developed countries are not meeting their obligations to increase their ambition, then there won’t be appetite amongst their developing country partners for a 2015 agreement with an updated interpretation of equity.
  
So what needs to happen in Workstream two?  First and foremost, developed countries must increase their current, weak targets.  Despite a constant flow of new evidence of increasing climate change impacts on vulnerable countries and people, not a single developed country has shown any intention to actually increase its target. The KP review process in 2014 is the opportunity to change that, as long as a parallel process for non-KP developed Parties is established, and ministers bring ample quantities of political will with them to the negotiating table.
  
Some developing countries can increase their ambition too.  The wealthy countries of the Persian Gulf, and other advanced developing countries that currently have no pledges, should be prepared to announce them in Warsaw.
  
We also suggest that Parties engage in discussion about how to create an upward spiral of increasing ambition in developing countries, facilitated by increasing means of implementation. Parties could explore practical ideas about how this could work, e.g. through a dedicated workshop and submissions by Parties. Perhaps the registry could play a role in this process.
 
Finally, ECO welcomes the proposal tabled yesterday by AOSIS calling for an accelerated ADP process to provide incentives for, and address barriers and disincentives to, more rapid deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technology. This should culminate in a ministerial roundtable and COP decision in Warsaw.
  
So there you have it – a road map to success in both Workstreams, at no charge from your friends at ECO. But let’s be clear about what’s really needed. The main barrier to adequately addressing the climate crisis isn’t lack of knowledge about the problem, nor is it the lack of cost-effective solutions. It’s the lack of political will to confront the special interests that have worked long and hard to block the path to a sustainable, low-carbon future. In this regard, the sustained engagement of national leaders in providing strong political guidance is critical to achieving a successful outcome in Paris. And as we all learned in Copenhagen, this engagement cannot wait until the final moments of these negotiations.
 
 
Tags: 
ADP 2
Topics: 
Adaptation
Equity/effort-sharing
Finance
Mitigation
Related Event: 
ADP Second Session 2013
Related Newsletter : 
ECO 5, ADP 2, Bonn 2013

Pages

Subscribe to Tag: AWG-ADP