This report explains who participated in the CAN Pre-COP workshop in Ethiopia in October 2011. The discussions that took place are highlighted and regional follow-up work to these discussions is currently underway.
CAN Pre-COP 17 Workshop
19-21 October 2011
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, East Africa
The main objectives of the program:
1. Provide space for southern CAN members and other stakeholders to work on a common and unified southern voice for greater influence at Seventeenth Conference of Parties in Durban.
2. Strengthen the South–South dialogue and discussion in order to support the CAN-International policies to have impact in the climate negotiations through broader understanding and knowledge base.
3. Strengthen and reinforce the connection between the southern civil society members to continue dialogue and strategize for future advocacy and actions in their respective country and regions.
4. Have dialogue and interaction with African governments and/or the African Union.
THE POST-COPENHAGEN ROAD
A fair, ambitious and binding deal is needed more urgently than ever. Climate science is more compelling by the day. Impacts are coming harder and faster. Disastrous flooding in Pakistan, heat waves and forest fires in Russia and hottest recorded temperatures around the globe, amongst other devastating climate-related events, all point to the need for urgent action. Levels of warming once thought to be safe, may well not be, 1.5˚C is the new 2˚C.
Negotiations Post-Copenhagen
Copenhagen was a watershed moment for public interest and support for climate action – and people have not lost interest. More people in more countries than ever have put their governments on notice that they expect a fair,
ambitious and binding global deal to be agreed urgently. Trust-building is essential after the disappointment of Copenhagen. Developed country leadership must be at the core of trust building efforts. Countries must show
their commitment to the UNFCCC process by driving it forward with political will and flexible positions, rather than endless rounds of repetitive negotiations. Many countries are troublingly pessimistic for Cancun, and are working to lower expectations. While others, including countries most vulnerable to climate change, maintain high expectations.
Challenges ahead of Cancun
There are many challenges to getting a full fair, ambitious and binding deal at Cancun, including:
Positive moves afoot
However, more and more countries, both developing and developed, are stepping up their efforts to pursue low-carbon development and adaptation, despite the absence of an international agreement. This can be seen in a variety of ways:
So, what does a pathway forward look like?
Firstly we must learn the lessons of Copenhagen. The “nothing’s agreed until everything’s agreed” dynamic from Copenhagen could mean that nothing would be agreed in Cancun. An agreement in Cancun should instead be a balanced and significant step toward reaching a full fair, ambitious & binding deal at COP 17 in South Africa. This will require parties to work together in good faith to create sufficient gains at Cancun, and a clear roadmap to South Africa. This paper outlines how that could be achieved.
La COP 16 en Cancún debe ser un paso significativo hacia un acuerdo justo, ambicioso y vinculante a ser alcanzado en la COP 17 en Sudáfrica. La COP 16 debe adoptar progresos en importantes áreas de política, establecer una visión clara para Sudáfrica y acordar un proceso para alcanzar un acuerdo justo, ambicioso y vinculante, incluyendo los puntos fundamentales señalados en los Los cimientos de Cancún
Cancun Building Blocks: Essential steps on the road to a fair, ambitious & binding deal outlines the balanced package of outcomes from Cancun, and the benchmark by which CAN’s 500 member organisations, and their millions of supporters, will judge the Cancun negotiations.
These building blocks were chosen not only because they provide a pathway for preventing catastrophic climate change but also because they pave a road which can be travelled, even taking into account political constraints.
Success in Cancun will require meaningful progress in each area, agreement to work toward a legally binding deal in both tracks, including an indication that the Kyoto Protocol will continue, work plans agreed on each key area, and a long term vision for future negotiations.
Cancun Building Blocks include:
In the international climate negotiations leading up to a Copenhagen agreement, different topics are often discussed separately and with specialized experts. This implies that synergies between concepts are sometimes not identified. two issues that receive particular attention in the negotiations are “reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation” in developing countries (reDD) and “sectoral approaches”. With this report, we want to close the gap between reDD and sectoral approaches, explore synergies where they exist and discuss how they can be used. We identify ways in which positive aspects and advances on particular issues in the separate tracks can support the broader discussion on the Copenhagen “package” in general. We provide recommendations on how to find pragmatic, realistic ways to use these synergies to advance the international climate negotiations up to and after Copenhagen
The Leadership Development Program (LDP) is one of CAN’s cornerstone programs that aims to strengthen its national and regional nodes and build professional leadership within the network....
