Publications

Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Alix Mazounie and I’m speaking on behalf of Climate Action Network.

The importance of finance to both raising pre-2020 mitigation ambition and getting a successful deal in 2015 cannot be overstated.

But climate finance is currently in no man's land. After the end of the Fast Start Finance period last year, 2013 should mark the start of a new finance period.

Instead, we are almost half way through the year and we've seen no new commitments on finance beyond the small handful of pledges made in Doha.

 As CAN we think no developed country should be coming back to this process empty handed.

The various streams of work on finance this year, in particular the Long Term Finance work Programme and the Ministerial on finance at COP 19 (which crucially must involve finance ministers or ministers with mandate on finance), need to secure concrete decision options for consideration and agreement at COP 19:

(1) We need ALL developed countries to set out what climate finance they will provide over 2013-2015, and commit to a roadmap for scaling-up global public climate finance and reaching $100bn per year by 2020.

(2) We need agreement that a minimum of 50% of all public climate finance between now and 2020 will be spent on adaptation. Better than that, we need developed countries to make a collective pledge to save the Adaptation Fund and keep implementing ambitious projects on the ground.

(3) We need confidence that the Green Climate Fund is operational and ready to receive substantial pledges in 2014. A first round of pledges in Warsaw will send a strong political signal that the Green Climate Fund must not be left an empty shell for a fourth COP in a row.

With the LCA finance negotiations behind us, and ADP negotiations on pre-2020 ambition focused on mitigation, this year’s LTF WP is the main space for making progress on finance.

We need all countries to understand that forward steps on climate finance pre-2020 are key to ADP outcomes in both work-streams.

A new agreement applicable to all seems unlikely to emerge if developing countries have not seen existing promises of financial support being met.

So - in response to your question on our role in this process - we believe we would be fruitfully contributing to the ADP process if developed country parties agreed to our longstanding asks to scale up public finance. 

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak.

My name is Wael Hmaidan, the director of Climate Action Network International. 

Poland will assume the COP presidency in the year that the planet passes 400 ppm of CO2 concentrations, and two years before the world must reach a new global agreement that ensures a safe planet [where we can live long and prosper and the next generations can have peace and long life].

From Warsaw we need a decision on a robust process whereby parties put forward their emissions reduction targets in mid-2014. These national target setting processes will require clear guidance on the nature and scope of the expected targets, and be informed by equity and science-based criteria.

These will help ensure that national and aggregate targets are quantified, transparent, comparable and adequate, and put us on a path to staying well below 2 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels.

After targets are put forward, the next stage must be a rigorous review process driven by both science and equity considerations, aimed at generating the level of global mitigation ambition required by science.

The new global agreement that will come into force in 2020 can only protect us from a climate disaster if we make ambitious new efforts to close the mitigation gap in the pre-2020 period.

These new effort must be agreed by the end of 2014, largely under the Polish presidency, clearing the way to focus on the post-2020 agreement in 2015. Raising global mitigation ambition will require a clear and ambitious road map for scaling up finance and other support for action in developing countries.

By assuming the COP Presidency at this crucial moment, you have an enormous responsibility to use this position to use all your resources to ensure the highest level of ambition and progress towards a strong 2015 deal. You will be judged by the global community on the extent to which you live up to this responsibility.

Thank you Co-Chairs,

My name is Kaisa Kosonen, and I’m speaking here on behalf of CAN.

I want to thank the co-chairs and the secretariat for recognizing the importance of bringing civil society voices into this review – including through twitter! We expect the spirit and format of transparency and participation to continue throughout the review.

There are three other key points we want to make at this stage.

Firstly, CAN expects the review to assess the scale and nature of irreversible damage, human misery, ecosystem losses and risks related to tipping points, that could be avoided if warming was limited to 1.5 degrees instead of 2 degrees. The process and inputs must serve this key question, with special focus on the most vulnerable.

Secondly, the main task of the review is to help bring us on track in preventing climate chaos. This is not just another technical exercise. This is our opportunity to finally get it right, and to learn from past mistakes in target setting and delivering on commitments.

The long-term goal, targets and commitments in the 2015 agreement must be based on the review findings. But the review must also guide enhanced short-term action, with decisions taken already in 2013 and 2014. An iterative nature of the review and the workplans of both the Joint Contact Group and Expert Dialogue should allow for this.

Finally, in terms of the input this review should include, CAN likes to remind Parties, that in reviewing how governments are doing in meeting their goals, NGOs are the experts. In doing value judgment of adequacy, civil society engagement is fundamental. Therefore, we look forward to bringing our expertise from around the world to this process.

Thank you!

Photo Credit: Naoyuki Yamagishi 

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak.  My name is Simon Bradshaw, and I’m speaking on behalf of Climate Action Network. I would like to talk about new market mechanisms.

Here in Bonn, Parties will discuss rules for a new market mechanism and a Framework for Various Approaches.  Both require international oversight to ensure environmental integrity and sound accounting of credits.

The experience with Joint Implementation has shown what happens if countries can unilaterally register projects and issue credits with limited oversight or transparency. We recommend that a UN body is appointed as a standards-setting organization that also approves unit issuance.

Double counting is a serious issue with the proliferation of programs and credits.Credits need to be fully accounted through a rigorous, robust and transparent common accounting framework. Clear rules should ensure that units are only counted by the buyer and not by the seller Clear and specific rules regarding the complementary relationship between CDM, new market mechanisms and other regional trading mechanisms need to be established.

Last but not least, countries should clarify that such new mechanisms should secure net atmospheric benefits.

Thank you.