Publications

Closing COP/CMP Intervention by CAN

-Delivered by Simon Tapp from New Zealand

Thank you Chair,

Honorable Ministers, Distinguished Delegates,

My name is Simon Tapp from the Climate Action Network.

We would like to express our sympathy for those vulnerable countries affected most by climate change, including those currently experiencing the effects and aftermath of Typhoon Bopha.

We have had enough.

In Doha, we have seen no mitigation ambition nor money on the table to help the poorest countries deal with climate change. We have seen no detailed workplan on equity.

We will not achieve what is desperately needed unless Parties find political will. In particular, countries including the US and friends, along with Poland and Russia, who continually block the process, need to start leading to end this global crisis.

Your behavior and attitude must change if we are to secure a fair, ambitious and binding deal by 2015. Hard work by governments for the people not the polluters is urgently needed.

Thank you.

CAN Intervention in the High Level Event, 7 December 

Delivered by Lama El Hatow from IndyAct

Your Excellencies, Honorable Ministers.

My name is Lama El Hatow, from Egypt, speaking on behalf of the Climate Action Network.

The world faces deeply distressing prospects as this COP ends. Recent catastrophes including in the Philippines have caused huge damage and loss of life. We cannot afford to wait. Climate change affects all countries, in  particular, those islands risking disappearance under rising sea levels.  As COP18 nears its close, we can seize this opportunity now in these final hours to take real, substantive action.

The KP is at risk of being taken forward with little environmental integrity or ambition, we commend those striving to avoid this.

On Loss and Damage, states must agree here to establish the international mechanism. Post-Doha we must continue working on this.

We salute developing countries that have increased or pledged  mitigation ambitions here in Doha. Developed countries must be inspired to follow suit. While commending those announcing financial commitments, we caution that they are insufficient. Without trust and security, the COP process becomes obsolete.

We would like to enforce an ambition for regional pledges by the GCC because they have the capacity to do so.

Honorable Ministers, please do not fail us now. Our future, much more so that of the world's youth, depends on today's outcomes.May this COP - held in my Arab region - demonstrate true determination by all countries to effectively meet the threatening challenge of climate change.

Thank you. 

Intervention in ADP Special Event on ADP Workstream 2, 2 December 2012

Delivered by Jan Kowalzig

Thank you chair. 
 
Workstream 2 should build on three broad pillars.
 
The first and most important pillar would address the inadequate level of ambition especially by developed countries that are undermining the survival of entire nations. Removing conditions around pledges or ranges is needed, but going beyond current pledges will be unavoidable to move developed countries into the 25-40% range and beyond. 2013 should see submissions form Parties an Observers and technical papers on existing potentials to increase pledges. This can prepare, but not replace, a high level ministerial process that must begin here in Doha at next week’s ministerial roundtable and should also include a ministerial level discussion in Bonn in 2013 and a leaders’ summit no later than 2014.
 
Another pillar, as suggested by Parties, should look at complementary activities outside the UNFCCC context, for instance action on HFCs (via the Montreal Protocol), or international bunker fuels and notably action to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.
 
Concretely: Where a “home” for those options exists, such as the IMO, ICAO or the Montreal Protocol, there is no need to wait. Doha should request those bodies to urgently take up work.
 
2013 should see submissions from Parties and Observes on further complementary activities. Focus should be on those that are additional to existing pledges and not the vehicles to implement them, as in such a case the ambition gap doesn’t get any smaller. A technical paper on complimentary activities should analyse the overlap with, or additionality to, existing pledges.
 
Yet another pillar of the workstream 2 should look at what is needed to enable developing countries to submit pledges and NAMAs if they haven’t done so yet, especially for countries with economic capacity comparable to some (less wealthy) developed countries and growing responsibility. We see next week’s ministerial roundtable as a great opportunity for such new pledges or NAMAs. Beyond Doha, this second pillar will also require a process to identify the needs for means of implementation to prepare, and later implement, pledges or NAMAs.
 
On all three pillars, Doha should agree a clear timeline of work. Technical input should be sought, including the UNEP emissions gap report and its updates, as well as submissions by Parties and Observers.