Publications

Related Event:

LTF_Work_Programme_Intervention_-_May_17.pdf

Related Member Organization:

Clean Energy Nepal (CEN)

CAN Intervention - Long Term Finance Consultations - May 17, 2012

Submitted by MBrockley on May 17, 2012 - 11:01am

Distinguished delegates,

My name is Mahlet Eyassu, Forum for Environment, Ethiopia and I will speak on behalf of the Climate Action Network.At a time when the impacts of climate change are increasingly severe, progress on long-term finance must be more ambitious and cannot be delayed any longer.Since the commitment to mobilize $100 billion in climate finance by 2020 was made in 2009 we’ve seen little progress towards it. Even more worrying is the fact that there is currently no certainty on how much climate finance will be delivered after the Fast Start Finance period ends this year.

The long-term finance work programme provides a critical opportunity for focused and constructive engagement on mobilizing and scaling up climate finance that must not be wasted. It is vital the Work Programme contributes to decisions at COP 18 that:

1. Identify and advance promising sources of finance, especially public sources, such as providing guidance to the IMO and ICAO on generating financing from measures to address emissions from international shipping and aviation; as well as public finance liberated in developed countries through the elimination of their fossil fuel subsidies.

2. Provide a roadmap for agreeing to specific pathways for mobilising $100 billion by 2020 - including maximization of public sources, an appropriate role for the private sector and trajectory for scaling up.

3. Establish a shared understanding of developing country financing needs – based on a review of recent literature on mitigation and adaptation financing requirements; and

4. Explicitly commit to providing scaled up financing from 2013 onwards, including for the capitalization of the Green Climate Fund.

In addition to constructive engagement on these areas through the work programme, parties must also be afforded sufficient contact group time in Bonn, Bangkok and Doha to negotiate vital decisions for agreement at COP 18. In this respect it is imperative the Work Programme is seen as a compliment to, rather than a substitute for, the formal negotiations.

Tags:

Topics:

Organization:

Related Event:

Forum for Environment - Ethiopia (FfE)

Related Member Organization:

CAN Intervention - AWG-ADP Opening Plenary - May 17, 2012

Submitted by MBrockley on May 17, 2012 - 10:57am

ADP_intervention_-_May_17.pdf

My name is Nina Jamal and I will speak on behalf of the Climate Action Network

Acknowledging the establishment of the Durban platform in COP 17; there is a need to increase ambition immediately AND as part of the comprehensive global climate change agreement to be adopted no later than 2015. Parties must make progress in Bonn on BOTH in order to ensure that warming stays below 1.5 degrees Celsius and prevent catastrophic climate change. There are many avenues through which to increase ambition: increasing pledges to the upper range and beyond, new pledges from countries that have NOT yet submitted any, closing loopholes, phasing out fossil fuels subsidies and adopting renewable energy targets. We could go on! and we hope you do on Monday – but the most important thing is to act and act now.

The Durban Platform must mobilize FINANCE for developing country adaptation and mitigation actions, through an equitable global effort-sharing arrangement, both now and for the longterm. In order to mobilize the needed finance, additional government budget allocations, new sources linked to carbon pricing mechanisms (such as bunkers), and innovative sources of public finance are required. For example, PHASING out fossil fuel subsidies as soon as possible and the FTT, represent an important potential sources of billions in climate finance from DEVELOPED countries and therefore SHOULD be included in these discussions.

The ADP should ensure effective delivery of the $100 billion annual commitment by developed countries, in a manner that enables sufficiently ambitious adaptation and mitigation actions. We all know that $100 billion is not enough and the ADP will need to consider and build upon the work of the LCA work programme on long-term finance to further scale up resources.

Beyond 2020, a work plan on equity within the ADP should review contributions to international climate in the context of equity principles, including CBDRRC, and recognising the changing global distribution of capacities and responsibilities. Importantly the ADP must agree a workplan with clear milestones for agreements in 2012, 2013 and 2014 building a path to success by 2015.

Tags:

Durban Platform workplan

Topics:

Equity/effort-sharing

Rio-Process/Post-2015

Shared Vision

Technology

Organization:

AWG-ADP

Related Event:

CAN_KP_Opening_intervention_May15-2012.pdf

CAN Intervention - AWG-KP Opening Plenary - May 15, 2012

Submitted by MBrockley on May 15, 2012 - 6:08am

Thank you Chair

I am speaking on behalf of the Climate Action Network. The lack of ambition and leadership shown by most developed countries is putting humanity and the natural systems on which we rely at risk.

The IEA recently found that projections for energy use and emissions could be putting us on course for a 6C temperature increase, which would have a high probability of activating a number of potential global-scale tipping points.

Keeping global temperature increase to below 2°C, much less 1.5ºC, requires emissions to peak by 2015 while science tells us that developed countries must reduce emissions by more than 40% by 2020. Low pledges from developed countries are further weakened through loopholes, attempts to shift the ambition discussion to post-2020, andby Parties walking away from the Kyoto Protocol. We are utterly dismayed and disappointed with the decision by the Canadian government to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Repealing all environmental legislation on the statute books will not make climate change go away. We urge Australia and NZ to fulfill their commitments and not follow in Canada's dirty footsteps.The legal and governance structure of the Kyoto Protocol is crucial to ensuring that mitigation commitments are legally binding and have environmental integrity.

We call on Parties:

 To immediately raise ambition at least to the top ends of the pledges.

 To agree on an adjustment procedure to enable developed countries to increase their 2020 pledges at any time until 2020 without requiring ratification by all Parties.

 To translate pledges into QELROs with the highest possible environmental integrity without de facto weakening of the pledges.

 To eliminate loopholes that threaten the environmental integrity and viability of a second Kyoto commitment period. These include surplus AAUs, weak rules for CDM and JI offsets and LULUCF, and possible double-counting of financial flows related to offsets as climate finance.

Thank you Chair

Tags:

Topics:

Region:

Organization:

Kyoto

Related Event:

SBSTA_agriculture_intervention_final.pdf

Related Member Organization:

Oxfam Australia

CAN Intervention - SBSTA Opening Plenary - May 14, 2012

Submitted by MBrockley on May 14, 2012 - 12:41pm

Mr. Chair, Distinguished Delegates,

I speak on behalf of Climate Action Network, a global civil society network of over 700 NGOs. There are two issues I want to speak about and the first is very short, as CAN has pointed out in the past, the status of fossil fuel subsidies should be reported as part of a country’s national communication in order to provide improved transparency on this issue.

Second CAN appreciates SBSTA's efforts to discuss agriculture. Clearly food production in many countries is threatened. Every human being depends on agriculture for his/her very sustenance; most of the rural poor in developing countries depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Climate change puts all this at risk.

Agricultural sustainability and enhanced food security, now and in the future, are of critical importance while agricultural activities contribute a significant percentage of greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing these emissions will be critical if we are to achieve the UNFCCC goal of limiting the average global temperature to 1.5 or even 2°C.

Under the Convention, Parties have agreed to prevent dangerous climate change: so as to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.

We recommend that developed countries must progress toward full and comprehensive accounting of the emissions associated with agricultural activities, including bioenergy production and use. For developing country agriculture the priority should be adaptation rather than mitigation. Parties must provide resources for transforming current unsustainable agricultural methods by promoting the development, demonstration, testing and implementation of biodiverse and resilient agriculture together with appropriate technology development and transfer.

Climate-related policies must include safeguards which protect and promote biodiversity, equitable access to resources, food security, the right to food and the rights of indigenous peoples and local populations, while promoting poverty reduction and climate adaptation.

Such policies should take into account recommendations from relevant international institutions.

If we fail in our efforts to progressively enable farmers to deal with climate change impacts we will see the complete destruction of rural livelihoods and food security in developing countries.

Thank you.

Tags:

Topics:

Organization:

Related Event:

CAN_Equity_Briefing_May2012.pdf

CAN Briefing: Equity

Submitted by MBrockley on May 11, 2012 - 1:29pm

If we are to close the ambition gap, we must also close the equity gap. We’ve known this for years, and the Durban Platform gives us an opportunity to act on this knowledge. The challenge now is to very rapidly build both momentum and trust. They can only be built together. [more]

Tags:

briefing

effort sharing

equity

Topics:

Equity/effort-sharing

Organization:

Related Event:

CANLTF-Workprogramme-May2012.pdf

UNFCCC Long Term Finance Work Programme: CAN Position on Scope of the Work Programme

Submitted by MBrockley on May 11, 2012 - 11:56am

CAN's submission for how to proceed with the Long Term Finance (LTF) work programme agreed in Durban.

Tags:

Topics:

Organization:

Related Event:

CSO_engagement_on_GCF_Submission.pdf

Civil Society Organizations Submission: Observer participation in the proceedings of the Board of the Green Climate Fund

Submitted by MBrockley on April 16, 2012 - 9:19pm

Preliminary responses for initial consultation

Our initial response to the questionnaire from the interim secretariat is based on the understanding that arrangements will be made by the GCF Board, including developing and operating accreditation processes in accordance with paragraph 16, section 7, "Observers", Chapter C "Rules of Procedure of the Board", of the GCF Governing Instrument.

We believe that the GCF will benefit from civil society participation/input in a number of ways including increasing transparency, effectiveness and credibility. Thus we invite the Board of the GCF, at its first meeting, to view these recommendations as the initial step in an inclusive, in-depth process for broad consultation and engagement on observer issues and we look forward to further opportunities in the near future to share additional and further developed views with the Board on these important issues.

Active observers according to the GCF Governing Instrument

· Active CSO board observers (1 North, 1 South)

· Active private sector board observers (1 North, 1 South)

Proposed structures for observers

· Alternate CSO board observers (1 North, 1 South)

· Alternate private sector board observers (1 North, 1 South)

· Advisory Committee (helps vet selections for CSO and private sector seats, and helps advise observers once they are nominated, including preparing pre-board meeting materials and consultations; 1 North, 1 South from each of the UNFCCC 9 constituencies = 18 people total)

· Third party facilitator for selection process

· Civil society liaison staff person in the GCF interim secretariat (supports observers)

Tags:

Civil society participation

Topics:

Organization:

CAN-United States (USCAN)

Related Member Organization:

Sierra Club

Oxfam International

Women Develop Eco-Techniques (LIFE eV)

Friends of the Earth (FoE) - US

Women in Europe for a Common Future

CAN Submission - Joint Implementation Projects, April 2012

Submitted by Anonymous on April 16, 2012 - 9:03pm

CAN_submission_on_JI_19April2012.pdf

According to Decision 11/CMP.7 paragraph 14 admitted UNFCCC observer organizations are invited to submit views, on the revision of the joint implementation guidelines, taking into account, as appropriate, their experience of implementing the mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol. The above mentioned NGOs welcome the opportunity to submit their views.

First we must put the future of the Joint Implementation mechanism (JI) in context. The window of opportunity to prevent catastrophic climate change is rapidly closing. Several studies show that current pledges are not only woefully insufficient to keep warming below 2^oC; loopholes, such as the surplus allowances (AAUs) from the first Kyoto commitment period (commonly referred to as ‘hot air’) could negate all current pledges and enable developed countries to meet mitigation targets while continuing with business-as-usual. We are now on an emissions path that could lead to warming of 4^oC or more. In addition, impacts associated with 2^oC have been revised upwards and are now considered ‘dangerous’ and ‘extremely dangerous’. ...

Maintaining a reasonable likelihood of limiting temperature increases to within 2°C will require commitments in the next few years to considerably higher levels of ambition by all nations.

Tags:

Topics:

Organization:

Kyoto