|
Charles Agboklu, Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana - coordinates the Carbon Covenant project in Ghana and also serves as Coordinator for the Religious Bodies Network on Climate Change. Charles is in Durban, South Africa for the COP 17 Meetings - The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He has shared with us some of his observations and lots of information about the meetings.
Highlights from Charles’ Durban reports 2ND – 4TH DECEMBER, 2011 Meetings of the Parties COP 17 has become a hive of so many intense activities, all going on at the same time at different places, attended by different interest groups, observers and experts. The issues are complex, time consuming and delicate but all needing attention or resolution before the High Level segment of Ministers’ begins. In fact, so technical are the issues that you can become completely lost in the conversations unless you decide to track one or two of the issues that in your opinion matters to your constituency as a participant or organization. Consultations continued earnestly
till the end of the week. There was accelerated activity on all fronts as the
discussions reached critical stages where there was the need for consensus and
convergence on all the major issues before the arrival of the Ministers, Heads of State and Governments
of all the Parties to the UNFCCC. The Heads of State and Governments would
need to deliberate extensively and examine the work of the various Committees, Major Groups and Subsidiary
Bodies of the UNFCCC to enable them take the final decisions. Bombshell During the week, news emerged that Canada was considering a total withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol. This news reverberated throughout the conference and the African Group including Civil Society, Group of 77 + China, Least Developed Countries [LDCS] became alarmed and incensed. The fact that Canada would not commit to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol was already known before COP 17, but the follow up action of the threat of withdrawing entirely from the KP was just too much for the developing countries including the Least Developing Countries to take. They questioned the rationale of Canada’s action and wondered what the Canada – Africa Friendship Forum and other bilateral connections with Canada meant. So much was the talk and the heat generated that Canada had to make a statement denouncing the veracity of the statement in order to assuage the fears of all. The most contentious issue of the Conference is the ‘’Renewal of a Second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol ‘’ which to date remained the only legally binding agreement that demands specific emission reduction targets from the polluting countries. The resolution of this burning issue has not been ‘’felt or
heard’’ at COP 17. What is however, dominant is the threat of repudiating this treaty coming from the
polluting countries, or the setting up of a New Protocol that would allow voluntary pledges or an Enhanced Protocol that must include
China and India particularly. These are rather the responses emanating from the
United States of America and European Union, aside the stand taken by Russia,
Australia, Canada that they would not be parties to any second commitment
period under the Kyoto Protocol. SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSIONS OF REDD+ (United Nations Collaborative Programme
on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) The American Centre held a session on the Social and Environmental Dimensions of REDD+. They indicated the effort they had put into developing training manuals for the USAID to assist staff working in different countries to address these problems. They gave three indicators of the Social Dimensions of REDD as: 1. Social soundness processes that must include gender and women empowerment issues. 2. Social dimensions that contribute to the effective and efficiency of REDD Objectives and its Enhancement. 3. Equity and other goals that promote activities that enhance sustainable livelihoods. Other areas of attention should include the issues of safeguards and standards and the tackling of community information and awareness issues. REDD+ programmes must also be linked with the social equity objectives of Human and Tenure rights while building on social and cultural diversities. GENDER AND REDD Issues to be
tackled include: 1. Exclusion of women and equitable benefits 2. Participation of women in all decision making processes. 3. Lack of cohesion among gender activities. 4. Gender not being paid any serious attention. The presentation concluded that harmonization is an effective part in all REDD+ processes. INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND REDD Indigenous people in fringe forest communities need to access financing to undertake their activities as a way of getting them to support forest projects. Introducing and building of livelihoods is very important and involving them also in trans-boundary and country projects is very key. Indigenous people have a lot of traditional knowledge and expertise which should be appreciated and used. ECUMENICAL ADVOCACY ALLIANCE AND A.C.T. OF THE WORLD COUNCIL OF
CHURCHES Food Security and Climate Change in Africa. The presentation paints the sordid picture of crop failures and hunger raging in the Horn of Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia. Whereas Ethiopia lost 6 % of total cattle population to drought, Kenya experienced total crop failures that also severely affected pastoralists. The price of maize as a staple increased by 106% in Ethiopia, while that of Somalia increased by 393%. Adaptation to the new realities is therefore very critical to such vulnerable people. The development of climate friendly agriculture as a mitigation factor and placing the right to food as top priority in all engagements will pay very useful dividends. The concern however, at COP17 according to the EAA appears to be the lack of focus on adaptation measures in agriculture, since most of the agricultural issues are being negotiated under mitigation. As a result the voice, interest and needs of the small- holder farmer is not been being strongly heard. Carbon Markets The EAA opined that the small – holder farmer does not stand to gain in the carbon market as some would like us to believe. Rather small holder farmers turn to lose if they followed the bait of the international corporates to hem them into any carbon market trading. They believed that the issue of carbon markets will rather lead to land grabbing in Africa by the industrialized countries and African farmers face the risk of losing out if business failed. The presentation concluded that food security cannot be attained in the midst of climate change effects unless we practice and promote soil conservation, sustainable agricultural practices that also include conservation agriculture.
1st December,
2011 The day started as usual with the meeting of negotiators and civil society activity was also very brisk with activists moving up and down seeking information on positions taken at various high level meetings to feed into their meetings or quickly draft and circulate text to counter any issue found to be inimical to the interest of the Developing and Least Developing States. KYOTO PROTOCOL Unconfirmed reports say that South Africa is lobbying other African nations to back a European Union proposal of suspending calls for the negotiation of a 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol [KP] until 2015 -20 in exchange for climate funds. Africa and friendly CSO’s from the North are keeping an eagle’s eye on the developments. UN – REDD PROGRAMME
IN AFRICA (United Nations Collaborative Programme
on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing
Countries. The UN REDD PROGRAMME held a side event for participants on the UN REDD Programme being implemented in Africa. The presentation took the form of dissemination of research work done on REDD issues across continents and how the programmes are running. The studies also documented challenges and the lessons learned and suggested that Capacity Building should be at the heart of any REDD+ readiness programme. Paraguay made a presentation of their national REDD+ Plan being funded by the UNDP. The representative indicated that as part of the implementation process they had developed a National Environmental Policy and a National Policy on Climate Change. The UN – REDD+ Programme is currently supporting about 10 African countries including Ghana in the development of implementation and /or country plans.
|
Updates from Durban