The United Nations (UN) has published a new report that draws attention to concrete examples of successful climate policy implementation around the world and how these can be replicated and scaled up between now and 2020.
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC
The “Summary for Policymakers”, published ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn (COP 23, 6 – 17 November) showcases good practices that integrate actions to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the inevitable impact of climate change.
The report also demonstrates that achieving the climate action goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN’s sustainable development goals is a process that is deeply connected.
“The Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals together represent nothing less than a global strategy to prevent our planet’s temperature from reaching disastrous levels and to foster and support resilient and sustainable, low-emissions development for everyone.
To this end, policies need to be set in place now, technologies developed, matured, commercialised and deployed at scale, and practices and behaviors of economic actors need to move ever faster towards low-emission and sustainable business and investment,” says the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa, in a forward to the summary.
The document was prepared based on recommendations from the Technical Expert Meetings on climate change mitigation and adaptation held in May 2017 in Bonn, Germany, and is part of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action that is working to support Nationally Determined Contributions – National Climate Action Plans – under the Paris Climate Change Agreement and to spur new climate actions between now and 2020.
Hakima El Haite, High-level Champion of Morocco and Minister Delegate to the Minister of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment, and Inia Seruiratu, High-level Champion of Fiji and Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management and Meteorological Services write at the beginning of the report:
“Through his summary we intend that Parties are provided with the relevant information to fully engage with non-Party stakeholders, and be empowered to scale up and replicate the good-practice policies, actions and initiatives that best fit their national circumstances with a view to enhancing their pre-2020 action.
“This should pave the way for limiting warming to well below 2 degrees Centigrade and to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade. Importantly, it should also help to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities and ecosystems, and lay a strong foundation for more ambitious post-2020 action.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it will immunise 300,000 people against cholera in Borno.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Photo credit: AFP / FABRICE COFFRINI / Getty Images
This is contained in the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), Humanitarian Situation Report for the Month of September.
It said that the organisation in collaboration with other health development partners would also conduct another round of Oral Cholera Vaccination (ORV) exercise in the state.
The report indicate that the immunisation exercise would be conducted at Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps and host communities of Damasak, Banki, Bama, Gamburu, Ngala and Pulka.
“For the first time in Nigeria an Oral Cholera Vaccines (OCV) was carried out between Sept. 18 and 22 to protect communities and prevent further spread of the disease. The first round campaign reached close to 850,000 people through combination of fixed and mobile strategies.
“The request for the additional vaccines is to be submitted to the International Coordination Group on Vaccines Provision pending the clearance and approval of the state and health authorities”.
The UN-OCHA report shows that 4,360 suspected or confirmed cholera cases and 60 related deaths were recorded in Borno in September.
It notes that humanitarian organisations had scale up activities to contain the outbreak in parts of Maiduguri, Jere, Dikwa, Monguno and Mafa local government areas.
To control the outbreak health, sanitation and hygiene actors established Cholera Treatment Centres (CTC) and Oral Re-hydration Points (ORP) in the affected communities.
Another key intervention to be conducted was the third round Seasonal Malaria Chemo-Prevention campaign.
The exercise was targets children under the age of five in Maiduguri, Konduga, Monguno, Jere and Mafa local government councils.
OCHA also disclosed that the Mobile Hard-To-Reach teams were increased to 35 as against 24, to enhance health care delivery in Yobe.
It noted that the measure was to enhance access to healthcare services in remote and security compromised communities at Gujba, Gulani, Geidam, Yunusari, Tarmuwa, Karasuwa, Bade and Fika local government areas of Yobe State.
The report further showed that 13,000 children had so far benefited from consultations and treatments of minor ailments, 41,752 children de-wormed and 32,930 received Vitamin A supplement, since the deployment of the teams to the state.
While 59,080 children were screened of malnutrition; 41,542 reached with health promotion messages, 626 women received ante-natal care, 82 pre-natal care and 31 family planning consultations.
The UN agency revealed that proactive measures had been evolved to strengthen the Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support (MHPSS) response to provide appropriate referral pathways for individuals, groups or families in need of mental health support in the war ravaged region.
It added that WHO and other health partners are working with Nigerian mental health authorities to enhance clinical management of mental disorder through deployment of specialised mental health workers such as psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, pharmacological, non-pharmacological and psychologists.
According to OCHA, the Boko Haram insurgency caused humanitarian crisis with over 6.9 million people in need of quality healthcare services.
It explained that 5.9 million persons were targeted for support services while five million people reached with emergency health services this year in the Northeast.
A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Connected Development (CODE), has called on Nigerian youth to leverage on climate change to create sustainable job opportunities using emerging technology.
Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive and co-founder of CODE
The CODE Chief Executive Officer, Mr Hamzat Lawal, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, October 28, 2017 in Abuja that climate change was a 21st century problem which could also have its advantages.
Lawal said that the challenges associated with climate change arose because of the way we have been living our lives.
He said that as much as climate change was viewed as a problem, it was also an opportunity for the country to manage its limited and scare resources.
”We can generate electricity from solar energy or sunlight. We can use new and emerging technology to cook and reduce greenhouse gas; this is how it can become an opportunity.
”Climate change has affected our economy negatively; also our forest cover has been depleted over time by people cutting down trees for fire or furniture.
”The Lake Chad region which used to be a business hub for Nigeria and even other African countries, where they have fishermen and women doing businesses, is no longer so.
“This is because we have lost over 70 per cent of the Lake Chad region. You can’t find any economic activity there today, 70 per cent of the water has been lost.
“This means that the young energetic people have now migrated and left the region in search of greener pasture,” he said.
Lawal said that the effect of climate change had caused an increase in migration and this was happening because of the economic decline in the country.
According to him, migration has increased because of the economic crisis in the country, but there is still hope and opportunities abound.
“We are losing talents and young minds that are supposed to help build our growing and thriving economy are leaving the country because of lack of opportunities.
“We are losing resources and this has to do with the fact that environment outside Nigeria is very conducive, but in as much as it is conducive they also have their own challenges.
“Government needs to look at how we can thrive by tapping into new and emerging technologies like the clean cooking stoves that emit lesser greenhouse gas.
“There is even technology where you can cook with sun ray or use lesser firewood to cook or use bio gas,” he said.
Lawal said that over 50 per cent of Nigerians were not connected to the national grid and these were basically in various rural communities.
“If we can invest more in solar technology, build capacity and also reduce taxes to businesses, it will create value and jobs.
“Over time, we will see that this market will thrive and we will be able to service the underserviced rural people that don’t have equal opportunity like people in the urban areas.
“If there is an enabling environment where there is hope of prosperity, people will not want to travel out of the country.
“People will not want to leave their comfort zone to undertake the risk of travelling for days and putting their lives in danger.
“But, because things are not the way they should be, that is why people are willing to take all manner of risks to better their lives; simply because they believe that there is hope and prosperity on the other side,” he said.
The Chief Executive, Stroke Action Foundation, Mrs Rita Melifonwu, said on Saturday, October 28, 2017 that stroke was the leading cause of death and disability globally.
World Stroke Day
Melifonwu told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja, ahead of the World Stroke Day 2017 that was observed on Sunday, Oct. 29.
According to her, the day provides an annual opportunity for stakeholders to coordinate awareness and advocacy campaigns to reduce the burden of stroke at global, regional and local level.
Melifonwu explained that stroke is an attack on the brain that occurs when the flow of blood is interrupted by a blood clot or broken blood vessel.
She said every two seconds, stroke attacks a person in the world regardless of age, gender, education, religion or economic background.
“The ailment is currently an epidemic in Nigeria; this is because presently its prevalence rate in the country is estimated at 205,200 each year,
“The World Stroke records shown that one in six people will suffer a stroke in their lifetime; however, this year, the foundation would be focusing on risk awareness and prevention.
“We are calling on all individuals, families, communities, health professionals and governments to raise awareness of key stroke risks and take action to prevent stroke,’’ Melifonwu said.
She identified the risk factor of stroke as high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, overweight, lack of exercise, poor diet, high cholesterol, excessive alcohol intake and lack of stroke awareness.
Melifonwu told NAN that stroke could be prevented if necessary precautions are taken, adding that most Nigerians are unaware of the cause and symptoms of stroke as well as how to respond when it occurs.
She mentioned that early recognition of signs of stroke, changes in lifestyle, health check, risk factor management and early intervention through stroke awareness, could make a difference and substantially improve outcomes.
Melifonwu, however, urged the Minister of Health and Commissioners for Health in all state ministries to encourage citizens to engage in a “walk and run against stroke”.
The foundation on the World Stroke Day on Oct. 29 to raise awareness on the importance of physical activity in stroke prevention.
A new report by CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, shows that a growing number of companies are stepping up their response to climate change by embedding low-carbon goals into their long-term business plans, with many companies intending to ramp up ambition over the next couple of years.
Chief executive officer of CDP, Paul Simpson
Launched just days ahead of the upcoming climate change conference in Bonn (COP23, 6-17 November), the report puts the spotlight on the role of the private sector in achieving national climate action goals under the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
In a foreword to the study, CDP CEO Paul Simpson says the corporate world is at a tipping point in the low-carbon transition. “The transition to a low-carbon economy will create winners and losers within and across sectors. As new businesses and technologies emerge and scale up, billions of dollars of value are waiting to be unlocked, even as many more are at risk,” he says.
The report finds that the number of companies that have committed to set emissions reduction targets in line with or well below a two-degrees Celsius goal, agreed by nations in Paris in 2015, has increased from 94 to 151 in just one year. An additional 317 companies plan to commit to a science-based target in the next two years.
From the 1,073 companies that responded to the survey, 89% of respondents, up from 86% last year, have set emissions reductions targets in 2017. More than two thirds (68%) of those are setting targets to at least 2020, and 20% are mapping out sustainability actions to 2030 and beyond.
This shows an increase compared to 2016 when 85% of respondents reported setting targets, but only 55% extended these to 2020 or beyond – and even fewer (14%) went to 2030.
However, the report also reveals that the majority of responding companies have yet to commit to emission reduction targets that are stringent enough to fully align with what climate science says is required.
This year’s analysis is based on the climate data disclosed by over 1,000 of the world’s largest, highest-emitting companies that represent 12% of global direct carbon emissions.
CDP selected and reached out to over 1,800 companies for this study, with 1,073 companies responding.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has said that it will help African countries ramp up their economic growth in ways that do not exacerbate climate change. This was expressed as it signed an agreement with the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) on Tuesday, October 24, 2017.
Officials of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) sign the Accreditation Master Agreement (AMA)
The two organisations signed an Accreditation Master Agreement (AMA), a prerequisite for all GCF Accredited Entities to implement GCF-approved projects. AFC was accredited to GCF in July 2015.
AFC intends to leverage its partnership with GCF to further its low carbon emission investments in four key sectors: power, transport, heavy industries and telecommunications.
AFC has already established a track record in financing renewable energy as the lead investor in the first commercial scale public-private partnership wind farm in sub-Saharan Africa. The $90 million, 26MW Cabeolica project provides over 20 percent of Cape Verde’s power needs.
Oliver Andrews, Chief Investment Officer of AFC, said during the AMA signing the consequences of climate change impacts may seriously impact the successful development of Africa’s economy.
“AFC is therefore highly committed to this partnership with GCF,” said Mr Andrews. “Not only does AFC and the GCF have shared goals, we also have shared values.
“For example, AFC is committed to investing in post-conflict countries and those that face structural developmental challenges. Equally, the GCF also prioritises societies that are highly vulnerable, in particular the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). As AFC is also driven by a belief in sustainable economic growth, in every sense this synergy is an excellent recipe for success.”
Pa Ousman Jarju, Director of GCF’s Country Programming Division, said AFC is well placed to support African entrepreneurs explore the vast potential for economic growth across the continent in ways that do not harm the global environment.
“GCF activities are aligned with the priorities of developing countries through the principle of country ownership in climate finance,” he said. “For instance, with the strategic injection of capital, African companies could one day lead the way in generating non-polluting energy for industry and local communities.”
AFC is financing and managing key infrastructure projects across Africa. It has invested approximately $4 billion in projects across 28 countries in a wide range of sectors including power, telecommunications, transport and logistics, natural resources and heavy industries.
Out of the total 20.8 million children worldwide who have missed their first measles vaccine dose, 3.3 million are from Nigeria – the highest globally.
The WHO team carrying out measles vaccination campaign at internally displaced people’s camp in Nigeria
The revelation was made on Thursday, October 26, 2017 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) against the backdrop of the release of a report that stated that, in 2016, an estimated 90,000 people died from measles, a figure that represents an 84% drop from more than 550,000 deaths in 2,000. This is said to be the first time global measles deaths have fallen below 100,000 per year.
The UN body is bothered by the fact that far too many children – 20.8 million – are still missing their first measles vaccine dose, and that more than half of these unvaccinated children live in six countries: Nigeria (3.3 million), India (2.9 million), Pakistan (2.0 million), Indonesia (1.2 million), Ethiopia (0.9 million), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (0.7 million).
“Since measles is a highly contagious viral disease, large outbreaks continue to occur in these and other countries in Europe and North America, putting children at risk of severe health complications such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, encephalitis, blindness, and death,” the WHO disclosed in a statement.
Dr Robert Linkins of the Measles and Rubella Initiative (MR&I) and Branch Chief of Accelerated Disease Control and Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says: “Saving an average of 1.3 million lives per year through measles vaccine is an incredible achievement and makes a world free of measles seem possible, even probable, in our lifetime.”
The M&RI is a partnership formed in 2001 of the American Red Cross, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations Foundation, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and WHO.
Since 2000, an estimated 5.5 billion doses of measles-containing vaccines have been provided to children through routine immunisation services and mass vaccination campaigns, saving an estimated 20.4 million lives.
“We have seen a substantial drop in measles deaths for more than two decades, but now we must strive to reach zero measles cases,” says Dr Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, Director of WHO’s Department of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals. “Measles elimination will only be reached if measles vaccines reach every child, everywhere.”
The world is still far from reaching regional measles elimination goals. Coverage with the first of two required doses of measles vaccine has stalled at approximately 85% since 2009, far short of the 95% coverage needed to stop measles infections, and coverage with the second dose, despite recent increases, was only 64% in 2016.
Agencies noted that progress in reaching measles elimination could be reversed when polio-funded resources supporting routine immunisation services, measles and rubella vaccination campaigns, and surveillance, diminish and disappear following polio eradication. Countries with the greatest number of measles deaths rely most heavily on polio-funded resources and are at highest risk of reversing progress after polio eradication is achieved.
“This remarkable drop in measles deaths is the culmination of years of hard work by health workers, governments, and development agencies to vaccinate millions of children in the world’s poorest countries,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, one of the world’s largest supporters of measles immunisation programmes. “However we cannot afford to be complacent. Too many children are still missing out on lifesaving vaccines. To reach these children and set ourselves on a realistic road to measles elimination we need to dramatically improve routine immunisation backed by strong health systems.”
Members of the Association of National Best Farmers in Ghana have called for intensive education of farmers on agricultural biotechnology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in order to understand what the technology is about.
Members of the Association of National Best Farmers at the biotechnology and biosafety sensitisation workshop organised in Accra, by the Ghana OFAB Chapter
They said that, as farmers, they were not against GMOs, but they needed accurate information to dispel speculations that have portrayed “this science as an evil that must be detested.”
Biotechnology is the scientific process through which scientists change the genes of plants and animals by introducing into them desirable genes from other related species. The produce or products of this process are known as GMOs.
The farmers expressed their sentiments at a recent sensitisation workshop on biotechnology and biosafety in Accra organised by the Ghana Chapter of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) as part of its quarterly activities for the last quarter of the year. The purpose was to enhance their knowledge on biotechnology as one of the options that farmers could apply to address challenges that confront agricultural production and productivity.
The farmers wanted to understand clearly, current notions about biotechnology and GMOs such as discontinuity of seed generation from primary seeds as is the practice with conventional seeds, which is a big issue for Ghanaian farmers, who are mostly small holders.
The Director of the Biotechnology Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute (BNARI) of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), Prof. Kenneth Danso, took them through the process of the development of biotechnology and GMOs. He said the science was evolved out of the need to address problems of pests and diseases that affected cultivation and yields, and which normal conventional methods could not address.
He cited cassava as a staple food crop also considered as a food security product in view of its wide range of uses, whose leaves, stem and roots are affected by diseases that result in low yields and reduce farmer incomes. Prof. Danso observed that often farmers do not pay attention to these diseases because, according to him, they are able to harvest “something” at the end of the day and so do not realise how much they are losing.
The BNARI Director said the science of biotechnology can be used to address these diseases and enhance the nutritional status of cassava, which is basically a carbohydrate. He said when the technology becomes available it will not change the traditional mode of cultivation through stem planting.
Currently, organisations such as the USA-based Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre are carrying out studies into tropical crops such as cassava that are not the target of big seed companies. This not-for-profit organisation is conducting research with a focus on strengthening the disease resistance ability of cassava and enhancing its nutritional contents.
A Senior Advisor to the Ghana Programme for Biosafety Systems (PBS), Prof. Walter Alhassan, spoke on: “Exploring the connections: Ghana Seed Sector Regimes: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”. He explained that in Ghana seeds were generated through two main ways – synthetic and open pollinated varieties, whose advantage is that farmers can save seeds and replant and the hybrid produced from controlled cross pollination of two different varieties of the same plant to produce a new plant variety with desirable traits. The new variety usually yielded much higher than the parent plants, but farmers cannot save seeds for replanting.
Prof. Alhassan talked about the challenges facing the seed sector such as inadequate seed production, processing, storage and quality assurance capacity. He said the Seed Regulatory Regime was introduced in Ghana to ensure the production of quality seeds.
He said the seed industry was currently regulated by the Plant and Fertiliser Act 803 of 2010, which regulates production, inspection, importation, exportation and commercial transactions related to seed in Ghana as well as the activities of growers, cleaners, importers and exporters of seed.
He explained that the future of the seed industry relates to the Plant Breeders Bill (PBB) and the Patent of GM Seed, and said both of them were related to Intellectual Property. The draft PBB is now at the Attorney General’s office to be submitted to the cabinet and subsequently to Parliament.
The essence of Prof. Alhassan’s presentation to the National Best Farmers was that “very soon Ghana will have available all three sources of seeds – the open pollinated variety, hybrid and the genetically modified seeds.” Farmers will not be obliged to stick to one, but will exercise their freedom to go for the option that they deem best for increased productivity, as is the current practice of farmers in some developed countries.
A member of the OFAB Team, Dr. Richard Ampadu-Ameyaw, talked about the “Socio-economic effects of Biotechnology and GMOs”, and made a case for the adoption of agricultural biotechnology. He said the threats to the agricultural sector and food security in general were key issues for consideration.
Dr. Ampadu mentioned some of the threats as the current growing global hunger and ever increasing population that has outpaced food production; declining soil fertility at an unprecedented rate such that natural rate of soil replenishing has dwindled; malnutrition and diverse nutritional needs due to lack of nutrients rich foods, resulting in high incidences of ill health and mortality; while, conventional technologies were unable to produce the food needs of the growing population nor combat some diseases and challenges of plants and animals in terms of time and costs.
He explained that this situation was statistically reflected in 100 million people experiencing hunger worldwide because of the high food prices; 800 million people suffering from chronic food shortages; world population expected to reach nine billion by 2040 amidst declining food production; and poorer countries will need to increase their food imports bill by 40 percent in the nearest future to meet the food needs of the rising population.
Dr. Ampadu said the adoption of biotechnology can serve as a redress mechanism in various ways. The technology could aid the growing of more food on less land, thereby enhancing productivity and efficiency gains. It will ensure disease resistant and drought tolerant crops, which implies improving production and productivity and hence efficiency. Moreover, biotechnology will ensure highly nutritious food that could contribute to good health and general welfare of all including farmers and consumers.
In her presentation, Mrs Nana Akua Yeboah of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) focused on the safety of GM foods and stated that when it comes to issues of safety of GM foods, “the concern of toxicity, allergenicity, adverse impact on nutritional composition, as well as unintended effects are legitimate.”
“And the only way to ascertain their safe use with respect to human and animal health is a scientific evaluation of safety endpoints,” she said. Mrs. Yeboah explained that there was in place international consensus on the principles and guidelines for assessing the safety of GM foods through Codex. The Codex prescribes food and hygiene standards among other things, and is published by the UN.
She stated that “GM foods that have been approved per these guidelines are deemed to be as safe as or not riskier than their conventional counterparts,” adding that “any GMO that fails to meet the safety endpoint per the Guidelines will not be given market authorisation.”
The Country Coordinator for the PBS, Daniel Osei Ofosu, spoke about “Biosafety and Biosafety Regulations in Ghana”. He explained that biosafety was the process of scientifically evaluating the potential effects of a GMO on the environment, human and animal health.
Mr. Ofosu said biosafety regulations have been introduced “to ensure an adequate level of protection in the field of safe development, transfer, handling and use of genetically modified organisms resulting from biotechnology that may have an adverse effect on health and the environment…”
While backgrounding the COP23 scheduled to hold in November 2017, the Climate Justice Info Service predicts in this piece that the global forum will expose some real and urgent geopolitical tensions that must be resolved in order for the international community to avert a deterioration of the global climate system
And aerial view of the construction site of the COP23 “Bonn Zone”
Following a year of increasingly visible climate change impacts, governments will gather from November 6-17, 2017 in Bonn, Germany for the 23rd annual UN climate change conference (COP23).
Over the course of two weeks, negotiators will attempt to flesh out a set of implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement – a long-term global strategy to address climate change – ahead of a 2018 deadline.
Although the Paris Agreement set a goal to limit global average temperature rise to 2°C, scientists have warned it is 95% likely that average global temperatures will pass this threshold by the end of the century.
The challenge facing governments is to raise ambition and accelerate actions before the narrow window of opportunity closes. For COP23 to capture progress toward these objectives, several substantive issues must be resolved.
The main controversial and/or contentious issues are:
The role of the United States
The lack of ambition in near-term (pre-2020) targets
Increasing the ambition of countries’ contributions to global action
Addressing climate change impacts
Provision of support
The United States
In June, President Trump announced the United States’ intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, throwing into doubt its role at UN climate talks, and related bodies like the Green Climate Fund. President Trump has also been widely criticised for appointing fossil fuel executives or climate skeptics to senior government positions at the U.S. state department, and at environment, energy, agriculture, and interior agencies/departments.
At COP23, attention will turn to whether the United States (and its allies in the “Umbrella Group”) will continue to advance a narrow agenda focused mainly on mitigation, carbon markets and transparency of action, while neglecting or foot-dragging on other key issues such as adaptation, loss and damage, finance, technology transfer, capacity building, transparency of support, compliance, and the global stocktake.
In Bonn, civil society organisations will release a major report exposing corporate interference in the climate negotiations, including a focus on the close ties between the Trump Administration and major polluters.
Immediate Action
The window to avoid breaching the aspirational 1.5°C threshold is closing fast – by some estimates less than four years remain – yet countries’ actions pre-2020 have remained minimal.
In recent years countries have focused on constructing the Paris Agreement, a long-term strategy, instead of immediate action. Now with the Agreement out of the way and the sense of urgency mounting many developing countries and civil society organisations are putting the emphasis back on pre-2020 action.
Without scaled-up pre-2020 action, the challenge in the post-2020 period becomes much greater as warming gets locked into the climate system. Developing countries are cognizant of this reality and will ask developed countries to step up to the plate in the near-term by ratifying the Doha Amendment which covers the period 2012-2020 under the Kyoto Protocol.
Increasing Ambition
Even with scaled-up action in the immediate term, countries must still bridge an alarming ambition gap, as the pledged “Nationally Determined Contributions” would result in over 3°C of warming, with risks of much higher temperatures.
The Paris Agreement provided a mechanism to continually strengthen pledges in an equitable manner. The first part consists of a 2018 “Facilitative Dialogue” whose design countries must refine in Bonn. (The Facilitative Dialogue is considered to be a “test run” for the “Global Stocktake” to occur post-2020.)
Developing countries will be adamant that the only way the Facilitative Dialogue can work is if it assesses countries’ pledges on the basis of equity and in light of what support has been offered to realise conditional pledges. Developed countries will push for a more “mitigation centric” approach which considers only the reporting and emissions reductions components of the pledges.
The debate, which is sure to be heated, will be informed by a new report containing recommendations on the Dialogue from a coalition of civil society organisations. In it, they examine the pledges put forward by some key countries and argue that the Paris Agreement’s goals can only be met if all countries assume their fair share of the global effort.
Loss and Damage
Although the COP is being held in Bonn, technically it is being hosted by Fiji – the first Pacific nation to do so. As such, civil society and many developing countries hope that issues like loss and damage and climate-induced displacement will be elevated.
While the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage has already launched into its five-year work plan, it has not yet been designated a permanent source of finance, nor has it been fully incorporated into the Paris Agreement negotiation track.
Developed countries remain reluctant to discuss financing for loss and damage as they see this as risking an admission of liability for climate change disasters occurring around the world. Instead they prefer insurance measures, which are unsuited for slow-onset climate impacts.
However, as impacts continue to worsen, developing countries may see this as a red-line issue and push for the 2023 Global Stock Take to explicitly include an assessment of finance for loss and damage.
Discussions on loss and damage are likely to remain heated in Bonn, but with few other landmark achievables available, expectations are high that a two-year work plan on finance can be agreed.
Provision of Support
As the emphasis of negotiations shifts to implementation of the Paris Agreement, questions around the implementation by developed countries of obligations to provide finance, technology and capacity will necessarily take on more urgency. In Bonn, developing countries will be asking developed countries to elaborate on their plan to mobilise a minimum of $100 billion annually by 2020, and seeking assurances of increased support in the longer-term, post-2025.
One controversial issue is the methodology used by developed countries to account for the financial resources they must provide developing countries as part of their contribution to curbing climate change, which observers have said inflates the real amount actually flowing to developing countries. The Green Climate Fund has so far received pledges of $10.3 billion which pales in comparison to the trillions of dollars it will cost for developing countries to fulfil their pledges.
With other funds such as the Adaptation Fund also short on resources, developing countries are unable to implement their share of the Paris Agreement and have to divert resources for adaptation efforts. They will therefore be insisting on progress on this issue as a matter of priority.
Cross-cutting Issues
The general fault lines between countries largely remain the same, and major divergences over key questions which were not wholly addressed in the May session will reappear. Chief among them is how the guidelines for implementation of the Paris Agreement will reflect differentiation between countries, and what information countries will be required to include in their Nationally Determined Contributions.
Generally, developing countries are concerned that transparency and mitigation are being given priority over adaptation and finance issues. If they feel that issues are not being treated in a balanced manner there are likely to be problems taking the process forward.
Global Climate Movements
In addition to the official negotiations, thousands of activists will descend upon Bonn for mobilisations taking aim at the German coal industry. A Climate March on November 4th as well as the direct-action group Ende Gelände’s planned occupation of coal mines on November 5th will set the scene for a counter-summit called the People’s Climate Summit.
Though COP23 will likely not contain the full drama of last year’s U.S. election or 2015’s Paris Summit, it will nevertheless expose some real and urgent geopolitical tensions that must be resolved in order for the international community to avert a deterioration of the global climate system.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has welcomed the ruling of the Supreme Court of India on Friday, October 27, 2017, directing the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to notify the comprehensive action plan for a longer term strategy for all key sources of pollution in Delhi and National Capital region (NCR).
Executive director, research and advocacy, CSE, Anumita Roychowdhury
This action plan was prepared by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) under the direction of the Supreme Court.
This is said to be the first-ever plan for this region that takes an integrated view of the problem and prescribes short, medium and long term measures for all key sources of pollution – vehicles, industry, power plants, waste burning, construction activities, road dust as well as episodic pollution like biomass burning.
Four action points related to vehicles – date of moving the manufacturing of all vehicle models to BSVI standards, action on dieselisation, tightening of limit values for Pollution under Control (PUC) certification, and integration of on-board diagnostic system with PUC — have been set aside for further hearing. The rest of the action plan has been approved for notification.
Said Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE’s executive director, research and advocacy: “This plan is designed for sustained improvement in air quality over time to help meet the clean air standards. The challenge is daunting as the plan shows Delhi will have to reduce particulate pollution by at least 74 per cent to the meet the clean air standards. Such a target cannot be met merely with day-to-day emergency response and crisis management.”
Roychowdhury added: “In fact, according to the notification of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), as per the Air Act, daily and hourly standards should be met 98 per cent of the time in a year and they should not exceed the standards on two consecutive days.”
The proposed plan has identified the key implementing bodies that would be responsible for each of the action in a time-bound manner. It has also provided for a clear monitoring and oversight mechanism to assess implementation.
According to Roychowdhury, the plan has come at a very opportune moment when the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) has started to lower the daily pollution peaks. In fact, the CPCB in its Diwali pollution release has stated that so far this year the number of days with satisfactory air quality has increased by 87 per cent since 2016. Also, there is at least a 28 per cent reduction in number of days with very poor air quality compared to 2016. Even though the Diwali night experienced emergency levels, pre-Diwali pollution was much lower than the pre-Diwali pollution in 2016. Favourable weather has helped, but stepped up action has also influenced this trend. A more comprehensive and integrated action is now needed to sustain the improvement over time.
Several action points listed in the comprehensive action plan have already been set in motion. An air quality monitoring plan for Delhi and NCR is already underway. Only trucks destined for Delhi and not older than 10 years are allowed entry after payment of an Environment Compensation Charge. The PUC programme is being reformed. The apex court has banned the use of dirty pet-coke and furnace oil and directed enforcement of new SOx and NOx emissions standards for the industry sector to come into force by December 31, 2017.
While these strategies will have to be taken forward, the new plan also asks for more systemic solutions. Some of these priority measures include expansion of the CNG programme in the NCR, augmentation of public transport including bus sector reforms, parking policy as a demand management measure, policy and infrastructure for pedestrians and non-motorised transport, and moving power plants to natural gas.
The experience with GRAP has shown that several measures meant for high pollution days cannot be implemented effectively if more comprehensive systemic action is not put in place. For example, GRAP needs intensification of public transport services on high pollution days which is not possible without augmentation of the public transport system, last mile connectivity and transport connectivity within NCR. Bus fleet and ridership are already declining in Delhi. Impact of hiking parking charges by 2 to 3 times in a few commercial areas may be limited without a proper parking policy for the city. Only penalty on garbage burning without solid waste management and remediation of landfill sites will not work.
Said Roychowdhury: “This much awaited plan now requires stringent and disciplined implementation with accountability.”
