Climate Vulnerable Forum calls for immediate steps to higher ambition emission contributions (INDC/NDCs) at Bonn UN Climate Talks
The Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, Philippines, called on all 195 parties to the UN Climate Convention to already begin work on updated, more stringent emission control plans at the UN Climate Change Conference which opened on Monday in Bonn, Germany.
Secretary Emmanuel M. De Guzman of the Climate Change Commission of the Philippines
Secretary Emmanuel M. De Guzman of the Climate Change Commission of the Philippines, the Climate Vulnerable Forum Chair, highlighted the shortfall of existing government contributions (or INDCs/NDCs) to reduce emissions under the new Paris Agreement reached in December 2015, which he said “translates to 3 degrees of global warming, double our long-term goal.”
“The Paris Agreement’s long-term goal of ‘well below’ 2 degrees Celsius cannot and should not mean 1.9 degrees or 1.8 or 1.7 degrees Celsius,” De Guzman said. “Our goal is 1.5 degrees Celsius, and we are all bound to pursue actions to achieve this.”
De Guzman called for urgent follow-up to “live up to the ambitions we have set for ourselves in international law” while highlighting the leadership of vulnerable countries with the Philippines’ first commitment under the Paris Agreement representing a 70% reduction in expected emissions by 2030.
Secretary de Guzman added: “There are limits to what vulnerable countries can achieve”, while calling on all parties to take action in the areas of finance, capacity building and technology “to stimulate global action and greater ambition.”
De Guzman reiterated the Forum’s call for realising the balance between adaptation and mitigation in international climate change finance in order to “save lives.” He called for a review of financial flows in order to achieve the 1.5-degrees goal, in addition to efficient finance delivery through UN Climate Convention finance mechanisms, including the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility.
The UN Climate Change Conference at Bonn which opened on 16 May is the principal round of climate talks between the landmark December 2015 UN Conference at Paris (COP21) and the next Conference of the Parties to the UN Climate Convention taking place at Marrakech, Morocco (COP22) in November 2016.
Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, has said that, following the successful conclusion of the Paris Climate Change Agreement in Paris last year, governments are leaving behind the phase of negotiations and entering a new era of collaboration.
Salaheddine Mezouar, incoming President of the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech (COP22) and Morocco’s Foreign Affiars Minister (left); Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; and Ségolène Royale, French Environment Minister and President of COP 21 (the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris last year), Ségolène Royale, at at the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany on Monday
Speaking at the opening of the two-week UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany that began on Monday, the UN climate chief said: “The whole world is united in its commitment to the global goals embodied in the Paris Agreement, as well as to the means by which to achieve them.”
The Bonn meeting comes weeks after 176 countries and the EU signed the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and has been described as a key planning event for the upcoming Climate Change Conference in Marrakech in November.
She told delegates in the opening plenary of the meeting that, with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “you have opened the opportunity to meet the climate change challenge to a great extent by fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
In her opening remarks, French Environment Minister and President of COP 21 (the official name of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris last year), Ségolène Royale, said the 12 of December 2015 (the final day of the Paris conference, when the agreement was concluded) had shown the world that the international community is capable of unifying to respond to the global challenge of climate and to embark on the path of sustainable development.
“Since the conclusion of the Paris Agreement, our priority is to build on the ambitious, balanced and fair compromises which were reached last December, in order to reinforce action on the ground. The foundations have been laid, it is now up to us build our common house. I call on you to be builders and facilitators,” she said.
In his remarks, Salaheddine Mezouar, incoming President of the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech (COP22) and Morocco’s Foreign Minister, outlined the key objectives of the meeting this November.
“Our ambition for COP 22 is to contribute to the adoption of the procedures and mechanisms to allow the Paris Agreement to be operationalised, and the adoption of an action plan for the pre-2020 period, covering mitigation, adaptation and finance, and to step up capacity building, technology transfer and transparency,” he said.
Stressing the importance of climate finance, Mezouar said COP22 would also be an occasion to draw up a road map for concrete and predictable provision of the USD 100 billion governments have agreed will be mobilized for developing countries to green their economies and adapt to climate change.
To this end, he suggested that governments, along with public and private financial institutions, consider the creation of a “Fast Track Facility” for climate finance.
Following the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Ms. Figueres and the present and incoming COP Presidents planted a tree on the premises of the UN, to commemorate the signing of the Paris Agreement and to mark Earth Day 2016.
As political momentum on climate change continues on a high after the emergence of the Paris Agreement last December and its signing in April, countries gave their opening statements in a plenary session on the first day of the UN climate talks going on in Bonn, Germany.
Teresa Anderson, ActionAid International
Focused on rule-making for the new global climate regime amid efforts to ramp up short-term ambition to tackle climate change, negotiators set out their stalls ahead of two weeks of negotiations.
Civil society players, who believe there is no time to lose, appear to be hopeful.
“It was announced today that last month was the hottest April ever, which means we have now experienced seven months in a row of months breaking temperature records,” says Teresa Anderson from ActionAid.
She adds: “As the hottest El Nino ever bites across the world, 60 million people are expected to face its impacts this year in the form of heatwaves, droughts and famine. In Paris, governments agreed to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This number may prove to be the planet’s lifeline, but only if we choose to pick up that lifeline, grab it with both hands, and follow it to its necessary conclusion. We need much greater ambition to radically and fairly cut emissions, delivered much faster than the national pledges currently on the table.”
“We are seeing some positive signs,” says Alden Meyer from the Union of Concerned Scientists. “177 parties have signed the Paris Agreement and 16 have already deposited instruments of ratification. Outside the UN process the renewable energy revolution is unfolding, and financial flows are shifting towards low carbon development – but the question is whether this is happening fast enough to keep pace with changes in the physical environment. Negotiators have an opportunity in Bonn to speed things up by developing the rulebook for the Paris Agreement, working to build capacity for a major increase in both pre- and post-2020 ambition, and putting the spotlight on efforts to ramp up support for adaptation and loss and damage ahead of the COP in Marrakesh.”
“Today the new Moroccan Presidency labelled COP 22 in Marrakesh the ‘COP for action’ which is good a start,” says Anoop Poonia from Climate Action Network South Asia. “This year we need action to develop a roadmap that delivers the long-promised $100 billion in climate finance. In the process negotiators must ensure this finance supports both adaptation and mitigation in order to boost the resilience of the most vulnerable countries already experiencing climate impacts. Right now less than $6 billion per year is available for adaptation – this is not enough. Another important task for governments here in Bonn is to get working on the rules for accounting and transparency so that we develop more accurate ways to measure the cost of complex climate impacts and exactly what support falls under the banner of ‘climate finance’ as we move forwards.”
A global wave of peaceful direct actions lasting for 12 days took place across six continents targeting the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel projects
Break Free from Anti-fossil fuels action in Batangas, Philippines, 4 May, 2016
Twelve days of unprecedented world-wide action against fossil fuels have just concluded, showing that the climate movement will not rest until all coal, oil and gas is kept in the ground. The combined global efforts of activists on six continents now pose a serious threat to the future of the fossil fuel industry, already weakened by financial and political uncertainty.
Tens of thousands of activists took to the streets, occupied mines, blocked rail lines, linked arms, paddled in kayaks and held community meetings in 13 countries, pushing the boundaries of conventional protest to find new ways to demand coal, oil and gas stay in the ground. Participants risked arrest – many for the first time – to say that it’s time to Break Free from the current energy paradigm that is locking the planet into a future of catastrophic climate change.
Driving this wave of demonstrations is the sudden and dramatic acceleration in the warming of the planet, with every single month of 2016 shattering heat records – combined with the growing gap between world governments’ stated climate ambitions, and their demonstrated actions in approving new fossil fuel projects. On the last day of mobilisation, a key monitoring site on Tasmania recorded atmospheric carbon-dioxide exceeding 400 parts per million for the first time ever.
These actions took place under the banner of Break Free, which refers to the need to shift away from our current dependency on fossil fuels to a global energy system powered by 100% renewable energy. In 2015, 90% of new energy capacity came from renewables, signaling that a rapid transition to 100% renewable energy is more feasible than ever.
As the impacts of a warming planet become more visible in the form of rising sea levels, drought and stronger storms, the citizens who joined Break Free will continue to be a part of the next phase of the movement as it becomes more vocal, disruptive and powerful.
Highlights of the actions:
Thousands worldwide risked arrest during the actions, many for the first time
$20 million worth of coal shipments were halted by activists shutting down the largest coal port in the world in Newcastle, Australia.
The UK’s largest opencast coal mine was shut down for a day.
Hundreds occupied the first Nigerian oil well at Oloibiri, marched at Bori Ogoni and Ibeno demanding for an end to oil spills and gas flares, a clean up of the Niger Delta. They also demanded that the polluting oil should be kept in the ground to tackle global warming.
Hundreds stood up to South Africa’s most powerful family with a march that delivered coal to their front door, despite their attempts to silence civil society by pressuring police to revoke permits for a march
Dozens of people occupied train tracks overnight on both coasts of the United States to stop oil-filled ‘bomb trains’ from rolling through communities — including less than 100 feet from low-income public housing in Albany, New York.
3,500 people shut down one of Europe’s biggest carbon polluters in Germany, occupying a lignite mine and nearby power station for over 48 hours, reducing the plant’s capacity by 80 percent.
10,000 marched against a proposed coal plant in Batangas, the Philippines
3,000 sent an ear-splitting message to Indonesia’s president with a whistle demonstration against coal in Jakarta, and a few days later 12 activists climbed the cranes supplying coal for the Cirebon Coal Power Plant, and dropping banners to Quit Coal and for Clean Energy, Clean Air.
Community members blocked traffic outside the gates of Brazil’s largest thermal coal plant, in Ceará
On land and water, indigenous communities and local activists blockaded the Kinder Morgan tar sands facility in Metro-Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish Territories.
150+ local activists marched and occupied the entrance of two fossil fuel refineries, which are the largest unaddressed source of carbon pollution in the Northwest of the United States
In Aliaga, Turkey 2000 people marched to the gates of the Izmir region’s largest coal dump, and surrounded it with a giant red line, as a call to end plans for the massive expansion of coal in the country.
Overview of the actions:
May 3: Wales – UK
Three hundred people halted operations at the UK’s largest opencast coal mine at Ffos-y-fran in South Wales, making it the biggest ever mass action in a UK coal mine with the majority of participants joining a climate action for the first time. The occupation and blockade ended after 12 hours with no arrests.
May 4, 14: Philippines
Some 10,000 people marched in the streets of Batangas City opposing a proposed 600MW coal-fired power plant and to demand the cancellation of another 27 proposed plants in the country. The march, led by Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lipa, also included activists from many organisations as well as thousands of people from coal-impacted communities. Days later, hundreds of community members in Calaca demonstrated against a proposed coal plant expansion project there.
May 5-15: United States
In Sacramento, Central Valley community members sat-in outside of Governor Brown’s office. In Philadelphia, hundreds of people marched to the largest refinery on the east coast. In Colorado, hundreds of people disrupted an auction selling public lands for fossil fuel extraction, as seven people held a sit-in blockading the room where the auction was being held. Over 2,000 people protested refinery pollution in the Pacific Northwest and blockaded oil trains for three full days culminating in at least 52 arrests. In Albany, 2,000 people marched and blockaded bomb trains, resulting in five arrests. Hundreds occupied a proposed fracking site outside Denver, and in California dozens blocked the road to the Porter Ranch gas facility, which was the site of the largest methane leak in the history of the US. Led by frontline community members, 1,300 people marched in Washington, DC to call on President Obama to end to offshore drilling; and outside of Chicago, 1,500 people protested proposed the expansion of BP’s Whiting refinery.
May 6-13: New Zealand
Day after day dozens of people shut down ANZ bank branches in ChristChurch, Wellington, Auckland, and Dunedin calling for ANZ to divest from fossil fuels.
May 8: Australia
An armada of kayakers blocked the Newcastle harbour entrance while 70 people blocked a critical rail crossing preventing any coal from getting to the port for over six hours. In total 2,000 people took part in the action shutting down the world’s largest coal port for a day, preventing the shipment of almost 2 megatonnes of coal during the protest. In Western Australia, over 150 occupied the headquarters of BP & Chevron, blockading a busy intersection in front, with two arrests.
May 9-14: Brazil
A series of anti-fracking events led up to over 300 people marching through the streets of Uruamama, in the state of Paraná, towards the City Hall where a Bill to ban fracking in this city was being voted. In the presence of the marchers, the city councilors unanimously agreed to declare Umarama fracking free. Then on the 14th, over 500 people marched on the highway used to deliver coal to a power plant in Ceará. The march included people from 20 municipalities, four Indigenous ethnic groups (Anacé, Pitaguary, Tapeba and Tremembé), fishermen and residents of the coastal zone, farmers and residents of the inner cities severely affected by drought.
May 10-14: Nigeria
A coalition of climate justice organisations gathered with representatives of oil communities at Oloibiri, the site of the first oil well in Nigeria, as well as at Ogoni and Ibeno to emphasize fossil fuel’s role in climate change, call an end to the Nigerian economic dependence on oil and to reduce adverse effects of climate change. The activists also demanded an end to the extreme pollution caused by endless oil spills and toxic dumps in the Niger Delta. At the concluding action at Ibeno, fisherfolks called for a halt to oil extraction, insisting that fish is far more valuable than crude oil.
May 11-15: Indonesia
More than 3,500 participants marched in Jakarta carrying banners with slogans such as ‘Stop Dirty Energy Investments’ and ‘Stop Pollution, Stop Using Coal’, as they called for President Joko Widodo to move Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest coal producers, away from coal and embrace renewable energy. On 15 May, 12 Greenpeace activists stopped operations at the Cirebon Coal Power Plant for 12 hours, the activists unfurled banners saying ‘Quit Coal’ and ‘Clean Energy, Clean Air’ from both cranes supplying the coal terminal.
May 12-14: South Africa
Affected communities represented by 200 people including farmers and private citizens gathered to speak about the daily realities of living in a town with the most polluted air in the world at Emalahleni, which directly translated means “place of coal.” A picket of 45 people was organized outside Medupi and Exxaro coal mine in Lephalale, which will be one of the world’s biggest coal-power stations. Also 400 participants joined the National Bread March to protest the increasing cost of food as a consequence of the severe drought the country is suffering. Finally, despite efforts by the Guptas to shut down a mass action at their residence – hundreds of people rallied at the nearby Zoo Lake to speak out about corrupt mining deals, and 15 people delivered a coffin of coal to the doorsteps of the Gupta residence.
May 13-15: Germany
More than 3500 activists from all over Europe shut down the opencast coal mine Welzow-Süd in the Lusatia coal fields. While hundreds entered the mine, others blocked coal trains and conveyor belts transporting coal to the power plants. Around 300 people continued the blockade overnight. On 14 May another 2000 activists cut off coal power plant Schwarze Pumpe from all coal supplies. Around 120 were arrested and released the next day. Five occupations continued over another night. After the power plant had been blocked for more than 48 hours, the activists stopped the blockade on Sunday, May 15th.
May 14: Canada
Over 800 people took action to surround the Kinder Morgan facility on the Salish Coast. On the land, activists locked messages onto the gates of the facility, staged a sit-in and painted a giant mural. On the water a massive kayak flotilla swarmed the pipeline’s tanker terminal.
May 14: Ecuador
The group Yasunidos took over close to 500 hectares destined to built an oil refinery called Refinería del Pacífico, where Ecuador plans to process the oil extracted at the Yasuní National Park. Yasunidos planted 1 tree in the area, and managed to stay in the premise for about three hours after peacefully passing through the security control. Since the action, members of the Yasunidos have been facing harassment and public discredit on behalf of Correa’s government and those backing the fossil project.
May 15: Turkey
Community leaders, led two thousand people in Aliağa in a march through to a coal waste site and called for the stopping of four fossil fuel projects in the surrounding area. The activists made a human chain and spelled out the word “Stop” (“Dur” in Turkish).
Reaction to the actions:
Payal Parekh, 350.org Programme Director: “As global temperatures continue to rise, so are the people. Across continents people are challenging the status quo by pushing the boundaries of conventional protest to demand fossil fuels are kept in the ground. Ordinary people are joining the fight for our collective survival as communities worldwide are experiencing first hand the consequences of climate change and the damage inflicted by the fossil fuel industry. It’s up to us to break free from fossil fuels and accelerate the shift towards a just transition to 100% renewable energy.”
Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org: “This is the hottest year we’ve ever measured, and so it is remarkably comforting to see people rising up at every point of the compass to insist on change.”
Yeb Saño Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia: “In our fight against fossil fuels, Southeast Asia is a major battleground and we cannot afford to cede to those who think of nothing but profit instead of people, and plunder instead of protecting the environment. As our communities rise against this addiction to coal, we hope to inspire massive civil participation all over the planet. Break Free is a breath of hope for all communities who are standing up to the fossil fuel industry’s relentless expansion despite climate change.”
Hannah Eichberger, Ende Gelände (Here And No Further), grassroots anti-coal alliance: “Every new tonne of coal that is dug up is one too many. We are hitting the emergency brakes now. We won’t leave climate action to governments and corporations any longer. We are taking matters into our own hands now.”
Nnimmo Bassey, Nigerian activist from the Health of Mother Earth Foundation: “Breaking free from fossil fuels is a vote for life and for the planet. The Paris Agreement signed by world leaders ignored the fact that burning fossil fuels is the major culprit in global warming. In these actions the peoples of the world will insist that we must come clean of the fossil fuels addiction.”
Naomi Klein, award winning journalist/author: “The global climate justice movement is rising fast. But so are the oceans. So are global temperatures. This is a race against time. Our movement is stronger than ever, but to beat the odds, we have to grow stronger.”
Wael Hmaidan, Director of Climate Action Network: “People power in our cities, in our villages and on the frontlines of climate change have brought us to a point where we have a global climate deal – but we do not stop now, we need more action and faster. Civil society is set to rise up again, to fight for our societies to break free from fossil fuels, to propel them even faster towards a just future powered by 100% renewable energy.”
In December 2015, several years of vigorous and intense campaigns by thousands of climate activists across all the continents of the world, resulted in the Paris Climate Agreement, a deal agreed to by 193 countries, admitting the imminent danger of climate change and the need for urgent actions to be taken to stem the tide of global warming. Although some saw the deal as a major milestone – given previous history of foot dragging and outright denial of climate change- there were no explicit commitments by the parties detailing what actions needed to be taken to check climate change.
Campaigners in Ibeno, Akwa Ibom State
In response to this reality of inaction, climate activists and campaigners all over the world came to the conclusion that despite this agreement, world leaders will not act to check climate change unless they are pushed to do so. This began the Break Free from Fossil Fuel movement. Between the 4th and 15th of May 2016, thousands of climate activists around the world embarked on a wide series of actions ranging from street walks to shutting down coal mines and disrupting fossil fuel extraction activities.
In Nigeria, the events kicked off on the 10th of May 2016 in Oloibiri, Bayelsa state, famous for being the first place Nigeria extracted crude oil from. Of course the oil wells in Oloibiri have long since gone dry, but the residue of many years of pollution, the conflict and social dislocation remains with the people. For a place where millions of petro dollars has been extracted, Oloibiri is a sad reminder of what happens when the oil wells run dry. In a town hall meeting and rally symbolically held at the first well-head, various speakers from the Oloibiri community reflected on the neglect which their community has suffered despite contributing so significantly to the Nigerian economy in the past.
Chief Nengi James a community leader in Bayelsa said: “Since 1956, this land has been bleeding. They have drained it and sapped every nutrient from it. Look around you; does this look like a place where so much money has been taken from? Aside from these decadent well -heads that reminds us of what we once had, and the low farm yields on account of their constant pollution, we have nothing to show for oil. Oil didn’t bring better schools, it didn’t bring better healthcare, and it didn’t bring greater peace. It brought us conflict, poverty and pollution. If we could go back to 1956, nobody will take any crude oil from here; we will ask them to leave us in peace.”
On the 12th of May 2016, the Break Free from Fossil campaign in Nigeria arrived Bori, the traditional headquarters of the Ogoni nation, another community that wishes the oil business had never started in its domain. Addressing hundreds of community people, the representative of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) reiterated the need to clean up the Ogoni environment and the Niger Delta.
“We have been told that the cleanup will begin in a matter of weeks, we are waiting and hoping that this time it actually happens. The effect of oil extraction has been devastating for our people. Our water, land and air have all been terribly polluted, we can’t plant or fish anymore, we drink oil poisoned water. Our environment is gone,” said Bariala Kpalap, PRO of MOSOP.
“For us in Ogoni land, we made up our minds 23 years ago to leave the oil in the ground. We sacked Shell from our land because we could no longer stand the pollution, poverty and conflict their extraction was causing. We since came to the conclusion that oil was useless to us. You can be assured that this land will never again allow itself to be bled in the name of crude oil extraction,” said Celestine AkpoBari of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum.
Speaking further, Nnimmo Bassey of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) said: “The Ogoni experience tells the very sad tale of fossil exploitation in all its ugliness. The pollution, the poverty, the deaths, the carnage and displacement are simply unprecedented. When the business started, the Ogonis thought it was oil, but it turned out to be blood.”
The campaign finale on the 14th of May 2016 took place at Ibeno in Akwa Ibom state where Mobil operates an offshore oil field from where it regularly pollutes the water and air of the community people. In a town hall meeting as part of the Break Free from Fossil Fuel campaign, a fisherman lamented that fishing which was once the pride of the community had become non lucrative. Reaching for his bag, he produced a handful of sea weed, saying: “This is all our nets catch now. The fishes are all gone; they don’t like water with crude oil in it.”
Different speakers at the event lamented the declined livelihood of the community on account of oil pollution. According to a women leader, “we have no benefit from crude oil. It is a curse to us, we want it to be left in the ground so the fishes can return and we can resume our lives”.
Placard-carrying campaigners matched past the fenced and heavily guarded compound of multi-national Mobil, where staff and foreign expatriates live in affluence away from their poverty stricken neighbors all around, and ended at the ocean banks. Campaigners said prayers and dipped their fingers in the water in the hope that the curse of oil will be lifted.
“This is the start of a major campaign which will take local and international dimensions. We will continue the campaign everywhere. We will do it both physically and virtually. This call to keep the oil in the ground will keep sounding from every corner,” said Ken Henshaw of Social Action.
According to Nnimmo Bassey of HOMEF, “Oil has put Nigeria in a very bad state today. We are demanding an urgent transition and exit from the dirty oil age. In our energy generation, we should no longer be talking of gas plants, the focus should be on renewable energy, water, wind and solar. The Earth needs to heal. This is the minimum that we must realize as the world moves to catastrophic climate chaos.”
Delegates to the UN climate treaty are gathering on Monday (May 16) in Bonn, Germany for the first time since adopting the Paris Agreement during a landmark political moment in the French capital last December.
Martin Vilela, Bolivian Platform on Climate Change. Photo credit: coalitionclimat21.org
The political momentum which delivered the agreement in Paris also catalysed the signatures of 177 countries at an Earth Day signing ceremony in New York this year. Attention is now turning to preparing for implementation as countries meet for the first time as the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA) to prepare draft decisions on all the issues in the Paris Agreement which need to be fleshed out further. The APA will present this draft legislation before the first meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement once the treaty enters into force – which happens once 55 countries covering 55% of global emissions or more have ratified the Agreement. This is expected to occur sooner than 2020.
In addition to questions of policy and ratification, observers can expect some procedural jostling for position in Bonn as countries elect the co-chairs for the APA and begin work on its agenda. As the opportunity arises to breathe life into the elements of the Agreement, address any gaps, and flesh out the rule book, what will be the key substantive issues?
Critical steps to deliver the Paris Agreement
Turning the promise of Paris into a reality include:
Bridging the “mitigation gap” between climate pledges and the Paris temperature goal
Addressing barriers to implementation, including lack of financial, technological, and technical capacity
Equipping communities to plan for and deal with the adverse impacts of climate change
Developing strategies and policy mechanisms to ensure adaptation action on the ground
Creating the framework necessary for countries to address economic and non-economic loss and damage arising from climate change
Reactions from the global civil society have trailed the development:
Martin Vilela, Coordinator, Bolivian Platform on Climate Change: “Faced with a planetary emergency the likes of which we can barely comprehend, we should look more soberly on the Paris Agreement. Its goal of a 1.5-degree limit to warming seems to have been a hollow one-governments all over the world have gone back to fossil fuel extraction and in some cases have doubled down-propping up a deadly industry while the renewable revolution is on the cusp of breaking. It will take strong people’s movements to deliver radical emissions cuts as much as intergovernmental processes.”
Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator, Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development: “Before the ink was dry on the Paris Agreement we were reminded that there is no “safe level” of warming for most of the world. In the Philippines, farming communities suffered a terrible drought brought on by El Nino. When they asked for food, they were met with bullets. Climate change is destroying communities-we need to deal with that reality. Losses and damages will continue to build up with every typhoon and drought, but who will cover the costs? How will we achieve food security for our people? In Bonn, governments better keep in mind the deadly new reality brought on by their lack of action over the years”
Azeb Girmai, Climate Lead, LDC Watch: “The Paris Agreement needs to go beyond mere recognition of the huge need for adaptation support and come up with a concrete plan to identify the source and amount of support immediately. Communities on the frontline of impacts from the adverse effects of climate change in Africa still have nothing to celebrate as no new or additional finance has been secured in the new agreement to urgently build their adaptive capacity alongside their on-going development efforts.”
Meena Raman, Coordinator of Climate Programme, Third World Network: “A success of Paris was that the nationally determined contributions covered all types of climate action-from reducing emissions to preparing and supporting communities for the impacts of climate change. Developed countries mustn’t roll back that progress by picking and choosing some parts of the roadmap for the way forward.
Asad Rehman, Head of International Climate, Friends of the Earth (EWNI): “Post-Paris, climate scientists, political leaders, and civil society groups all agree that the world needs a rapid energy transformation. One example at a regional level is the African Renewable Energy Initiative, which has already seen $10 billion dollars pledged to it. A critical objective going forward is to take this initiative global with renewable energy for the whole world. Looking forward to Marrakech, the Moroccan Presidency has an opportunity to continue to advance Africa’s leadership by making COP22 deliver a real world renewable energy outcome for the people.”
Tamar Lawrence-Samuel, Associate Research Director, Corporate Accountability International.
“We know we cannot rely on the Paris Agreement alone to catalyse the rapid action our world requires. In fact, without more ambitious action now, we will be on a path that far exceeds the temperature threshold that would prevent the worst effects of climate change. To ensure governments can take action far beyond the Paris Agreement, we must first ensure that those that wish to undermine progress-polluting industries like Big Oil, Coal, and Gas-are out of the room.”
Turning the promise of Paris into a reality
Bridging the “mitigation gap” between climate pledges and the Paris temperature goal?
A 2014 “structured expert dialogue” by the UNFCCC warned that 2 degrees is not a safe “guardrail” for temperature warming. With many scientists and campaigners pointing out that-given the impacts seen at 1 degree of warming-no amount of warming is “safe,” Paris was celebrated for setting a goal of limiting warming to well below 2 degrees, and asking countries to pursue efforts toward a stricter limitation of 1.5 degrees’ temperature increase. However, the Agreement offers no prescription for how to achieve this.
When the emissions reductions of current pledges are added up, they amount to 3.5 degrees of warming. In spite of this, countries are reluctant to immediately improve their pledges in order to bridge the gap-the EU, for example, has already ruled out any revisions to its NDC, which covers the period 2020-2025. Given this, many observers are beginning to fear that the so called “mitigation gap” will be addressed by relying on unproven and possibly harmful “negative emissions” technologies such as “BECCS” (bio energy with carbon-capture and storage) which they say will have serious implications for food security.
In Bonn, a “Technical Expert Meeting” (TEM) on renewable energy will reconvene, and one on mitigation will commence as countries seek to find ways to address the gap.
Addressing barriers to implementation, including lack of financial, technological, and technical capacity
A further challenge to making the promises of Paris a reality is the projected cost of the NDCs. With only around half of developing countries having costed their pledges, the price tag is already in excess of $4 trillion. The commitment contained in the Paris Agreement to mobilise $100 billion per year, starting in 2020, falls significantly short of what’s needed-resulting in a “finance gap” alongside the “mitigation gap.”
In Bonn, discussion around climate finance will focus on sources-how much should be public money, and what can be counted as climate finance as opposed to, say, development finance.
Equipping communities to plan for and deal with the adverse impacts of climate change Developing strategies and policy mechanisms to ensure adaptation action on the ground
Despite being cemented as a key pillar of the Paris Agreement, adaptation remains a neglected area of work with many of the provisions being vague. An important part of the adaptation discussion remains unresolved: who will pay? The Agreement does not specify who will be responsible for providing “continuous and enhanced international support” for adaptation, whereas the Convention has been clear that developed countries bore the responsibility. Additionally, the Agreement merely requests countries to “consider” using public and grant based finance in regards to adaptation.
While most of the adaptation related implementation actions are housed in various related bodies- like the Adaptation Committee and Least Developed Country Expert Group (LEG)-and therefore won’t be taken up directly in Bonn, the session will launch an adaptation Technical Expert Meeting. As they begin to develop the rule book of the Paris Agreement, key questions will arise around transparency of adaptation support; how adaptation efforts and needs as well as losses and damages are communicated in NDCs; how global adaptation needs as well as losses and damages are communicated via the global stocktake; and what adaptation efforts can be supported in the pre-2020 period before the Agreement enters into force.
Creating the framework necessary for countries to address economic and non-economic loss and damage arising from climate change
Similarly, the hot-topic of loss and damage-which was high-profile and divisive in 2015-remains a critically important issues for governments and citizens, particularly in the developing world where impacts of climate change are disproportionally felt. The Paris Agreement included, for the first time, loss and damage as a stand-alone article and anchored the existing Warsaw International Mechanism as the institutional arrangement to work on the issue. The opportunity for international cooperation on the issue has never been greater: the Paris Agreement encouraged the further understanding and support of resilience building in communities and ecosystems. Countries have also been asked to set up a task force to “develop recommendations for integrated approaches to avert, minimize and address displacement related to the adverse impacts of climate change.”
In Bonn, countries will begin discussing how to strengthen the loss and damage mechanism, as well as what lessons can be learnt in regard to non-economic losses. They will also take up the issue of impacts from slow-onset events as well as the difficult question of who will foot the bill for carrying out further work to bring in loss and damage as a competent of international climate policy.
The latest round of UN climate change negotiations will get underway on Monday in the German city of Bonn, with governments looking to the next steps needed to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and continue the momentum forged in 2015.
Venue of the conference
In order to ensure the aims and ambitions of the agreement, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to peak soon followed by quick reductions over the years ahead.
In the second half of the century those emissions need to be so low they can be easily absorbed by the Earth’s natural systems such as forests and soils. Building and supporting more resilient societies and economies will also be key.
Governments are already moving rapidly to bring the agreement into force. The Bonn UN Climate Change Conference (16-26 May) comes just weeks after 176 countries and the EU signed the agreement, with several key economies indicating they are ready to join the agreement this year and 16 States already depositing their instruments of ratification.
The Bonn meeting comes in advance of the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP 22) to be held in Marrakech in November. Here, governments will begin work on the “rule book” of the Paris Agreement covering how the agreement will work in detail once it enters into force.
The Bonn negotiations, which run for two weeks, will see the introduction of a new UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, a new Moroccan Presidency, as well as the first session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA). The session will be largely procedural, paving the way for COP22 which takes place in Marrakesh this November, but there will also be an opportunity to make substantive progress on some key issues.
Topics for the rule book include issues such as transparency on the reporting of climate action by nations as part of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Given that immediate and accelerated climate action is required for governments to reach their climate goals, a key focus in Bonn will be on activities which have a high potential to curb and reduce emissions.
At a “Climate Action Fair”, governments will discuss the social and economic value of carbon, along with how to shift to cleaner public transport and to increase the energy efficiency of vehicles.
The fair will also focus on building resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change, with governments discussing best policies in the area of adaptation, exchanging examples of best practices and exploring funding for such activities.
Cities, regions, businesses and investors, whose actions are crucial for supporting governments to meet their climate goals, will also be present in Bonn. Many of their individual and cooperative contributions are being captured on the UN’s NAZCA (Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action) portal.
The importance of new technologies will also be on show. A German-led Clean Energy Partnership, a consortium of 20 companies, will present hydrogen vehicles that can be test-driven by delegates and media representatives.
Opening press conference
On Monday, 16 May at 12:15 p.m. CEST, the UN’s top climate change official UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres will hold a joint press conference with the President of COP 21 (the official name of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris last year), French Environment Minister Ségolène Royale. They will be joined by a high-level representative of the Moroccan government, hosts of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech in November (COP 22).
Immediately after the press conference, Ms. Figueres and her guests will plant a tree on the premises of the UN, to commemorate the signing of the Paris Agreement and to honor Earth Day, also as part of a global campaign to plant trees as natural absorbers of carbon dioxide and important for realizing many of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Action for Climate Empowerment
On 18 and 19 May, the 4th Dialogue on Action for Climate Empowerment will take place in Bonn. The Dialogue is an annual forum for Parties and stakeholders to share their experiences, exchange ideas, good practices and lessons learned in the area of climate change education and public awareness. See here for details.
Global Youth Video Competition launch
A press conference will be held on 20 May to launch the 2016 Global Youth Video Competition. The objective of the Global Youth Video Competition is to highlight climate action by youth through videos; giving them a platform to identify their successes and inspire other youth and policy-makers.
UNCCC’s Momentum for Change Initiative shining a light on climate action
Events on 25 May will foster dialogue with previous winners of the Momentum for Change Awards, designed to celebrate results-driven and replicable climate solutions.
Side events
Side events at the Bonn meeting will be organised under the common theme “Accelerating implementation of the Paris Agreement” and fall into the categories “Enhancing ambition”, “Promoting implementation” and “Providing support to developing countries”.
Virtual participation
Along with live webcast, social media community tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Flickr enable virtual participation in the Bonn UN Climate Change Conference. Information on live webcasts of each respective day will be posted on the main meetings page. The main Twitter hashtag for the event is #SB44.
Civil society will be on the ground in Bonn to ensure that negotiators take the following steps during this session.
Set a workplan for COP 22 in Marrakesh that focusses on:
Loss and Damage (for climate impacts that cannot be adapted to)
The roadmap for delivering $100billion per year in climate finance by 2020
Managing an early implementation of the Paris Agreement
Create a long-term workplan for the APA that focusses on:
The ‘global stocktake’ of national plans for climate action (due in 2018)
How to boost the ambition of national climate action plans (INDCs)
How to produce national low carbon development plans (due in 2020)
Developing information requirements and a transparency framework
Civil society will also be working to encourage governments to highlight the need to ensure ‘Paris Compatibility’ within other upcoming international agreements on Aviation (ICAO) and HFCs (MOP).
The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has kicked against the recent hike in the price of petrol in Nigeria, saying that it is insensitive and ill-timed.
HOMEF has described the act of basing the price of petroleum products on importation costs as questionable planning
The Benin City, Edo State-based not-for-profit group disclosed in a statement issued on Thursday that, without employment, energy supply and socio-economic safety nets, the masses “have been thrown into shark-infested waters and with neither life guards nor life jackets.”
The Nigerian central government on Tuesday disclosed that it had removed subsidy from the sale of the product, thus effecting an increase of pump price from N86 per litre to N145.
The statement, signed by Cadmus Atake, the HOMEF Project Officer, quoted Nnimmo Bassey, head of HOMEF, as saying: “The poor have always been at the wrong end of the stick. For example, the price of kerosene, the poor man’s fuel, has remained extraordinarily high and their pleas continue to fall on deaf ears.
“We have always said that if there ever was any subsidy, it was the impoverished peoples of the polluted oil field communities that have been providing that subsidy. They continue to subsidise the cost of petroleum products with their lives and by environmental costs that are never brought into consideration.”
HOMEF, he added, believes that basing the price of petroleum products on importation costs is questionable planning and an abject abnegation of responsibility by the government.
“That sort of arrangement would be tenable when Nigeria decides to transit to a post petroleum economy and shut in the dastardly polluting petroleum sector and move on to truly productive and jobs-generating sectors,” he stressed.
“If the importers of petroleum products have to source their foreign exchange from the black market, Nigerians should be ready for pump prices that will go through the roof,” cautions Cadmus Atake, Project Officer on climate/fossil fuels at HOMEF. “Has the black market become our Central Bank?” he demanded.
Bassey described the official endorsement of black market forex deals as “a roundabout way of devaluing the Naira, while living in denial of the fact. This can neither encourage investors or aid transparency in the sector.”
His words: “At a time when millions are unemployed and workers are not being paid as at and when due; at a time when we have to provide our own electricity and water justice demands that policies must be anchored on the best interests of the majority of Nigerians and not on the huge profit margins of petroleum importing cartels.”
In Nigeria, about 12.3 million children suffer from chronic malnutrition, out of which 300,000 are at risk of dying. For those that survive, reaching their full potential becomes an uphill struggle. Malnutrition, including under-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies (Vitamin A deficiency, Iron deficiency, Iodine deficiency disorder and Zinc deficiency), has remained a problems of public health significance in Nigeria.
According to observers, school feeding programmes will go a long way in addressing malnutrition, which certain quarters have described as the nation’s silent crisis
The 2015 National Nutrition and Health Survey indicates that that 19.4% of children under the age of five in Nigeria are Underweight, 32.9% are Stunted and 7.2% are Wasted. These have far-reaching effects on individuals and impede the economic development of nations. However, the deficiencies can be effectively tackled through Food Fortification, defined by World Health Organisation (WHO) as “the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, i.e. vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in food irrespective of whether the nutrients were originally in the food before processing or not, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.”
In a bid to reduce the undesirable impact of malnutrition and sustain the food fortification programme in Nigeria, The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) in collaboration with National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) hosted a Stakeholders Dialogue on Food Fortification. The Dialogue, with the theme: “Sharing our Successes and Challenges: Align on the way forward”, was aimed at reviewing the successes and challenges of food fortification in Nigeria and examining the contextual factors which drive reach, impact and sustainability. The summit was attended by key players in the sector such as Federal Ministry of Health, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Nigeria Customs Service, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Master Bakers Association of Nigeria, as well as industry development partners.
Speaking at the summit, acting Director General of NAFDAC Mrs Yetunde Oni acknowledged the fact that good nutrition is an essential driver for sustainable development.
“When people’s nutritional status improves, it helps to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, generates broad-based economic growth and leads to a host of benefits for individuals, families, communities and nations,” she said.
In a keynote address, Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, represented by the Director of Food and Drugs Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Mrs Abisola Akinbisehin, noted the fact that “the Federal Ministry of Health is concerned with the formulation and implementation of policies related to health, creating awareness on reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health, ensuring sound nutrition including infant and young child feeding and care and safety of the elderly and adolescents.”
Prof. Adewole acknowledged some of the remarkable successes Nigeria had attained in addressing micronutrients deficiency problems with the support of international organisations and development partners such as GAIN, UNICEF and Micronutrient Initiative (MI).
He said: “This administration is aiming at developing a National Policy on Food Fortification to enable the country have a uniform set of principles/guidelines that would serve as a model for the rational addition of essential vitamins and minerals to food and for effective compliance to mandatory food fortification regulations by the Industry.”
Country Director of GAIN, Dr. Francis Aminu, recognised the fact that food fortification is a cost effective technology that yields huge returns on investments.
“We want to build on the experiences, achievements and lessons we have learnt over the years. Also we are catalysing the partnership that will be needed to move food fortification forward. In the past we have been doing it almost all alone. Now we are having more stakeholders and we have to expand the partnership to be able to see how we move food fortification forward,” he noted.
Stakeholders at the summit agreed that scaling up the availability and consumption of fortified foods in Nigeria would contribute to the achievement of a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reduce the incidence of Spina Bifida in unborn children, anaemia among women of reproductive age and enhance cognitive development within the first 1,000 days of life.
The roadmap of activities was subsequently agreed upon by stakeholders to address the above issues, which was underscored in the draft statement on food fortification. The activities were listed to include:
The need for better monitoring of fortification efforts, including industry self-regulation, and enforcement of necessary laws and regulations by SON and NAFDAC
The need to create a better enabling environment for fortification, such as by working with the Nigerian Custom Services to ensure that micronutrient premixes can be imported without current inappropriate and prohibitive taxes
The need to provide appropriate and adequate consumer education, awareness, and social marketing, and ensure coverage to base of the pyramid population segments and hard-to-reach groups
The need to identify new fortifiable food vehicles, since the current vehicles are excluding a significant proportion of the population
The need to develop and scale-up other means of getting micronutrients, for segments of the population that will be systematically and consistently excluded from all fortification efforts
The need to identify and promote innovative ways of financing fortification activities
The need to design, institutionalize, and implement frameworks for quality data collection that will generate evidence to guide ongoing and future food fortification efforts
The need to develop the National Food Fortification Policy that would provide a framework for addressing all of the issues discussed, including monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning.
It is impossible to look out over the winding waterways and lush green wetlands of the magnificent Okavango Delta and fail to understand the importance of conserving the natural world.
Tshekedi S. Khama, Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism of Botswana
A World Heritage Site teeming with plants, fish, birds and home to some of the planet’s most endangered animals, the delta is one of Botswana’s – and Africa’s – most impressive natural jewels.
It is clear that the world has a moral obligation to save areas of wild beauty like these: the planet would be poorer without them.
But it’s not only about saving nature for nature’s sake. It is also about recognising that the natural world, when looked after correctly, can contribute immensely in tackling some of the most critical problems facing humanity, from hunger to poverty, disease to climate change.
Here, in Sub Saharan Africa, more than 70 per cent of people depend on forests and woodlands for a living. Ecosystems like the Okavango Delta play a key role in Botswana’s economy, providing livelihoods for herders, farmers and fishermen alike in addition to the revenue accrued from tourism.
If we are to advance some of humanity’s highest ideals, then we need to improve the way we manage these vital ecosystems and sustainably harness the essential resources they provide us with.
Nowhere is the need for this greater than here in Africa. Reducing poverty, creating jobs, combatting climate change, ending hunger and driving sustainable economic growth on the continent – goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – will require trillions of dollars at a time when international financial assistance to Africa is on the decline.
But, despite the daunting costs involved, the potential for real transformation is there. Africa holds 30 per cent of the world’s mineral reserves, roughly 65 per cent of its arable land and 10 per cent of its internal renewable fresh water sources. Its fisheries are estimated to be worth $24 billion and the continent boasts the second largest tropical forest in the world. These are just some of the resources that make up Africa’s vast reserves of natural capital – the environmental assets that, if managed properly, could drive the continent’s transformation.
But simply extracting these resources will not be enough to bring long-lasting change. If current population and consumption trends continue, humanity will need the equivalent of two Earths to support itself by 2030. This is clearly not viable in a world where climate change will make it even harder for the natural world to provide for our basic needs.
So, instead of simply extracting natural resources and exploiting natural capital we need to start managing them sustainably. The economic incentives for this are compelling. Africa alone could save as much as $103 billion every year by harnessing its natural capital in a sustainable way – money that could then be pumped back into alleviating poverty, providing access to clean energy and improving education and health.
There are even more savings to be made by stemming the illicit flow of money from illegal logging, the illegal trade in wildlife, illegal fishing, illegal mining practices and degraded ecosystems.
In addition, sub-Saharan Africa currently spends $35 billion every year on food imports, a vast amount when you consider that only 3.5 million hectares out of a possible 240 million hectares of land suitable for wetland rice cultivation have been exploited.
By one of the most conservative estimates, the illegal plunder of the continent’s natural resources, its food imports and the damage done to its ecosystems loses Africa $195 billion every year.
This astonishing figure exceeds the total amount of money that Africa requires every year to invest in improving infrastructure, healthcare and education, and combatting climate change – all key goals of the 2030 Agenda.
If Africa is to achieve the sustainable development goals, then it is vital that we reverse these losses. This will require governments to roll back the damage done to ecosystems and tackle illicit financial flows. We can then redirect the recovered funds back into African economies and ensure that these funds are used to boost natural capital-based sectors like clean energy and agriculture.
The benefits of doing this are clear. In Africa, simply increasing crop yields by 10 per cent equates to a seven per cent reduction in poverty. Providing access to clean energy will reduce the indoor pollution that kills 600,000 people every year on the continent. And reversing environmental degradation and prioritising healthy ecosystems not only combats climate change but also helps to tackle desertification and reduce biodiversity loss.
Strong work has already gone into laying the foundation for a future that recognises the importance of natural capital. In 2012, in Botswana, a meeting between African heads of state and public and private sector partners adopted the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa.
The aim of the declaration is “to ensure that the contributions of natural capital to sustainable economic growth, maintenance and improvement of social capital and human well-being are quantified and integrated into development and business practice”.
This month, at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment in Cairo, Egypt, Africa will seek to build on the momentum generated in Gaborone by focusing on how natural capital can contribute to implementing the 2030 Agenda and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and its first ten-year plan, which aims to achieve a “prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development”.
These are major steps forward but they are only the beginning of the fight for a brighter, more prosperous future. To rally the world to greater action, countries like Botswana are pushing for the international community to come up with a clear plan on how best to manage natural capital in a way that fosters sustainable development and eradicates poverty.
In May 2016, countries will meet in Nairobi for the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) – the world’s most powerful decision-making body on the environment. At UNEA, Botswana, the DRC, Kenya and Zimbabwe will table a resolution that seeks to develop policies and programmes that will enable countries to sustainably harness natural capital, crack down on illicit financial flows, reverse the degradation of environmental assets and foster international cooperation.
It is crucial that the world comes together to pass this resolution so that we can expand and diversify our economies, create jobs, achieve food security, enhance the productivity of our ecosystems and achieve a more inclusive society.
These are noble ideals that we urgently need to make a reality. This is the Africa that we want and it is the future that people all over the world deserve.
By Tshekedi S. Khama, Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism of Botswana
