Developing Nations Seek Funding & Technology to Battle Climate Change

By an IPS Correspondent Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 23 2017 - The negative fallout from climate change has not only severely impacted on the world’s developing nations but also eroded development gains undermining and delaying the achievement of the 17goals under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“We are already taking significant steps in this regard. Nonetheless, for our common goals to be achieved, enhanced and adequate financial and technology support, as well as capacity building, must be provided to allow for effective action both pre-2020 and beyond,” Helena Yanez Loza, Minister and Deputy Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations, told delegates.

“In the context of implementation, we believe Parties should respect, promote and consider their respective obligations, including the rights of people in vulnerable situations,” she added

Speaking on behalf of the Group of 77, joined by China, she told the high-level meeting on “Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Agenda” that last year’s Paris Agreement on Climate Change was a result of a collective effort by all Parties working constructively in a spirit of compromise, to timely and effectively address the global challenge posed by the adverse impacts of climate change, through enhancing the implementation of the Convention.

This included its provisions and principles, in particular equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances.

During the implementation phase, the delicate balance of all the elements of the Paris Agreement as well as the principles and provisions of the Convention must be preserved, she argued.

The Group also stressed that developed countries should continue taking the lead in addressing climate change, particularly in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, in accordance with historical responsibilities and their respective capabilities.

She also reiterated the urgent need to enhance the pre-2020 ambition, including with the ratification of the Doha amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, which will provide a strong basis for post-2020 efforts under Paris Agreement.

“We need to address the significant gap between the aggregate effect of Parties’ mitigation pledges by 2020 and aggregate emission pathways consistent with holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5º C.”

The focus now should be on delivering major tasks to enhance pre-2020 implementation including action on adaptation, which is an urgent priority for developing countries.

It is therefore regrettable, she said, that after more than four years, only 75 parties have deposited their instruments of acceptance to the Doha Amendment.

The Group reiterates that the unfinished business of the pre-2020 actions and ambition, which are long overdue, must be urgently addressed. The Group sees the Kyoto Protocol as a fundamental building block in our post-2020 efforts. “We urge all Parties that have not done so to ratify the Doha Amendment expeditiously.”

The Group also emphasized the relevance and priority it allocates to adaptation, as a matter of urgency for developing countries whose capacities to carry out actions to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change are limited.

“We therefore urge that progress in implementing the Paris Agreement must reflect balance between adaptation and mitigation.”

On financing, she said, that although a certain level of progress has been made on finance within UNFCCC, the Group remains particularly keen for clarity or assurances on the mobilization and provision of scaled up financial resources for developing countries, in particular for achieving a balance of financing for mitigation and adaptation.

Predictability and adequacy of financing for adaptation remain important difficulties to be solved. Certainty for the financing of an Adaptation Fund that serves the Convention, including the Paris Agreement, also needs to be guaranteed.

Timely and effective actions by the entities related to the UNFCCC financial mechanism, the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility, and from the Standing Committee on Finance are expected for developing country Parties to access adequate means of implementation to undergo actions on mitigation and adaptation both pre and post-2020.

“Adequate, predictable and sustained finance, technology and capacity-building must be ensured to assist developing country Parties to enhance our climate actions”, she declared.