Cancun, Mexico – Last-minute agreements at the just-ended Cancun UN Climate Change Conference have been greeted with enthusiasm by negotiators and participants who now see a real possibility for some kind of a legally binding instrument being adopted in Durban, South Africa next year, according to the Information and Communication Service (ICS) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Citing key aspects of the agreements arrived at in the Mexican sea-side resort, ICS reports that after the post-Copenhagen pessimism, the mood among negotiators and participants was generally upbeat, heightening expectations for the next conference, COP17, billed for Durban South Africa towards the end of 2011.
The Conference adopted a series of decisions, called the ‘Cancun Agreements’, setting governments on the move toward a low-emissions future and support enhanced action on climate change in the developing world.
Most significantly for African countries, the Parties agreed to set up the Green Climate Fund intended to raise and disburse $ 100 bn a year by 2020 to protect developing countries against climate impacts and assist them with low-carbon development.
The fund would be steered by a board of 24 members chosen evenly from developed and developing nations. It will initially use the World Bank as a trustee – as the US, EU and Japan had demanded – while giving oversight to a new body balanced between developed and developing countries.
On the eve of the landmark decision, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, urged the Parties to use at least 60 percent of the fast-track fund meant for financing climate change adaption and mitigation activities in developing countries to kick-start the future African Green Fund.
Speaking at a panel discussion on progress on the Green Fund project, Mr. Janneh argued that since “Africa’s ability to deal with impacts of climate change depends essentially on the availability of financial resources, the mobilization of resources for the African Green Fund should be done in a sustainable manner, bearing in mind that it cannot be a one-year affair”.
“We want resources that are sustainable. That is why ECA will work closely with the Green Fund through the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) to ensure that it succeeds,” Mr. Janneh said. He made it clear that ACPC, a joint programme of the ECA, the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission has a clear mandate to strengthen capacities in Africa to deal with climate change challenges.
Mr. Janneh led the UNECA delegation to the conference where the newly-launched African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) played a leading role in projecting African institutions represented at the two-week long exhibition at the Cancumesse grounds. Occupying Booth No. 2, ACPC distributed documents and CDs, fliers and postcards on climate change initiatives on the environment, agriculture and sustainable development in Africa.
“As we are among the few African institutions exhibiting here, our booth has been a key attraction for negotiators, government representatives, NGOs and civil society organizations in Cancun,” said Ms. Sophie Denekew who manned the booth throughout the Conference.
Denekew said she literally engaged hundreds of participants with information on climate change issues in Africa and booked future encounters between different stakeholders, ECA and ACPC officials.
After two weeks of negotiations in Cancun, countries agreed to launch a series of institutions and initiatives aimed at reducing the impacts of climate change among the developing countries, especially the poor and the vulnerable.
The texts adopted recognize that deeper cuts in carbon emissions are needed, although they did not go as far as establishing a clear mechanism for achieving the pledges countries have made, as developing countries had wanted.
The text on emission cuts only calls for “urgent action” to cap temperature rises at no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and for work to be undertaken on a second period of the Kyoto Protocol to ensure there is no gap when it expires in 2012, but the deal does not oblige countries to be part of the new round.
The Kyoto Protocol makes no demands on emerging economies to curb emissions, and China persistently refused to be subjected to a treaty, although India said it would at least consider binding action in the future, a move that surprised many because throughout the conference it had towed the Chinese line.
Although the Cancun decisions fall short of the comprehensive agreement that many countries wanted at last year’s Copenhagen Summit and continued to seek in Cancun, African negotiators worked for and obtained the setting up of a fund to administer assistance to developing countries, especially those in Africa.
It is a well known fact African countries are already suffering more floods and drought due to rising temperatures, even though their combined share of carbon emissions is insignificant.
For the first time, actions by developing countries to reduce emissions have been officially recognized under the multilateral process, as a registry will henceforth be set up to record and match developing country mitigation actions for financial and technological support from industrialized countries. Developing countries will be required to publish progress reports every two years, according to the agreements.
