No Vague Decisions Please...

Mahlet Eyassu
Climate Change Program Manager
Forum for Environment

 The first week of the Durban COP has ended and it seems like things have not moved forward.   Parties are not yet knuckling down in concrete discussions and it almost looks like they are just waiting for their Ministers to arrive and lend an air of authority to the political discussions....and yet, there are lots of issues that need to be dealt with at the technical level.  

Just looking back at Cancun exactly a year ago, even though the weather seems the same, the mood in the corridors is different.  We were all here with a lesser expectation and lobbying hard to savemultilateralism, just to keep the motivation levels up and to get people back in work mode after the Copenhagen drama. Parties genuinely trying to get a balanced outcome started putting together parts of the puzzle, leaving the other part for the year to come. And now that year is up, it looks like we’re back to square one talking about another balanced package with some Parties wanting to re-arrange the same pieces of the puzzle they had already put together last year instead of fitting in the other pieces to complete the puzzle.  After seven long days and four more remaining of the negotiations, I personally am not sure what to expect at the end of this COP17.  This being THE African COP, I was hoping to see some actions and outcomes but the way I look at it now, we’re not going to get much…

I have been following Finance, which is the crucial element in these negotiations without which other decisions (adaptation, mitigation in developing countries, technology transfer and capacity building) cannot move forward.  Whatever outcome we get from here needs to be concrete such as the Green Climate Fund, which should beoperationalized in the first half of next year (2012) with a clear commitment and pledge from Annex I Parties to fill the fund majorly with public sources and other innovative sources of finance.  Without concrete decisions like this, it will be very difficult for me to go back home and tell my people that Parties have agreed to negotiate and/or continue discussions on certain elements. My country, Ethiopia, which is being affected by climate change impacts needs concrete decisions from this COP to be translated to action on the ground, not vague decisions meaning something else for other countries in the next session.

DROUGHT IN ETHIOPIA REQUIRES FINANCING FROM DEVELOPED COUNTRIES...DO IT BY DURBAN!

Mahlet Eyassu
Climate Change Program Manager
Forum for Environment
Ethiopia

We are now in Panama, for the intersessional which is the last meeting before the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Durban. The 17th COP will be in Durban, South Africa, which make this a very important COP for Africa.  Africa along with Least Developed Countries and the Small Island States are the most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Even though Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries that is showing a rapid economic growth, it is still being affected by drought.

At the moment the Horn of Africa, including Ethiopia, is confronted with recurring climate change related disasters, in particular prolonged droughts and floods. This drought is said to be the worst in 60 years. Drought is not something new for Ethiopia nor the Horn. However, it has become more recurrent and severe in the last decades.  Climate change is making the matters and problems worse for us who are under-developed.

In order to address the impacts of climate change, countries are negotiating under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In its 15th and 16th meetings an agreement was reached that developed countries will be supporting adaptation and mitigation actions of developing countries. We are now approaching the end of 2011, where the fast start finance of $30 billion for the years 2010-2012 is about to end. The other decision we have is the one on long-term finance to mobilize $100 billion by 2020. So far there are no pledges from the developed countries for the year 2013 and onwards.  That is a worry for us coming from the developing world. We have learned some lessons from the fast start finance, which is not new and not additional to the ODA, but is just relabeled as climate finance, given in the form of loans instead of grants. There is an imbalance between adaptation and mitigation with more money going to mitigation actions instead of adaptation.

Forty member countries of the transitional committee are designing the Green Climate Fund (GCF) of whose works will be presented in Durban to be approved by the Conference of Parties (COP).  However, most developed countries do not want to have any form of discussion on long-term finance which is supposed to fill this fund. With all of these climate related disasters happening in most parts of the world, especially developing countries being the most vulnerable and having no capacity to adapt, adaptation finance is very crucial for us. It is a matter of survival and should be taken seriously by others. Developed countries need to get more serious and commit themselves to discuss the sources of finance that will feed into the new fund. If we want an outcome in Durban, most discussions and texts need to happen here in Panama.

It is good to note that, developing countries at the local and national level are also working to raise funds for their adaptation and mitigation actions. In my organization back home, Forum for Environment-Ethiopia, we have started an initiative to raise funds, which can be used for some local adaptation actions. We have started implementing the green tax initiative in which 1% of our salaries are deducted every month. We have done this for the past year and have raised small amount, which has not been used yet. Now we want this to be taken up by other organizations at the country-level to show our commitments by raising more money and taking  local initiatives. We have started the process of engaging others to hopefully have a larger impact. Progress in Panama in all issues, especially finance, is very important for us to achieve something in the African COP in Durban.