COP 20 Azeb Girmai IofC-Ethiopia on Adaptation & Mitigation Actions

Ms. Azeb Girmai of Initiatives of Change (IofC) and LDC Watch in conjunction with other panel speakers, addressed the issues of lack of support and funding from developed countries for LDC’s (Least Developed Countries) and Africa in terms of adaptation and mitigation, as well as binding adaptation actions not being embedded in the COP negotiations.

We are already seeing effects of climate change in Least Developed Countries and came to Lima, in the hope that this conference would set a path to an equitable climate regime, and finalise the preliminary structures in terms of having a text for the binding agreement on Climate Change to happen in Paris in 2015.  We accept that all countries, including LDCs have a responsibility to prevent climate change, and some are delivering on this, like China, however, we wanted a road map to see how this would work, and to see what developed countries would do to support developing countries to adapt to, and mitigate the effects of, climate change.This is the principle of common but differentiated responsibility that is clearly stated in the Convention, and means that developed countries have historical responsibility to curb their domestic emissions as well as to support those who do not have the capability to do so. Those developing countries that have the capability need to take up their responsibilities, stop all these talks and discussions that are leading nowhere and not bringing us any closer to any solutions for saving the world.

The African position on Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) has been steadfast and has spoken about inclusion of all the required elements, however, in an African context, we look at it from the point of view of that Adaptation is the primary perspective, and although we do appreciate that fact that mitigation efforts have to be made in compliance with the spirit of the convention, in order to achieve both aspects, we need to invest in technology and capacity building, specifically through the support of finance.  African civil society would like to ‘give caution’ to those parties wishing to derail this agreement, we are not going to allow this and support our African delegates going into COP 21, Paris and support their position.

Ms Lidy Nacpil : Most countries are now experiencing ‘new normals’ in extreme weather due to climate change, which are only expected to get worse, given fact that there are inevitable worsening of impacts of climate change because of historical and current emissions.  We can only hope for the stabilization of the climate change situation, as we can see from the political will of the governments in the negotiations, they are already way off their mark.  There are only a few years left for the governments to respond and take appropriate action and trust that they will realise very soon that time is running out. We will endeavour to muster sufficient strength among civil society, people’s movements, etc everywhere, so that we can compel governments to do what they must, because on their own, it’s very obvious that they are not going to be doing what they should be doing!

Links:
http://www.wri.org/our-work/topics/indcs   World Resource Institute ~ INDC’s
http://unohrlls.org/about-ldcs/      Least Developed Countries ~ LDC’s
http://www.eco-business.com/about/profile/4460/      Ms. Lidy Nacpil (Director at 350.org)