05/04/2011 - The top
United Nations climate change official yesterday
(April 4) urged countries to tackle the
key issues of emission reduction targets
as well as funding and technology to assist
developing nations tackle global warming,
as the first UN negotiations for this year
got under way in Bangkok.
"Here in Bangkok,
governments have the early opportunity to
push ahead to complete the concrete work
they agreed in Cancún, and to chart
a way forward that will ensure renewed success
at the next UN Climate Change Conference
in Durban", said Christiana Figueres.
"If governments
move forward in the continued spirit of
flexibility and compromise that inspired
them in Mexico, then I'm confident they
can make significant new progress in 2011",
she added.
Dubbed the Cancún
Agreements, the decisions reached at the
16th Conference of the Parties to the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
in December last year include formalizing
mitigation pledges and ensuring increased
accountability for them, as well as taking
concrete action to tackle deforestation,
which account for nearly one-fifth of global
carbon emissions.
Delegates at that meeting
also agreed to ensure no gap between the
first and second commitment periods of the
Kyoto Protocol, an addition to the Convention
that contains legally binding measures to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and whose
first commitment period is due to expire
in 2012.
Agreement was also reached
on establishing a fund for long-term climate
financing to support developing countries,
and bolstering technology cooperation and
enhancing vulnerable populations ability
to adapt to the changing climate.
Ms. Figueres, the Executive
Secretary of the UNFCCC, called on governments
to rapidly advance work to complete the
institutions which were agreed and deliver
the funding and technology to help developing
countries deal comprehensively with climate
change.
"It is important that the agreed actions
and institutions are delivered on time and
in accordance with the deadlines agreed
in Cancun so that the broader global climate
regime is up and running in 2012",
she said.
The institutions include
a Green Climate Fund to house the international
management, deployment and accountability
of long-term funds for developing country
support; a Technology Mechanism to promote
clean technologies; and an Adaptation Framework
to boost international cooperation to help
developing countries protect themselves
from climate change impacts.
The other main task
governments have before them, she noted,
relates to the emission reduction targets
and actions which would allow the world
to stay below the maximum temperature rise
of two degrees Celsius, which was agreed
in Cancún.
Governments this year
need to resolve fundamental issues over
the future of the Kyoto Protocol, she stressed.
"Governments need to figure out how
to address this issue and how to take it
forward in a collective and inclusive way",
she said. "Resolving the issue will
create a firmer foundation for a greater
collective ambition to cut emissions."
Some 1,500 participants
from 173 countries, including government
delegates, representatives from business
and industry, environmental organizations
and research institutions, are attending
the talks in the Thai capital, which are
scheduled to conclude on Friday (April 8).
Source: UN News Centre at www.un.org/news
ASCOM
+ More
Parties to UN Climate
Change Convention appoint team to design
new climate fund
27/04/2011 - Parties
to the United Nations Climate Change Convention
announced on April 15 the selection of a
40-member committee tasked with designing
an international fund to manage resources
mobilized to enable developing countries
to address the effects of climate change.
The UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said the transitional
committee will prepare operational specifications
for the Green Climate Fund in time for approval
by the next UN Climate Conference in Durban,
South Africa, in December.
"The high level
of interest among governments in contributing
to the design process is a demonstration
of the great interest among parties in the
Green Climate Fund", said Christiana
Figueres, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary.
"Parties have put forward experienced
and respected individuals from the fields
of finance and climate change", she
said.
"The transparent,
predictable and adequate provision of finance
in the long term is essential to ensure
that the poor and vulnerable can build themselves
a sustainable future in the face of climate
change", she added.
The transitional committee
will have its first meeting in Mexico City
on 28 April.
The Green Fund is being
launched in the broad context of long-term
financial support agreed last year at the
UN climate change conference in Cancún,
Mexico, under which industrialized countries
committed to a goal of jointly mobilizing
$100 billion per year by 2020.
The funds would be raised
from both public and private sources and
directly linked to meaningful climate change
mitigation actions and transparency on implementation.
The Cancún Agreements
are a set of decisions by the international
community to address the long-term challenge
of climate change collectively and comprehensively
over time and to take concrete action to
speed up global response.
The Green Climate Fund
was only one of several new institutions
agreed at Cancún. The others are
a technology mechanism to get clean technologies
to the right places and an adaptation framework
to boost international cooperation to help
developing countries protect themselves
from the impacts of climate change.
Source: UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
