There was hope at the ongoing Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Paris following the release of a draft text of agreements on Thursday. The ‘text’ is a set of agreements by the 195 countries that signed up to the UNFCCC.
The text as released show that the world has agreed (tentatively) to keep global carbon emissions levels between the 1.5 -2 degree benchmark.
The draft text has been a major source of disagreement between the developed and developing nations with each country seeking to include issues that are most favourable to it.
Some of the contentious issues which divided the negotiators include an agreement to lower carbon emissions below the 1.5 degree (pre-industrial revolution) benchmark. The African group of negotiators, Small Island states and Asia are pushing for a reduction in carbon emission below 1.5 while many of the developed countries led by the United States of America (USA) want to cap emissions at 2 degrees.
Another issue of contention was the inclusion of the Loss and Damage in the text; this would have opened up a litany of lawsuits from developing countries against the developed nations and the big polluting states. The issue of finance was also key with the developing countries insisting on the “polluter pays” principle. Nigeria’s conditional Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) also indicates that the country will lower emissions by 45 percent if finances are made available.
However, in the text released Parties appeared to have taken the agitations of many developed countries into consideration. “Parties hereby establish the global goal of enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing
vulnerability to climate change, [in accordance with the objective, principles and provisions of the Convention, including common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,] with a view to contributing to
sustainable development [and ensuring adaptation in the context of the goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature below [2 degrees C] [[2 or] 1.5 degrees C referred to in Article 2].
The parties also agreed to set machinery in motion that would address the irreversible and permanent damage arising from climate change. While this is well below a well-defined agreement on loss and damage, it is a step towards justice for vulnerable countries.
“A process to develop approaches to address irreversible and permanent damage resulting from human-induced climate change will be initiated under the [Warsaw International Mechanism] [CMA] with a view to completing this process within four years].
Also of great importance is the agreement on climate finance which will see $100billion per year contribution towards adaption and mitigation efforts.
“The provision and mobilization of financial resources by developed country Parties and other developed Parties included in Annex II shall represent a progression beyond their previous efforts with clearly
Identified pathways to annual expected levels of available resources towards achieving short-term collective quantified goals for the post 2020 period to be periodically established and reviewed.
“Financial resources shall be scaled up from a floor of US$100 billion per year, including a clear burden sharing formula, and in line with needs and priorities identified by developing country Parties in the context of contributing to the achievement of the purpose as defined in Article 2 of this Agreement. It shall take into account an equitable regional distribution of financial resources and a gender sensitive approach, and include the implementation of Articles 5 and 6 of the Convention.”
The agreement will also see technology transfer and capacity building for Least Developed Countries including Nigeria from developed countries to help combat the impacts of climate change.
“Capacity building under this Agreement should enhance the capacity and ability of [countries][developing country Parties, in particular countries with the least capacity, such as LDCs and SIDS and African countries[in accordance with the principles and provisions of the Convention]]to take effective climate change action, including, inter alia, to implement adaptation and mitigation actions, and facilitate technology development,
dissemination and deployment, access to climate finance, relevant aspects of education, training and public awareness, and the transparent, timely and accurate communication of information.
In the overall analysis, world leaders seem to have moved many steps ahead of saving the world from carbon emissions by an ambitious move to curb global warming below the 2 degree bench mark. According to Germana Canzi, senior international analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), the negotiations have moved forward.
“The French Presidency has done a very good job in moving negotiations forwards and ensuring there is positive momentum towards a deal after the ambition generated by global leaders last week.
“Ministers have clearly made huge progress in the last few days, but there are still issues to be resolved, including on the long-term goal that is ultimately needed to solve climate change.
“Many countries have come into negotiations recognizing that a clean energy transition and a decoupling of emissions from economic growth are underway already, but Paris could be a key accelerator towards the end of the fossil fuel age.”
According to Patrick Cage, Coordinator of the ParisAgreement.org media platform, the draft text revealed continued political will from the countries. “Our analytic demonstrate the progress being made towards a final universal Paris Agreement. Countries support of the presidency to develop a new text revealed continued political will and signaled positive momentum in crafting what may become the largest environmental agreement of our lifetime.”
But Kaisa Kosonen of Greenpeace said the agreement has imprints from the oil companies. “Some of the words in this text are smeared with the fingerprints of the oil-producing states. It’s a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly, but we’ve got three days to force the worst stuff out and get a decent deal. It’s crunch-time now, it’s going be hard, but there’s a lot still to fight for. It’s good that a temperature goal of 1.5 degrees C is still there,” she said.
The draft shows a progress from the 1,609 open brackets and 228 Options in the pre-COP Nov 10th draft text to 366 open brackets and 47 Options.
