Luanda, 02/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - With just a few days to go until the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen kicks off (COP 15, 7-18 December), MEPs and representatives from ACP countries (in Africa/Caribbean/Pacific) held a lengthy debate on Tuesday 1 December in Luanda (Angola) on climate change. Their common position will be made formal on Thursday, as part of an emergency resolution setting out their conviction for taking urgent action.
The text testifies to a broad consensus and will request that the agreement to conclude in December be legally binding and that it promote fairness and social justice by taking into account issues such as population, industrial development and poverty. The Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) states that industrialised countries, which bear historical responsibility for a phenomenon of which poor countries are the main victims, should set an example by making a firm commitment to reducing their emissions by at least 25 to 40% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels and by at least 80% by 2050. Developing countries will make a commitment to adopting national mitigation measures in exchange for quantifiable, significant and verifiable support from industrialised countries towards strengthening capacity and financial and technological transfers. The JPA also asked the ACP and the EU to set a specific target on the use of renewable energies, and appealed for energy efficiency and renewable energy to be at the heart of ACP-EU development cooperation programmes as part of the Cotonou agreement. The JPA stresses that, if the large natural resources in ACP countries (particularly in Africa) really are to be utilised as the “planet's lungs”, as the whole world hopes, it will be necessary for this hope to be made possible by sufficient flows of finance that enable these countries to exploit their natural resources, while respecting the ecosystem for the good of all humanity. These financial flows should be in addition to public development aid. This demand became a leitmotiv during the debate.
The Assembly's ideas were bolstered by an exchange of views with Mr Sanda Kimbimbi, UNHCR Special Representative, on links between refugees and climate change. Mr Kimbimbi explained that climate change was one of the five factors identified by the UNHCR as a cause of huge numbers of refugees (the other factors were: population increase; urbanisation; migration; and - interpreted as a single factor - increased food prices; increased energy demand; and insecurity linked to water shortages). Mr Kimbimbi explained that attempting to tackle these trends in an isolated fashion is doomed to failure: “Last year 36 million people were displaced due to natural disasters, which are becoming increasingly frequent due to climate change. Those who are most vulnerable are communities which have increasingly fewer resources and people who are already experiencing poverty”. Climate change will have a multiple affect in causing population displacement and rising water levels, which are already being felt in small island peninsulas. Kimbimbi called on parliamentarians to be “in the forefront of efforts to tackle the tide of 'climate or environment change refugees'”. At the same time Mr Kimbimbi warned against using this term, which is in danger of undermining the asylum institution in all international documents. In the 1951 Convention on the status of refugees, the term refugee was defined as anyone having to leave their home territories due to war. He warned that “if we amend this definition, we are in danger of developing norms that are much less favourable than those of today. A new framework is necessary, as well as new concepts, for tackling the global challenge of climate change”.
Given the recent indications from China and the US, Horst Schnellhardt (EPP, Germany) said that he was optimistic about the potential result of Copenhagen. He declared that “an agreement is possible. At the very least, this agreement should focus on emissions reductions from all countries. The EU is committed to providing pro-active financial and technical support to developing countries but these countries must also make an effort to reduce industrial gas emissions and use the assistance granted appropriately”.
Benjamin Bounkoulou, a senator from the Congo, was delighted that the JPA refers to the inestimable value of biodiversity as represented by the Central African forest. He hopes that the JPA resolution will be unanimously adopted and welcomed the opportunity provided to ACP countries of better natural resources management. Still speaking on the same frequency, Hamatoukour Bobbo, a parliamentarian from Cameroon, underlined the fact that “the Congo basin represents a huge and important nature reserve”. He noted, however, that “the EU and World Bank had a tendency to particularly help Asian and Central American countries which had extensively destroyed their forests”. Instead of awarding this prize to bad forest management, he requested that the African countries involved in this issue be given the means to “maintain our good management”. Mr Toga, a delegate from Ethiopia, was delighted that in Copenhagen, Africa will for the first time speak with a single voice by way of the Ethiopian prime minister, at the head of a single negotiating team. He declared that “we want to adopt green technologies to protect the most vulnerable African forests. Remedies to climate change due to human action can be found in human action. This is what we expect from Copenhagen”.
Françoise Castex (S&D, France) underlined the need to distinguish between mitigation and adaptation and that “in an unequal world, the consequences of climate change make these inequalities deeper”. As proof she cited the “prowess demonstrated by the Netherlands to adapt” whilst the Mekong region “built houses on stilts, planted mangroves and handed out buoys”. The need for a technology transfer is urgent in developing countries and is therefore “a question of life or death”. Peya Mushelenga (Namibia), accused rich countries of causing global warming and regretted that “many of the resources are now needed to reconstruct when we could have in fact used these resources differently”. Mr Darbo from Chad appealed for support from the international community to urgently save the Chad Lake, which helps towards the planet's equilibrium. This lake measured 25 000 km2 in 1960 but is now just 2 500 km2. This could have a huge impact on annual rainfall, fauna and people. Digging a canal between this body of water and the Central African Republic would help towards preventing a massive displacement of the population, he warned. Amadou Ciré Sall, a delegate from Senegal, drew attention to coastal erosion on the West African coast, which “destroys habitats and rivers”, and lakes and lagoons, he explained, were disappearing and floods occurring and “causing disease and the displacement of entire families”. This is the basis for his appeal for additional public development aid as a way of “participating in the long-term construction of sustainable development in the coastal region for marine and coastal ecosystems”. Maurice Ponga (EPP, France) appealed for a tax on financial transactions. Citing the example of green schools in New Caledonia, he also highlighted the importance of “involving young people in the fight against climate change”. Speaking on behalf of the European Commission, Stefano Manservici, Director of DG development, noted that the impact of climate change on the millennium development goals had already begun. He pointed out that “adaptation funds are now available to invest in the capacity of poor countries to orientate towards environmentally-friendly development”. He also asserted that national parliaments have an important role to play in the national action plans of these countries. According to Manservici, it is necessary to remain close to the ground if these funds are to be used well. (A.N./transl.fl)