On the penultimate day of COP 23, in Bonn on Thursday 16 November, a poignant plea for a more resolute commitment on the part of all countries to comply with their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreements was issued by the small island states that are the most vulnerable of all to climate change - most of which are ACP countries linked to the EU - referring both to the target of 1.5°C for the average increase in temperatures by the end of the century and to the funding to help adaptation measures and to compensate them for the loss and damage they have suffered. Their survival depends on this.
'Message received and understood', said the EU at a high-level event hosted by the Fijian Presidency of COP 23, in cooperation with the future Polish Presidency of COP 24 and the Maldives, which holds the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). The aim was to show the scale of the destructive impact of this loss and damage on the implementation of the universal sustainable development goals and to identify ways of pushing forward work that was stumbling on Thursday over the question of loss and damage.
This subject was the subject of its own specific article in the Paris Agreement, under which the parties agreed to continue the Warsaw mechanism and acknowledged the need to work together and reinforce both the understanding of the problem and action and support to the developing countries. This support will, amongst other things, include early warning systems, preparations for emergency situations, assessing and managing risks, risk insurance and non-economic losses. The small island states would like this question to continue to be dealt with as a specific subject.
“I am troubled by countries that try to block any progress on loss and damage. Climate deniers must go home. Those who deny their responsibility must leave the COP. We are facing a moral crisis”, said the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga, whose country is under threat of being completely submerged. Stressing the importance of guaranteeing a clean and renewable future for all, he added: “bravo to France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand” for their financing offers.
Baciro Djá, the Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau, a small African coastal state that is also threatened by rising sea levels, stressed the efforts made by his country to help the collective effort, by organising a sustainable forestry sector and a resilient agriculture system and developing renewables technologies. “On behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States, the LDCs, the G77 and China, and Africa, let us leave Bonn with a solid agreement to implement the Paris Agreement”, he urged.
“We cannot wait until 2020 to finance the support for the most vulnerable countries. We are resilient, but attention must be paid to our urgent needs, rather than wrap yourselves up in red tape”, said the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Allen Chastanet.
“At 2°C of warming, the impacts of the loss and damage would be catastrophic. At 3.2°, it is unimaginable”, he said. He went on to thank the “United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Chile and Mexico as well as the developing countries for their support”.
The quality of the agreement will depend on the specific details of the Paris working programme, to be finalised in 2018, with rules and procedures to determine how the countries are to meet their commitments, said the Prime Minister of Swaziland, Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini. “We don't have much time. We need reporting obligations on progress made and responsibility for the funds to be used for adaptation and loss and damage”, he warned. He went on to add that “for our part, we are committed to increasing the share of renewable energies and to an active policy of reforestation”.
Calling for long-term support for attenuation, adaptation and loss and damage, and reiterating that funds had already been pledged, the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Charlot Salwai, said: “we are not contributors to climate change, we are its victims”.
EU takes a reassuring stance. “We must act now to guarantee results for populations whose lives are at stake, even if this COP doesn't make the headlines”, said Siim Kiisler, the Estonian Minister for the environment and president-in-exercise of the 'Environment' Council, on behalf of the EU. He stressed that an agreement would be of value only if it is implemented and reiterated that the Paris working programme had to be finalised next year in Katowice (Poland), at COP 24. “At the same time, pre-2020 action is of the greatest importance to us. Within the EU, we are taking things very seriously”, he stressed, stating that last year, the EU reduced its emissions by 23% compared to 1990 figures, and that it was on track for -26% in 2020, when its target was 20% by then. This is alongside the fact that the fact that the EU will ratify the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol this year (see other article).
Last year, the EU provided more than €22 billion to support the continuation and adaptation efforts of the developing countries, or more than 50% of the total financing, added the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete.
He welcomed the fact that this COP under Fijian presidency had helped to get the message across about what climate change represents for small island states and marked the start of an international mechanism to deal with loss and damage. The Italian environment minister announced a contribution of a further €7 million to the adaptation fund and, along with Germany, the promotion of a network of green finance centres. His country has proposed to take the presidency of COP in 2020. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)