UN Climate Talk opens with people hungry for action

The United Nations Climate Conference opening on Monday in Lima, Peru carries the prospects of putting the world on the pathway to a comprehensive climate agreement in 2015, experts say. 

According to Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) “we must draw several critical lines of action” such as bringing a draft of a new, universal climate change agreement to the table and clarifying how national contributions will be communicated next year.

She also expects a consolidated progress on adaptation to achieve political parity with mitigation, given the equal urgency of both.

“We must enhance the delivery of finance, in particular to the most vulnerable. And finally, we must stimulate ever-increasing action on the part of all stakeholders to scale up the scope and accelerate the solutions that move us all forward, faster,” she urged.

Amidst cautious optimism, African civil society groups under the umbrella of the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) have called for a draft text to be adopted in Paris next year that will commit countries to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

Speaking at the Pre-UNFCCC COP 20 Consultative Consultative workshop in Lima, Sam Ogallah stated that PACJA’s strength is embedded on the preparedness of the African civil society at all levels to ensure that the New Climate Change Agreement to be concluded in Paris in 2015 is responsive to African aspirations and realities.

Robert Chimambo added that Africa expects nothing short of a comprehensive draft agreement for 2015 in Lima as the stakes are already high with Africa being at the receiving end of the disastrous consequences of climate change.

The UN environment programme warned earlier this month that industrialised countries were falling short of the emissions reductions needed to prevent warming of 2C above pre-industrial levels, the goal set by world leaders. Carbon dioxide emissions are expected to reach a record high of 40bn tonnes in 2014. Meanwhile, 2014 is shaping up to be the hottest on record.

On the basis of the foregoing, “PACJA will continue to strengthen African CSOs and our allies from the south and north in the effort to ensure a broadened ownership of this process. It is our desire, together with partners convening and supporting this Forum, that all people, especially those who are at the frontline of climate change impacts, be involved in the effort to find solution. That’s the only way to make our voices and choices be heard in the Countdown to Paris, and the only way to build effective resilience,” Ogallah says.

The Lima Climate talks which holds from 1-12 December includes the 20^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 10^th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 10).

Three subsidiary bodies will also convene: the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), and the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP).

The conference will consider agenda items related to finance, mitigation, adaptation and technology. The COP will also hear a report from the ADP concerning progress made during the third year of its mandate to develop “a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties” by 2015 to enter into force no later than 2020.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, Chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), noted that any further delay will make response to Climate Change too late and too expensive for humanity.

“The window of opportunity to act on climate change is soon closing,” he observed. “Science offers clear rationale for climate action now.”

He stressed that nearly a quadrupling of low-carbon energy is required by 2050, to address the impact of Climate Change.

The UN climate talks in Lima opened with a flame of solidarity as an estimated 10,000 people around the world joined together in the largest ever climate fast to show support for the victims of climate change.

“In this struggle to ensure the New Climate Change Agreement to be concluded in Paris in 2015 is responsive to African aspirations and realities, our voices should be amplified. We need critical mass to drive our agenda at global level. We need unity and commitment to stick on what we agree as African civil society organizations in particular and global civil organizations in general” said Mithika Mwenda of PACJA.

Kofi Adu Domfeh in Lima, Peru