By AS THE Bonn Climate Conference opened earlier this week in Germany, small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs) have clearly articulated their requirement for progress on the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) on climate finance, which will determine their ability to respond to and survive climate change in the coming years.
“The success of these talks is really making progress on all the work we have started, especially on the NCQG, mitigation and loss and damage and the many other critical thematic areas we need progress on here in Bonn and set a precedent for what we need to achieve in Baku at COP29,” said Anne Rasmussen, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS).
She was speaking at an AOSIS and LDCs press conference on June 3 in Bonn. Also known as the 60th sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SB 60) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the conferences taking place at the World Conference Centre Bonn from June 3 to 13.
According to Rasmussen, the time is now for countries to stop talking at each other and to instead really listen to each, given what is at stake, certainly for SIDS and LDCs who are the most vulnerable to climate change impacts.
“We need to listen to each other and stop just speaking positions toward each other [and] really listen to what the circumstances of SIDs and LDCs are. People and groups [also] need to listen to each other in terms of accelerating tasks from here and closing the implementation gaps in these discussions as well,” she said, adding that their progress in Bonn helps to set the stage for Baku, Azerbaijan where the international climate talks (COP29) will be held later this year.
Her sentiment was shared by Evans Njewa, chair of LDCs, who said that a measure of their success at SB 60 will be to leave Bonn having a common understanding of what will be the key elements of the NCQG “we will get in Baku”.
“These key elements revolve around a common understanding that we would need a quantum, a figure to be in the goal and this quantum figure should be one based on science and the needs of our developing countries,” he said.
“Obviously, we also need to have a common understanding that it is the commitment of developed countries as we have agreed in the Convention (UNFCCC) but also in the Paris Agreement that developed countries shall provide this climate finance. So they should be seen to be taking the lead. Also we should be working toward making the whole process, accessible, equitable and offer opportunities in a manner that will reach out to our vulnerable countries,” Njewa added.
Article 9 of the Paris Agreement, the global deal on climate change agreed in 2015, provides that “as part of a global effort, developed country Parties should continue to take the lead in mobilising climate finance from a wide variety of sources, instruments and channels, noting the significant role of public funds, through a variety of actions, including supporting country-driven strategies, and taking into account the needs and priorities of developing country Parties”.
“Such mobilisation of climate finance,” it states, “should represent a progression beyond previous efforts”.
It goes even further to state that “the provision of scaled-up financial resources should aim to achieve a balance between adaptation and mitigation, taking into account country-driven strategies, and the priorities and needs of developing country Parties, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and have significant capacity constraints, such as the LDCs and SIDS, considering the need for public and grant-based resources for adaptation”.
According to the AOSIS lead negotiator on climate finance, Michai Robertson, these are precisely the elements that should inform the NCQG, which should see trillions going to SIDS and LDCs to avert climate catastrophe in these countries.
“The cost of inaction if we don’t spend those trillions just far exceed the minute amount of seed money that we are putting into this new goal,” he noted at the press conference.
“The next thing … is that climate finance has to be grant based and highly concessional … SIDS and LDCs are here to reaffirm our partnership to operationalise our special case and the special case as it is articulated in the Paris Agreement in the specific article that deals with climate finance,” he added.
