11:09 AM |
|
PO Box 240, Apia, Samoa
| SPREP Press Release
Climate Change – reflections and future directions
The Tuvalu exhibition booth at the Copenhagen COP 15
In December 2009 the United Nations Framework for the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) was held in Copenhagen. After an intense two weeks of negotiations and meetings, the meeting took note of the Copenhagen Accord.
For the Pacific, the strong commitment to a good outcome for our region was evident in the large delegations as well as over 10 Pacific Leaders attending to show support. The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) had a support team of six staff which provided technical, communications and administrative support to the Pacific that was led by SPREP Director, Mr. David Sheppard.
This meeting saw the strong support of partnerships as the Pacific region worked to raise their profile and become a firm negotiating block within the Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS).
SPREP held a High Level Briefing for the heads of delegations and Pacific leaders during the COP15, the event was coordinated in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for which the head of the UNDP and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark was the keynote speaker. This event was held after requested by SPREP member countries, in order to help prepare and brief the Pacific Leaders on the World's biggest climate change conference.
Media and Communications of the COP 15 and the Pacific and AOSIS delegations was strong with a climate pasifika media team led by SPREP, that provided awareness for the region and internationally, technical support and advice to the delegations as well as the formation of a blogsite – www.climatepasifika.blogspot.com. The Pacific region staged several Pacific press conferences during COP15, as well as the launch of the SIDS dock and an impromptu AOSIS press conference which led to numerous international reports with world wide media.
Pacific islands countries also played major roles in raising awareness with Kiribati having a side event which helped share the impacts of climate change upon their island nation and their people. Tuvalu had an exhibition booth at COP 15 and pacific islands youth also featured strongly in sharing our voices as several delegations included young Pacific islanders as well as those that were part of the Project Survival Pacific.
In all, from December 7 – 18, the Pacific region came together to ensure the World heard how climate change is impacting upon this region in a strong effort to see a legally binding agreement true to the call of "1.5 to stay alive".
Several months on after the Copenhagen COP15, we spoke to SPREP's climate change adviser, Mr. Espen Ronneberg about the Copenhagen meeting and the direction from here onwards.
Q. How was COP 15 in Copenhagen? [Espen Ronneberg] It was a meeting like all other conferences, it had its up and downs with many positive things for the Pacific but of course the outcome of the conference - only taking note of the Copenhagen Accord created some difficulties in the perception of countries of what actually happened in Copenhagen. An analysis of the Copenhagen Accord shows that it did fall short of Pacific Islands expectations in a number of areas and we're currently working on a paper to highlight some of those issues but be that as it may, a number of Pacific Islands countries have associated themselves with the Copenhagen Accord while others have rejected it, that means that we as the secretariat can only really provide the technical advice as to what the accord says and how it will operate. There are a lot of unknowns unfortunately, in particular the aspect that it was only taken note of by the Conference of the Parties so that puts into question its legal status and whether the accord will be binding in any other way. It also puts into question the issue of the new funding - how it will be disbursed, who will control the disbursal of the funding? And so forth. There were a number of unanswered questions within the text of the accord that we are now grappling with.
Q. The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme staged a high level briefing followed by a high level dinner during the Conference upon the request of the member countries at the Pacific Climate Change Roundtable in October 2009. What was this about and how successful was it? [Espen Ronneberg] Our Members had asked us to prepare not only a briefing for the start of the conference, but also to provide a special briefing for the Heads of Delegation, many of whom were Presidents and Prime Ministers. The briefing was intended to recap on some of the key issues in the negotiations and to highlight the status of these issues at that time. We were asked to keep the briefing as non-technical and informative as possible, and this allowed for good interactive discussions with the Leaders. This is perhaps one indication of success, but reading the interventions of the Leaders in the meeting and in their press statements, it was clear that the Leaders had been well prepared for the conference by their delegations, perhaps aided in a small way by the SPREP briefing.
Q. So how legal is the Copenhagen Accord and if more and more countries associate themselves with the accord, will it grow in strength? [Espen Ronneberg] I don't think it will gain universal acceptance, we've seen a number of fairly strongly worded responses from countries both within our region and throughout the world so it's unlikely that it will receive universal adherence. That being said even those countries within our region who have associated themselves with the accord have done so with a number of caveats and have all recognized the Copenhagen Accord to be a first step to a legally binding agreement. Hopefully that can be negotiated and completed at the next UNFCCC Conference of the Parties in Mexico, in December.
Q. The Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS) stood firm in their call for the 1.5 Degrees limit on global temperature rise. If countries within AOSIS, including the Pacific are now associating themselves with the accord, how will that impact upon the united call for 1.5? [Espen Ronneberg] We haven't had any political level meetings of the group that would overturn the common agreement on the 1.5 degrees and it must be said that the Copenhagen accord does have some leeway as to taking a stronger target that 2 degrees, but a possibility of realignment of the position would have to be taken at a political level. From a technical perspective we still feel that there is merit to the position that the Pacific Islands Countries took coming in to Copenhagen. I think that is something that will be a political decision at the end of the day, that the countries will have to discuss internally and between them. SPREP will continue to provide the technical advice and from a scientific point of view the 1.5 degrees target does appear to be the safest window for the region but we will follow the lead of our member states.
Q. So, to date the island states of the Pacific region is still in support of the call for 1.5? [Espen Ronneberg] We have some opportunities to discuss this with the Pacific, starting with a gathering in March to further consult with the climate change focal points from the Pacific Islands Countries. First of all there will be a number of adaptation workshops here in Samoa that will give us an opportunity to liaise with our climate change adaptation focal points to take stock of where we are on the adaptation negotiations and then later on in March there will be a meeting of the Australian Pacific climate change science programme which will also give us an opportunity to meet with all the climate change focal points and to discuss with them some next steps forward to do.
Q. You mentioned earlier that there were some good outcomes for the Pacific, what are some of these? [Espen Ronneberg] Well I think from a public relations point of view there was a growing media awareness - a lot more information abut the impacts from the Pacific have been shared with a much wider audience. The presentation that Kiribati made from their side event was really compelling and was a real eye opener for a number of people who just don't understand the realities of atolls countries facing climate change. So, from several perspectives I think that that Pacific did get their message out in the Copenhagen conference. We haven't as yet been able to get the world to act on those problems but I think we have to take this a step at a time so from the point of view of that the awareness of Pacific climate change problems – it was a really good effort by the Pacific Islands countries. I also think that the having so many dedicated people from the Pacific working together with the other island countries enhanced the negotiating abilities of the region and put the pacific more in the drivers seat of many of the work streams under AOSIS. The groundwork has been laid by these skilled negotiators and can be used to build a stronger final agreement.
Q. So apart from the Copenhagen Accord, how did the negotiations progress and what are the next steps? [Espen Ronneberg] The decision of Conference of the Parties collects together all the negotiated text as they stand now and forwards them to the next meeting so everything is still on the table. I think the work I was most involved with which was the adaptation group was really very close to getting agreement - the things that were still left unresolved mainly related to the work that was happening in other working groups for example, the working group on finance and the working group on capacity building. So once the resolution had been reached in all three groups we would have had a good outcome on adaptation but we never had that opportunity to bring together all the different text and to see where a compromise could lie.
Q. So, there is still a lot of work to do over the coming year to ensure a legally binding agreement is formed at the end of the year? [Espen Ronneberg] We only have two official meetings scheduled this year - Germany in May-June and then the Mexico COP 16 meeting in December, but there will have to be other negotiating opportunities to see if there is some willingness to bridge the gaps and come up with a compromise that everyone is willing to do. There was a request from the FCCC Secretariat for views on the programme of work, and a final decision on this will be made in the next week by the COP Bureau. We are fortunate to have the Ambassador of the Solomon Islands, H.E. Mr. Collin Beck on the Bureau, so we expect to hear the outcomes very soon.
Q. How about work from SPREP? A lot was undertaken last year as part of the Pacific Year of Climate Change to help the region prepare for the Copenhagen COP 15, will this work continue? [Espen Ronneberg] That is our intention, we achieved a lot last year and that was clear by the strong Pacific input at the COP 15. We will utilize the opportunities in March to get a better feeling for what the member countries would like us to provide in terms of support, but we would like to continue the negotiation skills training, more of the media training and some targeted work on specific work on areas in negotiations.
For more details please contact SPREP's Climate Change Adviser, Mr. Espen Ronneberg at E: espenr@sprep.org T: (685) 21929 E: www.sprep.org
NOTE: Should you need images from COP15 in Copenhagen, please contact SPREP's Associate Media and Publications Officer – Nanette Woonton – nanettew@sprep.org
|
--- You are currently subscribed to media as: pacificmedia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-30881-4518.597c7b407a02cc0a92167e7a371eca25@lyris.sprep.org
You are receiving this post as a valuable member of the "Pacific Island Journos Online" group, or because someone on the network shared it. That's OK. We believe in Pacific diversity and debate on the issues that unite and divide us as a media industry.
DISCLAIMER: Did a post from the Pacificmedia (PIJO) group please or offend you? Please be warned. This is an unmoderated list. Responsbility for all content and language used in posts rests with the individual contributing it. This means anyone reading a message from the Pacific Islands Journalists Online discussion group should clearly understand whatever they have received, directly or otherwise, should not be understood as a position or endorsement by the online network.
Member only EMAIL: pacificmedia@googlegroups.com
WEBlink: http://groups.google.co.nz/group/pacificmedia?hl=en
LEAVING us? Send an email to pacificmedia-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
----------------------------------------
pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
----------------------------------------
The pima.nius googlegroup is a facility for discussion and distributing information. Content sent by this googlegroup are forwarded from various networks and media publications.
DISCLAIMER: These emails are unedited and discussions made through this googlegroup are unmoderated. Announcements made through this googlegroup do not constitute endorsement for the organisations, individuals or opinions featured. Please check the integrity of organisations and individuals before exchanging personal information with them.
- - - - - - - - -
comment here:
http://groups.google.com/group/pima-nius/topics?hl=en
send an email comment here:
pima-nius@googlegroups.com
unsubscribe:
pima-nius+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
more options
http://groups.google.com/group/pima-nius?hl=en?hl=en
- - - - - - - - -
0 comments:
Post a Comment