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| Country delegates celebrating Article 6 achievement, Photo: Diane McFadzien |
4 December 2012, Doha, Qatar - By
the end of the first week of UN Climate change negotiations, the agenda on
Article 6 – training, education and public awareness, had reached a decision to
be adopted.
The
Doha Work Programme on Article 6 of the United Nations Convention Framework on
Climate Change, an 8 year plan on how to approach awareness of climate change
will be presented to the parties to the convention next week for adoption.
This
was a moment to celebrate in these negotiations, where reaching an agreed
position is not always easy.
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| Mii Matamaki of the Cook Islands |
“We
are really happy that we have reached a consensus so quickly, it shows the true
spirit of cooperation and compromise in this process,” said Mii Matamaki of the
Cook Islands National Environment Service, she was following this arm of
negotiations.
“Article
6 is important to us in the Cook Islands as we do a lot of awareness work with
our communities on climate change. We
really wanted to follow this through to lobby for more funds so there is no
burden on our national budget in carrying out Article 6 of the convention.”
In
the Solomon Islands, Article 6 features a vital role to ensure that local
communities know what climate change is about and how it will impact them.
“It’s
important for the Solomon Islands government and our communities to ensure that
the work we do on climate change awareness and understanding reaches those that
are really affected by it,” said Chanel Iroi of the Solomon Islands.
There
are six thematic areas in the Doha Programme of work under Article 6, these
are; Education; Training; Public awareness; Public access to information;
Public participation and; International cooperation.
The
New Delhi Programme of work that guided all Education, public awareness and
training ended this year. It was
reviewed and gaps that were identified were included in the Doha programme of
work to be adopted by the parties and implemented as of next year.
The
Solomon Islands are coming to the end of a climate change awareness raising
activity with a twist. The Ministry of
Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology have staged a band
competition calling for bands to submit lyrics for songs. The Ministry then conducts a climate change session
with them to help the bands understand more about the issue, based on that the
bands have reworked their lyrics.
20
of the bands were selected to compete in the competition which will have first,
second and third place winners. A music video will also be compiled on the bands and their entries.
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| Chanel Iroi on left, with the Solomon Islands Delegation |
“This
is really exciting and it has helped us target a young audience which was the
aim behind this band competition. We
were really surprised as we got so many entries for this. While a younger audience was our target for
this competition, we also conduct activities and work closely with our
stakeholders and NGO community,” said Iroi.
The
Cook Islands have conducted a number of different climate change awareness
activities. The ‘Climate Change in the
Pacific’ booklet produced by WWF South Pacific was translated into Cook Islands
Maori using local examples and actions.
Presentations on climate change were made with primary and secondary
schools, Cook Islands Christian Church council meetings and the theological
college.
The
Cook Islands National Environment Service supported the Pacific Year of Climate
Change in 2009 also. According to Mii
Matamaki, the new Doha Programme of Work highlights exciting opportunities.
“We
launched our second national communication this year, it’s an overall report to
the UNFCCC on all climate change work that we have done. It is one of the obligations for the Cook
Islands as a party member, in this report we have also listed and discussed all
work the Cook Islands conducted under Article 6. We look forward to strengthening this with
the Doha Programme of Work.”
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