A Rally for Our Survival

(Left) Ambassador Marlene Moses of Nauru at the Survival Rally

Durban, South Africa, 2 December - Ambassadors from small island nations joined a large crowd at the 17th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework to the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP17) in Durban South Africa to push back on new proposals that would delay a new climate treaty until 2020.

Activitsts at the rally

The Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS) is working hard to fulfil the moral and ethical obligation to protect their people and will reject any outcome in Durban that cannot ultimately safeguard the livelihoods and guarantee the survival of island nations.



Activitsts at the rally

If Durban puts off a legally binding agreement and closes the door on raising mitigation ambition before 2020 many of the small island states will be literally and figuratively doomed.

Ambassador Dessima Williams of Grenada the current Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States and Ambassador Marlene Moses of Nauru, the incoming Chair of AOSIS united with supporters and other Ambassadors to call for immediate climate action.

Mr Casper Supa (Solomon Islands)
with the United Sates
media at the rally

“We represent the people of our country – our food security will not survive, our water security and our survivability,” said Ambassador Moses.

Ambassador Williams added, “We are all connected as islands and the same message applies to the whole city of Durban. If we go under – Durban goes under.”

Activists marched through the streets of Durban
before arriving at the rally

“I live on the beachfront and from what I see from my hotel window, when the storm surges come, like our islands they cover the low lying parts of Durban. Your conference in Durban cannot condemn us without condemning itself. So our message is for all the people of Durban during COP 17 are that we are all small islanders, so don’t save us save yourself - we are one in the same.” 

Activists at the rally

Kiribati welcomes Australian carbon tax law



President Anote Tong in center, chairing a panel at the UNFCCC in Cancun



Tarawa, Kiribati, 2 December 2011 - The President of Kiribati, H.E. Anote Tong, has welcomed Australia’s carbon tax initiative, recently passed by the Australian Senate.

The Clean Energy Legislative Package, made into law when passed by the Senate on 8 November 2011, sets out the way that Australia will introduce a carbon price to reduce Australia’s carbon pollution and move to a clean energy future. According to the Australian Government, the initiative will allow the country to begin reducing emissions, developing and fostering new technologies in renewable energy, encouraging energy efficiency and creating opportunities in the land sector to cut pollution.

A fixed carbon price of AUD$23 a tonne will apply from 1 July, 2012, moving to a flexible price after three years.

The carbon price is a tax on pollution and will be paid by Australia’s largest polluters.

“I’ve said to the Australians that we commend what they are doing with the carbon tax,” said President Tong, calling on other developed countries to follow suit.

The Australian carbon tax initiative is one of the few undertakings to legalise national actions towards international commitments of reducing carbon emissions. Similar schemes exist in Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and Ireland.

Kiribati, a small island nation of low-lying atolls scattered over more than five million square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean, is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of Climate Change.

Like other Climate Change-vulnerable Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific, issues such as substantial coastal erosion, food security and lack of access to potable water haunt the day-to-day lives of the Kiribati people.

“The problem that we developing countries face, particularly small island developing countries, the SIDS, is we want to avoid bickering over what resources are coming forward because I think it’s got to be judged on the need – by the degree of vulnerability,” said President Tong.

“That has not been easy to get agreement on because everyone is vulnerable. I have no choice but to say we are very, very, very vulnerable.”

Key issues on Climate Change are currently being addressed in Durban, South Africa, at the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CMP7) to the Kyoto Protocol.

Fourteen Pacific island countries are represented at COP17 under the banner of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). They include the Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Future Climate Change Projects for the Pacific: Showcased at the Island Pavilion

Ms. Elina Bardram of the European Commission presenting at the Island Pavilion

Durban, South Africa, 2 December – Future climate change projects in the Small Island Developing States were presented at the Island Pavilion during the Climate Conference in Durban South Africa this week.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) illustrated plans of what is to come in the Climate Change Division.

“SPREP is taking a strategic direction on future projects to implement adaptation measures, improve understanding of climate change, and raise the knowledge, information, public awareness and education on climate change and its issues;” said Mr Taito Nakalevu, SPREP Project Manager in the Climate Change Division.

“There are also plans to help understand the root causes of vulnerabilities, and to know the preparedness, response and recovery, and early warning systems.”

These objectives link to the global and regional frameworks such as the 1992 Framework Climate Change Convention, the second edition of the Pacific Islands Framework for Action on Climate Change and the Pacific Meteorology Strategy of 2012 to 2015, amongst others.

SPREP has currently applied for regional implementing entity status, its application to the Adaptation Fund and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to help Pacific Island Countries that has yet to attain the National Implementing Entities.

“Financing for the programmes is vital for the Pacific Islands, although developed states may just be as vulnerable to climate change. The coping capacity for the island states is much lower than that of the bigger countries.”

The AusAID, USAID, the GIZ Support and the Commonwealth Secretariat are some of the donors that have injected funds into the Climate Change Division for future projects.

Also to present at the Future projects session was Dr Mark Bynoe of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and Ms. Elina Bardram of the European Commission. Dr Bynoe shared the work that is being undertaken in the Caribbean as part of the European Union Global Climate Change Alliance initiative and Ms. Bardram presented on Adaptation financing.

Rio Convention Pavilion: web of life at the Climate COP

Panel of speakers during the Ecosystem based Adaptation side event

Durban, South Africa, 2 December - Settled at the heart of the exotic beats of African drums and artistic climate change displays at the Climate Conference in South Africa, is the Rio Convention Pavilion, the hub for a range of interesting side events that are linked to the three Rio Conventions.

The Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate change and Desertification derived directly from the 1992 Earth Summit. It is at the Rio Conventions Pavilion that an exchange of lessons learnt from practises and scientific findings realised from the implementation of the three Conventions takes place.

“It’s a great initiative that has provided the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) with a platform to share experiences under the Rio Conventions with people from all corners of the globe at these Conferences of the Parties,” said Nanette Woonton, the Media and Public Relations Officer of SPREP.

The Rio Convention Pavilion was launched during the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010, the Rio Conventions Pavilion convened at the margins of the CBD Conference of the Parties (CBD COP10) in Nagoya, Japan for which materials from SPREP were exhibited.

At the UNFCCC COP 16 in Cancun Mexico the Pavilion was held in ‘virtual’ format for which SPREP staged a side event that displayed and shared climate change solutions in the Pacific region.

In 2011, SPREP is yet again working in partnership with the Rio Conventions Pavilion through attending and sharing Pacific perspectives during the 10th Conference of the Parities to the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP10) and again at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework to the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 17).

The Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change Project is being showcased at the Rio Convention Pavilion by SPREP and partners, which is held at the Climate Change and Response Expo hosted by the South Africa Department of Environment Affairs.

The Pavilion is a collaborative effort between the Secretariat of the three Rio Conventions and the Global Environment Facility, in addition to a growing list of other global and local partners.

For a full list of events happening at the Rio Convention Pavilion at the UNFCCC COP17 this year, please visit: http://www.riopavilion.org/

U.S. asserts it will meet pledge to help climate needs of

Newslink:  http://www.eenews.net/cw/


Lisa Friedman, E&E reporter

Published: Thursday, December 1, 2011

The United States spent more than four times as much money on clean technology investment as it did protecting vulnerable countries from the impact of climate change, according to a new

report the Obama administration released today at climate talks in Durban, South Africa.

Of the $3.1 billion the U.S. says it devoted to climate change efforts in 2011, about $563 million went toward helping poor communities build resilience to weather disasters. Meanwhile, $2.5

billion went toward a variety of programs to steer developing nations toward clean energy, mitigate carbon emissions and develop new renewable technologies.

The detailed accounting shows the U.S. on a path to meeting its unofficial share of commitment wealthy nations made at the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit of $30 billion by 2012. Though nations were not allocated specific amounts, the U.S. expectation for most foreign aid accounts is roughly 20 percent.

Environmental groups said they are pleased that the administration is fighting for international climate aid and using existing programs to help address clean energy needs. But they also warned that some aid is undermining climate change efforts -- particularly through the Export-Import Bank -- and cautioned that adaptation needs are in danger of being pushed aside.

"We're certainly disappointed. It seems to be going in the wrong direction," said David Waskow, international climate change policy director at Oxfam America. He estimated the share of 2011 dollars going toward making communities resilient to climate change at just 18 percent.

In 2011, the administration said, it devoted $3.1 billion to global climate aid, bringing its total contribution so far to $5.1 billion. The funding is split between $1.8 billion in congressionally appropriated dollars and $1.3 billion in  loan guarantees and other export agency finance measures.

Bulk of aid through loans, loan guarantees

Loans, loan guarantees and other financing from the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation was a cornerstone of the U.S. aid efforts and is expected to grow. Last year OPIC directed $310 million in financing to double the generating capacity of a geothermal plant in Kenya and invested $250 million in the development of solar projects in Thailand.

The Export-Import Bank, meanwhile, authorized $84.3 in loans to finance solar photovoltaic modules and equipment in Rajasthan, India. In all, the OPIC and ExIm Bank investments leveraged more than $2.3 billion in private investment, the administration said. 

Waskow argued that the presence of so much private investment in clean technology is yet another reason the U.S. should put its resources into areas where business has little interest in

investing: keeping poor communities safe from weather-related disasters. "For the majority of countries, their greatest interest is in resilience and adaptation," he said.

Others, meanwhile, noted that while the U.S. statement played up clean energy development, it failed to mention massive coal and other fossil fuel investments. Of particular concern to environmentalists is U.S. underwriting to the tune of $805 million the Kusile coal-fired power plant near Johannesburg, South Africa.

The 4,800-megawatt power station will emit 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.

Meanwhile yesterday the African Climate Policy Center blasted developed countries and claimed that of the money put forward, less than $7 billion of it is new funding. 

African nations say vulnerability outpaces aid "African countries, as well as many other developing countries, are vulnerable to climate change and are among those least likely to have the resources required to withstand its adverse impacts -- yet there has not been any indication that the magnitude of climate finance will meet the scale of what is needed." Seyni Nafo, Spokesperson of the African Group said in a statement.

The report stands in contrast to a World Resources Institute report that found nation's pledges already reach more than $28 billion.

Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, acknowledged that many governments are counting old dollars -- but also noted that a number of countries began ramping up climate aid before Copenhagen because they knew more funding would be a key point for poor countries. The fact that some money is not new, he said, is less important than whether the dollars are used well.

"Here's the reality. The fast start funding commitment was made in December of 2009. As of January 1, all of a matter of two weeks after, they were supposed to have turned the pledge into firm legislation with money from their treasuries," Schmidt said.

The U.S. share, he said, is a "mixed bag." He praised the Obama administration for fighting to keep climate aid in the budget, but also warned against fossil fuel loans from ExIm and others.

"It is critical that all the money we have flowing is not digging us deeper into the hole but helping us to solve it."

Scene@COP17: Durban, South Africa

Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change Adaptation Team

Support the Islands, wear a flower!

Greener mode of transport



Entertainment at the Climate Change Response Expo



Traditional entertainment at the Climate Change Response Expo

Interactive exhibition at the climate change booth

Island Pavilion: a taste of the Islands in Durban

Dr Netatua Pelesikoti addresses the room during the Question and Answer session 

Durban, South Africa, 1 December 2011 - There’s a corner office at the UN Climate Conference that has brought a taste of the islands to Durban, South Africa. Decorated with a bright sign and a poster of the Pacific, the Island Pavilion opened yesterday to a full room for the very first side event on climate change mitigation in the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS).

The Island Pavilion is a partnership between the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC).

Pacific delegates outside the Island Pavilion

Over the course of the week side events have been planned during the lunch breaks of the conference. At 1.30pm each day different people will present on the different themes of the day.

Yesterday the Island Pavilion opened to a full room for the first side event on climate change mitigation in the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS).

Dr Joeri Rogelj, contributing author to the UNEP Emissions Gap Report presented on the Gigatonne Gap and the implications on Small Islands Developing States. This set the scene for the following presentations which included the release of the Pacific Renewable Energy DVD Series by SPREP.

Delegates showcasing the Pacific Renewable Energy DVD Series

The Pacific Islands Greenhouse Gas Abatement through Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP) aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the Pacific region by 33% by 2015. There are 11 Pacific islands that are taking part in the event for which documentaries have been made outlining lessons learnt and achievements made.

Mr. Joseph McGann of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre made the final presentation on the background on mitigation actions within implementation.

Mr Joseph McGann

Over the course of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to the Framework on Climate Change, the Island Pavilion will be the venue to showcase the climate change work undertaken by the SIDS.

On Thursday the theme is Climate change mitigation in the SIDS, Friday it is Climate change adaptation, Saturday is the ‘marketplace’ day where there will be a sharing of different ideas. Each day the event starts at 1.30pm.

If you are attending the 17th Conference of the Parties and would like to visit the Island Pavilion, make your way to the country delegation offices beneath the main ICC building on lower level three. The venue holds free giveaways including flowers for delegates to wear to raise island visibility amongst the 20,000 delegates.

Pacific fights for survival at COP 17

ilNewslink:  http://www.acp.int/content/pacific-fights-survival-cop17

Deputy Director-General of SPREP, Mr Kosi Latu, delegate at ACP COP 17 Preparatory Meeting

 Brussels, 29 November 2011/ ACP Newsdesk: On an international scene fixated with the global financial crisis and the tangle of creating effective and sustainable development policies, Pacific nations join the UN’s COP17 climate change summit this week in Durban, South Africa with a very clear and basic focus – the survival of their peoples.

At a recent technical meeting in Brussels, delegates from Africa, Pacific and the Caribbean called for a “bold and innovative” approach to the global talks, looking towards a united ACP position on climate change.

For some Pacific members in particular, the issue is especially critical. The outcomes of COP 17 - convening 28 November to 9 December - could spell significant implications on their future as independent nations.

“It is true we have to look at with development, poverty reduction and building green economies. These are very important in addressing climate change. But for us in the Pacific it’s more than that,” said Deputy Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) Mr Kosi Latu, who presented the region’s position in Brussels mid-month.

“I’m talking about the survival of our peoples in the sense that due to climate change impacts, we stand to lose our land, our histories and cultures, our nationalities.”

The evacuation of entire seaside communities in Pacific countries due to climate change impacts have been widely publicised by local media, such as the cases of the Cateret Islands in Papua New Guinea and Tegua Island in Vanuatu, dubbed as the world’s first “climate change refugees”.

The governments of Tuvalu and Kiribati have also considered the bleak option of relocating their populations to neighbouring countries, even as increased flooding and storm surges across the region have cause damage to crops and infrastructure, as well as loss of life.

“It gives us the chills,” Samoan representative Josephine Stowers Fiu told ACP peers. “We’re talking about the lives of our people – what is going to happen in the next five, ten, twenty years. We need to push forward with a more stringent approach to seeking a legally binding agreement [on the global reduction of green house gas emissions].”

But selling the urgency of this message has been easier said than done, even amongst regional partners that make up the 79 members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States. While all agree on the need for a global binding agreement to be finalised in Durban, key differences have also emerged on a specific priority focus on the climate change debate.

“Sustainable development and poverty eradication are the priorities to Africa,” stated Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, Chair of the African Group.

Representing the largest sub-group in the ACP including 33 Least Developed Countries, the African region is primarily concerned with equitable resource sharing, climate change financing, capacity building and technology transfer.

Meanwhile in the Caribbean, the focus has been on improved disbursements of the US$ 100 billion in climate change funding pledged by developed countries by 2020. While the region shares geographical similarities with its Pacific partners, concerns tend to focus on economic growth, rather than actual survival.

To compound this, new challenges have emerged with recent key geopolitical developments since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The global economic crisis is likely to dampen the push for more assistance. Meanwhile, emerging economies such as China, India, Russia, and South Korea are climbing the ranks as top ten global emitters. Yet under current agreements, they do not have the same emission obligations as those placed on developed nations.

“My big fear is that the financial crisis will negatively impact on the assistance we receive from developed countries. In fact, the question still remains whether these pledges will come as new funds, or simply the countries’ Overseas Development Assistance repackaged as climate change funds,” continued Mr. Latu.

While Pacific remains under threat of climate change effects, he has modest expectations for the outcomes of the Durban talks:

“Of course the aim for the Pacific region is to get a global binding agreement that will commit everyone to cut global emissions, but I am skeptical. At the very least however, we should at least finalise a concrete date for this to happen.”

The ACP climate change meeting in mid-November compiled a number of shared concerns to raise at COP17, including the need to limit the rise of the global surface temperature to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels by 2100 and for all Parties work to ensure that global greenhouse gas emissions peak by 2015.

ACP negotiators also called for disbursements of climate change funds to be resolved and mechanism in place for post-2012, when the first Kyoto Commitment Period ends.

"Climate change has been accepted as a reality - now we need the political will to make the necessary changes," added Mr. Latu. “We need radical solutions, and for us who are particularly vulnerable in the ACP Group – we need to be speaking with one voice.”

- Josephine Latu, ACP Press Attache

Climate Fund Board must get going: EU

Newslink:  http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/11/30/climate-fund-board-must-get-going-eu

The EU wants the Green Climate Fund board to start working as soon as next year, a union representative said on Wednesday.

"In the context of a satisfactory outcome on the green climate fund as well as the overall package from Durban, we want to see the board start as early as 2012," said the chief climate negotiator for the EU and Poland Tomasz Chruszczow.

He was addressing the media on the Cop17 climate talks taking place in Durban.

Countries agreed to form the fund during climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico, and a transitional committee was formed.

The next step would be the composition of a board to run the fund, which is meant to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

Chruszczow said the report compiled by the fund's transitional committee would be tabled and discussed on Wednesday afternoon.

"We believe that the committee involving high level experts who have real understanding and knowledge of how to make the fund a success, has proved to be a valuable one and enable a real progress since Cancun," he said.

The EU believed the fund would play a huge role in furthering mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.

It would also help with issues such as technology co-operation and transfer.

He said the EU welcomed the report compiled by the transitional committee, saying that it was "inevitably a compromise".

"There are probably points that we and others would have preferred to see handled differently. However we believe that it should be possible to agree the draft as it stands."

It would be counter-productive to undertake further technical discussions on the instrument, he said

Finding strength in numbers - Pacific stands firm with AOSIS

AOSIS meeting

Durban, South Africa, 30 November 2011 - Pacific delegations present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP17, currently underway in Durban are standing firm with the Alliance of Small Island States on key positions under negotiation.

“We must be solid in what we do and continue to advocate that on climate change issues we should remain together,” urged the President of Kiribati from his island home at the forefront of the impacts of climate change in the Pacific.

Fourteen Pacific island countries are represented at COP17 under the banner of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). They are the Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The Kyoto Protocol must live on

In collaboration with other island nation members of AOSIS from Africa, Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and South China Sea, the Pacific joined the grouping in consolidating the call for strong decisions around the Kyoto Protocol.

“We must adopt a decision that establishes a 5-year second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, to run from 2013 to 2017, with a single, legally-binding, base year of 1990, as part of a two-track outcome,” said a statement from AOSIS.

“This two track outcome must include the adoption of a mandate to negotiate a legally-binding instrument under the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) with negotiations to be concluded by December 2012.

“This timeframe is needed to ensure legally-binding commitments and actions from all major emitters commencing on January 1, 2013.”

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that sets binding targets for 37 industrialised countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the five-year period 2008-2012.

“Durban must deliver an ambitious outcome with three essential elements,” said the AOSIS statement, including “certainty that there will be a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol with an enhanced set of rules to strengthen its environmental integrity.

“We must have a “Durban Mandate” to capture the work of the AWG-LCA in the form of a new, legally binding protocol next year at COP18.”

AOSIS called on the new instrument to complement the Kyoto Protocol with binding mitigation commitments for non-Kyoto Parties and mitigation actions for developing countries, as well as address all other elements of the Bali Action Plan.

Tokelau targets 100% renewable energy

Delegation from Tokelau with Faipule Foua Toloa (middle)

Durban, South Africa, 30 November - By September next year, the 1,500 residents on the island nation of Tokelau will be 100% renewable energy efficient. That’s the strong message the Faipule Foua Toloa, the Ulu or titular heard of Tokelau is sharing far and wide in Durban South Africa. 

A delegation of three from Tokelau are at the UN Climate Conference, attending the different events and meetings that take place alongside the climate negotiations which has brought together over 20,000 delegates.

“People are amazed by our strong message that we are sharing with the world,” said Toloa.

“Although we are the smallest of the small we have a great vision with leaders in our community such as our elders and our fono are committed to this. It is a very expensive project but we are doing it.” 

The total project will cost Tokelau 8.5 million dollars that will result in a 93% photovoltaic system with coconut oil hybrid as a reserve. Tokelau is borrowing funds for this project, but is still seeking support to help the island nation reach their target. 

“When we looked at the costs we learnt that we spend so much money to buy fossil fuel that we’ll be recovering these costs in the next five years and we can use those funds in other development areas.” 

The population of Tokelau resides on three atolls which make up the nation that is currently under New Zealand administration. The delegation of three from Tokelau are attending the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework to the Convention on Climate Change under the New Zealand badge.

Tokelau declared a state of emergency in October this year after six months without substantial rain. It lies in the Pacific typhoon belt and it is understood that the highest point for the island nation is 5 meters. In the face of this climate change adversity, Tokelau is persevering to make a difference.

“We are challenging the world with our renewable energy targets. We cannot sit and pity ourselves that we are amongst one of the first countries to go under water – the smallest and the lowest. We can make a difference and begin to do something.”

The Green Climate Fund: Pacific urges action – no renegotiation

Samoa's Ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador Aliioaiga Feturi Elisaia at the Pacific strategy meeting for UNFCCC COP 17

Durban, South Africa, Tuesday 29th November 2011 - Pacific delegations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference currently underway in Durban, South Africa, are pushing for agreement on the Green Climate Fund.  

It is anticipated that the Green Climate Fund will channel a significant portion of the US$100 billion a year promised by developed countries by 2020 to help developing countries effectively responding to Climate Change. 

"We have spent quite some time trying to design the new Green Climate Fund,” said Samoa’s ambassador to the United Nations, Aliioaiga Feturi Elisaia. Ambassador Feturi is also the Pacific SIDS representative on the Transitional Committee of the Green Climate Fund, tasked with developing the modalities of the fund for consideration at the Climate Change Conference this week.

"It’s important that in Durban we reach agreement to progress towards operationalising the Fund,” stressed Ambassador Feturi.

But keen observers of the Climate Change Conference say that powerful developed countries may utilize the Fund as a bargaining chip to seek gains in other areas of negotiation. 

The United States, for instance, announced last week it did not support the Green Climate Fund proposal from the Transitional Committee, seeking more clarity on private sector involvement in the Fund. Saudi Arabia has also voiced its opposition to the proposed Fund, calling for response measures to be included in the scope and objectives of the fund. Response measures as currently argued by Saudi Arabia include compensation for oil-producing countries for revenue lost due to climate change actions. 

“It is important for us to capture some of the gains that are already in the report to try and resist any renegotiation,” said Ambassador Feturi, maintaining that for the Pacific, accessing the fund is critical. 

“We acknowledge that for us in the Pacific, accessing those funds will be a challenge due to our island countries’ limited resources to deal with these procedures,” said the Ambassador. “That is why we (the Transitional Committee) purposely included reference to utilising regional organisation resources for those who have capacity constraints. Everybody should have access to the Fund, whether through national means or regional organisations.”

Ambassador Feturi added that the report of the Transitional Committee looks at simplifying some of the procedures to access the Green Climate Fund. It also seeks to strengthen the ability of countries to access the Fund, including through providing support for planning and for project proposal development.

I think it is important for submissions to the Fund to be aligned with countries’ own national development plans – it’s the countries themselves who need to determine that, and they need to develop their skills to do this effectively.

If the Transitional Committee report on operationalising the Green Climate Fund is approved in Durban, its Board will be setup as soon as possible. The Board will review expressions of interests and make recommendations on the selection of the host country for the Fund for endorsement at next year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Qatar.

“It will be important for the Pacific to be represented on the Board, for we, as a climate change vulnerable region, obviously have a vested interest in this important process,” said Ambassador Feturi.

The Climate Change Conference, UNFCCC COP 17, opened on 28 November and will close 9 December, for more information on this please visit: http://www.unfccc.int/

The Pacific in Durban - COP 17

Seeking urgency and effective outcomes

Durban, South Africa, 28 November 2011 - At the forefront of climate change impacts, the vulnerable islands of the Pacific remain a critical influence at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) that opened today in Durban, South Africa.

Some 20,000 delegates from around the world are attending the COP17 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Fourteen Pacific island countries are represented at COP17 under the banner of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) which is an intergovernmental organisation of low-lying coastal and small Island countries from around the world.

 

Pacific members of AOSIS include the Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

“Climate Change will be the dominant feature of our future development, or our future demise,” said President of Kiribati, HE Anote Tong, from his island home of low-lying atolls struggling against the rising tides of the Pacific. 

“I think a lot of countries do not understand that the impacts of Climate Change range over a very wide spectrum, from the most immediate and the most urgent, to those who do not feel it at the moment,” said President Tong. 

“We are at the end of the spectrum which means that we are facing the problem today, yesterday, and our communities are being threatened.”

Financing – key issue for the Pacific

President Tong stressed that an agreement on financing in Durban will be vital for the Pacific.

“We must have that financing. I’m not raising the question of our future here because it’s virtually unthinkable. The problem is here - we are facing the problem today.”

Samoa’s ambassador to the United States, Aliioaiga Feturi Elisaia, echoed President Tong’s sentiments.

“We are at the frontline of the impacts of climate change in the Pacific, so for us it is not something that is theoretical,” said Ambassador Feturi.

“Our people are living through the real impacts of climate change –increased severity of tropical cyclones, significant coastal erosion, threats to fresh water supplies and food security.”

Ambassador Feturi was the Pacific representative on the Transitional Committee of the Green Climate Fund presenting its report on the design of the fund to COP17 for consideration. It is anticipated that the Green Climate Fund will channel a significant amount of the US$100 billion a year promised by developed countries by 2020 to help developing countries deal with Climate Change.

The UNFCCC COP 17 opened on 28 November and will close 9 December, for more information on this please visit: www.unfccc.int

AOSIS Rejects Delay Until 2020

Demands Urgency for climate agreement: AOSIS Press Release

Ambassador Dessima Williams with Pacific delegates

Durban, South Africa, 28 November, 2011 - The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) says it will not accept outcomes at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP17 that propose to delay any new binding agreement or more ambitious emissions reductions until 2020, as these cannot safeguard the livelihoods and guarantee the survival of our nations.

On the eve of the opening of the Durban Climate Conference, Ambassador Dessima Williams, Permanent Representative of Grenada to the United Nations and Chair of AOSIS cautioned that if Durban puts off a legally binding agreement and closes the door on raising mitigation ambition before 2020 many of our small island states will be severely threatened.

"AOSIS is calling on the Durban conference to deliver agreement on a second five-year commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, a process to rapidly ramp up mitigation ambition, and a mandate to quickly conclude a new parallel legal agreement in 2012 to cover those not bound by the Kyoto Protocol," she said.

“After a year of record emissions growth and the hottest temperatures on record, the push by the world’s biggest carbon polluters to delay flies in the face of the overwhelming evidence in support of immediate action and represents a betrayal of the people most vulnerable to climate change and the world.

“To fulfill our moral and ethical obligation to protect our people, AOSIS will here in Durban reject any outcome that cannot ultimately safeguard our livelihoods and guarantee the survival of our nations. Why would we ever agree to a deal that has as its ultimate and inevitable consequence our own demise? If Durban puts off a legally binding agreement and closes the door on raising mitigation ambition before 2020 many of our small island states will be literally and figuratively doomed.

“As noted last week by the International Energy Agency, delaying action until 2017 would close the door to any hope of keeping warming below 2°C, and put humanity on a course to the devastation of 4°C of warming and many metres of sea-level rise. The proposed 2020 timeline would also leave more than five years between the next report of the IPCC (due in 2014) and a new round of emission reduction commitments.

 

“It is a betrayal not just of small island nations, many of whom would be destined for extinction, but a betrayal of all humanity. There are no plausible technical, economic or legal impediments for not taking the actions required by science – we need to act now!”

Gender talk at the Climate conference in Durban

Ulamila Wragg front left

Durban, South Africa, 28 November - The Pacific Gender Climate Coalition is bringing to the Climate Conference in Durban a message that gender responsiveness in any climate change work should be fundamental.

“Gender is not only about women but both men and women as we all have to respond to the impacts of climate change and for any project or activity addressing adaptation or mitigation must be gender responsive,” says Ms. Ulamila Wragg, the Pacific Coalition Coordinator.

“Apart from negotiations I am also hoping to forge partnerships that to further gender work in climate change adaptation and mitigation.”

She added that the Cook Islands now have a gender policy with Climate Change as one of its outputs and their Gender and Development Division has done a mapping on how these outputs should be furthered.

Wragg hopes to seek support to develop gender indicators to monitor the impacts of climate change and disaster preparedness on women and men, as well as build the capacity of institutions involved in Disaster Risk Management and Climate change to mainstream gender.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP 17 Meeting began today on 28th November and ends on 9th December bringing together over 20,000 delegates from around the world.