Green climate fund emerges as a key deliverable

As preparations are finalised for the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, a great deal of interest has centred around the Green Climate Fund (GCF), widely seen as an important deliverable from a multilateral process that has been marked by a succession of failures to reach consensus on key issues.

Andy Mason of OneWorld Sustainable Investments spoke to the chair of the Africa Group Negotiators on Climate Change (AGN) to the UNFCCC, Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, about the forthcoming climate talks in Durban, and the GCF in particular.

A number of important interventions emerged from last year’s Cancún Agreements, including the Technology Mechanism, the Cancún Adaptation Framework and its Adaptation Committee, and the GCF. Are these on track? What kind of progress with regard to these mechanisms can we expect from the Durban meetings?

These are all important developments. Africa is actively supporting progress on them for Durban, and has been very active in the Transitional Committee for the GCF.

Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Zambia and other developing countries have submitted a comprehensive proposal for the GCF.

The African Group has elaborated proposals on the Technology Mechanism, the Adaptation Framework, the Standing Committee on Climate Finance, the Forum on Response Measures, and other institutional arrangements. We see these as essential building blocks in strengthening the climate architecture.

In turn, these need to be complemented, we believe, by progress on the key issue for curbing climate change – that is, cutting emissions. So, we look forward to efforts by the developed countries to increase their level of ambition to the levels required by science and equity. And we look forward to increased finance to enable mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries.

These elements need to come together as part of a balanced and ambitious outcome at the Durban climate meeting.

What has the AGN done so far to influence the current discussions around the GCF?

African countries have been engaged closely in discussions on how to operationalise the GCF, established last year in Cancún. Indeed, Africa played a key role in the original proposal by the Group of 77 and China, to establish a new fund to operationalise the Climate Convention’s financial mechanism.

Since agreement in Cancún to establish the GCF, African countries have participated actively in the GCF negotiations. Seven members of the Transitional Committee are Africans.

A number of African countries contributed to a detailed submission by a group of developing countries proposing a comprehensive architecture for the GCF.

We will continue to engage actively with our partners to ensure Durban operationalises the GCF as part of a broader balanced package of outcomes under both tracks of the negotiations.

At the conclusion of the Technology Executive Committee’s inaugural meeting earlier this year, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres stressed the need for the active engagement of the private sector. What are the key goals of the Technology Mechanism, and what do you think are the most important things that business should do to help realise these goals in profitable and sustainable ways?

The private sector in Africa plays a key role in mitigating and adapting to climate change.

We need leadership from our companies – including small and medium sized enterprises – in identifying the technologies they need to achieve their goals. This includes the technologies we need for adaptation projects – in other words, increasing the resilience of our projects and infrastructure to predicted climate changes. And it includes the technologies we need for low-carbon growth and development.

Leadership by the private sector will play a key role in helping Africa to defend its interests in the multilateral sphere, while achieving our objectives at home.

What specific aspects or dimensions of climate change adaptation and mitigation in our region do you think southern African businesses could most profitably get their teeth into?

The challenges and opportunities vary from sector to sector, but major opportunities to avoid emissions exist in all sectors including energy, industry, construction, agriculture, forestry and waste management.

New financing opportunities are available from public and private sources, and new technologies provide ways to “do well by doing good”.

We can look to new partnerships between African businesses and partners in both developed and developing countries.

In agriculture, for instance, Africa has led the world in low-emissions and climate-resilient agriculture.

We need a “development-smart” approach to agriculture, which balances our need for food security and farmer rights with efforts to adapt to climate change. For instance, farmers should seek new markets for organic and climate-friendly foods.

At the same time, we need solidarity among African farmers to ensure a fair global deal by ensuring farmers in rich countries reduce their highly subsidised and polluting forms of agriculture.

There are opportunities in many other sectors. The transition to a low-carbon future presents major opportunities. Just as billionaires made their fortunes during the last industrial revolution, so they will make their fortunes during the next.

Given South Africa’s reliance on coal-based energy generation – at least in the medium term – what do you tip as the most appropriate low-carbon alternatives for our region in thelong term?

South Africa accounts for up to half of the continent’s emissions. So the continent looks to South Africa for leadership in moving from polluting energy sources to low-carbon alternatives. This is all the more important, given that African countries are the most vulnerable to climate change, and that any level of global warming will result in higher levels of warming in Africa.

The appropriate low-carbon alternatives must be evaluated on the basis of the best available scientific, technical and economic analysis.

South Africa, as a major emerging economy, has some of the best experts in the world. We can all benefit from learning from the South African experience.

Recent press reports on COP 17 have been less than optimistic, and the COP process has been referred to as “an expensive talkfest”. First, how do you respond to this assertion; and second, what can be done to make the public more aware of what actually has been achieved?

Global problems require global solutions. At the same time, no group has been more critical about the tendency in the climate negotiations for “talk without action” than the African Group. For any process to remain relevant, it must produce. The African Group believes in results. We seek an outcome that reflects the basic scientific reality. We call on all countries to do their share.

We have made some progress. In Cancún, for instance, we established some important new processes and institutions. But the big issue – cutting emissions – remains elusive.

If the negotiations are a “talkfest”, it is because some countries would rather talk than act. We have, for instance, been discussing a single number (the Annex I target) in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations now since 2005. All manner of technical complexities have been thrown onto the path of progress. What we are looking for now is a simple commitment to action by our negotiating partners.

As a body representing the interests of the African continent as a whole, what has the AGN achieved to date in contributing to harnessing the existing multilateral processes, and what can it realistically hope to achieve in this regard going forward? What further support is required for the AGN?

We believe we have played a key role in the multilateral process. The African Group has maintained a principled, science-based and fair set of demands. As a result, we have been able to influence both discussions within the group of developing countries, and more broadly with our negotiating partners in thedeveloped countries.

We are motivated by the basic belief that these negotiations are not like other negotiations; it is not a question of horse-trading. There are some things we cannot compromise on if we are to protect our people. While we can negotiate with each other, we cannot negotiate withMother Earth.

So our position is guided by science, by the belief that the outcome to be successful must be fair, and by a commitment to honour the promises that all countries have made to each other in the UN Climate Convention and its Kyoto Protocol.

We believe that to tackle climate change, we must act at all levels – local to global – but that the multilateral process can and must play a key role.

We see Durban as a key moment in the climate negotiations. We must ensure progress on both tracks of the negotiations as well as resolution of key issues such as the second commitment period of theKyoto Protocol.

In terms of further support, we look to our governments, our citizens and to other supporters – including donors in developed countries – to get behind
our demands.

Look at the recent hurricanes in the United States. Witness the droughts in East Africa, which the UN has said might kill more than 700 million souls. These are a lesson for all of us. We may not be able to prevent all climate impacts but, if we work together, we can prevent the worst impacts – and this is in the interest of everyone.

In this regard, we call for solidarity with Africa by all people worldwide, and for a successful outcome for all people from the African Climate Conference in Durban.

We see Durban as a possible milestone in the history of climate change negotiations, where we collectively can raise the level of ambition and find a lasting solution to this climate change phenomenon. We do not want Durban – the African COP – to go down in history as the cemetery of the Kyoto Protocol!

Andy Mason

OneWorld Sustainable Investments

Sources

• United Nations – www.un.org

• UNFCCC – http://unfccc.int

• Climate Policy Initiative –
www.climatepolicyinitiative.org

• OneWorld Group –
www.oneworldgroup.co.za

• Climate Fund Info – www.climatefund.info

• “Environmental Finance”, 20/10/11

• Center For Global Development – http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/2011/10/green-climate-fund-designers-need-to-think-
big.php

• Brookings Institution – www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/0921_green_climate_gartner.aspx

• UN News Centre – www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39539&Cr=
climate+change&Cr1