Earth Today | Small islands lobby for inclusive climate talks
Published:Thursday | June 24, 2021 | 12:09 AM
WITH THE staging of the 26th international climate talks only months away, stakeholders from the global South are agitating for rich nations to pull out the stops to ensure inclusivity at the event, while also safeguarding the credibility of the negotiations.
Deliberations at the event, referred to formally as the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), provide the road map for the global climate change response – from considerations over financing to technology transfer, adaptation and mitigation, as well as loss and damage.
“The road to COP26 remains nebulous. COVID-19 remains a serious concern for many of us, and travel restrictions continue for many countries. Access to vaccines and testing facilities is still a challenge in small island developing states (SIDS), and the safety of our delegates is a priority,” said Ambassador Diann Black-Layne, chair and lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) of which Jamaica is a member.
She was speaking earlier this month at the closing plenary of the Joint Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation.
Dr Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, for his part, said vaccine accessibility should be prioritised.
“If the G7 want to have any credibility left, they need to fulfill their promise to provide vaccines to everyone on the planet. Partial measures are not enough,” he told The Gleaner.
And there are a number of related items that also need to be addressed, according to Black-Layne.
“We see the utility of an additional negotiation session to progress work ahead of COP 26. However, there are very real challenges and concerns to an in-person meeting at this time. Some islands in the Pacific are serviced by just two flights per month, with one month of quarantine, while other islands have closed borders,” she said.
“We do have concerns regarding effective participation in the virtual format, given time zones, and persistent challenges with Internet connectivity and access in our regions. We also note the procedural limitations of this format, including no formal outcomes. For these reasons, we believe that any potential intersessional work should take place in an improved format, with clearer guidelines that avoid procedural delays,” added Black-Layne.
Huq said every effort must be made to enable inclusivity.
“Having COP26 held in 2021 with the active participation of all countries, including SIDS, is critical to retain any credibility of the UNFCCC process,” he said.
The G7, or Group of Seven, is comprised of the world’s seven largest advanced economies, notably Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States. At their recent summit in the UK, they indicated that they would provide more than a billion doses of vaccines for the developing world by the end of 2022.
In addition to vaccine access for negotiators and the populations of the SIDS and other developing countries, the need for rich nations to satisfy their decade-old commitment to collectively mobilise US$100 billion a year in climate finance up to 2020 is also top of mind.
“As this SB session wraps up, the Atlantic hurricane season is under way. While SIDS do not yet know the magnitude of the destruction that will take place, we do know that we do not have the capacity to respond on our own. This is precisely what the UNFCCC should be addressing through full implementation; the Paris Agreement must not be allowed to waver at its infancy,” Black-Layne said in the AOSIS statement.
The Paris Agreement, inked in 2015, has as its expressed aim “to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty”, including by “making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”.
Huq insists that the delivery of the US$100-billion promise should take place ahead of the COP to be held in Glasgow towards the end of the year.
“The failure of developed countries to meet their old promise to provide US$100 billion in 2020 has already eroded their credibility. Failure to deliver it before COP26 will simply confirm that they negotiated in bad faith, so why go to Glasgow in November?” he said.