Small Steps in Climate Talks
If global temperatures continue to rise at their current rate, our planet and its people will face dire consequences. Billions of people will be at increased risk for hunger and malnutrition as food production dramatically decreases. Increased flooding will lead to a rise in water-born diseases that will threaten the lives of the poor. Entire countries will become submerged under water, causing massive displacement and destruction.
This potential reality doesn’t have to be the reality. The industrialized world is disproportionately responsible for creating climate change because of its unrelenting use of fossil fuels. Its leaders have the power to change course and prevent the Earth’s temperature from rising to levels that would produce catastrophic results. This is achievable through a quick end to the use of fossil-fuel based energy and a switch to clean renewable energy resources to mitigate against climate change.
But the energy switch is not the only answer.
Developing communities must receive a massive injection of dollars in order to prepare for and adapt to climate change. Transferring clean technology to developing countries will help with the dual goals of mitigation and adaptation.
Unfortunately, neither the urgency of the climate crisis nor the proposed solutions were central to the debate at the recent United Nations climate negotiations. World leaders from over 190 countries gathered in Poznan, Poland from Dec. 1 through Dec.13 to put flesh on the bones of a new climate treaty. That agreement is set to be completed in December 2009, when the next conference is held in Copenhagen.
A nine person ActionAid delegation with members from Denmark, India, Malawi, Nepal, the United Kingdom, and the United States attended this year’s U.N. climate change conference. Through meetings with other delegations, media outreach and ActionAid’s participation in three public events, we demanded that world leaders put concrete adaptation proposals on the table that would generate at least $67 billion to $86 billion per year. ActionAid also pressed leaders to make agriculture a key focus of a new climate deal and to begin to define the vulnerable communities that must be central to the global treaty. We laid out specific proposals on how adaptation funding should be directed within the agriculture sector and demanded that developed countries transfer truly clean technology to the developing world.
Mazoe Gondwe -- an ActionAid partner from Malawi, and farm leader and women’s rights activist -- called for adaptation funding directed to sustainable agriculture, as well as for initiatives that support women’s efforts to claim their rights. To see the webcast of our public event with Mazoe’s participation, click here.
While few tangible results were set in place this year, one solid outcome came in the form of a breakthrough over how future decisions surrounding adaptation funding will be made. The Adaptation Fund -- a new, transparent, and democratically governed funding mechanism -- was “operationalized” as an independent body. Through this new process, developing countries will be able to access the Fund directly rather than going through bureaucratic implementing agencies. ActionAid advocates not only for more funding for adaptation, but for better quality funding. We believe the start of the Adaptation Fund is a significant step in the right direction.
During the conference, few European countries offered concrete proposals on mitigation, financing for adaptation or plans to deploy technology transfer. However, prior to the conference, some countries such as Norway put forward stronger proposals on ways to generate funding for adaptation.
The United States, for its part, was less of an obstructionist than in past years. However, with a new administration taking office in January, the United States did not present concrete proposals.
With little progress on a climate change deal this year, the climb from Poznan to Copenhagen is steep. And the world cannot afford to not take action. Please join us in advocating for a just, equitable, and effective Copenhagen agreement. The agreement must include:
• Binding mitigation targets of developed countries of at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and more than 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
• Financing for adaptation of at least $67 to $86 billion per year.
• Provisions to direct all funding for climate change through a multilateral body within the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
• Substantial deployment of clean technology to the developing world for both mitigation and adaptation.
• Specific provisions on the needs of particularly vulnerable groups such as women and indigenous communities.
