New dimension has been added to the
clamour for a better environmental change with a call by the Least Developed
Countries (LDCs) of the world for the United Nations climate change talk to
adopt a 75 per cent majority of any latest Protocol with a timeline.
This formed submission by LDC Group
at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which holds in Bonn
between 14 and 25, May 2012 at the Maritim Hotel.
LDCs are classified as the world’s
poorest countries and in order to up persuade the UN climate change to talk
more on how to reach their goal of having an effective and legally binding
agreement ready for governments to adopt by 2015.
The LDC group chairman, Pa Ousman
Jarju, the group’s spokesperson, Sandra Freitas, informed that the Least
Developed Countries (LDCs) group’s formal submission to the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change, under which the talks take place, seeks the
inclusion of some demands.
These demands encompass new legally
binding agreement to take the form of a new protocol under the convention that
builds on and enhances the commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
Addition to toe six points of
demands are that parties should agree new rules to allow the adoption of the
Protocol by a 75 per cent majority, not by consensus as under current rules; A
final negotiating text should be ready a full year ahead of the 2015 deadline
rather than the usual six months deadline that the UNFCCC imposes.
Further, the LDC group noted that
this would raise the ambition of commitments to mitigate climate change before
2020 must be the top priority; The new
Protocol should have as a key objective, the full implementation of mitigation,
adaptation and finance and capacity building among others; and Systems for
monitoring, reporting and verifying finance and mitigation actions must not be
weaker than but should build upon those that already exist in the Kyoto
Protocol.
Pa Ousman Jarju pointed out that at
the last year’s conference of parties to the convention in Durban, South
Africa, it was agreed to complete negotiations by 2015, but such deadlines have
been broken before.
“Our countries cannot wait. We are
already feeling the effects of climate change, but the time has come for us to
be leaders in the international effort to address this global challenge,” he
said.
Equally, he said, the creation of a
new body to negotiate a second protocol under the Convention represents an
overdue acknowledgement by all Parties that the Convention and the Kyoto
Protocol alone are insufficient to drive action consistent with the ultimate
objective of the Convention.
“Urgent action is needed by all
Parties to prevent dangerous interference with the climate system, and in
particular to stay below 2°C and keep open the possibility of limiting warming
to 1.5°C above preindustrial in the long-term as called for by the most
vulnerable countries,” he said.
According to the group, as
negotiators gather in Bonn for the latest round of talks this week, the LDC
group also proposes changes to the way the negotiations work to make them
faster and fairer.
NaijaAgroNet recalls that to ensure that all issues could be dealt
with, the group says the number and duration of future negotiation sessions
must be agreed in Bonn, along with a timetable to discuss particular issues.
The group further says parties
should consider electing officers to the bureau that will run the talks for
more than the usual two year period, to ensure continuity and that the size of
the bureau should perhaps be expanded given the urgency of its task and that
wide range of topics it must work on.
Pa Ousman Jarju emphasised that the
LDC group comes to the Bonn climate change talks with a strong set of
recommendations, stressing “In the spirit of international cooperation and with
our desire to see the UN climate change convention meet its objective, we urge
other parties to join our call for these improvements to the negotiating
process and its final goals.”
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