(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) As the Caribbean Community prepares itself for the 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP -15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, just eight months away, Assistant Secretary-General, Human and Social Development, Dr. Edward Greene is appealing to Developing countries to speak with one voice in determining an equitable post- 2012 climate change agreement.
At COP-15, Heads of State and Government from the 191 Member States of the United Nations will try to reach a new global climate agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which sets targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr Greene made his remarks at the “Many Strong Voices Workshop” hosted by the Organization of American States (OAS), this morning, in Washington, DC. He cautioned developing countries not to allow themselves to be bogged down or be distracted by what he described as “administrative conditionalities,” but to ensure that in the negotiations “we put a human face to the resolution of the process.”
One of the major challenges facing the Caribbean and coastal developing states right now is the provision of adequate, stable and predictable sources of financing for mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
The Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS) which comprises forty-three small island and low-lying coastal developing countries is the main body representing the concerns of Small Island Developing States at the UNFCCC meetings and according to Dr Greene, this body had made three specific proposals that were fully supported by CARICOM. These proposals call for a Convention Adaptation Fund, an Insurance Mechanism and a Technology Fund.
Dr Greene noted that the AOSIS had a slate of principles which it would posit as the basis for future arrangements in financing adaptation. The issues include the source, size, nature and management of funding for climate change.
The slate calls for a significant and stable injection of new money above the traditional Overseas Development Aid in the form of grants rather than loans. The AOSIS asserts that those who pollute should be the ones who pay for the effects of such pollution. It is however advocating for the most vulnerable states to be given priority access to financing since they have limited capacity to adapt and contribute very little to the problems caused by climate change.
According to Dr Greene, any new financing should be channeled through the Convention and any new Fund(s) for addressing climate change should be under the guidance and supreme authority of Parties to the Convention.
He qualified this by explaining that the governance arrangements of the international financial institutions always “place small countries at a distinct disadvantage and more often the priorities of these institutions mirror the priorities of those in control.”
He reiterated that CARICOM Countries and small island developing states generally are fully aligned with the positions being promoted by the AOSIS, chaired by Grenada.
