The Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change and Development in preparation for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change was convened on Tuesday, 15 September at the Bay Gardens Hotel in Castries, Saint Lucia. Honourable Stephenson King, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia presided for the first part; after which the Hon. Richard Frederick, Minister of Physical Planning, the Environment, Housing, Urban Renewal and Local Government, Saint Lucia, assumed the Chair.
The following Members States were represented at the Ministerial level: Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. Other high level officials represented the following countries Antigua and Barbuda, The Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Belize, Haiti and Suriname. Delegates from international and regional institutions related to the environment also participated in the meeting.
Opening Ceremony
The Hon. Robert Persaud, Minister of Agriculture with responsibility for Forests, Guyana, representing the Chairman of CARICOM, H.E. Bharrat Jagdeo; H.E. Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM and the Hon. Stephenson King, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, addressed the opening ceremony.
Minister Persaud called for consistency in the regional positions being advocated in negotiations leading up to Copenhagen and urged the Meeting to honour the spirit of the July 2009 Liliendaal Declaration on Climate and Development. He cautioned CARICOM negotiators not to allow difference of opinions to weaken the Community’s cause, noting that in view of the fact that we shared a common vulnerability, we needed to act as a united front.
Prime Minister King underscored the need to remain resolute in the negotiations asserting that while negotiations for a new Global Climate Change Agreement were about ‘give and take’ there would be no ‘horse-trading’ of the inalienable rights of the people of the Caribbean Community to survival and to their development.
In his remarks, Secretary-General Carrington emphasized the importance of re-shaping of the global architecture in the response to Climate Change to facilitate and promote the development of developing countries; and urged the Region’s policy makers to be vigilant and resolute in their position on the formulation of a new Agreement. He encouraged further consultations to achieve the greatest solidarity among Member States to advance the Region’s Climate Change agenda requirements and thanked the Government of Spain its support to the Meeting.
Status Report on Climate Change Negotiations
The Meeting received a historical and analytical overview of the process leading to the Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15) to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009 and the present status of the Climate Change Conference negotiating process. The overview indicated that a draft negotiating text addressing all the elements of the Bali Action Plan (2007) had been developed and would be discussed line-by-line at upcoming rounds of negotiations in Bangkok, Thailand and Barcelona in order to refine the document in preparation for Copenhagen. Against this background, the importance of the preparatory Ministerial Meeting was highlighted as well as the need to advocate strongly for the interests of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as articulated by the Alliance for Small Island States (AOSIS) and to participate actively in the AOSIS Summit scheduled for 21 September 2009 in New York, as well as other international fora where Climate Change would be discussed on the way to Copenhagen.
ADDRESSING THE REGION’S STRATEGIC AND POLICY ISSUES IN THE UNFCCC CLIMATE CHANGE NEGOTIATIONS
Key Issues on Mitigation
The Ministerial Meeting, in acknowledging the challenges associated with the reduction of Green House Gas Emissions even while guarding the integrity of the environment, noted and agreed to support the positions adopted by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) toward arriving at an ambitious and comprehensive agreement at COP15 which would provide for: long term stabilisation of atmospheric Green House Gas concentrations at levels which would ensure that global average surface temperature increases would be limited to well below 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels; that global green house gas emissions should peak by 2015; Annex 1 CO2 reductions of at least 45 percent by 2020 and reducing green house gas emissions by more than 95 percent of 1990 CO2 levels by 2050.
The Ministerial Meeting also recognised the value and potential of standing forests and affirmed its potential contribution to Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and the potential of forest conservation or avoided deforestation and sustainable management of forests as important mitigation tools against climate change, consistent with the Liliendaal Declaration issued by the Caribbean Community Conference of Heads of Government, 2–5 July 2009 and the need for additional work in these areas. Key Issues in Adaptation
The Meeting also urged Member States to mainstream climate change concerns into development planning at the national level and further urged that the Working Group on adaptation within the climate change negotiations keep disaster risk reduction issues as a central part of its discussions.
With respect to national action on Climate Change, the Meeting of Ministers urged Caribbean Member States to strengthen capacity in the Region to implement actions at the national level relating to adaptation.
The Ministers further urged those Member States participating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to utilize fully the opportunity presented by CHOGM to further advance AOSIS positions on Climate Change.
The Meeting of Ministers reiterated that financial resources for adaptation needs must be over and above Official Development Assistance (ODA) resources and agreed to give support for the location of the Secretariat for the Adaptation Fund in Barbados.
Key issues in Technological Transfer
Acknowledging that technology was one of the five building blocks of the Bali Action Plan (2007) that had established the framework for Long Term Cooperative Action to address Climate Change, and that the development and transfer of technology was identified in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as one of the principal activities to control, reduce and prevent the emissions of Green House Gases (GHG). The Meeting of Ministers agreed that the Region’s interventions on this issue should be centred on ensuring that technology covered both adaptation and mitigation and that the special circumstances of SIDS such as the small scale of economies and remoteness must be given special attention.
Key Issues in Finance
The Meeting acknowledged that the financing for both mitigation and adaptation actions in developing countries was pivotal to the final outcome of the Climate Change Conference, and in noting the several challenges of SIDS, agreed to support the call for a comprehensive financing package which should include the provision of new, additional and predictable financial resources to underpin the implementation of national and regional adaptation plans and strategies.
The Ministers also agreed that negotiations should emphasize priority access to financing adaptation for the SIDS and Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) as the most vulnerable to the effects of Climate Change and that in respect of grants, the Polluter–Pays Principle should be adopted.
With respect to proposals for institutional arrangements, the Meeting agreed that CARICOM should continue its support of the G77 proposal for a new financial mechanism under the Convention. However, CARICOM should insist that any new arrangement or reform of existing institutions such as the World Bank or the Global Environment Fund (GEF) should ensure that the interests of the SIDS were addressed fully.
The Position of the Region on a “Shared Vision”
Noting that the shared vision – a critical yet controversial building block of the Bali Action Plan – was considered overarching and pivotal to the outcomes of a new Climate Change agreement, the Meeting of Ministers acknowledged that the shared vision should provide a framework for existing and future actions. The Meeting also noted the proposed statement on Shared Vision, which should set the context and provide the basis for urgent and ambitious cooperative action including a long-term global goal for emission reductions. The Meeting recommended that CARICOM should build on the July 2009 Liliendaal Declaration on Climate Change and Development in its advocacy on the issue of Climate Change.
With respect to the negotiating process, the Ministers underscored the importance of enhancing the flow and timeliness of information from the technical negotiators to the political leadership and diplomatic representatives, and vice-versa and commended the Community’s negotiators for the excellent work they had been doing in the lead up to Copenhagen.
In this regard, the Ministers committed to ensuring the participation of the Community’s negotiators in the remaining negotiating fora leading up to Copenhagen.
Key Issues in Addressing the Economics of Climate Change in the Caribbean
The Meeting of Ministers noted the preliminary findings of a research project titled “Review of the Economics of Climate Change (RECC)” conducted by United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) on the potential economic impacts of Climate Change on key sectors of the Caribbean. The findings revealed a declining trend in tourist arrivals for all countries studied, starting approximately from 2010; as well as a pattern of output decline in agriculture for most countries. Similarly, the preliminary results indicated a falling trend in GDP growth for all countries as a result of the impact of Climate Change. Some countries were projected to experience increased precipitation while others were projected to undergo increasing drought conditions, either of which would affect agriculture and other major economic and social sectors.
Against this background, therefore, the Ministerial Meeting agreed to ensure continued national and regional support and involvement in the RECC process. The Meeting acknowledged the need for all relevant Ministries, particularly Economic Planning, Tourism, Finance, Agriculture and Health, to be fully engaged in the sectoral and national reviews and agreed that the challenge of data availability as a means of ensuring the soundness and effectiveness of the analyses must be addressed expeditiously.
The Ministers agreed further to support the strengthening of national expertise to guarantee the continued application of the modelling techniques and to ensure that Climate Change concerns were maintained on the national agenda in view of its projected developmental impacts.
Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)
The Meeting acknowledged that Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) was an important part of the global effort to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions given that it accounted for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
OPERATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES LEADING UP TO THE UN CONFERENCE
The Ministerial Meeting noted that the Draft Declaration on Climate Change and Development was being considered by a group of experts in New York. The Declaration affirmed CARICOM’s commitment to support and to be guided by the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the coordinating role of the AOSIS.
UN Secretary-General High Level Meeting on Climate Change
The Meeting also agreed that CARICOM leaders and representatives should use every opportunity and forum on the road to Copenhagen to be more vocal about mitigation and adaptation issues.
CLOSING
The Meeting expressed appreciation to the Government and People of Saint Lucia for their warm hospitality and for the excellent arrangements put in place for the conduct of the meeting.
Rodney Bay
Castries
Saint Luci
15 September 2009
