l-r: Amjad Abdulla, Director General, Climate Change and Energy Department, Maldives; H.E. Dr. Marion Williams, Barbados Permanent Representative, Geneva; Mr. Philip Weech, Director BEST Commission; H.E. Rhoda M. Jackson, Bahamas Permanent Representative, Geneva and H.E. Ahmed Sareer, Maldives Permanent Representative, New York
|
The
Ad hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for enhanced Action (ADP) on the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) met in Geneva,
Switzerland from 8 - 13 February. The UNFCCC is designed to reduce the emission
of greenhouse gases which adversely affect climate change. Ambassador Rhoda M.
Jackson, Bahamas Permanent Representative in Geneva and Mr. Philip Weech,
Director of BEST Commission represented The Bahamas.
The
ADP centred discussions on elements for inclusion in the negotiating document
to be adopted at the 21st session of the Conference of Parties
(COP-21) scheduled to be held in Paris, France in December of this year. Among those issues discussed during the week
were climate financing, adaptation, mitigation and support for technology and
capacity building. For CARICOM, the
issue of Loss and Damage is of critical importance to addressing adaptation and
therefore, the region called for this issue to be treated separately, with a
specific objective in the final Agreement and not as is currently, an appendage
to adaptation.
CARICOM
reiterated the need for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to access
financing in order to address the negative impacts of climate change. The ADP
is also tasked with developing a legally binding instrument in the form of a
Protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome document with legal
force applicable to all Parties to the Convention. The Bahamas, in its capacity
as Chairman of CARICOM, coordinated informal bilateral meetings with the United
States and Germany. CARICOM, as a sub-region plays an active role in the
negotiating process through its participation in the Alliance of Small Island
States (AOSIS,) a UN recognized grouping of 39 members. Maldives is the current
AOSIS Chair.
The
ADP agreed on the elements for a crucial document in the lead up to the Paris
meeting in December, 2015 and is scheduled to convene 3 additional negotiating
sessions, the first of which will be held in
June in
Bonn, Germany, where negotiations on the outcome document will begin in
earnest.
At
a briefing convened for Ambassadors in Geneva on Friday, the Executive
Secretary of the UNFCCC, Christina Figueres urged representatives to renew the
call for political guidance at the national level and further underscored the
need for a cross-sectoral approach to addressing climate change.
