It is day six into the seventeenth Conference of Parties and the agenda item number seven on the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI), which is divided into part a and b namely;
a. A process to enable least developed country Parties to formulate and implement national adaptation plans, building upon their experience in preparing and implementing national adaptation programmes of action, and
b. Modalities and guidelines for the least developed country Parties and other developing country Parties to employ the modalities formulated to support national adaptation plans.
A contact group to have informal discussions on this was created and several texts have evolved with the latest being eleven pages long up from the nine page from the text on the 1st of December.
Key issues to note in this agenda item include:
More brackets have emerged in this latest version, that means that this informal group has not come to an agreement on those paragraphs with brackets and these issues will be taken to the plenary for consideration. That is not what you would want to see in a normal day since, the fewer the people the more likely that an amicable solution/ better compromise could be reached. The plenary is comprised of lots of people some of whom are politicians rather than technical people.
Two, is that whereas a country like Kenya is realling from the impacts of climate and has a decimal contribution to emission of Greenhouse gases, and as one study has it, it will cost Kenya upto USD 650 per year in 2012 to adapt to climate change, there is no express requirement for developing countries other than LDCs to develop NAPs but instead, they are being invited if they are interested to do so using the modalities that have been put in place for the LDCs. This is not new to this Durban process though, since that was the mandate from COP 16 in Cancun.
What you and I need to be concerned about is that developing and implementing these NAPs have costs as you can see in a paragraph above that it will cost Kenya a lot to adapt and that Kenya is not in any way responsible in part, to the impacts of climate change. However, the financial burden or responsibility to adapt is still not yet clear whether it will be upon Kenyan's or if those responsible for the impacts will assist poor Kenyans and their government adapt. This is because the provision on the draft text referring to financial arrangements for formulation and implementation is bracketing whether the developed country Parties to continue to provide the least developed country and other developing country Parties. Kenya is not an LDC , keep that in mind.
What I observe is that these other developing countries seems to be not very active on this agenda apart from Kenya and Botswana.
The Africa Group was absent and so is the G77 + China in this informal contact group.
I think that it is important for these other developing countries not to let down their vulnerable people and find away to mobilise support both within themselves and without, to provide a text on this matter and and ensure that the G77plus China, the Africa Group and all other groupings in which some of their members are to support this idea.
This is because I see a systematic narrowing of number of countries that developed countries want to officially commit to support in adaptation and on the other hand increase the number of countries that should officially take responsibility in mitigation actions.
Published by
Philip Otieno
a. A process to enable least developed country Parties to formulate and implement national adaptation plans, building upon their experience in preparing and implementing national adaptation programmes of action, and
b. Modalities and guidelines for the least developed country Parties and other developing country Parties to employ the modalities formulated to support national adaptation plans.
A contact group to have informal discussions on this was created and several texts have evolved with the latest being eleven pages long up from the nine page from the text on the 1st of December.
Key issues to note in this agenda item include:
More brackets have emerged in this latest version, that means that this informal group has not come to an agreement on those paragraphs with brackets and these issues will be taken to the plenary for consideration. That is not what you would want to see in a normal day since, the fewer the people the more likely that an amicable solution/ better compromise could be reached. The plenary is comprised of lots of people some of whom are politicians rather than technical people.
Two, is that whereas a country like Kenya is realling from the impacts of climate and has a decimal contribution to emission of Greenhouse gases, and as one study has it, it will cost Kenya upto USD 650 per year in 2012 to adapt to climate change, there is no express requirement for developing countries other than LDCs to develop NAPs but instead, they are being invited if they are interested to do so using the modalities that have been put in place for the LDCs. This is not new to this Durban process though, since that was the mandate from COP 16 in Cancun.
What you and I need to be concerned about is that developing and implementing these NAPs have costs as you can see in a paragraph above that it will cost Kenya a lot to adapt and that Kenya is not in any way responsible in part, to the impacts of climate change. However, the financial burden or responsibility to adapt is still not yet clear whether it will be upon Kenyan's or if those responsible for the impacts will assist poor Kenyans and their government adapt. This is because the provision on the draft text referring to financial arrangements for formulation and implementation is bracketing whether the developed country Parties to continue to provide the least developed country and other developing country Parties. Kenya is not an LDC , keep that in mind.
What I observe is that these other developing countries seems to be not very active on this agenda apart from Kenya and Botswana.
The Africa Group was absent and so is the G77 + China in this informal contact group.
I think that it is important for these other developing countries not to let down their vulnerable people and find away to mobilise support both within themselves and without, to provide a text on this matter and and ensure that the G77plus China, the Africa Group and all other groupings in which some of their members are to support this idea.
This is because I see a systematic narrowing of number of countries that developed countries want to officially commit to support in adaptation and on the other hand increase the number of countries that should officially take responsibility in mitigation actions.
Published by
Philip Otieno
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