The Gambia is working to include the clause on the adaptation measures for climate change into an agreement to be adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Lamin Dibba, the Gambian minister of the environment, climate change and natural resources, told Sputnik on Thursday.
KATOWICE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2018) The Gambia is working to include the clause on the adaptation measures for climate change into an agreement to be adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Lamin Dibba, the Gambian minister of the environment, climate change and natural resources, told Sputnik on Thursday.One of the key aims of the Katowice Climate Change Conference is to adopt decisions ensuring the full implementation of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
"The outstanding issue is the [climate change] adaptation support which is a cross cutting issue. This is what we have groups working on ... We are in consultations with the finance team that we would want to see the reflection of this in the [agreement] text," Dibba said on the sidelines of the COP24 conference.
The minister added that the priority of the Gambian government was to ensure that the agriculture sector was adapted to climate change.
"Our priority in this is to ensure that the Paris rulebook is done and that it will give the framework for the implementation of the Paris agreement," Dibba stressed, adding that he hoped general consensus will be reached by the end of Friday for the rulebook to be finalized.
Adaptation means taking action to prevent or minimize the damage climate change can cause. Examples of adaptation measures include water recycling, developing drought-tolerant crops, improving irrigation efficiency and adaptation of urban planning.
KATOWICE AGREEMENT TO REFLECT FINDINGS OF IPCC REPORT ON GLOBAL WARMING
In October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approved the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C, which the IPCC described as "a key scientific input" into the Katowice Climate Change Conference.
Dibba said that despite the refusal of a number of countries to welcome the IPCC report, its findings would be reflected in the final draft of the Katowice agreement.
"We have seen some progress in terms of having middle ground on some of these issues like the IPCC report and the involvement of the IPCC in developing the methodological framework and all the scientific groups. We have seen some flexibility in this," Dibba said when asked whether the IPCC report would be adequately reflected in the Katowice agreement despite diverging views toward it.
The IPCC report provided different global warming scenarios in different regions. For example, it showed that a minimal rise of sea level in The Gambia - a low-lying country - was likely to result in floods, the minister noted.
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION FUND COULD BE SUBJECT TO UNECCESSARY BUREAUCRACY
At the 2017 COP23 UN Climate Conference in Bonn, member countries of the Kyoto Protocol decided that the Adaptation Fund, which finances projects that help developing countries adapt to climate change, shall formally serve the Paris agreement.
According to the Gambian minister, the fund could be subject to unnecessary bureaucracy.
"We have just been informed that the Adaptation Fund will be established [to serve the Paris Agreement] in 2019 January, but the mechanism, the bureaucracy is sometimes what hinders progress in the establishment of some funds," Dibba underlined, adding that the fund could make a "significant change" in the way the world countries approach climate change.
GREEN CLIMATE FUND FUNDS SUFFICIENT TO COVER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES' NEEDS IN 2019
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) helps developing countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as well as to adapt to climate change.
When asked whether the funds of the GCF would cover the needs of developing countries next year, Dibba said that the fund's board had approved about 19 projects "and the replenishment is about $4 million, which would help to mitigate [climate change] effects, particularly for developing countries."
"I believe [in] the GCF, this year we have noted with great satisfaction that the board has met. They have expressed the desire to replenish the funding and this could be an opportunity for the GCF ... to support developing countries in their mitigation efforts," the minister stressed.
The GCF was established in 2010 by 194 countries that are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
RENEWABLE ENERGY CREATES MORE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES
On Monday, the United States hosted a side event at the COP24 conference which promotes the use of fossil fuels.
Dibba said the renewable energy sector had a potential to create more economic opportunities and create jobs.
"Every country is entitled to its own views and opinions but I believe the way forward for us is to change our gears to alternative energy, clean energy ... The alternatives could create even more economic opportunities," Dibba said answering the relevant question.
The manufacture of solar panels, their installation and maintenance provide an opportunity for creating jobs, the Gambian minister pointed out.
GAMBIA'S HYDROELECTRIC POWER PROJECT TO DECREASE COUNTRY'S FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENCE
"We are working with our sub-regional partners Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and the Gambia on a major energy project that is hydroelectric. That will support the Gambia by reducing fossil fuel use by 50 percent almost. That could be even more than that, because if we have 100 megawatts from the dam that is being constructed, from the Gambia River basin, that will support us in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels," Dibba underlined.
The hydroelectric power station uses a dam on a river to store water in a reservoir. Water released from the reservoir flows through a turbine, which in turn activates a generator to produce electricity.
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, the governments agreed to a long-term goal of maintaining the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and limiting the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. NDCs represent efforts by each country to reduce national carbon emissions as well as to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
