The participants of the Katowice Climate Change Conference COP24 still have a number of issues to iron out before they can present the summit's key agreement, including the ones related to the climate change adaptation and financing, Maesela John Kekana, the lead negotiator for South Africa, told Sputnik on Friday.
KATOWICE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th December, 2018) The participants of the Katowice Climate Change Conference COP24 still have a number of issues to iron out before they can present the summit's key agreement, including the ones related to the climate change adaptation and financing, Maesela John Kekana, the lead negotiator for South Africa, told Sputnik on Friday.This year's Climate Change Conference, which is being held in Poland's Katowice, is aimed, among other things, at adopting an agreement that would serve as a set of rules and guidelines for the full implementation of the 2015 Paris climate deal.
"The first one [unresolved issue] pertains to [climate change] adaptation. We call for further work to do some technical guidelines so that we can be able to measure whether you are achieving progress on that issue. Of course, it is there in the text but we are not happy with the body that is supposed to do that work ... We are going to correct that today," Kekana said in an interview on the sidelines of COP24.
Kekana also noted that the negotiators were still debating on the financial part of the agreement and especially the long-term monetary plans.
"The second issue pertains to finance. We don't think all issues have been addressed under finance, but, of course, consultations are still ongoing on those issues, particularly long-term finance," Kekana said.
According to the South African delegate, the negotiators also have differences regarding the specifics of the global stocktake � the process though which the Paris Agreement signatories are expected to assess their collective progress in implementing the climate change deal.
"Then the third issue is around global stocktake, particularly the paragraph on equity. We are happy it is there, but as you heard last night, there was a lot of pushback from our partners so we don't know if it will stand. If it remains, for us it is fine, we will then be happy with that particular outcome," Kekana said.
The last pending issue concerned the clause on loss and damage, which the United States insisted on removing from the agreement.
"In their mind they fear that this could reopen some of the issues that were settled in Paris [during COP21]," Kekana said.
UNITED STATES' RELUCTANCE TO INCLUDE IPCC REPORT IN AGREEMENT
During the conference, several countries, including the United States, have blocked the adoption of a climate report prepared by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which warned that the world had to take urgent action to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
Kekana believes that the United States had gone "anti-science" by refusing to include even any reference to the report in the final agreement despite the fact that the document had been prepared mostly by US scientists.
"Last night when we left here, the United States was still adamant that they would not accept anything that references the IPCC [report]. Suddenly they have gone anti-science. We don't know why ... The majority of the scientists who wrote that report are reputable US scientists, they outnumber every other scientist in drafting that report," Kekana said.
The negotiator added that the rejection of the IPCC report as a part of the conference's agreement was unprecedented.
"Many countries have actually presented this report to their governments and they are being guided by the report to revise their plans. In this climate conference we are witnessing parties that rejected reference to a scientific report, which is quite strange, it is a new thing. It has never happened before," Kekana said.
ON IMPORTANCE OF KATOWICE AGREEMENT
The South African delegate stressed that the agreement would become a road map for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and it would help the signatories plan their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which reflect each country's goals aimed at progressively cutting their green house gas emissions.
"The agreement is quite important, because what we are doing here is trying to come up with implementation guidelines. It means when you do your next NDC, you will have a blueprint on what areas to cover, and how you should do it, what should be included, which methodologies to use ... The more detailed and specific the rules are, the better it is for everyone," Kekana said.
Kekana also expressed hope that despite the differences, the parties would eventually reach a consensus and come up with an agreement that would be accepted by everyone.
"As you can see the issues are still quite open but the conference has already started with this round of consultations. We hope that we will be able to bring the parties together so we can find some convergences, and a text that is acceptable to everyone," Kekana said.
ON FINANCING THE ADAPTAION FUND
The Adaptation Fund, which was set up back in 2001 under the Kyoto Protocol, has been created to assist developing countries that have signed the agreement in adapting to climate change. Since 2010, the fund has allocated $532 million to support vulnerable communities around the world. In 2017, the Kyoto Protocol signatories decided that the fund would serve the Paris Agreement.
South Africa believes that the fund should first undergo a transitional period, where it will be financed under the Paris Agreement as well as the Kyoto Protocol, before it can fully serve the 2015 climate deal.
"It is an empty fund now. The only area where it is receiving funds from at the moment is under the Kyoto Protocol. The new market mechanism has not yet been finalized or settled where it will most probably receive funding once it migrates fully to the Paris Agreement ... There must be a transitional period, where is still serves under both, for it to get as much resources as possible," Kekana said, adding that this issue was still unresolved at COP24.
But once the market mechanism is functional and the Kyoto Protocol expires, the Adaptation Fund would start serving the Paris Agreement exclusively, the negotiator added.
ON US WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS AGREEMENT
In 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would pull out of the Paris Agreement. While the United States officially notified the United Nations of its intention on August 4, the country cannot officially exit the accord until November 4, 2020.
According to Kekana, the Paris Agreement would not be able to effectively tackle climate change without the participation of the United States, which is among the world's largest green house gas emitters.
"We need everyone on board. If you've got free-riders, you're not going to help the situation ... Any big player moving out of the agreement has serious implications. It is not like some country that contributes 0.0001 percent," the negotiator said.
The negotiator noted that some US states and private entities remained committed to the agreement, which helped to partially compensate for the Federal government's withdrawal, but it was not enough.
"I think that the good thing is that there are still states and the private sectors in the United States that remain on course and some of those states actually contribute a lot to the US budget. So the more states you have that continue to do their share, then at least it alleviates the problem a little bit. But of course you need federal government for total action," Kekana said.
The Paris climate deal, created within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, went into force on November 4, 2016. It has been ratified by 184 of the 195 parties to the accord. The deal aims at keeping the increase in average global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
