A consensus on a clear financial mechanism for fighting climate change needs to be made before the 25th UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) can move from the negotiation phase to implementation of the Paris Agreement, Botswana's minister of environment, natural resources conservation and tourism, Philda Kereng, said in an interview with Sputnik
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2019) A consensus on a clear financial mechanism for fighting climate change needs to be made before the 25th UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) can move from the negotiation phase to implementation of the Paris Agreement, Botswana's minister of environment, natural resources conservation and tourism, Philda Kereng, said in an interview with Sputnik.
"Obviously this COP is of high significance, because it is supposed to conclude the implementation modalities for the Paris agreement ... We have to conclude on modalities for setting into motion other mechanisms for implementing the Paris agreement," Kereng said.
In particular, the minister mentioned implementing Article 6, which focuses on the transparency framework that will monitor reported emissions, as well as any losses, damage and financial issues.
Kereng underlined that there are "difficulties in how the Green Climate Fund is conducting its business, as well as how the Global Environment Facility has now reduced the allocation of resources." According to her, it was a domino effect failure, as the GEF reduced the allocation of funds, expecting that the GCF would provide them on its end, which the latter did not do.
"So these are more or less our expectations - to ensure that the negotiations around these critical areas could be completed, so then we focus on implementation, rather than negotiating issue endlessly without even getting somewhere. There is a bigger job ahead of us, this is implementing the Paris agreement," Kereng added.
According to the Botswanan minister, time for talks is running out, and when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2020, the Paris Agreement must start being implemented to ensure that all gains from its early entry into force are not lost to protracted discussions.
The COP25 started on December 2 in the Spanish capital of Madrid and will run through Friday. The agenda is focused on the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement. The treaty's most well-known premise is to try to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and to ideally pursue an even lower limit of 1.5 degrees.
The 1997 Kyoto protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its signatories to internationally binding emission reduction targets. The treaty's first commitment period ended in 2012 and had 37 industrialized countries pledge to reduce greenhouses gas emissions an average 5 percent against 1990 levels. The second one is due to end in December 2020.
