Countries Vulnerable to Climate Change Press for Action at

UNCLAS COLOMBO 001033 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR OES AND EPA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD EFIN CE SUBJECT: Countries Vulnerable to Climate Change Press for Action at Copenhagen Conference; Seek More Funds for Climate Adaption ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Government leaders from eleven countries participated in the Climate Vulnerable Forum November 9-10 in the Maldives. The participants and observers heard from experts on special challenges the most vulnerable countries are facing, scientific aspects of global climate goals, and legal facets of international climate protocols. Following two days of discussion, Forum participants developed a final statement calling on developed countries to provide public money amounting to at least 1.5% of their GDP to assist developing countries make their transition to a climate resilient low-carbon economy. The full statement is included in paragraph 9. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) The Deputy Chief of Mission and EconOff attended the Climate Vulnerable Forum in the Maldives with observer status. Delegates at the Climate Vulnerable Forum included President Tong of Kiribati, as well as foreign and environment ministers from Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania, and representatives from Barbados and Bhutan. The other countries attending the Forum as observers were China, Denmark, France, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Russia, and the UK. ¶3. (U) President Nasheed of The Maldives gave an impassioned opening address in which he noted that failure at Copenhagen would mean the elimination of the climate vulnerable countries and their peoples and warned that climate change negotiations cannot be viewed like any other international issue, stating 'we cannot cut deal with Mother Nature.' He urged the developed countries to provide a significant sum of money to the developing world to assist in the transition to low-carbon economies and for adaptation projects. Nasheed likened the current sums on offer to 'arriving at an earthquake zone with a dustpan and brush.' But he also called on those countries present to take action at home as well, pointing to his government's efforts to reach a carbon-neutral economy within ten years by transitioning to wind and solar energy and purchasing offsets to counter carbon emissions from the aviation industry. ¶4. (U) Each of the delegates also gave remarks highlighting their problems at home, from desertification, enhanced drought/flood cycles, melting glaciers, rising seas and loss of agricultural land. Mark Lynans, President Nasheed's environmental advisor and a partner at Oxford Climate Associates, discussed the need to bring atmospheric carbon concentrations below 350 parts per million (ppm) vice the 387 ppm we are currently at today to avert the 'triple whammy' currently affecting Maldives - rising sea levels, bleaching of the protective coral, and ocean acidification which literally melts the carbonate rocks from which the islands are built. Lynans also argued not just for adaptation financing, in developing countries, but mitigation financing as well, to fund carbon reduction projects. ¶5. (U) There were also presentations by Bill Hare of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Saleemul Huq of the International Institute of Climate and Development, and Farhana Yamin of the Institute of Development Studies on themes for the governments to consider when drafting the declaration. They discussed some of the science behind global warming, various scenarios based on response levels, special challenges confronting the most climate vulnerable countries, the need for technology transfer, and legal forms and Copenhagen outcomes. Participants and observers from the G-77, France, the Commonwealth, and the private sector called for swift action at Copenhagen lest momentum - and valuable time - be lost. Yamin discussed the 'special situation' of the United States and the need for Congressional passage of domestic legislation on climate change. ¶6. (SBU) Throughout the two day conference, participants' comments were generally tempered and moderate. Most recognized that they as individual countries need to do more at home to manage their environments. Rwanda's Environment Minister Karega, for example, described his country's efforts with reforestation to improve rainfall and water quality. While most nations did note their own lack of culpability for the current crisis, they emphasized that the response lies not only with the industrialized countries, but also with the rapidly developing economies - and indeed with all countries. ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT: The final declaration (see paragraph 9),while assertive and forward-leaning, is also more moderate in tone than earlier drafts, demonstrating the participants' desire to be a 'consistent and persistent, yet positive voice' in the climate change debate. Funded mainly by the British Government with support from the Swedes, the Climate Vulnerable Forum offered these eleven countries an opportunity to get together and map out a common message for Copenhagen. While a number of items in the final declaration will be difficult to achieve at Copenhagen, it is worth noting the very fact that these nations - underdeveloped and poor, yet hard-hit by climate change - demonstrated leadership at this critical time in the negotiating process. END COMMENT. ¶8. (U) Post has copies of statements by the Maldivian President and the Climate Vulnerable Forum delegates and will forward them upon request. Please contact ESTH officer Ken Kero-Mentz. ¶9. (U) BEGIN FINAL DRAFT DECLARATION Declaration: Climate Vulnerable Forum -- Maldives We, Heads of State, Ministers and representatives of Government from Africa, Asia, Caribbean and the Pacific, representing some of the countries most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change: Alarmed at the pace of change to our Earth caused by human-induced climate change, including accelerating melting and loss of ice from Greenland, the Himalayas and Antarctica, acidification of the world's oceans due to rising CO2 concentrations, increasingly intense tropical cyclones, more damaging and intense drought and floods, including Glacial Lakes Outburst Floods, in many regions and higher levels of sea-level rise than estimated just a few years ago, risks changing the face of the planet and threatening coastal cities, low lying areas, mountainous regions and vulnerable countries the world over, Asserting that anthropogenic climate change poses an existential threat to our nations, our cultures and to our way of life, and thereby undermines the internationally-protected human rights of our people - including the right to sustainable development, right to life, the right to self-determination and the right of a people not to be deprived of its own means of subsistence, as well as principles of international law that oblige all states to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction; Conscious that while our nations lie at the climate front-line and will disproportionately feel the impacts of global warming, in the end climate change will threaten the sustainable development and, ultimately, the survival of all States and peoples - the fate of the most vulnerable will be the fate of the world; and convinced that our acute vulnerability not only allows us to perceive the threat of climate change more clearly than others, but also provides us with the clarity of vision to understand the steps that must be taken to protect the Earth's climate system and the determination to see the job done; Recalling that the UNFCCC is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change, Desirous of building upon the commitment of leaders at the recent United Nations High-Level Summit on Climate Change in New York in addressing the needs of those countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as well as other political commitments, including the AOSIS Declaration and the African Common Position, Underlining the urgency of concluding an ambitious, fair and effective global legal agreement at COP15 in Copenhagen. Gravely concerned at reports of a downgrading of expectations for COP15 and calling therefore for a redoubling of efforts - including through the attendance in Copenhagen, at Head of State- or Head of Government-level, of all States, and especially of major industrialized nations and all major emerging economies. Emphasizing that developed countries bear the overwhelming historic responsibility for causing anthropogenic climate change and must therefore take the lead in responding to the challenge across all four building blocks of an enhanced international climate change regime - namely mitigation, adaption, technology and finance - that builds-upon the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol. Taking account of their historic responsibility as well as the need to secure climate justice for the world's poorest and most vulnerable communities, developed countries must commit to legally-binding and ambitious emission reduction targets consistent with limiting global average surface warming to well below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and long-term stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at well below 350ppm, and that to achieve this the agreement at COP15 UNFCCC should include a goal of peaking global emissions by 2015 with a sharp decline thereafter towards a global reduction of 85% by 2050, Emphasizing that protecting the climate system is the common responsibility of all humankind, that the Earth's climate system has a limited capacity to absorb greenhouse gas emissions, and that action is required by all countries on the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities, respective capabilities, and the precautionary principle, Underscoring that maintaining carbon-intensive modes of production established in 19th Century Europe will incur enormous social and economic cost in the medium- and long-term, whereas shifting to a carbon-neutral future based on green technology and low-carbon energy creates wealth, jobs, new economic opportunities, and local co-benefits in terms of health and reduced pollution, Convinced that those countries which take the lead in embracing this future will be the winners of the 21st Century; Expressing our determination, as vulnerable States, to demonstrate leadership on climate change by leading the world into the low-carbon and ultimately carbon-neutral economy, but recognizing that we cannot achieve this goal on our own; Now therefore, Declare our determination, as low-emitting countries that are acutely vulnerable to climate change, to show moral leadership on climate change through actions as well as words, by acting now to commence greening our economies as our contribution towards achieving carbon neutrality, Affirm that this will enhance the objectives of achieving sustainable development, reducing poverty and attaining the internationally agreed development goals including the Millennium Development Goals, Call upon all other countries to follow the moral leadership shown by the Republic of Maldives by voluntarily committing to achieving carbon-neutrality, Assert that the achievement of carbon neutrality by developing countries will be extremely difficult given their lack of resources and capacity and pressing adaptation challenges, without external financial, technological and capability-building support from developed countries, Declare that, irrespective of the effectiveness of mitigation actions, significant adverse changes in the global climate are now inevitable and are already taking place, and thus Parties to the UNFCCC must also include, in the COP15 outcome document, an ambitious agreement on adaptation finance which should prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable countries, especially in the near-term, Call upon developed countries to provide public money amounting to at least 1.5% of their gross domestic product, in addition to innovative sources of finance, annually by 2015 to assist developing countries make their transition to a climate resilient low-carbon economy. This grant-based finance must be predictable, sustainable, transparent, new and additional - on top of developed country commitments to deliver 0.7% of their Gross National Income as Overseas Development Assistance. Underline that financing for mitigation and adaptation, under the authority of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC, should be on the basis of direct access to implement country-led national Low-Carbon Development Plans and Climate Resilient Development Strategies, and the process to allocate and deliver the finance must be accessible, transparent, consensual, accountable, results-orientated and should prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable countries. Further underline that fundamental principles and issues relating to the survival of peoples and preservation of sovereign rights are non-negotiable, and should be embedded in the Copenhagen legal agreement, Call on Parties to the UNFCCC to also consider and address the health, human rights and security implications of climate change, including the need to prepare communities for relocation, to protect persons displaced across borders due to climate change-related impacts, and the need to create a legal framework to protect the human rights of those left stateless as a result of climate change. Invite other vulnerable countries to endorse this Declaration. Decide to hold a second meeting of the Climate Vulnerable Forum in Kiribati on [date] to take forward this initiative, to further raise awareness of the vulnerabilities and actions of vulnerable countries to combat climate change, and to amplify their voice in international negotiations. In this context, request support from the UN system to assist the most vulnerable developing countries take action in pursuit of this Declaration. END FINAL DRAFT DECLARATION. BUTENIS