Perspective on UN Climate Change conference and matters arising in 24 years

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the highest decision body on matters related climate change faced by the Earth. The just concluded Conference of Parties (COP) COP 25 talks in Madrid, Spain on climate change which is tagged “Climate Emergency” has ended with a big disappointment. Even the United Nations Secretary […]

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the highest decision body on matters related climate change faced by the Earth. The just concluded Conference of Parties (COP) COP 25 talks in Madrid, Spain on climate change which is tagged “Climate Emergency” has ended with a big disappointment. Even the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres expressed his disappointment immediately after the meeting has come to an end on Sunday 15th December, 2019 with a message “I am disappointed with the results of #`COP25, the international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation & finance to tackle climate crisis. But we must not give up, and I will not give up. I am more determined than ever to work for 2020 to be better to be the year in which all countries commit to do what science tells us is necessary to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 and no more than 1.5 degree temperature rise.”

The Theme of COP 25 conference is TIME FOR ACTION for the rulebook that was adopted during the 2018 COP 24 Climate Change conference in Katowice, Poland for the Paris Agreement. We should all know that a goal without a plan is just a wish and therefore COP25 is putting its best towards tackling climate change. Nigeria should continue to commit herself to her Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), the document Mr. President deposited during the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2016 so as to be in line with the 1.5o threshold. The 2020 budgets of all the three tiers of governments should factor in peculiarities of climate change issues. This is so important because climate change is affecting our daily life in so many ways and there is evidence in several dimensions, depending on the region, from drought and desertification in the north, erosion in the east, flooding along the coastal zones and patches of other environmental disasters which are directly or indirectly linked to climate change.

One might need to wonder what has been happening since the beginning of the 1st COP in Berlin, Germany in 1995. COP 1 which was tagged Berlin Mandate which was a ruling reached at the first Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in March 1995. COP 2 took place in July 1996 in Geneva, Switzerland. During the COP, ministerial declaration was noted but not adopted so as to reflect the position statement made by the United States. COP 3 took place in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. The COP was tagged “Kyoto Protocol” which outlined the greenhouse gas emissions reduction obligation for developed countries. COP 4 took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1998. The expectation was that, outstanding issues unresolved during COP 3 in Kyoto would be concluded in the COP 4 but however, things went complex and difficult and thus participating countries adopted a 2-year PLAN OF ACTION to advance efforts and to devise mechanisms for implementing the Kyoto Protocol, to be completed by 2000. The fifth UNFCCC Conference, COP 5 took place in Bonn, Germany in 1999. The conference was mainly a technical meeting and no major conclusions reach. COP 6 took place in the city of Hague, Netherlands in 2000. The conference discussions centered on a high-level negotiation over the major political issues especially on the position of the United States’ proposal to allow credit for carbon “sinks” in forests and agricultural lands that would satisfy a major proportion of the U.S. emissions reductions. Unfortunately, no agreement was reached and all decisions collapsed due to the suspension by the then President of COP 6, Jan Pronk and further informed parties that meetings will resume in Bonn later. COP 7 took place on African soil Marrakech, Morocco in 2001 with negotiators wrapped up the work on the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, thus finalizing most of the operational details and setting the stage for nations to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The main decisions at COP 7 included operational rules for international emissions trading among parties to the Protocol and for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation among others. The COP was tagged MARRAKESH ACCORD.

The UNFCCC COP 8 took place in New Delhi, India in 2002 and adopted Delhi Ministerial Declaration which called for developed countries to transfer technology and more action from parties to the convention. Milan, Italy hosted COP 9 in December, 2003. Most of the decisions reached during the meeting were centered on the review of the first national communication from parties included in Annex 1 to the convention and the use of Adaptation Fund that was established at COP 7 among others. The city of Buenos Aires, Argentina hosted the UNFCCC Conference again in 2004 as COP 10. The meeting was in support of developing countries towards coping with climate change and programme of work on adaptation and response measures. The fate of Kyoto Protocol was extensively discussed especially modalities and procedures for afforestation and reforestation project activities under the CDM into the guidelines under Articles 7 and 8 of the Kyoto Protocol. The conference was tagged BUENOS AIRES PLAN OF ACTION.  COP 11 took place in Montreal, Canada in 2005. This was the first meeting of parties the marked the entry force of the Kyoto Protocol. The major objectives emerged include; implementation of Kyoto Protocol, improvement on Kyoto Protocol and the innovation for the future COPs. Therefore, the Montreal climate conference adopted the rulebook of the Kyoto Protocol and it was called Montreal Action Plan to extend the life of Kyoto Protocol.

For the second time, the UNFCCC conference took place on African soil and now in Nairobi, Kenya in 2006. The COP 12 Conference was tagged Nairobi Framework and focused on four issues; moving forward on adaptation, improving equity and accessibility of the CDM, reviewing the mandate of the expert group on technology transfer and maintaining momentum in discussions on future climate regime. The COP 13 took place in Bali, Indonesia in 2007 and it set a timetable for negotiations for a new international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol and include all countries. The conference was known as Bali Roadmap. The roadmap also included a decision to launch an Adaptation Fund and further decisions on technology transfer and on reducing emissions from deforestation. The UNFCCC COP 14 was held in Poznan, Poland in December, 2008. The meeting resulted in delegates agreed on principles for the funding of the poor nations in order to cope with the effect of climate change and the meeting also approved a mechanism to incorporate forest protection into the efforts of the international community to combat climate change.

The 15th COP meeting of the UNFCCC was hosted by the Danish Government in 2009 and was as tagged Copenhagen Accord. The objective of the conference was to keep the global warming below 2oC which was validated and developed countries committed to financing developing countries in the long term. The conference raised climate change conference to the highest political level with over 110 world leaders attended the high level segment. More than 40,000 people attended representing governments, NGOs, intergovernmental, faith-based organization, media and UN agencies.

For the third time, African country hosted the COP 17 in Durban, South Africa in December, 2011 and the COP 17 was tagged Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. This time around, all countries agree to start reducing emissions, including the US and emerging countries (Brazil, China, India and South Africa). It was decided to negotiate a global agreement that would be into force in 2020. Progress was also made regarding creation of Green Climate Fund and the framework was adopted. COP 18 was held in Doha, Qatar in 2012 and the meeting decided to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020. Countries like US, Canada, Russia and China did not support the extension. The theme of the conference was Doha Climate Gateway. COP 19 was held in Warsaw, Poland in 2013 and all parties agreed on seven decisions and build on the Cancun Agreement especially framework for REDD+. The decision includes framework on national forest, monitoring systems, safeguards, forest references emission levels, measuring, reporting and verification and the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation.

The 20th UNFCCC COP took place in Lima, Peru in 2014 and the parties adopted LIMA CALL FOR CLIMATE ACTION and also with a roadmap to 2015 climate conference in Paris. Lima conference was also a platform where all countries agree to develop and share their commitment to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. After 20 years of negotiation, the COP 21 was held in Paris, France in December, 2015 and all parties unanimously adopted to keep the global warming below two degrees centigrade above pre-industrial and continue efforts to limit it to 1.5oC. The conference was tagged PARIS AGREEMENT.

For the fourth time, African country hosted the COP 22 in 2016. Now it was in Marrakesh, Morocco and the second time the city hosted UNFCCC COP after COP 7 in 2001. The Paris Agreement came into force a few days before the summit, after being ratified by most nations.

COP 23 was hosted in UNFCCC headquarters in Bonn, Germany under the Presidency of Fiji and the conference was tagged TALANOA DIALOGUE. The summit made progress on the rulebook to detail how the Paris Agreement will work in practice (Paris rulebook) with the aim of concluding it in 2018. The dialogue was launched to promote the participation and dialogue of local and indigenous Communities. A gender action plan was adopted to ensure the role of women in decision-making related to climate issues. The last Conference of Parties to UNFCCC was held in Katowice, Poland in 2018 as COP 24 with over 23,000 delegates in attendance. The main aim of the conference was the hashing out the Paris Agreement “rulebook” and the progress in cutting them for every 2 year from 2024. At the end of the conference, the parties failed to agree the rules for voluntary market mechanisms, pushing part of the progress to COP 25. Here we come, the COP 25 was originally supposed to be in Brazil but upon election of the President, they country withdrew and Santiago, Chile took the baton and unfortunately also, due to the uncertainty in their country, the city of Madrid, Spain came to the rescue. The city of Madrid is called the Green Capital. The conference theme is TIME FOR ACTION and is now. As you might have heard previously, the COP 25 is over and no concluding results reach and expert are currently given their own view on the outcome. The next COP 26 is expected to take place from 9 to 19 November 2020, in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. What are we expecting?

What have we learned from COP 25 in Madrid, Spain?

Was there disconnect between politicians and the people? What has science shown to us regarding the hottest temperature in recent years? Who are the big emitters and what are currently doing? Is time on our side as temperature continues to rise? As a country, are we really prepared to adapt to the climate emergency? Are we restructuring our economy? What are we doing about carbon credit and capture & storage? Are we undertaking research on adaptations and mitigations in line with global best practice? How far have we gone with our Nationally Determined Contribution? We should also note that most decisions taken during COPs meetings will affect African growth and transformation but it will also be an opportunity for Africa to take advantage if we intend to do well because resources are very sufficient. Therefore, climate change will affect African development if we are not been careful but however, private sector has a role to play to drive this crusade.

 

Preparation for ‘COP 26’ in the UK

Early preparation with representative of everybody in Nigeria will help in showcasing what Nigeria is doing as a country and what we intend to do in specific number years.

Finally can Nigeria host future UNFCCC COP as there is likely possibility that COP 27 or COP 28 will be on African soil. Are we ready?

 

Prof. Idris is Dean, Faculty of Environmental Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi

Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>