SIDS want promises fulfilled
Say Copenhagen Ministerial should set the tone for climate negotiations this year
SMALL ISLAND developing states (SIDS) have urged a “laser focus” on enhanced ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as countries meet today (March 21) for the start of the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial in Denmark.
“While we fight for our people in negotiating rooms year after year, the incremental progress made on addressing the climate crisis falls far behind the actual losses endured by the women, men, and children of our vulnerable small island developing states,” said Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), in a statement to the media.
AOSIS has represented the interests of 39 small island and low-lying coastal developing states in international climate change, sustainable development negotiations and processes since 1990.
“This is a critical year, as we must peak global emissions before 2025 to avoid the worst scenarios of increased storms, drought, coastal erosion, sea level rise, and the other devastating impacts of climate change on our homes,” added Schuster, who is also the minister of natural resources and environment of Samoa.
Emissions from greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, fuel climate change which, in turn, trigger a range of impacts, such as severe hurricanes and droughts, the likes of which devastated some Caribbean islands over recent years.
According to the AOSIS boss, it is critical therefore that the Ministerial set the tone for COP29 (global climate change talks) later this year, and that the best efforts are made to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius dream alive.
“At the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial, we must see a laser focus on implementing the COP28 Energy Package, and advancing new, significantly more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) which will lock us on a firm track to maintaining the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal and place us on a pathway to net zero by 2050,” he said.
NDCs are individual country contributions to reducing emissions.
“We urge all countries to demonstrate their diligence and good faith by submitting updates to their 2030 targets as well as NDCs, with 2035 targets, well before the February 2025 deadline,” Schuster added.
Caribbean and other SIDs have been unrelenting in their long lobby for countries to restrain the warming of the planet to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, in line with commitments made under the Paris Agreement and towards safeguarding their survival.
HISTORIC CLIMATE TALKS
The Paris Agreement – finalised in 2015 at the historic climate talks in Paris – sees countries committing to “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”. This is recognising that to succeed in those efforts “would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”.
The agreement also holds countries to “increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production”; as well as to “making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”.
The finance commitment is one, Schuster said, that countries must also live up to and which warrants attention at the Copenhagen Ministerial. The Ministerial is the first major political meeting attended by the i ncoming COP29 Presidency Azerbaijan and is regarded as an early opportunity to set the agenda and share the vision for what COP29 must deliver.
“Importantly, setting a robust New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) is key. Implementation of effective climate action is impossible without it. We cannot have a repeat of the delayed promises of the 100-billion goal. The urgent delivery of the NCQG to SIDS and other developing countries is a consequential catalyst for achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals,” the AOSIS chair noted.
“The era of implementation is upon us and we cannot miss this precious window to write a better chapter for our world,” he added.