CSO reflects on govt’s COP26 position paper

WE the civil society in Zimbabwe under the flagship of the Zimbabwe Climate Change Working Group, Climate Action Network Zimbabwe, and ACCESS Coalition having gathered on October 20, 2021 at Bronte Hotel in Harare Zimbabwe.

We recognise the national country position for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) shared by the Government of Zimbabwe to stakeholders on October 15, 2021 at Meikles Hotel in Harare.

We acknowledge the commitment of the Government of Zimbabwe to the Paris Agreement that seeks to hold an increase in global temperature to well below 2 degrees above the preindustrial levels and to pursue efforts to reduce global carbon emissions.

We note that the Zimbabwe country position paper for COP26 is focusing and prioritising the following areas:

• Narrowing the emissions gap Climate finance

• Response measures

• Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA)

• Enhanced Action on Adaptation Loss and Damage

• Article 6 — Market Mechanisms and Sustainable Development

• Outstanding Transparency Issues

Having deliberated and reflected on the submitted government COP26 country position paper, as civic society organisations in Zimbabwe, we specifically call upon government to consider the following issues:

We are calling for the COP26 to push for a balance on the financing gaps between mitigation and adaptation funds.

We call upon the COP26 to consider the establishment of a direct financial intervention by International financial institutions such as -AfDB in developing localised and continental finance institutions to address the imbalance between adaptation and mitigation financing.

We strongly support the availability of climate finance. However, we call upon the COP26 to prioritise grant financing particularly to developing countries on issues of adaptation.

We call upon the COP26 to avail more financial resources to developing countries for the development of technologies that allow for the “fair and just transition” from emission intensive technologies and processes (e.g., coal and beef production).

We support the COP26 in the global stock take on financial gaps on mitigation and adaptation.

We call upon the COP26 to push for the establishment of continental carbon emissions verification bodies like those of the clean development mechanism.