Several contentious issues coming from the most vulnerable countries (MVC) to climate change will be prioritised in the talks at the 22st Conference of Parties which kicked off on Monday at Marrakech in Morocco with the participation of thousands of participants, from developed and developing countries.
Firstly, the demand for a specific institutional mechanism and a five-year work plan for the Loss and Damage track which has already been agreed upon under the Warsaw Institutional Mechanism (WIM).
MVCs, which consist of Bangladesh, the Philippines and island states from Asia and Pacific, demand an additional adaptation finance around $50 billion, on priority basis.
Another priority demand is a road map on getting $100 billion climate finance from 2020, with the provision of getting this money as additional beyond the Official Development Assistance (ODA).
Besides these, another popular demand is that the developed countries and advanced developing countries (India and China in particular) have to increase their ambition with respect to INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) to reduce their carbon emission targets.
According to the calculation of the submitted INDC, accumulated global emissions will drive global temperatures up to around 3.5 degrees Celsius by 2100.
However, the Paris Agreement, adopted last year at the COP21, stipulates that global temperature rise will have to be limited to 1.5 degrees, or failing that, under 2 degrees.
Congolese Environment Minister Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu, chair of the LDC group, said in a statement LDCs needed fair and ambitious action to construct robust rules for implementing the Paris Agreement.
He emphasised the importance for communities around the world to pursue efforts to keep temperatures below 1.5 degree, and for that, there needed to be an “upward spiraling of commitments to cut emissions.”
As such, the LDC group aims to launch a “Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Initiative” (REEEI), which looks to address the challenges that most developing countries face in responding to climate change and ensuring a sustainable future.
Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu said his hope was that this initiative would help LDCs leapfrog fossil fuel based energy systems and generate prosperity by bringing in modern, clean and resilient systems.
To make global emission reduction successful, vulnerable countries demand a transparent process such as ones that follow the Measurable-Reportable and Verifiable (MRV) standard, in INDC implementation.
In addition, the MVCs want to fix a “Picking Year,” the designated starting point for mitigation efforts, as the time-frame is very urgent for them.
Apart from these, it is expected that there will be a task force on who will be working for climate induced displacement. But the displacement issue is not in agenda list this year.
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