News focus: Rebuilding trust towards Mexico Climate Change Summit
A number of countries attending an informal meeting on climate change in Bali last February emphasized the urgency of rebuilding trust in the runup to the Mexico Climate Change Summit late this year
By Fardah | ANTARA News | March 10, 2010
"The greatest challenge facing all countries towards Mexico is to rebuild trust," Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa told the press after chairing an informal ministerial level meeting on climate change in Nusa Dua, Bali Province, on February 26, 2010.
Many participants recognized there was lack of confidence and trust during the Copenhagen climate conference last year, the minister said.
Therefore, on the sidelines of the 11th Special Session of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, held in Bali, Feb. 24-26, the Indonesian government as the host of the meeting, initiated an informal meeting on climate change as part of preparations for the planned Mexico conference.
The UNEP environment minister meeting was attended by around 1,000 participants from 130 countries, including 35 ministers - the largest environmental ministerial level meeting after the Copenhagen conference.
The ministers and the heads of delegations in the meeting agreed that the next Mexico conference should focus on rebuilding trust and implementation of existing agreements.
Mexico will host the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Sixth Session of the Conference of the Parties Serving as Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP-MOP 6) in Cancun, from November 29-December 10, 2010.
In order to rebuild trust and regain political momentum to restart the negotiations, the process of negotiation towards Mexico must be open, transparent and inclusive so that every country`s voice could be heard, Minister Natalegawa said.
However, according to Natalegawa, Indonesia did not want to blow up the trust deficit issue and believed that dialogs on climate change must involve all parties, including those having different opinions.
All parties should meet more often and Indonesia was ready to facilitate the meetings, the minister said.
Negotiations must be carried out under the Copenhagen Accord and two ad-hoc working groups, namely the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA), he said.
"It`s also crystal clear, that there is an urgent need to make good programs on climate change issues," the minister said.
In a separate press conference, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer also emphasized the importance of transparent and inclusive processes towards the Mexico climate change conference, in order to regain confidence.
Another important aspect towards Mexico was how to put real implementation architectures on issues such as transfer of technology, mitigation, adaptation, and financing, de Boer said.
Countries such as Japan, the US and Europe had agreed that financing could be channeled through existing institutions such as Adaptation Funds under Kyoto Protocol, World Bank, ADB (Asian Development Bank), or bilateral donor agreements, in order to avoid a lot of time waste and bureaucracy, he said.
De Boer, who would resign following the Copenhagen conference which was considered to have failed to achieve a binding agreement on emission cuts, said short-term financing worth US$30 billion should be mobilized immediately to help poorer countries ease carbon emissions and shore up defenses against climate change.
Environment Minister Gusti M Hatta on the sidelines of the Bali ministerial meeting said the delegates from Mexico were happy that the gathering was held in Bali so they could learn the country`s success in holding big meetings.
The Mexican delegation in a statement issued in the Bali meeting stated the next climate change conference would continue the work done at the Copenhagen Conference and ensure the implementation of the Convention now, up to, and beyond 2012, in accordance with the Bali Road Map.
"It is the intention of Mexico as incoming President of the 16th Conference to work with all the Parties and to promote understandings that pave the way for the adoption of an agreed outcome," it said.
Stressing the need for trust rebuilding, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner at the conclusion of the Bali meeting voiced optimism as the gathering had enabled ministers to find a collective voice again after the "great frustrations" in Copenhagen.
He described the meeting as the first test of whether a multilateral system was capable of convincing member states to make joint decisions, after the Copenhagen climate change conference was considered to have shown a `trust deficit` between developed and developing countries.
"The ministers responsible for the environment, meeting just over a month after the climate change conference in Copenhagen, have spoken with a clear, united and unequivocal voice," Steiner said.
An expert at the Bali meeting said the Copenhagen Conference had lacked leadership such as the one demonstrated by Indonesia when hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2007 in Bali.
Learning the lessons from the Copenhagen Conference`s failure, both developed and developing countries should remember what Lydia Baker of Save the Children said after the Copenhagen meeting in 2009 : world leaders had "effectively signed a death warrant for many of the world`s poorest children. Up to 250,000 children from poor communities could die before the next major meeting in Mexico at the end of next year."(*)
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