The 11-day climate talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Warsaw, Poland has not been satisfactory for the developing and climate vulnerable countries since a lot of issues including the release of funds were still undecided on the closing day on Friday.
The negotiations might drag long into the night as governments grapple with the backtracking on pollution controls of Japan, the failure of developed countries to honour their climate finance promises and with blocking by Australia and the US on a loss and damage mechanism, say observers.
The Conference of Parties (COP19) and the Conference of Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 9) began on November 11 at the Warsaw National Stadium with 194 member states. The high-level segment on ministers began on November 19.
So far, a number of rich countries have pledged some $100m in the adaptation funds for the poor and developing countries to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change. The structure and functions of Green Climate Fund has been finalised, but no money is there yet. Negotiations on the international loss and damage mechanism were very contentious. The COP until on Friday evening was yet to finalise the new legally-binding agreement to cut carbon emission and the countries were discussing on the fourth draft on this issue.
On Thursday, in an unprecedented move, over 800 UN observer NGOs and social movements walked out of the conference blaming the developed nations for chocking the negotiations and applying tactics to delay the process.
The G77 and China also staged a walk out on Wednesday from the negotiations as there was no progress in the talks and the language proposed by some countries which were not acceptable.
The $100m pledge could not make the developing countries happy. But they console themselves as the adaptation fund is almost empty now. The amount would be released immediately to fuel the pending projects to prepare the vulnerable communities for adverse weather impacts.
“However, it is not clear whether this is new money or money diverted from other aid budgets. Like the UK’s contribution of £10m is to be diverted from other funds,” said Paul Brown of Climate News Network.
“Most people feel that the $100m pledged at this conference is far short from what is needed to get near the $100bn pledged in Cancun for disbursement every year from 2020 onwards.”
In the beginning of the conference, the developing countries thought there would be new money for adaptation and to compensate loss and damage. “But that does not seem to be happening here,” said the senior observer on climate talks.
Regarding the Green Climate Fund, he said: “It is now up and ready; all the administration, the functions, the staff and the headquarters have been sorted out. But we don’t have money in the fund.
“If it’s not ready by this time at next year’s COP, it’ll be a serious blow on the future of the climate talks.”
Countries like the Philippines are facing typhoons very frequently while people from the small Islands and coastal areas of many countries like Bangladesh will also find it tough to adapt with the rising sea level and extreme weather events like irregular rain, droughts and loss of crops and livelihoods. These losses cannot be covered by the adaptation fund, say observer NGOs.
About the loss and damage mechanism, the rich countries wanted it to be brought under adaptation fund while some countries stood against its formulation fearing that they might have to pay the poor nations a lot as compensation because of the number of incidents happening. “So they don’t want any open-ended commitments,” said Paul.