The Committee of African Heads of State on Climate Change met in Addis Ababa
On Monday [15th Nov], the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) met in Addis Ababa as part of Africa's preparations for the next world climate summit (COP16) to be held in Cancun, Mexico from 29th November to 10th December. Representatives from Algeria, DRC, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, and South Africa attended. The objective of the meeting, convened and chaired by Prime Minister Meles, was to review the state of global climate change negotiations and refine the position for Africa to follow in Cancun, consistent with the relevant AU Decisions. In his welcoming remarks, Dr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the AU Commission, outlined the various efforts of the AU Commission to facilitate implementation of Africa's Common Position on Climate Change. He highlighted the thematic and sectoral priorities and concerns that Africa must pursue in the upcoming climate change negotiations.
Prime Minister Meles briefed the meeting on the various relevant meetings in which he had participated, including the G20 Summit and the UN Secretary-General's High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Finance (AGF) of which he had been Co-Chair. The Advisory Group recently completed its work and submitted its report to the UNSG. It has now been circulated to member states. The aim of the Advisory Group was to try and identify means and mechanisms of mobilising US $ 100 billion a year which the Summit at Copenhagen (COP15) agreed should be raised annually from public and private sources by 2020 to help developing countries fight climate change. Prime Minister Meles told the committee that the Advisory Group had explored all options. Its conclusions were that raising the US$100 billion per annum was feasible, if challenging, and that the exact mix of public and private sources and the issue of calculating the figures on net or gross flows would be ironed out by technical negotiators. He also detailed the concept of the African Green Development Fund, as part of the Global Green Fund, to ensure that a significant part of the Green Fund should be apportioned for Africa. He emphasized that CAHOSCC needs to push for this to be featured in the Cancun negotiations. He briefed the meeting on other aspects of progress on adaptation and technology, on the possibilities for establishing the Green Fund, progress within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Changes (UNFCC) and of REDD +, (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). He noted that little progress had been achieved in respect to realising the fast track financial pledges made at Copenhagen.
Prime Minister Meles also briefed the meeting on the G20 Summit in Seoul, where he had reported on the work of the Advisory Group. The Summit had tasked their finance ministers to review the report and make recommendations. He noted that a number of other meetings had been held informally by various groupings including those among the major economies and reported that Africa had been represented. He welcomed these in the hope that they would take into account Africa’s interests and concerns. Mr. Cherif Rahmani Minister of Land Management, Environment and Tourism of Algeria, briefed the meeting on various forums that had taken place since the last Climate Change Summit at Copenhagen last year, stressing some of the positive developments as well as the challenges ahead.
The Chairman also outlined what might be achieved in Cancun and beyond. He said making significant progress in Cancun would be an important step towards reaching a final, comprehensive and legally-binding agreement later in South Africa. Africa, he said, had every reason to push for such progress, all the more so because it would suffer most from lack of progress in climate change negotiations. He recalled that the AU Summit had unequivocally endorsed the Copenhagen Accord which essentially formed the Common African Position, underlining the necessity for Africa to speak with one voice based on this common position. He summarised the areas, ranging from finance and REDD+, to adaptation and technology transfer, where agreement might be achieved in Cancun.
The meeting of the Climate Change committee (CAHOSCC) agreed on the points articulated by the Chairman as the basis for the pillars of Africa's common position at Cancun. Members also stressed the need to push for a multi-lateral climate change regime to achieve two-track, legally binding and balanced, agreements on the UNFCC and the Kyoto Protocol. It was emphasized that the negotiations must essentially be within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and this should not be replaced by any parallel or informal meetings of various groups. The meeting reaffirmed its confidence in Prime Minister Meles's work for CAHOSCC and his championship of African interests on climate change. It agreed that Algeria, the coordinator of the African delegation for Cancun, which is a ministerial conference, should convene a meeting of the African ministers who will be attending there to brief them on this CAHOSCC meeting and ensure that Africa advances its common position and speaks with one voice, and effectively. Prime Minister Meles noted that as part of the preparatory work for the forthcoming Africa-EU Summit (scheduled for 29th to 20th November in Tripoli, Libya), a draft document is being developed. He also stressed that the common African position on climate change must be strictly adhered to in all the African Union Commission's engagements. In conclusion, the meeting asked both the Chair and the Commission to follow through on the results of their deliberations.