Vanuatu attends Global Climate Change negotiations
By Florence Kuali-IAUTU, Communication Officer, NAB/COP19
Vanuatu has set a leading role in the pacific region in negotiating climate change issues by sending one of the largest delegations from the pacific region to the nineteen United Nations Climate Change conference of the Parties (COP19) in Warsaw, Poland. All delegates have arrived into Poland over the last week and have witnessed the official opening of the conference on Monday this week.
Vanuatu for the first time has a well-represented 15 member delegate which comprised of members from government, civil society and youth. The Vanuatu delegation is headed by the Minister for Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology, Geo-hazards, Environment, Energy and Disaster Thomas Laken.
In his opening briefing with his delegation in Warsaw, he stressed the importance of Vanuatu in attending and actively participates in negotiations throughout the conference, as this will be our opportunity to make our voices heard. “I want all of us to take this opportunity to meet and share our concerns and experiences with our partners,” he said.
The diverseness of representation amongst this year’s delegation has reflected the Vanuatu government’s leading commitment and support in realizing the need to prioritize climate change and disaster risk reduction issues in the country. The delegation composition this year have highlighted a record representation at COP meeting, delegation comprised of 56 percent of government representatives, 25 percent from the Civil Society Organisations with 19 percent from others and a historic progress in gender balance with 54 percent of men and 46 percent of women when previously no women ever to attend COP meetings.
Vanuatu this year with its young team of negotiators has identified six priority issues – adaptation, finance, gender, capacity building, education training and public awareness and the new agreement for 2015 and the Second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol, known as the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform.
However, amongst Vanuatu’s priority issues, the two main potential hot topics of COP19 that Vanuatu is following very closely are the Loss and Damage, a decision on establishment of new institutional mechanism and Finance, which is reflecting the operationalization of the new Green Climate Fund.
Since the delegation arrived in Poland they have attended the pre cop briefings from the different groups which Vanuatu belong to like the Least Developed Countries (LDC), Alliance of Small Island States(AOSIS) and the Group of developing countries called the G77/China grouping.
After the official opening of the conference this week, members of the Vanuatu delegate have convened meetings with other allies delegations to discuss common issues and understanding related to the agreed decisions made under the LDC, AOSIS and G77/China groupings. Planned bilateral meetings for the Minister of climate change with other parties’ head and donor agencies have also started this week ahead of next week’s high level segments.
Then Vanuatu delegation have also presented their credentials to the United Nations Secretariat in confirming its full participation in the negotiations in the nineteenth Conference of the Parties, which runs from 11 – 22 November in Warsaw, Poland.
About the UNFCCC
With 195 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 191 of the UNFCCC Parties. For the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.