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SIDS Climate Change Negotiators' Guidance Manual

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SIDS Climate Change Negotiators' Guidance Manual SIDS Climate Change Negotiators’ Guidance Manual Table of Contents List of Abbreviations 2 Introduction 6 Module 1: The Science Behind Climate Change 8 Module 2: The Convention: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) And Negotiations Under The Convention 18 Module 3: The Politics 34 Module 4: The Process: Institutional Structure Of The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change 44 Module 5: Civil Society And Media Engagement 56 Module 6: Objectives of the Alliance of Small Island States 68 Appendix 80 © United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) This publication or parts of it may be reproduced for educational or non-profit purposes without special permission from the United Nations Development Programme, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. Citation: UNDP (2015) Capacity Building for SIDS Climate Change Negotiators Guidance Manual. United Nations Development Programme, Barbados and the OECS. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations, or its Member States, or the Australian Government Author: Hugh Sealy Editing: Nina Kojevnikov, Justine Huffman, Danielle Evanson and Donna Gittens Design and Layout: Marisa Sunset Sealy of Strawberry Samurai This publication has been possible with the support of the Australian Government under the “Capacity Building of SIDS Climate Change Negotiators” initiative Abbreviations And Acronyms AAU Assigned Amount Unit GCF Green Climate Fund ADP Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action GDP Gross Domestic Product AF Adaptation Fund GEF Global Environment Facility AILAC Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Carribean GWP Global warming potential ALBA Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de GHGs Greenhouse gases Nuestra América) ICA International consultations and analysis AOSIS Alliance of Small Island States IEA International Energy Agency BASIC Brazil, South Africa, India, China IGO Intergovernmental organisation BAP Bali Action Plan INDC Intended nationally determined contributions CAN Climate Action Network IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change CBDR-RC Common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities JI Joint implementation CCCCC Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre JISC Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee CDKN Climate Development Knowledge Network L&D Loss and damage CDM Clean Development Mechanism LDCs Least developed countries CER Certified emission reduction LDCF Least Developed Countries Fund CMP Conference of the Parties Serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol LMDCs Like-minded developing countries COP Conference of the Parties MOI Means of implementation CRP Conference room paper MRV Measurement, Reporting and Verification CTCN Climate Technology Centre and Network NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization DNA Designated National Authority NAMA Nationally appropriate mitigation action EIG Environmental Integrity Group NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration EU European Union NDC Nationally determined contribution FIELD Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development NIE National implementing entity FVA Framework for various approaches 2 3 Abbreviations And Acronyms NGO Non-governmental organisation SMART Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound NMM New market mechanism SPREP Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme NWP Nairobi Work Programme on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change SREX Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation ODA Official development assistance TEC Technology Executive Committee OECD Organisation for Economic Development TEM Technical expert meeting OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries TNA Technology needs assessment QELRO Quantified emission limitation and reduction objective UNDP United Nations Development Programme RC Respective capabilities UNEP United Nations Environment Programme SBI Subsidiary Body for Implementation UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change SBSTA Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization SCCF Special Climate Change Fund WEMA Workplan for Enhancing Mitigation Ambition SIDS Small Island Developing States WMO World Meteorological Organization SLR Sea level rise WWF World Wildlife Fund 4 5 Introduction Working Together In Harmony “Climate change is destroying our path to that consensus and convincing the general public that sustainability. Ours is a world of looming challenges real danger faces humankind in the future have been and increasingly limited resources. Sustainable difficult goals to attain. development offers the best chance to adjust our course”. - Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the Nowhere is the impact of warming been more United Nations1 evident (and more alarming) than amongst Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which are especially The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate vulnerable to the repercussions of the rise in sea levels, Change (UNFCCC) defines “climate change” as being ocean acidification and the increased frequency and attributed directly or indirectly to human activity intensity of extreme weather events. These countries that alters the composition of the global atmosphere are some of the lowest emitters of greenhouse and that is in addition to natural climate variability gases, but are already being impacted by climate observed over comparable time periods2. change and will be amongst the first to be negatively impacted by further climatic changes. It is therefore The latest report3 from the Intergovernmental Panel important that the politicians, negotiators, and the on Climate Change (IPCC) states the following: general population of these islands be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and techniques to communicate “Human influence on the climate system is clear, and what is already happening in their midst. The capacity recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases of SIDS representatives to make their case in global are the highest in history. Recent climate changes fora must be increased, so that they can disseminate have had widespread impacts on human and natural accurate information and appeal for shifts in thinking systems.” to take place in as effective, powerful, and convincing manner as possible. For SIDS, time is not on their side. “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes It is in light of the above that this informational and are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The guidance manual has been written. Its goal is not atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts only to equip its readers (primarily SIDS negotiators) of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has with facts about climate change, but to enhance their risen.” ability to seek assistance to facilitate the achievement Working Together of climate resilience and adaptation and sustainable Tony Blair, a former British Prime Minister, has policies, and to enable them to intervene on the world in Harmony stated that “Global warming is too serious for the stage and negotiate effectively on behalf of their world any longer to ignore its danger or split into constituencies. opposing factions on it”4. Unfortunately, achieving 1Remarks to the General Assembly on his Five-Year Action Agenda: “The Future We Want” 25 January, 2012 2http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/mains1.html 3Climate Change 2014. Synthesis Report. Summary for Policy Makers. http://www.ipcc.ch/index.htm 4Conference Speech, 27 September, 2005 6 7 SIDS Climate Change Negotiators’ Guidance Manual Module 1 The Science Behind Climate Change 8 9 Module 1 The Science Behind Climate Change 1.0 Introduction forcing measured in watts per square meter (w/m2), C A more equable, that is constant, climate (at least for other GHGs—for example methane— nitrous oxide, is the CO2 concentration in parts per million by volume Sweden) is what Arrhenius hoped for. Unfortunately, and fluorinated gases also contribute to warming. The Earth’s atmosphere and oceans are warming. (ppmv), C0 is the baseline CO2 concentration in parts his physical science was right about the cause of When scientists conduct their analyses, each gas Our planet is currently on a greenhouse gas (GHG) per million by volume (ppmv), and α is a constant. climate change, but his predictions of the impacts of is assigned a numerical value of its global warming emissions pathway that will result in an average the warming were misleading. potential (GWP), a figure based upon its lifetime in the atmospheric warming of greater than 3ºC (over pre- The IPCC, using a value of 6.3, in 2007 predicted a atmosphere and its ability to absorb energy. Carbon 2 industrial times) by 2100 . Such a development will 2 to 4.5 ºC rise in temperature if CO2 concentrations 1.2 Sources And Causes Of Emissions dioxide is assigned a baseline GWP of 1, and all other be catastrophic for many regions, but in particular doubled. These calculations were not very much GHGs are ranked in relation to that base. The following for small islands, many of which will cease to exist as different from the original calculations by Arrhenius. Arrhenius was correct in his assertions that carbon table (Table 1) briefly summarises the GWPs (on a viable human settlements.
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