Statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, at the Opening Plenary of the 10th Part of the 2nd Session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP2-10), Bonn, Germany, 31 August 2015
Co-Chairs
1. I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.
2. At the outset, I wish to convey the Group’s condolences to the people of Dominica who are currently facing devastating floods. This once again emphasizes the need for us to make real progress this session here in Bonn.
3. In this regard, we are grateful to you for the work that you have done inter-sessionally in preparing the “Non-Paper Illustrating Possible Elements of the Paris Package” and making it available well in advance of this meeting. Although the Group has many concerns, including on the placement of proposals in the different parts of the document, we will raise these in a constructive manner in the contact group meeting and facilitation meetings.
4. I wish to reiterate the Group’s support for you and your task of facilitating a Party-driven, transparent and inclusive process towards a successful outcome in Paris.
Co-Chairs
5. The strong unity of the G77 and China around the shared values, interests and needs of developing countries that represent about 85% of the world’s population has allowed us to contribute significantly to the Geneva negotiating text and subsequent meetings. As by far the largest group of Parties in these negotiations, it follows that G77 and China unity is in the collective interest and that our common positions should be accommodated.
6. We emphasize once again that the outcome in Paris shall be under the Convention and in accordance with its principles and provisions, in particular principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and shall address the six core elements mandated by the Durban Platform decision in a comprehensive and balanced manner, both in the agreement and the COP decision. It is crucial that adaptation and mitigation receive the same priority. This must be supported by finance, technology development and transfer and capacity-building on a scale that matches the level of action required to achieve the objective of the Convention as set out in its Article 2. We urge developed country Parties to provide enhanced financial support to developing country Parties for ambitious mitigation and adaptation actions. At the same time, cross-cutting issues, such as equity, differentiation, structure and legal form need to be addressed and resolved.
7. Turning now to the work under Workstream II, it is essential that Workstream II should be treated in a balanced manner with Workstream I and have sufficient time allocated to it this session. We therefore thank the Co-Chairs for revising the schedule of meetings for this week. The Group emphasizes that addressing the pre-2020 ambition gap is vitally important to a successful outcome of the Paris COP and will lay a solid foundation for the post-2020 enhanced action. Developed countries must take the lead and honour, accelerate the implementation and increase the ambition of their existing commitments on mitigation and provision of finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building support to developing country Parties, with no backsliding, burden-shifting or reinterpretation of the Convention. The fact is that many promises related to the pre-2020 period still remain unrealised, including the nearly three-year delay in ratifying the Doha Amendment and increasing the emission reduction targets to at least 25-40% by 2020. There is also, as yet, no clarity on how the six-year old promise of providing the US$100 billion per year by 2020 will be achieved.
Co-Chairs
8. As developing countries, the members of our Group are most seriously affected by the impacts of a changing climate and our people are witnessing extreme weather events caused by climate change on a more regular basis. Not only is climate change presenting us with formidable new challenges, it is exacerbating existing socio-economic challenges and threatening those development gains that we have worked so hard to achieve.
9. Developing countries are responding to these challenges and have even taken the lead in acting to reduce emissions and to adapt to inevitable climate change. In many instances this action has been taken without the support that has been promised to us by developed countries through this process.
Co-Chairs
10. Finally, we would like to thank all the contributing Parties that have provided resources for this meeting and appeal for additional resources to be allocated for future meetings, in a way that supports the adequate representation of delegates from developing countries. At this meeting many delegations are handicapped due to their being underrepresented.
11. We are looking forward to a constructive session here in Bonn to ensure that all Parties are enabled to contribute their best efforts to address climate change in a comprehensive manner.
Thank you.
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