Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Ghanaian Youth Influence climate negotiators at the global level to save our planet



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Rx2ALxQQE

Empower youth inclusion in these processes and involve them in the decisions making during high level meetings of UNFCCC. With my ability to communicate effectively to lobbying politicians and climate negotiators and influence their decision at the global level to save our planet by supporting global campaigns and Raise support for our local actions.

Climate Justice
The issue took on new prominence when Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines just days before the conference, when death and destruction brought by the Philippines storm helped to highlight the question of “climate justice at COP 19 in Warsaw

Delegates agreed to the broad outlines of a proposed system for pledging emissions cuts and gave their support for a new treaty mechanism to tackle the human cost of rising seas, floods, stronger storms and other expected effects of global warming.

As a window on the two years leading to Paris, the Warsaw meeting underscored the tremendous distance still to be covered on core issues such as the legal character of a new agreement and the differentiation of developed and developing country obligations. The hard-fought outcome effectively preserved the vague but delicate balance struck on those issues two years earlier in Durban. The one significant new substantive element was the indication that countries’ individual contributions to the Paris agreement will be “nationally determined.”

The debate, however, did reveal shifts in countries’ historic positioning. The United States and the European Union were more closely aligned than in the past in their visions of a global climate deal. And the once strongly unified Group of 77/China showed growing rifts, with many smaller developing countries showing greater flexibility than major powers like China, India, and Brazil.
Expectations will be much higher next year, with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon convening a leaders summit in September to build political momentum going into COP 20 in December in Lima, where parties are to begin drafting the Paris agreement.

The other major issues in Warsaw were demands from developing countries for increased climate finance, and for a new mechanism to help especially vulnerable nations cope with unavoidable “loss and damage” resulting from climate change. Countries had agreed a year earlier to address “loss and damage”

Developed countries, which had previously promised to mobilize a total of $100 billion a year by 2020, refused to set a quantified interim goal for ramping up climate finance. And the new “Warsaw international mechanism for loss and damage associated with climate change impacts” fell well short of what vulnerable countries wanted. It establishes a new forum to provide information and expertise, and to consider further steps, but makes no promise of additional funding.

Developed countries did agree to begin submitting new biennial reports outlining their strategies for scaling up climate finance. And to ensure continued high-level attention to the issue, the COP decided to convene a biennial ministerial dialogue on climate finance running from 2014 to 2020. The COP also concluded arrangements with, and provided initial guidance to, the new Green Climate Fund launched in CancĂșn.

On finance, there is as yet a clear position on how climate change should be financed. Developed countries are consistently pushing for private finance as the means of supporting adaptation mitigation initiatives. The US for example talked about launching a process outside the UNFCCC to leverage the private sector for climate finance. Meanwhile, China and G77 see this move as mischievous given that private financing is highly likely to result in climate finance being tired to carbon markets thus compelling developing countries to continue to mitigate climate change on behalf of the developed countries whose historical and current development paths are largely to blame for the onset of climate change. 

Till date, what is on the climate finance table is a bunch of pledges from some developed countries including Germany which has pledged €30million for the Least Developed Countries’ Fund (LDCF) and €50million for the Special Climate Fund . While this is encouraging, without a legal backing for these pledges, these countries are not compelled to fulfill them. Also more important is the fact that the sources of these pledges are not known; are they going to come from private or public sources. Even more worrisome is the fact that compared to the developed countries’ earlier commitment of up to a $100million per year (from Doha), the €30million may well be just a drop in the ocean. It is worth noting also that an estimated $1000,000 per year is required to tackle climate change at the current emission levels.

Agriculture is undoubtedly the most important sector in the economies of most non-oil exporting African countries. It constitutes approximately 30% of Africa’s GDP and contributes about 50% of the total export value, with 70% of the continent’s population depending on the sector for their livelihood. Production is subsistence in nature with a high dependence on the rain except for South Africa with a high commercial base. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 75-250 million people will face severe water stress by 2020 and 350-600 million people by the 2050.

Norway announced a pledge of US$ 40 million to continue support for the UN-REDD Programme
At the 19th UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP19), The Government of Norway announced a pledge of US$ 40 million to continue support for the UN-REDD Programme. The package of funding will support a range of programmes in 2014 to reduce deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) across 48 UN-REDD partner countries, in collaboration with governments, indigenous peoples and civil society, and with the joint support of FAO, UNDP and UNEP

My lesson learning in COP 19 is same like last year when I have attended the COP 18, 17 and 15: youth participation in high level decisions making processes in relation with keyisions development issues like climate change is facing lack of funding and preparation processes

We should not see the filth engulfing us as a misfortune which can never be reversed but rather as an opportunity to generate employment, biogas, organic farming and a whole range of environmentally sustainable activities,

We called on all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, to mainstream climate change and gender issues in their planning process in order to find answers to the environmental problems and the sad condition of the vulnerable in the society.


Secondly I have learnt that good leadership skills are very important when we are looking to get
involved multi-stakeholders or Governments in a decision that could even affect their own interests
My work is not ending after COP19. I will continue to be active within my organization and other
youth networks I’m part of through the non formal educational activities we are planning as well as political lobby to encourage decision makers integrating sustainable development into development policies in Cameroon and worldwide. Those campaigns will focus education for sustainable development, mutual understanding within climate crisis and green jobs creation

Before you make a decision that affects the Ghanaian Youth imagine the eyes of seven generations of children in the future looking at you, and asking … Why?”
"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We don’t Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Rx2ALxQQE
Kenneth Nana Amoateng
 Chief Executive Officer 
Abiimman Foundation  
www.abibimmanfoundation.org/Email:amoatengken@gmail.com/kamoateng@iday.org/ 0244023651

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