![The President’s Open Dialogue]()
by admin | Nov 12, 2017 | #MYD, MYD2017, UNFCCC
8th Nov 2017 marks the first time in the history of UNFCCC that a dialogue between parties (countries) and non-Party stakeholders were held during COP. Paving for this achievement, the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) extensively discussed on the ways to include non-Party stakeholders, of which CSOs are a part of, back in its forty-sixth session in May 2017. According to the session, they want to seek “opportunities to further enhance the effective engagement of non-Party stakeholders with a view to strengthening the implementation of the provisions of decision 1/CP.21”
In accordance with this emphasis, it is not surprising that the Fijian presidency agreed to have an Open Dialogue on 8th November 2017 with parties and non-Party stakeholders on one substantive issue – NDC Enhancement and Implementation, and one procedural issue – Enhancing observer access to and participation in formal meetings. Everyone (especially the UNFCCC Constituencies) were extremely excited about this because this is the first time the constituencies get to sit at a round-table with parties and convey the discussion. The room was almost filled at 9.45am although the starting time of the event was at 10 am.
Places being filled up quickly
The session started with the welcoming speech of the COP23 President, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama. He specified the importance of this dialogue in accordance with the Talanoa spirit and mentioned that the dialogue should be open and honest in order to recognize what can work and what cannot work. The Executive Secretary for COP23, Patricia Espinosa, in her welcoming message, also highlighted that this is the first time non-party actors are included in the agenda-setting process.
As the dialogue follows the Chatham House Rule, I was unable to identify the speakers. Beginning with the first agenda item on NDC Enhancement and Implementation, different parties highlighted the projects they have back home that contributed to the NDCs. Some mentioned how they co-designed and co-delivered policies along with the non-party stakeholders back home. One party highlighted the importance of private finance and mentioned how they work with the business sector to operationalize the NDCs. Amongst all the description of how-great-we-are-in-engaging-non-party-stakeholders, one party stood out by giving out a rather ambitious comment, stating that the inputs of the non-party stakeholders should be included in the ministerial meeting and that the outcome of the discussion should be communicated to the high-level segments and distributed through press releases.
In between the discussion, the various constituencies also presented their inputs. One of them highlighted the convenience of non-party stakeholders, as they are borderless, implying the power of cross-border collaboration. They threw a subtle burn on the parties by noting NDCs could be better achieved if parties would collaborate instead of working on their own in achieving their NDCs. Others highlighted the knowledge non-party stakeholders could potentially bring to the table and urged more collaboration with non-party stakeholders.
Although the dialogue included the non-party stakeholders, the overall atmosphere of the dialogue gives a vibe of parties saying how great they were, and the non-party stakeholders reiterating what they have always been mentioning. The dialogue may be significant in terms of its existence, however, I doubt it brought any actual changes to the current situation. Parties who are including non-party stakeholders in the process will continue to do so and parties who don’t, do not seem to be interested to change either.
Written by Xiandi
Edited by Varun
![Global Stocktake – So, APA Cerita?]()
by admin | Nov 12, 2017 | #MYD, MYD2017, UNFCCC
It’s moving, but slowly
Parties need to take stock of progress towards the temperature goal of 1.5°C or 2°C – they need to do this in a regular time interval, beginning 2023 and they need the stocktake to inform them on how to improve their efforts in a nationally determined manner.
Of course, this is an oversimplified version of Article 14 of the Paris Agreement. In the past 5 days of the APA 1-4 session here in Bonn, Parties have continuously stated that the Global Stocktake needs to have an outcome that only informs countries and allows for each nation to act in a nationally determined manner. Honestly, I think repeating something that has already reached consensus in the Paris Agreement is counterproductive. The mandate is clear. The APA 1-4 session needs to be about bringing the GST to the next phase of operationalization and the design around it.
The Plenary Chamber- an awesome and humbling space during an informal consultation on APA agenda item 6, The Global Stocktake
We have just concluded the 5th day at COP23 and there have been 3 informal consultations on GST so far. 6 hours of consultation have been allocated for this session of APA, 4 of which have already been spent mostly speaking about items finalized in the Paris Agreement. Tomorrow, 11 November, the Parties will meet again for the final informal consultation, this time for 2 hours, to discuss equity and how they see it in the context of the GST. Considering how equity is a contentious topic, on top of how discussions have gone this week, I don’t see how the co-facilitators of the informal consultations, Richard Muyungi of Tanzania and Outi Honkatukia of Finland, will be able to come to a conclusion before next week’s round of negotiations.
Equity
I say equity is a contentious issue, but it really shouldn’t be. The concept is simple. Based on historical and present contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and current capabilities, countries have differing levels of responsibility to act on climate change. For instance, Malaysia’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions in 2011 was 0.06%1 , while the United States’ share of emissions in 2010 was 14%2. The basis for the concept is sound; we just need to get past the incredible greed and lack of political will from developed nations.
In the most recent G77 and China coordination meeting, the consensus is clear – equity has to be a part of the GST. What’s still unclear is exactly how. Is equity considered in the process of the GST, or after the process – in the outcomes, or both? As Parties meet again for the last informal consultation tomorrow, I speculate there will be a substantial amount of politicking or pushback from the developed countries, as developing countries throw their support behind equity in the GST.
The building blocks
While the issue of equity is paramount, the informal consultations have mainly revolved around the so-called building blocks of the GST. These building blocks are in the form of a table, drafted by the co-facilitators with inputs coming by way of Parties’ submissions and interventions. The Parties have been mostly agreeable to using the building blocks as a framework to advance the discussion on the modalities and phases of the GST, with just a few Parties requiring reassurances that this building blocks document is by no means set in stone or will be the final text.
The task facing the co-facilitators is not a small one. They will have to find a way to keep the discussions going on the building blocks as well as navigate through the discussion on how to operationalize equity in the GST. I don’t know what tomorrow’s informal consultation will bring, but I foresee developed nations acting in their conventional manner of stalling the conversation on equity. Despite that, developing countries will continue to push for equity in the GST process, encompassing mitigation, adaptation, finance, capacity building, technology transfer, and even loss and damage.
I’m no expert but the compromise may lie somewhere in the concept of the GST outcome being taken in a nationally determined manner, instead of being prescriptive. But will that lead to increased ambition? I’m skeptical. As the negotiator from the Solomon Islands so passionately stated in his intervention, the GST has to lead to increased ambition, both equitably and directly translated in each Parties NDCs. Only then will we see progress.
References:
- Malaysia’s Nationally Determined Contributions
- Global greenhouse gas emissions, New Zealand’s Environmental Reporting Series
Written by Mike
Edited by Varun
![Asian Youth Coalition Network World Café – in the spirit of Talanoa]()
by admin | Nov 12, 2017 | #MYD, MYD2017, YOUNGO
The Asian Youth Coalition Network (AYCN) World Café was a very eye-opening experience for me because it was testimonial to what I believe the United Nations climate change conference should be – just, open, constructive and in good spirit. The World Café kept true to its word as participants hailed from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Denmark and France.
Group photo taken at the end of AYCN World Cafe
Unorthodox in its design, the World Café provided a platform for passionate discussion amongst participants who divided into working groups, unlike the usual lecture-audience setting where speakers could drag on for what may seem like an eternity.
The aforementioned working groups discussed on topics from 1) meaning of youth delegation and why we need it; 2) youth and climate change; 3) the future is for youth; and 4) renewable energy status and challenges. For my first article, I find it appropriate to share with all of you on my beliefs and opinion on these four topics.
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Meaning of youth delegation and why we need it
In my opinion, a good organization is representative and inclusive, so it goes without saying that some sort of youth representation is called for. Hence, I believe the meaning of youth delegation is a group of young people set out to perform specific tasks. In our case, we as the Malaysian Youth Delegation, are a group of young people attending COP to track climate change negotiations pertaining to different tracks such as mitigation, adaptation, global stocktake, so on and so forth. I believe a youth delegation is necessary in tracking negotiations at COP so that we can offer fresh perspectives on how we can overcome the issue and most importantly, to ensure continuity so that one day perhaps we may become climate change negotiators or champions of some sort to continue the struggle against climate change.
My thoughts are as such when it comes to this connection: a) that the most severe effects of climate change thus far will be heavily borne by the current generation of youth; b) hence we need to take ownership of the issue because if left by the older generation, we would not have a place to call home once they step down. Also, when I think about the relationship about youth and climate change, my thoughts go back to the need for youth delegations all over the world to make our voices heard, if not have a say in the actual negotiations. If it’s not possible for youths to have an actual influence on the negotiations, we shall resort to climate action if that’s what it takes to bring the issue to light.
In this segment, I recall reading an article from a member of last year’s MYD, Dulanga, where she talks about the fact that the people leading the climate change negotiations aren’t even probably going to be around to feel the worse effects of climate change. Remembering her article reminds me of the pain at how unjust the notion is. Imagine having your car fixed by someone else (but they don’t do a very good job about it) and he/she doesn’t even check if it runs afterwards because they’re not even going to use it. Granted, it is a cynical and pessimistic view of those leading the negotiations, which brings me to my next point – that there are many good people out there who want to make a positive difference and that whatever decision they’re making, it is in full consideration and for the betterment of young and future generations. Also, it goes for the current generation of youths whereby once it comes to the time for us to lead the struggle against climate change, our decision-making should be based on the needs and consideration of the coming generations after us.
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Renewable energy status and challenges
Last but not least (I love the topic of renewable energy), my thoughts surrounding this. When I think about renewable energy, I think about clean energy, be it solar, wind, geothermal. I think about the phasing out of fossil fuels, I think about technology transfer and capacity building. This whole idea goes back to addressing the needs of future generations because if we go about with business as usual, in keeping up with aggressively extracting and depleting natural resources to power our world, there isn’t going to be any left for our children. As for the challenges, in my opinion it’s a matter of political will, as well as incorporating social and environmental values to economic motives, because in the end there is no profit nor development if it is to the detriment of society, health and the environment in which we live in.
The AYCN World Café was straightforward in that youths from across the Global South and Global North were in consensus regarding what is needed to keep global temperatures from increasing above 2oC – it was just, open, constructive and in good spirit. Across the 2 weeks I’ll be spending here in COP to track negotiations, I hope that the decision makers could follow suit and adopt the spirit of ‘Talanoa’ in resolving climate change – for it to be inclusive, participatory and transparent.
Written by Syaqil
Edited by Varun
![Young and Future Generations Day – Youth and Climate Change Forum by MYD]()
by admin | Nov 11, 2017 | #MYD, MYD2017, UNFCCC
Young and Future Generations Day (YoFuGe Day) is a BIG thing for the YOUNGO youth constituency at the Conference of Parties, UNFCCC. It is a day dedicated specifically for the youth and we celebrate it throughout the whole day with activities organised by different organisations. For the first time ever, the Malaysian Youth Delegation organised an official UNFCCC event at the YoFuGe Day at COP23!
The event took place at the Malaysia Pavilion at 10am, right after the Opening Ceremony of the YoFuGe Day that was launched by UNFCCC and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The Opening Ceremony launched the YoFuGe Day by introducing a series of youth-related events, followed by a sharing session of climate stories from YOUNGO members on stage.
MYD’s Youth and Climate Change forum was the first event of the day, after the Opening Ceremony. The objective of the forum is to provide a common platform for youth to exchange ideas and have an intellectual dialogues in the lines of role of youth in climate change, incorporating discussion regarding perspectives on youth from Global North and Global South. The forum engaged a range of esteemed speakers from youth globally.
The lineup of speakers were:
Moderator and panellist for the Youth forum. From left to right; Syaqil (Malaysia), Lhavanya (Malaysia), Saffran (Sri Lanka), Mona (Germany), Sara (Sweden), Lagi (Fiji)
The forum was set up in a relax setting, allowing speakers and participants to engage freely with one another. It was eye opening and mind widening to be able to hear the different scenarios faced by different countries and different regions in regards to climate change. Mona from Germany pointed out that Germany have managed to ban nuclear power, however there is still little progress on coal. She also mentioned about the veganism culture in Germany, and how it is not quite as receptive as many would think. “Youth should step up and take the lead,” she said.
Lagi Seru from Fiji echoed her sentiments on leadership. He stated, “Youth are not leaders of the future. Leadership begins now.”
When it came to a question on equity, or more commonly known as the Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR), that is one of the primary principle being discussed in the negotiations and significantly highlighted in the Paris Agreement, captured in Article 2.2, whereby it states that “This Agreement will be implemented to reflect equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances,” Lhavanya from Malaysia passionately voiced out her opinion on the subject matter.
“Malaysia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) states 35% GHG emission intensity reduction of GDP by 2030 with a 2005 baseline, and a further conditional 10% with support of climate finance, capacity building and technology transfer from the developed countries. Malaysia have already achieved 33% of their 35% unconditional target, but I believe that we can do more. CBDR is an important principle but should not be a crutch,” said Lhavanya.
The panel discussion was followed by a Q&A session. It was great to see the participants being so engaged with the session, and asking many questions. Another Fijian youth even left a powerful message:
“As youth, we need to push the climate change agenda forward. Even if we don’t have space, make one and keep pushing.”
Indeed, youth play an important role in pushing the climate change agenda forward. United, our voices are loud – and we need to be succinct on what we want. We must move forward together collectively for a climate-just future.
At the end of the session, the Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Dato’ Dr. Azimuddin, thanked and greeted the youth at the Malaysia Pavilion, and handed out token of appreciation to the panel of speakers. He congratulated MYD on the successful event and encouraged us to hold more invigorating discourse like this in the future.
Mandatory post event group picture with the Climate Sign
To know more on the detailed discussion of the forum, view live video here.
Written by Jasmin
Edited by Varun
![Art and Climate Action]()
by admin | Nov 11, 2017 | #MYD, MYD2017
Lhavanya and I started off the day with a round table session at the World Conference Center. It was pretty intense and we definitely had a lot to say about it (hint: stay tuned for more!) but we didn’t stay until the session ended because we were going off to another event happening in the city – the Climate March.
Demonstration at the Munsterplatz
The Climate March
The Climate March is a demonstration to fight against the “greenwashing” of the German government. It aims to shed light on the fact that, contrary to Germany’s amazing “green advocate” image at the international level, 52.7% of German energy production is from natural gas, hard coal, and lignite coal. As the COP conference venue is only a few kilometers away from one of the most polluting coal mine regions in Europe, the march was held to draw attention to the coal mine. The message of the march is clear and succinct: End Coal! The people marching are fighting for a complete phase-out of coal and they want the government to speed up the energy transition in Germany.
Demonstration at the Huessallee
Arts at the March
The art at the center of Munsterplatz
The march was from 12.00 pm – 4.30 pm, and the demonstration had four stops, starting from Munsterplatz and ending in Heussallee, where the World Conference Center (Bula Zone) is situated. Once we reached there, we were amazed by the energy of the crowd. There were balloons of green and red with people raising their signage high and protesting against the coal industry. In the middle of the plaza, there was a huge inflatable of the globe topped with a coal factory emitting dark clouds of the German Chancellor – Angela Merkel. It was an amazing piece of art, demonstrating the people’s strong disagreement with the government’s decision on keeping the coal industry.
“Freedom to Pollute”
At the last station, there was a stage where speeches are given and music played. The crowd gathered in solidarity for the final moments of the march. There were booths by environmental NGOs displaying their work at the venue. One of the art that caught my attention the most was the “Freedom to Pollute (and Trump)”. The art included a 6-meter high replica of the Statue of Liberty emitting smoke from the torch and the document she holds reads ‘Freedom to Pollute’. According to the artist, the sculpture symbolizes the conflict between the western world’s concept of freedom (the unlimited desire that drives consumption and thus production) and the concern for climate and the planet. The art wishes to pose the question of ‘do we have the right to live the way we do?’ Along with the sculpture was a man wearing a Donald Trump mask, an obvious burn to the Trump administration’s position on climate change issues.
Xiandi with CO2
I was fortunate to be able to talk to some of the participants. They were passionate about their fight against climate change and they believe in the power of the people in making a change. Most of them are from Germany, and one is from the village near to the coal mine. He was very passionate in the fight against the phasing out of the coal because he can directly feel the pain of the coal mine destroying the forest.
At the end of the march, Lhavanya and I were able to grab hold of the giant CO2 balloons that were distributed. We took a small climate action by taking it on the tram, attracting passengers to the CO2 we were holding. And that was how easy a climate action could be. Raising awareness on climate change is taking one small step at a time.
References:
Written by Xiandi
Edited by Varun
![CAN: Yardstick for success in COP23]()
by admin | Nov 11, 2017 | #MYD, MYD2017, UNFCCC
The 23rd Conference of Youth (COP23) will be the first ever COP that will be hosted by a Pacific Nation which is the Nation of Fiji making this year’s COP also known as the Pacific COP. The nation of Fiji is only a small island nation with a population of less than 1 million inhabitants. Although Fiji emits a negligible amount of CO2, they are the first to feel the effects of Climate Change such as rising sea levels, increasing intensity of cyclones, intrusion of salt beds in aquifers and much more.
Thus, there are a few specific things that COP23 are setting up as a yardstick for success, one of which is to construct a proper mechanism for the Facilitative Dialogue (FD) or what is now known as the Talanoa Dialogue (TD), a preamble to the Global Stocktake (GST) that acts as a benchmark for countries to analyse and progress into more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The next main objective is to create a mechanism for the mobilisation of the Paris Agreement in the year 2020. Although COP23 will not hold any major UNFCCC event such as the TD of COP24, the importance of COP23 lies on how it lays the foundation for the mechanism of the TD and the Paris Agreement (PA).
During the CAN session, speakers from the Global South and the Global North gave their input on how the main agendas can manifest into a successful outcome in regards to finance, education and enhanced action. In regards to Finance, Lucile Dufour from Réseou Action Climat France stresses on how the climate finance is crucial in the UNFCCC process and how it is crucial to enhance solidarity between developed and developing nations. However, the 100 billion dollar promised by the developed countries to provide climate finance is still far from reaching the value by 2020, as promised among other issues such as transparency and the discussion of new areas in climate finance.
From the education side, Yongsong Chen from Green Education Center China stresses on the importance of green education towards the public especially the youth to provide a global impact against combating climate change. Only through green education shall people be able to improve their own lives towards a greener path progressing from the bottom up. He proposes to use policy and international conventions which liberates into teaching materials according to each country’s situations especially on climate change issues.
Adrian Martimez, from the Asociacion la Ruta del Clima, talked on why civil society participation is important in international negotiations and the national level in the implementation of climate actions. The main concept of public participation comes from the convention text itself. It has to come education, access to information and training to be an informed participant. He mentions how public participation has developed over the past COPs as public participation topics have become more in depth. He also explains on how the GST should include public participation and that there are much more void to exploit from where we are now in the decision making process especially in the national level such as governmental programmes, budget allocation, prioritization etc.
The closing remarks was given to the Genevieve Jiva representing the Pacific Island CAN (PICAN). She mentions on how she had seen the devastating effects of climate change how she lived through a category 5 cyclone. She enlightened us on how Fiji resorting to 100% renewable would not be enough to tackle climate change. She added that at the Pacific COP there must be a recognition of increased urgency and recognition and lock fossil fuel in the ground and move towards a safe and just renewable energy and limiting temperature increase to only 1.5 degrees celsius.
To summarise, the success of the Pacific COP looks like;
- Strong support for COP23 and COP24 Presidencies to take this forwarded next year,
- Avoid a negotiated outcome,
- Clarity on active participation of non-party stakeholder, which is through the submissions of inputs through science, impact assessments, technology etc and the inclusion to participate in technical discussions, and
- Consensus on purpose of the TD which highlights both the need for enhanced action as well as the opportunity and allow third discussion questions (how do we get there) should identify tangible impact and meaningful actions that countries can take forward to enhance.
CAN hopes to push negotiators to insure that the Pacific COP will carry the Talanoa spirit in hoped that we can achieve what have been pledged in the Paris Agreement. The seas will be rough but if we take care of each other, we will reach the rainbow on the other side of the storm.
Written by Azam
Edited by Varun
