Monday, February 28, 2011

Joint Statement issued at the Conclusion of Sixth basic Ministerial meeting on Climate Change, New Delhi

The BASIC Ministers exchanged views on the outcome of the Cancun Conference and the approach to be taken to the future work in the run-up to Durban. The Ministers appreciated the role played by Mexico as President of COP-16 in achieving the outcome and noted several positive elements of the outcome. While agreeing that the Cancun Agreements were a step forward in the global action on climate change and provided the space to address some of the outstanding issues, the Ministers stressed that the Cancun Agreements were not a substitute for the Bali Road Map. The Bali Road Map must, therefore, continue to be the template for future work of the parties. The statement is as follows:

“The BASIC Ministers exchanged views on the outcome of the Cancun Conference and the approach to be taken to the future work in the run-up to Durban. The Ministers appreciated the role played by Mexico as President of COP-16 in achieving the outcome and noted several positive elements of the outcome. While agreeing that the Cancun Agreements were a step forward in the global action on climate change and provided the space to address some of the outstanding issues, the Ministers stressed that the Cancun Agreements were not a substitute for the Bali Road Map. The Bali Road Map must, therefore, continue to be the template for future work of the parties.

The Ministers stressed that the final decision text should accurately reflect the agreements reached by parties on specific issues at the end of the Cancun Conference. To this end, the draft unedited version of the Cancun Agreements appearing on the UNFCCC website needs to be brought in concordance with the Presidency’s text adopted at Cancun.

Ministers discussed the provisional Agenda for the meetings of the AWG-LCA and AWG-KP at Bangkok and emphasized that the agenda should be anchored in the overall framework of the Bali Road Map. They stressed that the agenda of AWG-LCA, in particular, should follow the structure of the Bali Action Plan in order to ensure that the agenda is comprehensive and places equal importance on all issues under negotiation. The Ministers encouraged the Group of 77 and China to engage with the AWG Chairs to have the agenda revised accordingly in time before the Bangkok meeting.

The Ministers exchanged views on several key issues such as global goal and equity, 2nd Commitment Period for Annex-I parties under the Kyoto Protocol, international assessment and review including comparability and accountability of commitments of Annex-I parties, and international consultations and analysis of developing country actions.

The Ministers stressed the need to maintain a balance between the obligations of the developed countries vis-a-vis those of developing countries. They emphasized the need for clear elaboration of a process to convert their pledges into economy-wide emission reduction obligations and rules to account for both mitigation and finance by Annex-I parties, in particular for accounting and compliance to be done in balance with the work on the guidelines for international consultation and analysis. Ministers also agreed that the guidelines for MRV for developing countries should be less onerous than the rules for enhanced MRV for developed country parties.

Ministers agreed that the 2nd Commitment Period under the Kyoto Protocol is critical to achieving the global goal of ambitious emissions reduction and global peaking of emissions. The effective operationalization of the mechanisms for providing financial and technological support to developing countries was equally critical in enabling them to contribute to global efforts for addressing climate change. They also stressed that the decision on 2nd Commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol should be taken at Durban to ensure that there is no gap between the first and the second commitment periods.

The Ministers observed that issues like equity, intellectual property rights and trade, which are very important for developing countries, were not adequately addressed in the Cancun Agreements and should form part of the future work of the parties. After discussions, the Ministers decided that the experts of the four BASIC countries will exchange views on rules for accounting for Annex-I countries and also prepare a synthesis document on the issue of equitable access to sustainable development to be considered in the next BASIC meeting.

The Ministers agreed that the adaptation issues should be accorded equal priority and the financing of adaptation actions should include a mechanism for loss and damage. They noted that there was an imbalance between the modalities for deciding on adaptation related issues and the modalities for decision in other areas. They stressed that the adaptation and REDD Plus related issues should be addressed in a defined timeframe.

The Ministers discussed the issue of financial support for climate change mitigation and adaptation actions. They were of the view that the decision to convene a meeting of the Transition Committee even before many regional groups of countries have nominated their members, was premature and stressed the need to respect the rules regarding convening of meetings and ensuring accountability, transparency and inclusiveness. They urged that the Transition Committee should take guidance from and report to AWG-LCA in respect of its work. The Ministers noted that, despite the declarations at Copenhagen and Cancun, actual disbursement of funds is lacking even to SIDS, Africa and LDCs, who most needed adaptation finance. The Ministers urged that sizeable flow of funds under the Fast Start Funds should begin before discussions on the Green Climate Fund gain momentum.

The Ministers noted the success of the creation of a Technology Mechanism at Cancun and felt that the Mechanism should go beyond providing technical assistance and capacity building to enable acceleration of the development and piloting the technologies that are appropriate for the developing countries. Further actions should be taken to address the issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and eligibility criteria in order to enhance and accelerate the development and transfer of mitigation and adaptation technologies. It was stressed that there was a direct link between the Technology Mechanism and the Financial Mechanism.

The issues relating to HFCs were discussed. HFC gases are not ozone depleting substances but some of these have high global warming potential. The Ministers felt that the issue of phase down of HFCs with high global warming potential required in-depth examination.

In preparing for future work in 2011, the Ministers expressed their strong support and solidarity with South Africa as the incoming COP Presidency to organize meetings in the run up to COP 17. They called for South Africa to deepen Mexico’s efforts of last year to strengthen the multilateral process in an inclusive, party-driven and transparent manner.

The Ministers noted that the three key events with significant inter-linkages are taking place over the next eighteen months, namely, the UNFCCC COP 17/CMP 7 at Durban, Rio+20 Summit at Rio and CBD COP 11 at New Delhi and decided that the BASIC countries will work together in mobilizing political support for the success of these events.

The Ministers reiterated the commitment of the BASIC Countries to continue to work to strengthen the unity of the Group of 77 and China and thanked Argentina as Chair of G77 and China and the representatives of Algeria and Maldives for their presence and valuable contribution.

Ministers welcomed the offer of South Africa to host the Seventh BASIC Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change in May 2011.”

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