Ministers from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have called for global solidarity and support of the international community to enable them achieve their ambitious climate change plans.
They want global response to climate change to be fair and equitable, to advance the interests and aspirations of poor and vulnerable countries and peoples.
In a communiqué issued at the end of a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss the priorities of the LDC group in preparation towards the 23rd Session of Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, the group noted with serious concern the adverse impacts of climate change to worsen, as experienced through severe droughts and unprecedented rainfalls, storms and flooding around the world this year, particularly in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, resulting in great loss of life and tens of billions of dollars in damage to economies and infrastructure.
The Conference is scheduled to be presided over by the government of Fiji in November 2017(COP 23) in Bonn, Germany.
The group underscored the need for higher climate ambition by all countries in a manner that is consistent with their responsibility for climate change and capacity to respond in order to close the emissions gap to avoid further devastating climate change impacts.
They affirmed their commitment to continue to lead an ambitious climate action in “our countries; accelerating the transition to low carbon, climate resilient development to protect citizens and sustain economies”.
They called on all parties to the Paris Agreement to communicate new and update Nationally Determined Contributions before 2020 with a view to increasing their contributions and addressing the current ambition gap, and to be informed by the outputs of the facilitative dialogue to be convened in 2018.
The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.
To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives.
The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework.
By Solomon Wiredu|MG News|Ghana