Bali COP-13

  

Background

This annual event, known as the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is where global agreements on climate change are negotiated between governments. The most famous agreement negotiated under the UNFCCC is the Kyoto Protocol. This Protocol, which entered into effect in 2005, is set to expire in 2012. Therefore, the main objective of the Bali CoP was to develop a roadmap for negotiations culminating in a post-2012 framework (in other words, governments needed to "agree on how to agree" about what to do following the Kyoto Protocol').

Results from the Bali CoP are summarized in the attached overview. The official Bali roadmap, or Action Plan, is also attached.

 

CARE and the UNFCCC

CARE International has recently received official status as an “observer" to the UNFCCC. This means that we have a right to participate in/contribute to CoPs and related processes. During the 2007 CoP, CARE was one amongst hundreds of other NGOs, research organizations, multilateral institutions and journalists trying to inform and influence national delegations.

Environmental NGOs, and their concerns, have historically dominated civil society involvement in the UNFCCC. This situation is slowly becoming less lopsided. For example, CARE International was represented at the Bali CoP by eight staff from Denmark, Canada, US, UK, Brazil, Malawi and Indonesia. Two of us were part of national delegations (Danish and Malawian). As such, the scale and breadth of CARE's representation at the Bali CoP was substantially greater than in any previous CoP. And we expect our involvement in the UNFCCC to continue growing.

This pattern is wholly appropriate, as illustrated by two of the major issues negotiated during this year's CoP, namely: the Adaptation Fund, and reducing emissions from deforestation.

 

The Adaptation Fund

The UNFCCC's Adaptation Fund is intended to help finance adaptation to climate change in poor countries. Unlike other funds that are dependent on voluntary contributions, the Adaptation Fund is designed to draw resources from a 2% levy on carbon credit sales through the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Up until now, the Adaptation Fund (which is likely to become the single largest fund supporting adaptation activities in poor countries) has been inactive because Parties to the UNFCCC hadn't been able to agree on how it should work. Most importantly, they hadn't been able to agree on who would manage the Fund. This has finally been settled - at least for the time being. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF), which is managed by the World Bank in Washington, D.C, will serve as secretariat to the Adaptation Fund for the next 3 years.

On the basis of this decision, the Adaptation Fund can finally begin operating. This is good news. However, many development NGOs - including CARE - worry that the Fund will be too small and too slow to make a reasonable contribution to meeting adaptation needs in poor countries. A quick look at the numbers explains why:

• The most optimistic projection for the Fund's growth suggests it could take in up to $5 billion dollars per year after 2012.
• However, all assessments of how much money will actually be needed for adaptation in poor countries are much higher. For example, the World Bank suggests that costs will run between US$10 to 40 billion per year (the low figure assuming no investment in community-based adaptation) while Oxfam puts the price tag at more than $50 billion per year and the UNDP projects annual costs of $86 billion by 2015.

The inclusion of adaptation in the Bali Action Plan is an important step forward, as is recognition of the urgent and immediate needs of especially vulnerable poor countries. We are also pleased that the Bali Action Plan makes an explicit commitment to seek “new and additional" financing adaptation. But we must ensure that the mechanisms established to channel these resources are fair, efficient, action-oriented and target the countries that need it most.

In the words of one observer "adaptation has been the Cinderella of climate change for too long. It needs to become the princess". CARE is working to make sure this happens.

 

Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation

The second focus of CARE's advocacy efforts in Bali was on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). Some 20% of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation. Yet the Kyoto Protocol fails to provide any financial incentives for preserving forests. This will change in the post-2012 agreement, and it poses distinct risks and opportunities to CARE's mission. The danger is that giving forests a carbon value (a hectare of intact Indonesian forest might, for instance, be worth up to $10,000 in carbon payments) could encourage governments and other powerful actors to prevent some of the world's poorest people from accessing those forest resources they desperately depend upon for survival.

CARE is promoting REDD policies that encourage government and private sector collaboration with poor, forest-dependent people. Based on our field-based experience, we recognize the makings for a win-win-win scenario in which carbon stays locked up in healthy forests, local people have clear rights to sustainable use and share in carbon benefits, and biodiversity is conserved.

During the CoP, CARE helped develop draft text for inclusion in the Bali Action Plan addressing the rights of local forest dependant people and the equitable sharing of benefits from selling carbon credits. The text was proposed to several national delegations, and this seems to have spurred important discussions. As a result, our concerns have been included in the CoP decision on REDD (see attached) - though not as strongly as, or in the rights-based language that we had been advocating.

 

CARE at the CoP

So, CARE was intensely engaged in overt and behind-the-scenes advocacy throughout the CoP. But we were doing a lot more. Here's a quick summary:

• Convening an official side-event entitled, "Making Adaptation Funding Mechanisms Work for Poor People." The event was extremely well attended (about 250 people) and received very positive (unsolicited!) feedback. It was also featured in the CoP's daily paper.
• Presenting a case study on climate change and gender during the side-event and launch of the Up in Smoke: Asia report. This side-event was recorded and will soon be accessible via the web. In the meantime, you can download the report (including CARE's contribution) by going to www.upinsmokecoalition.org . And, by the way, CARE is a member of this very important coalition!
• Presenting a case study on forest conservation and poverty reduction in Kalimantan, Indonesia during a side event convened by Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society.
• Presenting an assessment of the role that standards need to play in land-based carbon projects during the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance's "Forest Day" side-event. We are also a member of this Alliance. For more information, go to www.climate-standards.org
• Providing CARE Members with press releases (before, during and after) the CoP. We were cited in an AP article syndicated in papers throughout the world.

 

 

CARE side-event

"Making Adaptation Funding Mechanisms Work for the Most Vulnerable" - Organized by CARE, Oxfam and WWF. Held Friday, December 7, 2007.