Programme to assist negotiators aims to help countries access climate funds and accurately assess climate risks
LONDON (AlertNet) - As U.N. climate talks get underway in Bonn this week, an international business and NGO alliance funded by the British and Dutch governments is stepping up support to help negotiators from the poorest developing nations get a larger say in any new global deal.
Sam Bickersteth, chief executive of the London-based Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), told AlertNet a lack of expertise and preparation is widely perceived to have prevented least-developed countries (LDCs) from negotiating effective outcomes at U.N. climate meetings in the past.
"There's a consensus that the (low level of) capacity has been a drag," he said in an interview. "There are moral and practical reasons why (LDCs) need to be brought into the deal."
From a moral perspective, many of the world's poorest countries are judged to be most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels and more extreme weather, even though they have historically emitted low levels of planet-warming greenhouse gases.
And in practical terms, any new global deal that does not include adequate finance to help poor states adapt to rising temperatures and pursue a green development path could result in economic and social collapse where people are forced to leave inhospitable environments, Bickersteth said.
The former British government and Oxfam official said CDKN has begun supporting the lead negotiators for groupings of countries in the U.N. talks, including the LDC and Africa groups.
CDKN, founded in March 2010, helps decision-makers in developing countries design and deliver climate-compatible development, and is a consortium of consultancies and think tanks, including PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano (FFLA), SouthSouthNorth, LEAD International and INTRAC.
"We are bringing expertise to (negotiators) who might be diplomats or environment ministry officials, and need good knowledge of the (climate) science and key reports that could help them," Bickersteth said.
CDKN aims to maximise those governments' opportunities to tap sources of climate finance and prove they can manage it well. It will also support them in assessing climate risks and vulnerabilities, and work to reinforce the Legal Response Initiative (LRI) which offers real-time, pro-bono legal advice to climate negotiators.
Bickersteth acknowledged existing efforts, including by the United Nations, to build the capacity of developing country negotiators, but said CDKN hopes over the coming four years to "systematise what has been rather scattered, ad hoc support".
PROGRESS ON CLIMATE FINANCE?
In the run-up to last year’s climate summit in the Mexican seaside resort of Cancun, CDKN prepared briefs for the Pakistan delegation and provided expertise during the talks to back up the South Asian nation's negotiating team.
Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N.'s climate secretariat, noted afterwards that Pakistan had taken a more effective lead on issues surrounding the vulnerability of countries to climate change, according to Bickersteth.
In Cancun, Pakistan - which was hit by major floods last year - pushed for the emerging U.N. climate fund's definition of vulnerability to be updated, particularly to take into account countries at risk from factors like monsoon variability, intense summer heatwaves, desertification, glacier melt and coastal exposure.
So far, that definition - on which access to funding for adaptation to climate change is likely to depend - does not cover a specific list, but is understood to be limited to least-developed countries, small island developing states and African nations.
CDKN is now talking with Rwanda and Kenya about providing similar support to their climate negotiators at the U.N. climate summit in Durban at the end of this year. But Bickersteth said CDKN is "realistic" about what might be achieved in South Africa.
On Monday, U.N. climate chief Figueres told reporters at the June 6-17 session in Germany that the negotiations have run out of time to meet a December 2012 deadline to put in place a binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gases.
Agreeing that a successor deal to Kyoto is unlikely to emerge in the next few months, Bickersteth said there are nonetheless high expectations about progress on setting up the U.N.'s Green Climate Fund, which could channel as much as $100 billion per year in finance for adaptation and low-carbon development to poorer nations by 2020.
The least-developed countries must play a significant role in establishing the fund, which should move to streamline the current proliferation of climate financing mechanisms, ensuring that climate aid is more effective, he added.
"We want to improve the chances of getting LDC voices heard, as well strengthening their own capacity to assess the results (of the talks)," Bickersteth said. "We want poorer countries to have the space to intervene more effectively and more fairly."
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