Asia/Pacific prepare for new global climate-change agreement

Countries in Asia and the Pacific prepare for new global climate-change agreement.

The environmentally friendly Asian road to Paris

Bangkok, Thailand, 24 February 2015 – Representatives from some 20 Asia-Pacific countries have moved a step closer in developing their national strategies for action in anticipation of a new global agreement on climate change expected to be finalized later this year in Paris, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today.

The regional experts’ consultation on “Implications of Lima for Climate Change and Forests in Asia-Pacific” follows the successful global outcomes of the Lima Climate Conference last December in the Peruvian capital, during which 190 countries agreed on a road map for a new climate-change treaty along with their promise of ambitious, and fair, intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) in advance of the Paris summit. These INDCs by all countries of the world will form the foundation for climate action post 2020 when the new agreement comes into effect.

The regional consultation in Bangkok has been organized by FAO, RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests and the ASEAN Regional Knowledge Networking on Forest and Climate Change (ARKN-FCC). One of the main objectives of the regional meeting is to clearly articulate the issues at hand and the way forward to ensure each country benefits from the new international climate-change agreement.

“Given the push to ensure progress towards an agreement in Paris, it is essential that understanding and engagement in climate change negotiations go beyond limited numbers of negotiators and experts,” said Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific.

“Accordingly, there is a need to make the international-level negotiations understandable and relevant to a wider group of government decision makers and communities, transforming results into comprehensive and practical guidance for national level actions, and allowing for meaningful inputs into discussions leading up to Paris,” Konuma said.

“The significant number of participants in this regional consultation from government and other expertise in attendance clearly indicates the serious nature of what must be decided,” he added.

“The most impoverished people of Asia and the Pacific are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” said Tint Lwin Thaung, Executive Director of RECOFTC. “They need correct information, technical assistance and strong leadership to help them adapt to detrimental impacts of climate change.”

The regional consultation hopes to build on the momentum of the Lima Climate Conference which resulted in a number of additional ‘firsts’. In Lima, developed and developing countries pledged new resources that took the capitalization of the new Green Climate Fund (GCF) past an initial $10 billion target, while several industrialized countries submitted themselves to questioning about their emissions targets under a new process called the Multilateral Assessment. A Ministerial Declaration also called on governments to place climate change into school curricula and make ‘climate awareness’ part of national development plans.

ENDS

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