Warsaw COP19

By VIOLET MENGO in Warsaw, Poland

The climate change talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change opened on Monday in Warsaw, Poland on a grim and somber note, as parties recalled the devastation of the typhoon Haiyan in the Phillipines.

The Phillipines head of delegation, Naradev Sano made an impassioned and emotional plea calling for the Warsaw talks to “end the madness” breaking down at the end of his speech.

Mr Sano announced that he was commencing a voluntary fast until meaningful progress has been made in Warsaw.

Mr Sano said the Typhoon Haiyan was apparently the cruelest and worst storm in recorded history, with the full extent of the damage being uncertain.

“The picture following its aftermath is of a colossal disaster” He said that Parties cannot afford to delay climate action and that “We can stop this madness”

Mr Sano said that this was the 19^th meeting of the conference of Parties and despite significant gains, “we continue to fall short of attaining the Convention’s ultimate objective”.

Loss and damage is a reality and developed country mitigation targets are dangerously low. Parties were at a critical juncture and even with the most ambitious reductions, it is too late and there is need for global solidarity.

The means of implementation is ever so crucial and the emerging climate pathway cannot be that typhoon are a way of life as is the counting of dead bodies

Mr Sano said that Philippines are doing their own effort with a national renewable energy programme and that if the developed world could finance the incremental costs, it could do much more in mitigation actions.

He said his own family’s hometown was hit by Haiyan, adding that his brother survived but is hungry and weary as food supplies are short and is involved in burying dead bodies.

Mr Sano announced that he would adopt a “voluntary fast” during this COP until there was “meaningful outcome” 

He wanted concrete resources to be mobilized for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) which remains an empty shell and needed to see real ambitions.

He said the UNFCCC could be called a “project to save the world and we could stop the madness” and urged the Parties not to move the “goal post” He ended his speech with a call to Parties to rise above humanity and received a standing ovation as he broke down in tears.

Parties then observed three minute silence for those who had perished in the tragedy moment of silence on the request of Su Wei, the head of the Chinese delegation to the COP19 Presidency, Marcin Korolec, Minister of Environment of Poland.

The COP19 and the 9^th session of the meeting of Parties of the Kyoto Protocol are meeting from 11 to 22 November. The subsidiary bodies who are also meeting are the Subsidiary Body for the Implementation (SBI), the Subsidiary Body for the Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP).The SBI and SBSTA also opened on Monday while ADP started on Tuesday 12^th November.

There were concerns whether the COP provisional agenda would be adopted, given that the Russian Federation had proposed a new sub item for the inclusion on “decision making in the UNFCCC process under the agenda item on Administrative, financial and institutional matters.

When a similar proposal to include a new agenda item was made by the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine for the SBI session in June in Bonn, Germany, the SBI could not commence work at all due to wrangles over the agenda.

However, in Warsaw, the COP opening did not see an “agenda fight” as Parties were given assurance by the COP President that the Russian item on the adoption of the rules of procedure of the provision agenda and item relating to a proposal by Papua New Guinea and Mexico for amendments to the Convention to allow for a right to vote on all matter, except to those related to financial rules and the financial mechanism when consensus cannot be found among Parties.

Papua Guniea, following the adoption of the agenda said that it had made request since the Bali COP for the adoption of the rules of procedure (which is still pending adoption as Parties have not been able to agree on rule 42 on voting when consensus is not possible).It said that without having effective and transparent processes, the hands of Parties were tied. It wanted resolution of this.

When Parties were invited to make statements following the adoption of the agenda, the G77 and China stressed that the Warsaw talks must be about the implementation of the past commitments including on finance, technology transfer, capacity building, adaptation and a mechanism to address loss and damage. The G77 and China call was echoed by all the other developing country groupings.

The climate talks begun with an opening ceremony which saw speeches by Abdullah Bin Hamad Al –Attiya, President of COP18. The President of COP19, Rejendra Pauchauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Mayor of Warsaw and Christian Figueres the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.

Ends….

PACJA updates African Civil Society Call for Urgent Ambitious Action on Climate Change In Warsaw

November, 13^th 2013

From VIOLET MENGO in Warsaw, Poland

THE civil society representatives from across the African continent have urged Governments to take ambitious action against climate change.

The CSOs made this statement at a press conference held yesterday, at the on-going UNFCCC Climate Change Negotiation at the COP19/CMP19 which runs from November 11 – 22 in here in Poland.

The African civil society joins the rest of the global community meeting in Warsaw to find the most practicable way to address the growing impacts of climate change.

Mithika Mwenda, Secretary General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) reminded leaders and governments’ representatives that climate change impacts are multiplying at unprecedented rate.

“As we speak, tens of thousands of Pilipino have perished in typhoons, while hundreds of thousands have been rendered homeless. How come this unfortunate incident is coinciding with COP19 conference?

Is nature heralding a chilling message to us? We demand that developed countries fulfill and implement their commitments under the UN climate convention, in order to fairly share a necessary ‘emissions budget’, and avoid catastrophic climate change,” Mr Mwenda said.

He said Africa along with other poor countries are at the most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change globally.

“We watch with horror what has happened in the Philippines, and know that similar impacts of climate change are ravaging Africa  with attendant loss of lives and properties and means of livelihood been eroded daily on the continent,” he said.

Mr Mwenda said will not the rich countries ignore these clear facts from Mother Nature, nor the yelling from world’s poor?

He said time has come for developed countries to cut deep their emissions that are causing climate change and that signals of such action should be seen from COP19.

PACJA believes these negotiations are about the emissions budget, whether governments admit it or not, they either negotiate to share that budget fairly, or they plan to exceed it.

“Africans expect our governments to stand firm on setting an emissions budget, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCCC). Mr Mwenda said.

And from Habtemariam Abate Ethiopian Civil Society Network on Climate Change said developed countries must share the budget fairly, based on historical responsibility and capacities.

Mr Abate said there are strong and clear proposals on how to deliver energy to those who do not have, whilst avoiding the trappings of dirty fossil fuels and therefore allowing us to live within the emissions budget.

He said proposals include a globally funded feed in tariff – we expect such a measure to be adopted here in Warsaw.

“The best agreement on Earth won’t make a difference without implementation in the real world. That’s why one of the clear outcomes in Warsaw must be the drastic scaling up of climate finance and technology transfer.

Only if these commitments are met by Annex I parties can African governments really believe that the rich world plans to act in good faith on any future agreement.”  Mr Abate said.

The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, PACJA, released several briefs outlining their analysis, shared with other civil society observers several issues, including equity, markets and loss and damage.

Ends…

Provisional Statement on Status of Climate in 2013: Continuing high temperatures globally and many climate extremes worldwide

November 13, 2013

From VIOLET MENGO in Warsaw, Poland

THE World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says the year 2013 will be among the top ten warmest years since 1850.

The WMO's provisional annual statement on the Status of the Global Climate 2013 provides a snapshot of regional and national temperatures.

It also includes details on precipitation, floods, droughts, tropical cyclones, ice cover and sea-level.

The statement was released yesterday (Wednesday 13^th) to inform negotiators at the United Nations climate change conference here.

The first nine months, January to September, tied with 2003 as the seventh warmest such period on record, with a global land and ocean surface temperature of about 0.48°C (0.86°F) above the 1961-1990 average.

WMO Secretary General Michel Jarraud said temperatures so far this year are about the same as the average during 2001 to 2010, which was the warmest decade on record.

Mr Jarraud said all of the warmest years have been since 1998 and this year once again continues the underlying, long-term trend.

He said the coldest years now are warmer than the hottest years before 1998.

“Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases reached new highs in 2012, and we expect them to reach unprecedented levels yet again in 2013,”Mr Jarraud said.

This means that we are committed to a warmer future; Surface temperatures are only part of the wider picture of our changing climate.

The secretary general said the impact on water cycle is already becoming apparent – as manifested by droughts, floods and extreme precipitation.

The provisional WMO statement confirms that global sea level reached a new record high.

Sea level has been rising at an average rate of about 3.2 milimetres per year, with inter-annual variability, since altimeter satellite measurements began in 1993.

This is close to the observed rate of about 3 mm/yr of the most recent decade of 2001-2010 and double the observed 20th century trend of 1.6 mm/yr.

“Sea levels will continue to rise because of melting ice caps and glaciers. More than 90 percent of the extra heat we are generating from greenhouse gas is absorbed by the oceans, which will consequently continue to warm and expand for hundreds of years,” said Mr Jarraud.

Ends

Government​s called to harness strong groundswel​l of action on climate change

November 11, 2013

By VIOLET MENGO

The UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw began today with calls for governments to harness the strong groundswell of action on climate change across all levels of government, business and society and make real progress here towards a successful, global climate change agreement in 2015.

The newly elected President of the Conference of the Parties (COP 19/CMP 9 Marcin Korolec, Poland's Environment Minister, said in his opening address that climate change is a global problem that must be turned further into a global opportunity.

 "It's a problem if we can't coordinate our actions. It becomes opportunity where we can act together. One country or even a group cannot make a difference. But acting together, united as we are here, we can do it," he said.

In her opening speech at the Warsaw National Stadium, the venue of COP 19,  Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on  Climate Change, called on delegates to "win the Warsaw opportunity" to safeguard present and future generations.

"We must stay focused, exert maximum effort for the full time and produce a positive result, because what happens in this stadium is not a game. There are not two sides, but the whole of humanity. There are no winners and losers, we all either win or lose in the future we make for ourselves."

 Ms. Figueres pointed to the sobering realities of climate change and the rise in extreme events that climate science has long predicted, including the devastating Typhoon Haiyan that just hit the Philippines, one of the most powerful typhoons ever to make landfall.

Ms. Figueres highlighted the key areas in which COP 19 can make progress:

 "We must clarify finance that enables the entire world to move towards low-carbon development. We must launch the construction of a mechanism that helps vulnerable populations to respond to the unanticipated effects of climate change. We must deliver an effective path to pre-2020 ambition, and develop further clarity for elements of the new agreement that will shape the post-2020 global climate, economic and development agendas".

In addition, the meeting in Warsaw will focus on decisions that will make fully operational the new institutional support under the UNFCCC for developing nations in finance, adaptation and technology. These are the Green Climate Fund, the Technology Mechanism and the Adaptation Committee, all agreed in Cancun in 2010.

Ms. Figueres stressed the fact that the meeting in Warsaw is taking place against the background of growing awareness that climate change is real and accelerating, and the growing willingness of people, businesses and governments to take climate action, at all levels of society and policy.

 "There is a groundswell of climate action. Not only for environmental reasons, but also for security, energy, economic and governance reasons. Political will and public support favour action now. A new universal climate agreement is within our reach. Agencies, development banks, investors and subnational governments are on board. The science from the IPCC is clear. Parties can lead the momentum for change and move together towards success in 2015."

In order to showcase the growing climate leadership and contributions to the climate challenge from all sides, a Business Forum organized by the UN and the Polish host government will take place next week alongside the meeting. Cities and regions will gather for the first ever "Cities Day” that highlights their actions. And a Gender Day will showcase women's role in meeting the climate challenge.

 Also next week, the UNFCCC secretariat will showcase Momentum for Change lighthouse activities, climate action that demonstrates positive results for innovative finance, women and the urban poor.

In addition, the initiative will launch a new area that focuses on contributions by the information and technology sector to curb emissions and increase adaptive capacity to respond.

 The UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw (11 to 22 November) is currently being attended by government delegates, representatives from business and industry, environmental organisations, research institutions and the media.

 More than 100 Heads of State and Government and Ministers are scheduled to attend the high-level segment of the meeting, which begins on 19 November and ends with a decision-making plenary on 22 November.

Developed countries must help climate captives at climate summit

November 11^th 2013

By VIOLET MENGO

CHRISTIAN Aid has called on representatives at the UN climate summit here to put the issue of equity at the heart of discussion on creating a global deal to tackle climate change.

In a report launched today, ahead of the official opening, Christian Aid reminds delegates to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that industrialised nations have been responsible for the 72 percent of the total greenhouse gas emission since the start of the industrial revolution in 1850.

Despite pledges to cut emissions, the industrialised countries have shown a marked reluctance to face up to their historical responsibility for causing the problem in the first place.

The report, Fair shares in a constrained world, points out that developing countries, with 82.7 per cent of the world's population, have emitted just 28.5 per cent of the world's total emissions.

Report author, Mohamed Adow, Senior Climate Change Adviser at Christian Aid, said those already suffering the most from climate change are the world's poor that have done the least to create the problem.

“Like stopping the trans-Atlantic slave trade, this will take moral clarity from those in the developed world. This problem calls for action from the rich, who built their wealth through uncapped pollution. They must cut their emissions and lead the world towards a low-carbon, resilient future or they will force extreme weather, devastating droughts and rising sea levels onto the backs of the world's poor,” said Mr Adow.

He said the level of finance, technology and other associated support required by developing countries must be established, and the obligation to provide those resources dealt with equitably.

Mr Adow said developed countries have most of the world's wealth, which is considered a measure of capacity to tackle climate change.

“The 54 African countries with 16.6 per cent of the global population, and the least developed countries, with 12.7 per cent of the global population, have just 1.2 per cent and 0.1 per cent of the global income respectively. The figures speak for themselves,” said Mr Adow.

The report calls for all parties to the conference to agree to scientifically defined limits on greenhouse gas emissions, which will set the total global effort needed.

It reveals that countries must then decide on a clear equity process, one that sets the world on a path towards a climate deal in 2015 that is both just and ambitious.   

“A vision needs to be forged in Warsaw which captures the UNFCCC principles of 'common but differentiated responsibilities', a plan based on each country's historic responsibility and capacity to respond, this report lays out all of the data governments need to forge that plan,” said Mr Adow.

'This vision must bridge the current gap between the different government views and increase their understanding of the need for equitable effort sharing required for the 2015 deal,' said Mr Adow.

Ends….

 

Zambian Member of Parliament says political involvement key in climate change

 NOVEMBER 12, 2013

From VIOLET MENGO in Warsaw, Poland

KABWE Member of Parliament James Kapyanga says the involvement of political leaders is cardinal in the formulation of policies that can accelerate climate change.

Speaking in an interview here, Mr Kapyanga said politicians are policy makers and in better standing to take the leading role in addressing climate change.

“If there is anything to do with legal formulation of policies, the politicians are the ones to advance the process because they are the drivers in this area and hence their involvement is important,” Mr Kapyanga said.

He also noted that the other important aspect for political leaders is the full understanding of climate change.

“My presence here at the conference is very important and goes a long way to try and help out my colleagues who are at home in fully understanding climate change and activities that can address this challenge,” he said.

The member of Parliament is of the view that without a good understanding of climate change issues, politicians may fail to come up with workable policies that are aimed at addressing climate change.

Mr Kapyanga said climate change is all about taking care of the atmosphere, environment and natural resources in a way that future generation will not be affected.

And on the Conference of Parties (COP19) meeting, the parliamentarian said the conference is very important because it is looking at issues that affect the climate and also bridging the gap between the developed and developing countries.

“From the developing world aspect, they are saying that they have not really affected the climate and blame the industrialisation of the developed nations, which emitted most of the pollution contributing to the changes in the atmosphere,” Mr Kapyanga said.

He said the need to address issues of finance, capacity building and technological transfer which seem to be a very difficult on the part of developed world, challenges of climate change will be answered.

“It is sad that to date the United States of America have chosen not to be part of the Kyoto Protocol which binds industrialised nation to reduce their emission, USA is a country that has massive technology and wealth and can capacitate the developing countries,” Mr Kapyanga said.

He appealed to industrialised nations that are still not part of the Kyoto protocol to start participating because climate change affects the world and accelerate the response to climate change.

The 19^th session of the UN climate change conference is taking place at the Warsaw National stadium and runs from 11 to 22 November.

Over 190 countries are represented. The high level meeting for policy makers starts on the 19^th November.

Ends….

By VIOLET MENGO

JOEL Zimba and Miriam Bwalya are scheduled to get married and they are aware of the importance of couples’ voluntary counselling and testing (CVCT).

They have plans of having children and a life- long partnership, hence an HIV test is key to their plans.
“If we go together for an HIV test, we get the results together and we will know the truth together right from the start,” says Mr Zimba, a 30-year-old man of Lusaka’s Kanyama Township.

Mr Zimba says testing as a couple is one way of showing love and commitment to each other.
He defines a couple as two people who are married, cohabiting, pre-marital partners contemplating marriage, sex partners or pre-sexual partners.

The couples say CVCT will help them discover their status and learn how best to respond to it.
Mr Zimba and Ms Bwalya say testing together helps couples to benefit from counselling sessions that aim to improve their communication.

Despite experts confirming that CVCT helps to reduce the risk of HIV transmission, less than one percent of African couples have been tested together.

This is a missed opportunity, since most pregnant women and people living with HIV are married or cohabiting.

It is against this background that the Rwanda -Zambia HIV Research Group (RZHRG) was established to provide CVCT in the two countries.

The research group started in 1986 in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, where it tested over 150, 000 couples. In Zambia, the project started in 1994 and currently has 71 CVCT government clinics.
In Rwanda, CVCT is now a standard of care and over 85 percent of pregnant women are tested with partners.

In Zambia, from 2007-2012, CVCT has been provided to over 10,000 couples per year in Lusaka and Southern Provinces while 48,000 couples were tested in 2010 alone.

Zambia Emory Research HIV Project national director William Kilembe explains that RZHRG provides CVCT follow-up services for discordant and concordant negative couples.

Discordant couples are those where one partner is HIV-positive and the other is not while concordant negative couples are couples that are HIV-negative.

“You can only know your partner when you know each other’s HIV status,” says Dr Kilembe.
Dr Kilembe says couples often will not test together because of conflicting work schedules or because they live great distances from each other due to work.

He says testing together as a couple eases the burden of disclosing results to partners.
“It is usually difficult to tell your partner your HIV status. But if they are counselled and tested together at the same time, and they are together when the results come, that added pressure is taken away,” Dr Kilembe says.

African couples represent the largest HIV risk group: more than two-thirds of new HIV infections are acquired from a spouse. HIV discordant couples represent the largest at risk group in Africa.

Studies of HIV-discordant heterosexual couples in Rwanda and Zambia show that when couples are counselled and tested together, the transmission of HIV from the positive to the negative partner is reduced from 20 to 25 percent.

The number of other sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies also decreases.
In 2009, RZHRG were designated Couples’ HIV Counselling and Testing Centres of Excellence by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Zambia and Rwanda.

In this capacity, RZHRG provides training and technical assistance to help countries support and implement CVCT across a variety of settings, including increasing male involvement in PMTCT services.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and CDC collaborated with RZHRG to develop the CVCT Intervention and Training Curriculum.

The curriculum has been used in CDC-led training in several African countries.
“We have trained over 1,785 people from 146 organisations in Botswana, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guyana and Haiti,” says director and founder of the RZH RG Dr Suzan Allen.

Other countries where training has been conducted are Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, the United States and Zambia.
RZHRG also assisted the World Health Organisation with its CVCT guidelines, which were published in April 2012.

These are called “Guidance on Couples’ HIV Testing and Counselling, including Antiretroviral Therapy for Treatment and Prevention in Serodiscordant Couples”.

The first CVCT Centre of Excellence workshops were convened in Kigali and Lusaka in 2009, and allowed participants to share best practices in improving uptake of CVCT.

The follow-up workshops took place from 29th November to 1st December in Lusaka and 5th to 7th December 2012 in Kigali, Rwanda, respectively.

The workshops allowed past recipients of Centre of Excellence technical assistance and training to share their experiences with countries who have not yet implemented CVCT.

It also provided a foundation to develop new training opportunities, a forum to discuss progress in centre of excellence countries, and an opportunity to identify challenges to CVCT roll-out and integration.

“Our research team has 15 years experience conducting heterosexual HIV prevention research in the capitals of two African countries,” says Dr Allen.

She says early studies in Rwanda showed that voluntary HIV counselling and testing results in pronounced risk reduction in married couples.

She says CVCT is the only prevention programme proven to reduce HIV incidence in the largest risk group the world over.

“Demand for couples’ VCT is low because of the belief that monogamy is ‘safe’, the fear of stigma, gender inequity between husband and wife, and lack of knowledge about where VCT can be obtained,” Dr Allen says.

Given the low demand, policy-makers and other influential groups need to take an active role in advocating CVCT.

Funding agencies also need to support VCT services so that supply and utilisation enhanced. It is critical that this continuing cycle of low demand low supply be interrupted.

Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health permanent secretary Elwyn Chomba says testing only one partner in a couple does not result in decreased HIV risk.

Prof. Chomba says while it is important to know one’s own status, it is equally important to know one’s partner’s status. If both partners know both results, they know what they need to do and they are motivated to do it.

“Joint testing and counselling decreases transmission of HIV by more than 60 percent within discordant couples and reduces sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies in all couples,” she says.

CVCT is identified in the Zambia National AIDS strategy 2011-2015 as key prevention tool and an effective entry point for prevention services.

Despite CVCT being identified in the strategy, Prof Chomba says less than 10 percent of Zambian couples have been tested together to date.

“In urban Zambia, an estimated 70 percent of new HIV infections are in cohabiting partners who do not realise that one partner is HIV- positive and the other is HIV -negative,” Prof Chomba says.
She says two thirds of these can be prevented by couples going for voluntary HIV counselling and testing.