At the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (COP17 UNFCCC) held in Durban in 2011, more than 195 Parties agreed to establish the new legally binding and universal agreement on climate (new-LBA), as the replacement for the Kyoto Protocol which will no longer be in force after 2015.
The COP21 Paris, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, will aim to achieve the new-LBA, with the ultimate goal of keeping global warming below 2°C. However some countries and NGOs hope for a more ambitious target: to keep the increase in warming below 1.5°C. This meeting is particularly important because it can set the blueprint and catalyst for future climate action. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which had its specific period, this new-LBA will be set for a longer period with a review mechanism during the process. But beyond the ‘legal-document’, the COP21 outcomes will be an important historical milestone. According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on the Climate Change (IPCCC) Fifth Assessment Report that has just been launched, it is confirmed that climate change is human-driven and its impacts are occurring faster than many scientists had projected. We only have a very narrow timeframe in which to act as a global community.
Responding to the importance of the forthcoming COP 21 in Paris, ACCCRN Indonesia, under the Indonesia Climate Alliance (ICA), are closely engaged in the process of developing Indonesia’s position with substantive support. ICA believes that Indonesia should be more persistent in pushing the global agreement to lift positions on adaptation to be equal to those on mitigation. The Paris Agreement should ensure the existence of a political agreement, for mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, which will serve as a basis for the provision of the long-term framework to support the implementation of the agenda. Thus, the ICA agreed on the need for the agreement to set global achievement targets for adaptation (global goals) which are qualitative and aspirational in nature. This goal is important to ensure the global framework of support for adaptation, which will be implemented at the regional, national and sub-national levels.
Global goals must also ensure that there is resilience building and protection for vulnerable communities, areas, ecosystems and sectors in the short term, while still maintaining their long-term approach in the context of keeping the global mean temperature increase below 2°C, and to ensure the achievement of sustainable development. The framework will serve as the basis for the planning and implementation process that each country can adapt to their development planning processes accordingly. Such plans must then be reviewed and communicated to the COP of the UNFCCC on a regular basis.
ICA believes in the importance of incorporating an adaptation element into the Nationally Determined Intended Contribution (INDC) submitted by Indonesia. Incorporation of the adaptation element in Indonesia’s INDC, seemingly shows a balance-interest between mitigation and adaptation, and it is perceived as being two equal pillars in efforts to address climate change. The adaptation element in the INDCs will encourage recognition of the Parties’ initiative, in particular the commitment and/or contribution of developing countries to the global community.
ICA also emphasizes that the suggested agreement should embrace the localized-contextual nature of adaptation. The adaptation principles under the Cancun Adaptation Framework (CAF) were part of the Cancun Agreements at the 2010 Climate Conference in Cancun, Mexico (COP16).
According to CAF, the principles that must exist within the framework of adaptation are gender sensitive, country-driven, promoting multi-stakeholder participation, transparency, sensitivity to vulnerable groups, communities and ecosystems, respecting local wisdom and the latter is integrated with environmental policy, economic policy and social issues. An additional principle that needs to be underlined is the recognition of human rights, especially the right to life and people’s entitlement to their respective land. In the context of adaptation, the recognition of human rights range, but are not limited to, from guarantees of reliable and accurate access to climate change data and information, the right to determine their own actions, as individuals and communities, and choice regarding adaptation, to the right to protection from hydro-meteorological disasters.
Beyond the issue of adaptation, the agenda concerning loss and damage due to climate change must be treated as a separate element in the impending Paris Climate Agreement. ICA contends that the two-year work plan of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage (WIM) should not restrict its function only to the development of a scientific basis, but should also encompass the development of the implementation model for such an international scheme. Therefore, Indonesia should push for a scheme of loss and damage, at institutional and government level, which is independent and yet synergizes in terms of function with the existing relevant institutional instruments under UNFCCC.
ICA has suggested that, as a tropical archipelagic country that is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, but on the other hand also one of the major emitters, Indonesia’s contribution on the issue of loss and damage, and that of developing countries like it, should be more focused on addressing local impact and support in strengthening the south-south cooperation scheme, and this should occur at the regional level in particular. The mechanism can be implemented independently within multilateral and bilateral schemes, or under the impending institutional arrangement of Loss and Damaged to be agreed under the COP. Those contributions could be in the context of sharing knowledge and learning, technical assistance and capacity building.
The last—but not least—of our messages is that we need to perceive UNFCCC COP21 Paris with a sense of urgency. We only have a very narrow timeframe to act as a global community. No one can deal with climate change alone! Collective action is the key, and the UN should embody this collective value because it is the venue where all the countries are legally represented.
