About COP23 and its Agenda

Country: Solomon Islands 

Delegation: The Small Island Developing States 

• The UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn is considered as next step which can be taken by governments for the purpose of implementing the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and also ensures the sustainable, resilient and climate-safe development. COP23 clarify the enabling frameworks which will make the agreement fully operational and the support in this context is needed by all the nations for the purpose of achieving the climate change goals which were set by the government of Fiji and supported by the government of Germany. Collaboration of Fiji and Germany can be considered as great example of cooperation between the nations which actually meet the global climate change challenge. This conference is considered very important for future aspects.

This conference encourages the governments of various nations to join the COP 23 for the purpose of working together and accelerate implementation, and also takes the crucial next steps for ensuring the transformative change. This conference also encourages the leaders of private and public sector and individuals for the purpose of acheiving the goals which are set for the purpose of climate change and sustainable development. Every country and region have very important role to play in this context.

This paper analyzes the three themes of negotiations in the context of the COP23 agenda that are Adaptation, Loss and damage, and Capacity building and how it affects the SIDS regions. For preparing the position paper, we choose Solomon Islands.

• SIDS is stand for Small Islands of Developing nations and these are the areas which are first and worst affected with the changes occurred in climate. This can be understood through example of Solomon Islands which is also affected with the climate change.

The Republic of Solomon Islands includes more than 900 Islands, and six of these Islands are continuously inhabited. It must be noted that Islands are considered as part of the larger collection of the Solomon Islands archipelago that also includes the North Solomon Islands, part of Papua New Guinea. There are almost 642000 inhabitants and the main drivers of the economy of Solomon Islands are Tourism, subsistence agriculture, fishing. It also includes resource exports which includes timber, copra, and palm oil. Solomon Islands include two district terrestrial eco-regions such as rain forests of Solomon Islands eco-region and the Vanuatu rain forests eco-region. Country also contains active and dormant volcanoes which provide nutrient-rich volcanic soil. Following are some climate change effects of Solomon Islands:

• Increase in temperature threatens the agriculture:in Solomon Islands there is increase in temperatures between the 0.12 and 0.18 degrees Centigrade per decade from the year 1950. This increase in temperature directly affects the agricultural production which includes the main exports of copra and palm oil. Additionally, increase in temperature also threatens the agricultural production which is substance in nature for the local people which endangered food security.
• Rise in sea level impose risk to the agricultural area:rise in sea level is almost average of 8 mm per year which are above the global projections. This rise in sea level not only threatens the communities which are local and includes majority of the Solomon Islanders but also those who resides near the coastline sea level. The higher ground in Solomon Islands is volcanic and mountainous which are not suited for human habitation and agricultural production. This also increased the Coastal Flooding in the Western province, the Roviana region, and population density is mainly at the risk.
• Warming seas also imposed risk on fishing: coral reefs and areas which have larger surroundings are also under threat because of the rapid increase in the acidity levels in sea water. With the temperature and acidification expected to continue increasing, migratory patterns related to that must be altered and local reefs populations might be die.

For responding these climate changes, Solomon Islands working with the Department of the Environment and Energy of the government of Australia for the purpose of focusing on the resilience and mitigation under the Roviana Climate Change Resilience Plan 2013-2017. Plan set up in this mainly focus on mapping the vulnerability of marine and coastal habitats related to climate change. It also assesses coral reefs, seagrass, and tried to mangrove the health. However, this plan measures the quality and flow of the water and some other things also.

• Adaptation:While preparing for the UN Climate Change Conference conducted in November, the presidency of Fijian of the 23^rd Session of the conference of the parties (COP23) to the UNFCCC convened the ministerial dialogue of 2017 which is known as Pre-COP. During this event, the leaders of the company achieved greater clarity on the deliverables of COP 23 which includes resilience building, adaptation finance, and also the 2008 facilitative dialogue.

Various countries consider and discuss the implementation of the climate change guidelines related to the Paris Agreement in 2018 which also includes framework related to climate change action and finance, and also state the need of collaboration between all levels of the government, business and civil society.

It must be noted that Adaptations Fund is going to discussed in UN Climate Change Conference of this year. In this conference, adaptation activities mainly planning the multimedia exhibit which is considered as side event of implementing the environmental and social principles in adaptation projects and other appearances also which show concrete work for the purpose of helping the vulnerable communities in developing countries in adapting and resilience the climate change.

Climate Change Effects in Solomon Islands

The fund related to adaptation has set its target for 2017 up to US $ 80 Million as its resource mobilization, and COP 23 is serving as key flash point towards fulfilling its target. This fund also tries to make further progress which serves the Paris Agreement.

Global warming and increasing in the sea level is considered as threat to the existence of the Small Island States, and for such SIDS it is necessary to implement the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The main aim of this agreement must be followed by the SIDS that is increase in global temperatures to well below 2°C, and if possible to 1.5°C.

SIDS are directly affected by the impact of the climate change and this can be understood the climate conditions of Solomon islands which are stated above. Increasing in the whether events and shifts occurred in the climate, it is necessary to have mechanism which transfer the risk and become central tool in supporting the adaption to climate change, especially in those countries which are vulnerable.

Such mechanism is fostering by BMZ for the purpose of supporting the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI), and for this purpose BMZ already provided EUR 15 million to the World Bank. These measures are taken because it is necessary to provide support the efforts taken by small island states to adopt the changes occurred in climate. These adaptation mechanisms also ensure that synergies must be identified, decrease the transaction cost, and strengthen the regional cooperation.

Loss & Damage: Small Island states are exposed to the worst impacts of the climate change, and they fight for climate justice in context of loss and damage. Loss and damage is accepted as key element of Paris Agreement when it is not possible to adopt the changes occurred in climate. Because of their fight international community agreed to provide support for the purpose of addressing loss and damage. As this aspect is going to discussed in COP 23 which is firstly led by a small island nation and dubbed the “Pacific COP”.

However there is distinct lack of urgency, as six roundtables are held to plan for the progress of Paris Agreement but not even single table focused on loss and damage. Even this topic is not contained in the priorities of the Fiji presidency. Event related to Climate Action Pacific Partnership related to loss and damage was removed from the agenda of climate action and also not raised by the leaders of the small Islands in their statement from CAPP, despite it is present on their initial draft.

Adaptation Measures in Solomon Islands

The secretariat of UNFCCC issued an online guide which outlines the institutional framework related to loss and damage under the UNFCCC which also includes the functions of the Executive Committee (ExCom) of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM) and its mandates stated in Paris Agreement.

Loss and damage is the concept which is ambiguous and multifaceted in nature and it involves difficult questions in context of legal, political, scientific, and ethical issues. However, it is the formal agenda item which is included in the UN climate negotiations since 2010, but there is no international agreement which states the exact definition of loss and damage and any provisions in that context. Developing countries, especially those countries which are disproportionately affected by climate change have highlighted different responsibilities and also the requirement of measures which can compensate such damages. Developed countries also limit the discussion related to liability and compensation which frames loss and damage as a matter of adaptation and risk assurance.

Capacity Building in COP 23: Article 11 of the Paris Agreement states the importance related to the enhancing the capacity and ability of the developing nations for the purpose of taking effective climate change action which also includes implement adaptation and actions related to mitigation. This article also facilitates the development of technology, dissemination and deployment, provides accessing to climate finance, and considers relevant aspects of education, awareness related to training and public, transparency, timely and accurate communication of information. This article also states that parties to the agreement must cooperate with each other for the purpose of enhancing the capacity of developing nations and also provide their support in capacity building actions taken by developing nations.

Capacity building is considered as integral component which helps the developing countries parties in implementing the Convention and the Paris Agreement, and also ensures active engagement of wide of stakeholders which also include state and non-state actors for planning, implementing, and monitoring the activities of the capacity building components. COP ensures that various areas stated in the framework of capacity building in developing countries parties help in developing nations in economic transition. Additionally, the Paris agreement states objectives and scope of capacity building in developing countries as contained in decision 2/CP.7 are still relevant.

A group of leaders of Small Island Developing States has embarked on 3 week boat trip for the purpose of building momentum for climate change action in the lead of UN Climate Change Conference COP23 in November in Bonn. Framework stated for capacity building provides set of guiding principles and it also makes approach related to capacity building. This can be understood through example which states that capacity building actions should be a country driven process which involves learning by doing and set of activities. Framework also stated the priority areas for implementing the actions related to capacity building which includes least developed countries and small island developing states. Framework also confirms that capacity building is necessary in implementing the objectives define by convention.

Framework related to capacity building set out the activities such as developing the skills and knowledge, as well as providing opportunities to the stakeholders and different organizations in sharing their experiences and making them aware for the purpose of enable them to participate more fully in the climate change process. It also provides support and guidelines related to financial and technical resources which are mainly addressed by the facility of global environment. The framework call for developing countries and also countries with economic in transition and also ensures stakeholder cooperation.

• After considering the above facts, it is clear that SIDS is the priority areas of the COP23 for implementing the above sated themes. As stated, SIDS is extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change and this can be understood the climate conditions of Solomon Islands which are stated above. Increasing in the whether events and shifts occurred in the climate, it is necessary to have mechanism which transfer the risk and become central tool in supporting the adaption to climate change, especially in case of vulnerable countries. Impact of climate change on SIDS is discussed in context of themes of Adaptation, loss and damage, and capacity building.

Websites

WHO, (2017), Health and Climate Change at COP23, https://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/2017/health-climate-cop23/en/, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

Federal Ministry for economic cooperation and Development, Climate Change and Development, < https://www.bmz.de/en/service/feature/cop23/start/index.html>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

COP23 Fiji, Solomon Islands, < https://cop23.com.fj/solomonislands/>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

IISD, (2017), Adaptation and Loss and Damage Update: COP 23 Brings Small Islands’ Vulnerability into Focus, UN General Assembly Adopts DRR Indicators, < https://sdg.iisd.org/news/adaptation-and-loss-and-damage-update-cop-23-brings-small-islands-vulnerability-into-focus-un-general-assembly-adopts-drr-indicators/>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

IISD, (2017). Fiji Pre-COP Urges Progress on Paris Agreement Implementation Guidelines, Grand Coalition for Climate Action, < https://sdg.iisd.org/news/fiji-pre-cop-urges-progress-on-paris-agreement-implementation-guidelines-grand-coalition-for-climate-action/>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

COP 23, (2017), Adaptation Fund at COP23, < https://www.adaptation-fund.org/cop23/>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

UNFCCC, (2017), Germany’s Support for SIDS Climate Action Role of Germany’s Development Ministry BMZ, < https://newsroom.unfccc.int/cop-23-bonn/addressing-climate-change-german-development-cooperation-s-support-for-small-island-developing-states/>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

Climate Home News, (2017), Fiji presidency must not fail climate change victims at “Pacific COP”, < https://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/07/18/fiji-presidency-must-not-fail-climate-change-victims-pacific-cop/>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

GGI, climate change loss and damage, < https://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-governance/downloads/policybriefs/policy-brief-loss-and-damage>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

UNFCCC, (2017). Capacity-building, < https://unfccc.int/cooperation_and_support/capacity_building/items/1033.php>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.

UNFCCC, Capacity-building: Frameworks, < https://unfccc.int/cooperation_and_support/capacity_building/items/7203.php>, Accessed on 27^th October 2017.