Implementing the Paris Agreement on Climate Change: COP 22 in Marrakech, Morocco

Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 21^st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) and the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1) were held in Marrakech, Morocco, from 7-18 November 2016.

According to UNFCCC, the Conference successfully demonstrated to the world that the implementation of the Paris Agreement is underway and the constructive spirit of multilateral cooperation on climate change continues.

Key Outcomes and Initiatives of COP 22

Rule Book:

A crucial outcome of the Marrakech climate conference was to move forward on writing the rule book, or operational manual, of the Paris Agreement. Countries pressed forward on this and set a fast track date of 2018 for completion

Multilateral Assessment:

At COP 22, seven developing countries presented updates and opened themselves to examination by their peers on how they are moving to a low-carbon economy.

Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency

During COP 22, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a multilateral funding arm, announced a Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency backed by 11 developed country donors providing $50 million-worth of funding.

Progress by Governments

Governments made progress across key areas of climate action, including climate finance, adaptation, capacity building, technology and gender-responsiveness. This is an overview:

Climate finance

• Countries pledged more than $81 million to the Adaptation Fund, surpassing its target for the year.
• Countries pledged over $23 million to the Climate Technology Centre and Network, which supports developing countries with climate technology development and transfer. As the implementation arm of the Technology Mechanism, the CTCN is a key institution to enable nations realize their commitments under the Paris Agreement.
• The Green Climate Fund (GCF) announced the approval of the first two proposals for the formulation of National Adaptation Plans: Liberia for $2.2 million and Nepal for $2.9 million. Another 20 countries are expected to have their proposals approved soon with up to $3 million each.
• Overall, the GCF is on track to approve $2.5 billion worth of projects.

Capacity Building

• In another show of accelerated climate action, countries operationalized the Paris Agreement’s Paris Committee on Capacity Building. It will help build capacity for climate action in developing countries. The members have been elected and the committee will take up its work in May 2017.

Technology

• During COP 22, governments learned that in 2016 over 30 projects for cutting emissions with technology transfer objectives were approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), with $188.7 million in GEF funding and $5.9 billion in co-financing.

Global Climate Action

Further impressive announcements were made by cities and sub-national governments to investors and business as part of the Global Climate Action (GCA). The Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action provides a strong roadmap for how the UNFCCC process will catalyse and support climate action by Parties and non-Party stakeholders in the period 2017 to 2020.

Corporate Climate Action

• The number of companies making climate commitments through the We Mean Business coalition has more than doubled since COP 21.

Energy

• At COP 22, the Indian company Dalmia Cement and Helvetia insurance group committed to use 100% renewable power across their operations and join RE100; the global, collaborative initiative with more than 80 of the world’s most influential companies.

Cities

• Cities, towns and regions are making big impacts in implementing their climate commitments by acting locally and partnering globally.

• A new assessment tool presented during the Resilience Showcase will allow standardized qualitative reporting of adaptation commitments to the Global Covenant of Mayors.

• The Energy Efficiency in Buildings Programme was launched, designed to unlock funds for the improvement of energy efficiency through better coordination, offering technical assistance and financing transformational projects.

Forests

• The Government of Indonesia announced it is implementing a moratorium on clearing super high-carbon, intact peatland. The action builds on Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s announcement at last year’s Forest Action Day in Paris, to end new and review existing peat concessions.

• Colombia has announced plans to close the forest frontier as a key component of a post-conflict future. Efforts include focusing development on non-forest lands, implementing strong tenure reform, and placing very large areas of forest under indigenous peoples’ control.

Water

• The Water for Africa initiative, established by the Kingdom of Morocco and supported by the African Development Bank was launched at COP 22, aiming to render justice to Africa through the adoption of a specific action plan that will mobilize different international political, financial and institutional partners.

Transport

• The Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI) is supporting an additional 40 countries to realize the financial benefits and CO2 benefits of improved vehicle fuel economy.

Oceans

• COP 22 Ocean Action partners released the Strategic Action Roadmap on Oceans and Climate: 2016 to 2021, which provides a vision for action on oceans and climate in the next five years, addressing six oceans.

Agriculture

• Launch of the Global Framework on Water Scarcity supports countries to integrate climate change and sustainable water use into agricultural sectors policies and cross-sectoral dialogue.

• 130 mayors from cities across the world signed the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP), which calls for sustainable food systems that foster the accessibility of healthy food for urban citizens, biodiversity protection and food waste reduction. ​

 

The new era of implementation and action for climate and for sustainable development was captured in the Marrakech Action Proclamation, issues at the end of COP 22. The next conference, COP 23, will be held in Bonn, Germany, in November 2017.

This post relates to Chapter 13 of the book and the content has been derived from www.unfccc.int.

Conflicts over River Waters

(This post is partially based on the article ‘India fights over water, but not for its rivers’, by Himanshu Thakkar in the November 2016 issue of the Civil Society magazine.)

Inter-state conflicts over the sharing of river waters are on the rise in India. When the monsoon is normal or in excess, the downstream states do not complain. Conflicts break out whenever the rainfall is deficient in a year. That was the case this year when both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had deficient monsoons and have been fighting over the Cauvery waters.

The year has also seen other water conflicts:

1.   Mahanadi Dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh: Odisha is accusing upstream state Chhattisgarh of building barrages and dams to store and divert too much water.  

2.   Mahadayi Dispute among Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka: Goa opposes the building of upstream dams by the other two states.

3.   Krishna and Godavari water-sharing disputes between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, which will also spill over to Maharashtra and Karnataka, among other basin states.

4.   Dispute between Punjab and Haryana over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal: Punjab has been objecting to the diversion of Sutlej waters to Haryana through SYL. There have been court battles on the issue and in November 2016 the Supreme Court gave its verdict in favour of Haryana. The Centre will now have to complete the Canal in the face of Punjab’s opposition. Punjab, in fact, has returned to the previous owners all the land acquired for the Canal.

(There is also the possibility of India reneging on the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan.)

In all these cases, no state is worried about the condition of the river it is fighting over. The real solution will not come through courts, tribunals, violent protests, bandhs, or closure of borders as it happened this year over Cauvery. What we need to do is the following:

• Ensure the river’s catchment areas are maintained intact without deforestation.
• Build small checkdams (such as the ones built by Rajendra Singh’s Tarun Bharat Sangh in Rajasthan) instead of planning more big dams.
• Use the water wisely.

The Modi government changed the name of the Water Resources Ministry to the Ministry of Ganga Rejuvenation, River Development and Water Resources. Uma Bharti, known for her commitment and zeal for the Ganga, was put in charge of this ministry.

According to Himanshu Thakkar, the Coordinator, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, ‘There is nothing in the policies, plans or projects of the current Union government that would rejuvenate the Ganga. The government is pushing for more funds, more infrastructure, more technology, the same path that has been followed for the past three decades and which failed to achieve any improvement in the condition of the Ganga. Even now there is no attention to democratic, transparent, participatory and accountable governance, without which there seems no hope for the river.’

That is true of most of our rivers.