A major win for Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

A major win for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) who doggedly pursued this at the Green Climate Fund (GCF) board for years. Now, countries and #communities big and small are, justifiably, lining up to use this funding for small projects. #smallislands #climateaction #SDGs
#GCFund B.19 Board approval for first Simplified Approval Process project SAP001 with EIF Namibia @Green_Viewpoint

Joint management of the Mascareignes Plateau between Mauritius and Seychelles

US $2m GEF funding to help achieve strategic aims

Seychelles and Mauritius have benefitted from a US $2 million from the GEF for the implementation of a project to achieve the main strategic objectives as laid out in the 2018-2020 Strategic Plan of the joint management of the Mascareignes Plateau between the two coastal states.
This is in view to consolidating the development and management of the joint management area (JMA) between the two countries.
The main components of the project will be focusing on building Technical and Management Capacity in support for Marine Spatial Information System and effective management of the JMA.
The project will support the Joint Commission (JC) to develop a training and capacity development programme as well as design and implement training courses and workshops.
It will also provide support to the technical cadre of both States by envisaging regional and global meetings related to the Joint Management process and for the implementation of Marine Spatial Planning.
The project will also work with existing industry partners to support mapping and monitoring programmes in the JMA.
It will further assist and support the JC in the development of contingency plans for the offshore extractive industry.
Another vital part of the project includes the development of a data and information system along with a programme of data capture and gap-filling as a foundation for an adaptive management strategy.
It shall cater for the finalisation of gaps analysis of missing data and of unsurveyed areas and also emphasise on the repatriation of data currently.
The project will also endeavour to undertake further baseline surveys of the Mascarene Plateau in order to fill in gaps while assisting in the development of a joint data and Information System to support the joint authority. This will help identify and facilitate access to appropriate technologies linked to capacity
building and training, select appropriate indicators for targeting in a long-term monitoring programme as well as develop a reliable mechanism to ensure that data analysis results and conclusions fed into management guidelines and policy advisories provide an adaptive management options for decision makers. Read More

Doha summit launches climate damage aid

THINGS took an interesting twist at the latest UN climate summit held in Doha, Qatar, over the past two weeks when nations began talks over paying for the damage caused by climate change.

Who Pays

Delegates were split over a deal under which rich nations would pay when poor ones suffered the consequences of global warming. Developing countries demanded future compensation and developed ones - particularly the US - were unsurprisingly reluctant to agree.

The talks ended with yet another agreement to agree, but many are calling this small victory a significant step forward. The deal offers a distant promise of climate aid. But first, science will have to catch up with politics.

All countries will suffer as a result of climate change, even if humanity slashes its emissions and stops temperatures rising more than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels - the stated goal of the UN negotiations. At current rates, a 3 or 4 °C rise is likely this century.

As a consequence, deserts will spread and lethal heatwaves will become more frequent. Changes in rainfall will bring droughts, floods and storms, andrising seas will swamp low-lying areas, obliterating valuable territory.

So far, climate negotiations have taken a two-pronged approach to the problem. On the one hand, they have sought to create incentives or imperatives to cut emissions. On the other, they have established funds to help poor nations pay for "adaptation" measures, such as sea walls and irrigation systems, to help fend off the unavoidable consequences.

That, according to some, leaves a third element missing. Some consequences cannot easily be kept at bay. Countries will suffer food shortages and more frequent and more severe storm surges. On 28 November, the charities ActionAid, CARE International and WWF released a report arguing that rich countries should compensate poor ones for such damages. Doing so is a moral obligation and must be part of any treaty on climate change, says Niklas Höhne of renewable energy consultancy Ecofys in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

In Doha, a coalition including China, the Alliance of Small Island States and the G77 group of developing countries proposed a scheme that would decide when countries had suffered climate damages, and compensate them for their loss. The idea gained momentum after typhoon Bopha struck the Philippines last week. That country's negotiator Naderev Saño broke down in tears during a speech. "As we sit here, every single hour, even as we vacillate and procrastinate here, we are suffering."

Developed nations balked at the prospect of being held accountable for the consequences of emissions. Early versions of the text included the word "compensation" but they objected that it implied blame. In the end, they agreed to create "arrangements [...] to address loss and damage associated with the impacts of climate change".

The deal poses a fundamental challenge to climate science, because it is difficult to work out whether trends and events are caused by greenhouse gases or would have happened anyway. "We can't say that an individual event was caused by climate change," says Nigel Arnell of the University of Reading, UK. "What we can do is say that the chance of it happening was greater."

Computer models can be made to replicate the decades preceding a natural disaster with and without humanity's impact. If the odds turn out to be different with and without greenhouse gas emissions, it suggests that emissions were at least partially to blame. In this way, studies led by Myles Allen at the University of Oxford have shown that the 2003 European heatwave and 2011 Texas drought were both made more likely by human emissions.

The costs of such extreme events is relatively straightforward to calculate. But "attribution" science is in its infancy. Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, speculates that superstorm Sandy would not have flooded the New York subways without climate change, but says it is not possible to prove that.

On the other hand, we can link slow processes like rising global temperatures or sea level rise to emissions. For this reason, many people think we should focus first on compensating people harmed by these processes - Pacific islands whose shorelines are gradually disappearing underwater for instance - and worry about extreme weather events once the science has caught up. The trouble is, unlike the damage caused by a hurricane, it is difficult to work out how much these slow processes cost. According to Arnell, the problem may prove unworkable. More

 

Apply for a 2013 Ashden Award

Apply for a 2013 Ashden Award

Are you breaking new ground in increasing access to sustainable energy, saving energy or generating renewable forms of energy supply? Are you encouraging low-carbon living or more sustainable travel? If so, we want to hear from you!

A significant prize - and much more

Next June, up to 13 winners will be presented with a cash prize of £5,000 to £40,000 at a prestigious ceremony in London. But winning an Ashden Award is about more than the prize money. If you are successful we’ll also support you to develop your work further, help you build your profile and gain access to new networks.

What are we looking for?

For our UK and International Awards we are looking for sustainable energy pioneers that are making progress in transforming people's lives through sustainable energy, saving energy, generating renewable energy or promoting behaviour change.

Applications for our School Awards must be able to demonstrate success in making their buildings and grounds more sustainable as well as integrating sustainability into their culture and curriculum.

For our Eurostar Ashden Awards for Sustainable Travel we are looking for schemes that are encouraging more sustainable forms of travel in Belgium, France or the UK.

Follow one of the links below to find out more about the eligibility criteria for each award and how to apply.

> UK Ashden Awards

> International Ashden Awards

> Eurostar Ashden Awards for Sustainable Travel

> Ashden School Awards

> Small Island Developing States Awards

 

New UN climate fund must work for the poor - NGOs

LONDON (AlertNet) – As the board of a new U.N. climate fund for developing countries meets for the first time, civil society groups are pushing for it to be managed in a way that is transparent and accountable to poor communities likely to be hit hardest by climate change.

Nouakchott, Mauritania

Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) urged the Green Climate Fund’s board to give citizens a much bigger voice at its meetings, as it begins to work out how to administer up to $100 billion a year to help developing nations adapt to a warmer world and curb their greenhouse gas emissions.

“We need a balance between the urgency to achieve results and the due diligence required to protect climate money and ensure its effectiveness,” said Lisa Ann Elges, head of TI’s climate governance integrity programme.

The proposed arrangements allow just two civil society observers to participate actively in board meetings, one each from the developed and developing worlds - the same level of representation allotted for the private sector. Guidelines say an active observer may speak but not vote.

Researchers and climate activists are concerned that the private sector may be given too large a role in running projects financed by the fund, and it will be difficult to track what businesses are doing.

But access to the fund's resources for companies and private financial institutions is regarded by some debt-laden wealthy governments as a carrot to raise additional money from private sources - without which they are reluctant to loosen their own purse strings.

"There is an understanding that the more the Green Climate Fund is private investor-friendly, the more likely it is that developed countries will put money in," said Janet Redman of the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies.

RIGHT TO OBJECT

She and other experts want rules to ensure that private-sector activities financed by the fund will not undermine the development of poorer nations and vulnerable people who rarely get a say in such decisions.

"The private sector has its motives, but these have to line up with the interests and priorities of developing-country governments and what the people who are going to be most impacted by climate change want and need," Redman told AlertNet. More

 

UNEP TNA Releases Guidebook on International Funding for Climate Change Mitigation

August 2012: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) Project has released a guidebook, titled “Accessing International Financing for Climate Change Mitigation.” The guidebook aims to assist developing countries in speeding up the transfer, deployment and diffusion of mitigation technologies, thereby enabling countries to contribute to climate change mitigation and reduce climate change impacts while pursuing national development goals.

The 142-page guidebook analyzes over 100 public and private funding sources, and presents their main features, application requirements and procedures. The guidebook also includes a general guidance section on the preparation of high quality project and programme proposals.

The TNA Project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by UNEP’s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) and the UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development. The TNA aims to assist countries in determining their technology priorities regarding mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adaptation to climate change. [Publication: Accessing International Financing for Climate Change Mitigation]

 

OECS Investigates Funding for Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Energy

 

16 February 2012: An Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) workshop examined climate financing opportunities for Caribbean small island developing States (SIDS) to enable them to respond to the challenges of climate change and variability. The workshop was organized in collaboration with, and with the financial support of, the World Bank Institute (WBI).

The workshop, which took place from 15-16 February 2012, in Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia, explored the range of climate finance instruments available for adaptation and sustainable energy, including case studies on their use, and sought to identify knowledge gaps and areas in which further capacity building efforts in OECS countries will be required. Participants discussed how to integrate carbon revenues in project financing, and strategies for mobilizing financial and investment flows to address climate change.

Workshop participants also discussed the current state of the global climate negotiations and the SIDS position therein, as well as adaptation challenges of particular concern to OECS countries, namely watershed management and sustainable land management. Member States of OECS include Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. [IISD RS Sources] More