Beyond Copenhagen Delegation met with Beata Jaczewska, Deputy Minister of Environment, Poland during the COP 19 at Warsaw on 15th November to discuss progress in the negotiations and expectations of the hosts. Earlier, the Minister had also addressed the PreCOP Consultation organised by Beyond Copenhagen, at Delhi on 5th November. The delegation also included representatives from MISEREOR and CIDSE.
The minister informed the delegation, that during the first week, the negotiations have progressed as expected except lack of progress on certain issues. She emphasised that since most of the decisions are political in nature, they can be resolved only at high level meetings in the second week. She also underlined that Poland and COP 19 President is putting all efforts possible to see a meaningful outcome from the COP. She informed, the participants on bilateral efforts made by the hosts, and COP President and Deputy Ministers including her having whirlwind tours around the world to discuss important issues. She highlighted that for the hosts, transparency, inclusiveness and fairness of the process are important and all efforts are being made to ensure these. She also underlined that hosts are collaborating with Peruvian and French Government in a Troika Spirit to ensure that a collective effort is made to have a new agreement before Paris.
Talking about the negotiations and nature of the agreement, she shared that the hosts know that Qatar outcome “Applicable to all” does not go well with all the countries and therefore, efforts are being made to replace it with “Applied by All,” which will ensure that principles of the Convention are respected, and countries declare their commitments in consonance with their national circumstances, and need for atmospheric space.
She added that capitalisation of the GCF and other decision on the finance including adaptation fund, and linkage between COP and GCF etc are high on the agenda, while capitalisation of the adaptation fund has recorded some success, high level talks will only decide the capitalisation of the GCF. Positive outcomes on the finance should resolve many issues in other streams and ensure developing and LDCs participation on many issues in the ADP, she added.
She added that a mechanism on Loss and damage was also one of the key expectations from the COP, which has seen some bottlenecks in the negotiations. She added that the COP President has been having discussions with negotiators from different countries to remove bottlenecks and has also appointed facilitators to resolve differences, and that they are still hopeful that mechanism will result from the discussions. On agriculture, she added, that in session workshops have been held with expected results, however, some countries are not in favour of having contact groups, and want to have more discussion in next meetings after considering the outcomes of the in session workshops. SBSTA will ensure that every one is included and all countries should have a chance to express their opinion on this critical matter.
She also added that civil society was important voice in the negotiations and it was being ensured that they get access to all important meetings and express themselves and provide inputs as prescribed in the convention.
After her presentation, she also answered a series of questions asked by the participants on many aspects of negotiations, Poland’s energy policies, Poland’s role and position in enhancing ambition in the EU etc. She also invited them for further discussions in the second week.
Justice Vinod Shankar Dave, Chairperson of CECOEDECON delivered the vote of thanks and also presented her the latest publication on COP 19.
The minister informed the delegation, that during the first week, the negotiations have progressed as expected except lack of progress on certain issues. She emphasised that since most of the decisions are political in nature, they can be resolved only at high level meetings in the second week. She also underlined that Poland and COP 19 President is putting all efforts possible to see a meaningful outcome from the COP. She informed, the participants on bilateral efforts made by the hosts, and COP President and Deputy Ministers including her having whirlwind tours around the world to discuss important issues. She highlighted that for the hosts, transparency, inclusiveness and fairness of the process are important and all efforts are being made to ensure these. She also underlined that hosts are collaborating with Peruvian and French Government in a Troika Spirit to ensure that a collective effort is made to have a new agreement before Paris.
Talking about the negotiations and nature of the agreement, she shared that the hosts know that Qatar outcome “Applicable to all” does not go well with all the countries and therefore, efforts are being made to replace it with “Applied by All,” which will ensure that principles of the Convention are respected, and countries declare their commitments in consonance with their national circumstances, and need for atmospheric space.
She added that capitalisation of the GCF and other decision on the finance including adaptation fund, and linkage between COP and GCF etc are high on the agenda, while capitalisation of the adaptation fund has recorded some success, high level talks will only decide the capitalisation of the GCF. Positive outcomes on the finance should resolve many issues in other streams and ensure developing and LDCs participation on many issues in the ADP, she added.
She added that a mechanism on Loss and damage was also one of the key expectations from the COP, which has seen some bottlenecks in the negotiations. She added that the COP President has been having discussions with negotiators from different countries to remove bottlenecks and has also appointed facilitators to resolve differences, and that they are still hopeful that mechanism will result from the discussions. On agriculture, she added, that in session workshops have been held with expected results, however, some countries are not in favour of having contact groups, and want to have more discussion in next meetings after considering the outcomes of the in session workshops. SBSTA will ensure that every one is included and all countries should have a chance to express their opinion on this critical matter.
She also added that civil society was important voice in the negotiations and it was being ensured that they get access to all important meetings and express themselves and provide inputs as prescribed in the convention.
After her presentation, she also answered a series of questions asked by the participants on many aspects of negotiations, Poland’s energy policies, Poland’s role and position in enhancing ambition in the EU etc. She also invited them for further discussions in the second week.
Justice Vinod Shankar Dave, Chairperson of CECOEDECON delivered the vote of thanks and also presented her the latest publication on COP 19.
