Support grows for RI to take lead in Bali

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Developing and least-developed countries are expecting more money to be raised for climate adaptation programs and that contributions be made mandatory for developed countries during the UN climate conference in Bali in December.

With the negative impacts of climate change being felt most directly by poorer countries, adaptation, which refers to policies and activities to cope with the changing environment, becomes critical for the survival of developing countries, participants of a workshop on adaptation strategies for Asia and Africa agreed here Wednesday.

"Predominantly, the poor of the world depend directly on natural resources through cultivation, herding, collecting or hunting for their livelihoods. Thus, climate change impacts on the natural resource base will have a direct affect on the livelihoods of the poor," Kai Kim Chiang of the Stockholm Environment Institute told participants.

Ainun Nishat, Bangladesh country representative for the World Conservation Union, said the Kyoto Protocol recognized that developed countries had the obligation to support developing countries under the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

"One of the key issues to be debated in Bali is how can we have more funding for adaptation, and whether we should have separate conventions like the Kyoto Protocol for adaptation. In Bali, we probably can't develop the legal framework or draft it, but it can be the starting point where countries agree to push for it," he said.

Mozaharul Alam of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies said that under Kyoto, developed countries supported adaptation funds through a voluntary mechanism.

"Through that voluntary mechanism it is very difficult to predict the adaptation fund and its size. So, most developing nations, including Indonesia, are arguing for mandatory contributions for adaptation programs rather than a voluntary mechanism," he said.

Both hoped that Indonesia could take the lead for developing nations by forming a friends of chair group, including the prominent members of the G-77 and Asian and African countries, in focusing the agenda in Bali on getting adaptation funds agreed to by putting pressure on developed nations.

Indonesia and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) will hold a climate conference in Bali from Dec. 3 to 14.

One of the main tasks for the conference is to begin to formulate a new multilateral agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the current global agreement that formalizes efforts to curb pollution which expires in 2012.

Festus Luboyera of South Africa said many countries hoped the new adaptation mechanism could be included in the new protocol.

"Lack of funds continues to be a problem for the implementation of adaptation programs," Luboyera, who works for UNFCCC secretariat, said.

While other participants agreed there was a problem of funding for developing countries, they also pointed out several other problems such as low level of awareness both among the political elite and the grass roots, and difficulties in translating global data and information about climate change to people at the regional and village level.

Yolando Velasco of the UNFCCC secretariat and Annie Roncerel of the UN Institute for Training and Research agreed that climate change must be included in the development strategies of each developing country.

"If you don't include climate change risks into development calculations then development results will be at risk of being destroyed or ruined by negative climate change impacts, and it will cost a lot more than the initial calculation," Roncerel said.