Africa: Finance Key in COP18 Talks

Doha — International political heads engaged in negotiations at the 18th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP18) in Doha are faced with the urgency of climate change action.

Many countries are already experiencing extreme weather conditions, the recent being Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines, which has already killed over 270 people.

Although talks ahead of the high-level segment of the Conference of the Parties to the international treaty — the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — proceeded successfully last week, they reached deadlock on some key issues – more importantly finance.

“We’ve got ministers on board now and they will help with resolving the finance impasse in particular. As negotiators, we have done our best and ministers must now help us move forward,” said one of South Africa’s key negotiators, Xolisa Ngwadla.

History has seen the UNFCCC climate change talks reach a near deadlock, but because all countries involved in the talks want a solution to climate change, parties find a way of moving forward towards an international agreement.

In the remaining time of this conference, international political heads must find favourable and fair agreements that are legally binding on all parties.

The key principal issues on the agenda of the negotiations include issues around ambition, legal form, assistance to developing countries, and rules and institutions.

Ngwadla said that the key issues that were now outstanding ahead of the close of the conference on Friday were different in nature.

“There are issues that have political resolution that we’re still working on. For example, with the Kyoto Protocol, we already had a political agreement but we were dealing with operational issues. Unresolved political issues must not fall off the table and COP must find a way of addressing those issues.”

The climate change talks in Durban last year agreed to create a legally binding agreement by 2015 to limit the global average temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The Doha talks are about implementing decisions that were reached in Durban. South Africa is of the view that a multilateral, rules based international climate change regime is the only hope for maintaining temperature increases below 2 degree Celsius.