The Ministers and Heads of Delegation of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) group met on the 15th and 16th of October at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the group’s priorities for the preparation of the negotiations at the annual climate conference, COP24 (Conference of Parties) to be held in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary of State for the Environment of Timor-Leste, Demétrio de Amaral de Carvalho, during the first day of the event.
The meeting also served for representatives of the LDC group to support a common climate negotiations policy on the critical elements of least developed countries to be integrated into the guidelines, procedures and modalities for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Delegation heads and technical negotiators jointly analyzed the results of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP23) in Talanoa, Fiji.
As a result of this high-level ministerial meeting in Addis Ababa, all ministers and technical negotiators agreed on a political declaration for global action to mitigate greenhouse gases so as to achieve the global maximum warming target of 1.5ºC, according to the recommendations of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released last week. Key points on the Clean Technology Fund and capacity building in least developed countries for reducing greenhouse gases and adapting to the impacts of climate change were also jointly studied.
In addition, Timor-Leste set out its position on the need to revise the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol and also on the need for more developed nations to meet their commitments and mobilize annually a budget of one billion dollars from 2020, including the allocated budget for the Green Climate Fund.
The Timorese Secretary of State for the Environment stated that “the guidelines, procedures and modalities for the implementation of the Paris agreement that will be approved at COP24 should cover all elements of the Paris agreement, including the Green Climate Fund, technology, training, transparency, adaptation, losses and damages, global evaluation, among others”.
Demétrio de Amaral de Carvalho added that the outcome of the Talanowa dialogue needs a political declaration and a COP24 decision, which should be carried out through the negotiating rules. Currently, Timor-Leste is already in the process of ratifying the Doha changes to the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol.
With regard to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce emissions of gases that cause climate change, it is necessary to consider that, according to Article 4.4 of the Paris Agreement, more developed countries need to drastically reduce the emission of gases while less developed countries, under Article 4.6, need only to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and report their action plans and programs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
At the high-level meeting of Addis Ababa, among the 147 responsible for the Environment, Timor-Leste were also represented other nations of the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries) such as Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau.