Greater global commitment to mitigate Climate Change urged

The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) has called for greater global commitment to mitigate climate change that puts vulnerable countries at risk.

Climate Change Commission Acting Deputy Executive Director Joyceline Goco said that during its recent Sherpa Senior Officials Meeting at the Diamond Hotel, the CVF, currently chaired by the Philippines, issued the Manila Communiqué.

She said the communiqué emphasizes the “importance of national action while calling for greater global commitments to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable countries".

"We remain committed to trigger actions that will accelerate progress towards the goal of staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius," Assistant Secretary Goco said.

Goco said the most critical issues discussed during the meeting were lowering carbon development, acknowledging the effects of climate crisis around the world, and recognizing the need to put in place actionable means of implementation by all responsible parties.

"We recognize the urgency for an ambitious, universal, legally binding, dynamic and durable agreement; that our highest motivation is to limit warming below 1.5°C in order to secure our survival, but beyond this, sustainable development in which prosperity is inclusive of all," she said.

"We acknowledge that the climate crisis affects us all – developed, developing and least developed countries. But though our contributions to this crisis are remarkably dissimilar, the impact especially upon us -- countries more exposed and vulnerable to increasing frequency, intensity, and severity of climate-related disasters -- is enormously acute than we have been responsible for and can currently cope with. And this is despite the initiatives climate vulnerable countries have been undertaking to ensure that we are progressing to strengthen our national and local capacities to adapt and mitigate against increasing climate disturbances," she added.

"Definitely not the least is recognizing the urgency to put in place actionable means of implementation by all responsible parties. We underscore the ascendancy of fully operationalizing climate finance mechanisms to enable vulnerable countries to secure our prosperous and climate-resilient future," Goco further said.

She said the CVF will present the following "collectively agreed actions" during the Climate Summit in Paris this December:

"First, we will strengthen our leadership in taking national climate actions to ensure progress towards the goal of staying below 1.5°Celsius, upscaling our own mitigation actions and accelerating our capacity development for adaptation.

"Second, we will work in solidarity with developed countries to put in place actions on loss and damage consistent with the Warsaw International Mechanism to ensure developing countries are enabled to manage climate risks.

"Third, we will call for the global community to hasten means by which vulnerable countries are able access predictable, scaled-up climate finance, while directing our own resources and capacities towards climate actions.

"And finally, climate vulnerable countries will continue to articulate the centrality of tackling climate change within a regime of human rights protection," Goco said.

Aside from the Philippines, the other members of the CVF Vulnerable 20 (V20), consisting of the top 20 nations diversely affected by various climate change problems, are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Nepal, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

"Inspired by our collective progress as vulnerable countries, we will bring our bold ambition to the world leaders, not as end of a journey, but as a milestone towards a more prosperous and sustainable future," said Goco.

Goco said that beyond the Paris Conference, the CVF is determined to draw attention towards innovative mechanisms through the V20 Group of Finance Ministers which was launched in Lima, Peru last September; establish a South-South Centre of Excellence on Climate Information Services in the

Philippines that will serve as a platform for the exchange of knowledge, technology and best practices to intensify capacities to conduct science and evidence-based research to further the CVF advocacy; and works towards a new culture of international partnership by expanding collaboration with civil society, the academe, private sector and other stakeholders.

The CVF Manila conference is the culmination of a series of regional consultations conducted in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Middle East and the Pacific in 2014 and 2015.

The CVF, which was formed in Maldives in 2009, seeks to address the challenges posed by global warming. (PCOO News Release)