Seychelles attends Bonn climate change negotiations ahead of Lima |23 October 2014

Seychelles is being represented at a preparatory conference ahead of the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) scheduled to take place in Lima, Peru, in December 2014.

The sixth part of the second session of the ad hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP 2-6) under the UNFCCC opened on Monday this week in Bonn, Germany, and will conclude on Saturday.

Under workstream 1, which focuses on the 2015 climate change agreement to be adopted in Paris, countries will continue elaborating the elements for a draft negotiating text, which will serve as the foundation for the final construction of the 2015 outcome. The ADP will also work on a draft decision that captures the type of information countries will provide when they communicate their intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) and how these contributions will be considered. This draft decision will be submitted for consideration in Lima.

Under workstream 2 which focuses on the pre-2020 mitigation ambition, technical expert meetings (TEMs) will focus on opportunities for action on non-carbon dioxide (non-CO2) greenhouse gases (GHGs) and carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS). Countries will prepare a draft decision on pre-2020 mitigation ambition for consideration in Lima.

Seychelles is being represented at this preparatory meeting by Ronald Jumeau, ambassador for Climate Change and small island states (Sids) issues, and Wills Agricole, principal secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Energy.

It should be noted that the UN Climate Summit was held on September 23, 2014 at the UN headquarters in New York hosted by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

The summit, the aim of which was to mobilise the political will necessary to reach a global agreement on climate change in 2015, brought together over 100 heads of state, together with government ministers and leaders from international organisations, business, finance, civil society and local communities.

During the summit, government representatives committed themselves to a series of national actions on climate change and pledged a total of US $2.3 billion to the Green Climate Fund. Seychelles was represented by President James Michel.