TWN Info Service on Climate Change (Apr21/01)
9 April 2021
Third World Network

BASIC ministers outline expectations for COP 26

Delhi, 9 April (TWN) — Ministers from the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) at their 30th meeting held virtually, on 7-8 April, highlighted that the key outcomes of the UNFCCC’s 26th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) would be to conclude negotiations on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement (PA), launch the operationalization of the global goal on adaptation (GGA), and achieve progress on climate finance.

(Article 6 of the PA deals with ‘cooperative approaches’ that include market and non-market mechanisms and approaches).

In a statement made available to Third World Network following the meeting, the ministers, while expressing their deep concern on the “insufficiency and inadequacy of the support provided by developed countries to date”, emphasized the necessity for COP 26 “to deliver a breakthrough on financing for developing countries, noting that finance is the key enabler of enhanced ambition and climate action, particularly at a time when developing countries are facing multiple developmental challenges and the devastating impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“Developed countries shall provide new and additional, sustained, predictable, adequate and timely finance, technology development and transfer and capacity-building support to developing countries with a significant public funded component, with less conditionality and more reasonable co-financing requirements, open markets and carry out practical technological cooperation, which will serve as the basis for mutual trust and for the comprehensive and effective implementation of the PA. Such support must not exacerbate the existing debt crisis confronting many developing countries,” the statement read.

The meeting was chaired by Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India and attended by Ricardo Salles, Minister of the Environment of Brazil, Huang Runqiu, Minister, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of People’s Republic of China, XIE Zhenhua, China Special Envoy for Climate Change, and Barbara Creecy, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment of South Africa.

The ministers committed to working with all other Parties for the success of COP 26 in an “open, transparent, consensus-based and party-driven manner, and emphasized the importance of providing additional support to developing countries to participate in any virtual meetings, to overcome technical and other challenges experienced by developing country negotiators and Ministers to virtual participation and group co-ordination”.

On Article 6 of the PA, the ministers underscored the importance of concluding the discussions in accordance with the mandates and principles set out in the Agreement and decision 1/CP.21, including “ensuring environmental integrity and transparency, including in governance, and exploring accounting methods aiming at avoiding double counting. Accounting rules should encompass the full diversity of NDC types”. (NDCs refer to the nationally determined contributions of governments under the PA).

On the rules and governance structures for cooperative approaches under Article 6.2, the ministers said that these should be multilaterally agreed and applicable to all Parties and should ensure that all transactions are based on actual mitigation efforts, consistent with Article 2. “A robust accounting system should be put in place, which should have the flexibility to accommodate different types of NDCs and a central log to register all transactions. They emphasized that it is critical to dedicate a share of proceeds from Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMO) transactions under Article 6.2 at the same level as under Article 6.4 to fund adaptation in developing countries,” the statement read.

The ministers also stated that the design of the mechanism under Article 6.4 should be conducive to public and private sector involvement and avoid the creation of unnecessary obstacles to investment, provided that environmental integrity is ensured. “Accounting approaches, including, but not limited to, applying corresponding adjustments and other possible means should be explored to this end. A solid governance structure, based on the centralized nature of the roles to be performed by the Supervisory Body and on a common set of rules that ensures predictability and transparency is of the utmost importance to ensure environmental integrity and the avoidance of unilateral discriminatory practices. Under no circumstances is the nationally determined nature of commitments and the bottom-up hybrid character to be changed. They also stated that the ability of the climate change regime to ensure a smooth transition of the Clean Development Mechanism to the mechanism under Article 6.4 will be key to securing continued engagement of the public and private sectors in mitigation action. Ministers also considered the need for having enough time allotted to the items required under the CMP to enable early action and avoid unnecessary gaps,” the statement read.

On adaptation, the ministers called for the operationalization of the GGA and for greater balance between adaptation and mitigation. The ministers further called for the “launch of the negotiating track within the subsidiary bodies focusing on adaptation to provide guidance for the operationalization of the GGA”.

On finance, the ministers “urged developed countries to present at COP 26 a clear roadmap on their continued existing obligations to mobilize USD 100 billion per year from 2021 to 2025, and to urgently initiate the process within the UNFCCC on setting the new collective quantified goal on finance as soon as possible, including a detailed roadmap outlining milestones for setting a goal prior to 2025. The ministers also called for a positive moment on the issue of a “multilaterally agreed definition of climate finance and the related methodologies for accounting, an assessment by the UNFCCC of the commitment made by the developed countries to mobilize USD 100 billion per year by 2020 and continuation of the long-term finance under the aegis of UNFCCC”.

On transparency, the ministers highlighted that providing information on transparency of support, including its predictability, is a key component of the Enhanced Transparency Framework. In this regard, the ministers urged “developed countries to engage in discussion in a positive and constructive manner to formulate clear guidance (including for reporting tables) for the biennial communication referred to in Article 9.5, and the tables to report information on support provided”. They also looked forward “to finalizing, with all the agreed flexibilities, greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory tables, a structured summary that can accommodate diverse types of NDCs, report outlines and the relevant training programmes.”

They also emphasized that for developing countries to be able to implement the Enhanced Transparency Framework, the outcome at COP 26 must include “appropriate support for reporting and the necessary capacity-building support, including finalizing the terms of reference for the Consultative Group of Experts, and a roadmap for the provision of support to developing countries for reporting under the PA”. The ministers also acknowledged that “Rule 16 was applied during Subsidiary Body (SB) 51 for this agenda item, and that consequently no formal outcomes shall be produced before SB 52”.

(At COP 25, Rule 16 of the UNFCCC Rules of Procedure was applied to a number of issues, including transparency. See related TWN Update. According to Rule 16, the agenda item gets transmitted to the next session of the SBs with no conclusions reached at the current session.)

The ministers referred to the Structured Expert Dialogue (SED) as an “important tool for exchange of views between policy makers and experts on the full scope of climate change aspects, including mitigation, adaptation, and finance, technology transfer and capacity building support to developing countries, and can’t be mitigation centric”. They highlighted the importance of balanced approach on selection of experts from developed and developing countries, and also focused approach on selection of representatives of international organizations that work on mitigation, adaptation and climate support, while ensuring the outcome being prepared in a balanced and focused manner. They emphasized the necessity of understanding climate change in a comprehensive way including equity, historical responsibility, future pathways, progress of fulfilling pledges, support to be and been provided to developing countries.

(The scope of the second periodic review itself has been contentious, with developed countries wanting to restrict it to mitigation. The first meeting of the Structured Expert Dialogue for the second Periodic Review under the UNFCCC took place virtually in November 2020. See related TWN update).

The ministers also reminded all Parties that “loss and damage and response measures are to be addressed, as well as equity in a cross-cutting manner”. The ministers reiterated that Parties’ ambition is measured “also by the implementation of their prior commitments under the UNFCCC”. Commitments by developed countries in the pre-2020 period must be honoured and the “substantial gaps in mitigation, adaptation and support provided by developed countries to developing countries in the pre-2020 period must be counterbalanced by ambitious climate change action by developed countries in the post-2020 period”, the statement read.

The ministers also underscored that the “UNFCCC is the centre of the collective, multilateral response to the climate crisis” and called for the “faithful, balanced and comprehensive implementation of the Convention and its PA, in accordance with its goals and principles, in particular equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDRRC), in the light of different national circumstances, as well as the progressive and nationally determined nature of contributions to the PA” and added that “global climate action should promote climate justice”.

“Recognizing differing capacities and historical responsibilities between developed countries and developing countries, the Ministers underscored that BASIC and other developing countries require time and policy space to achieve a just transition of their economies,” the statement read.

The ministers also underlined that processes such as Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) should not be used to pre-emptively negotiate issues within the purview of the UNFCCC. They stressed that these are separate fora with different mandates and their integrity must be respected. The ministers also expressed grave concern regarding the “proposal for introducing trade barriers, such as unilateral carbon border adjustment, that are discriminatory and against the principles of equity and CBDR-RC”.

The ministers also emphasized that that “notwithstanding the devastating social and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and multiple development challenges that all BASIC countries face, the BASIC countries are implementing ambitious climate actions based on their national circumstances and have achieved great progress, contributing significantly to global efforts in combating climate change”.

The 31st BASIC ministerial meeting on Climate Change in 2022 will be hosted by South Africa.