Delegates to the 19th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP19) have finally agreed to establish a mechanism whose role will be to address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts, conference sources said on the last day of the Warsaw session of the global parley.
An African negotiator close to the talks said that a draft of the text that will establish the new mechanism had been cleaned up at committee level and was most likely to be adopted before the conference wraps up late Friday.
He said that the mechanism would become one of the central tools for addressing loss and damage associated with climate change impacts, including extreme events and slow onset events in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
The proposed text also creates an executive committee of what is now being called the "Warsaw mechanism" to guide its implementation and functioning.
The so-called Warsaw mechanism will play the role of the Convention in the context of promoting the implementation of approaches to address loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change. If the mechanism is finally established, it would be a small breakthrough for developing countries.
When the conference opened two weeks ago, there were reports that delegates from some developed countries tried hard to push an agenda that would minimize the role of "loss and damage" in the UNFCCC framework.
According to the same reports representatives from developed countries would have preferred the conference to focus on private finance in the Green Climate Fund, and to delay the deadline for post-2020 emission reduction commitments. It is true that nobody expected a major breakthrough on any of the agenda items of COP19, as attention is now focused on COP21 when a new agreement is expected to go into force.
Nevertheless, Warsaw aimed to mark a turning point in climate negotiations by restoring a measure of confidence and trust between the 200 countries and international organizations, including the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) that work towards implementing the Convention. ECA supports African countries in research, negotiation, communication and policy formulation through its African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC).
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