Warsaw — The 19th session of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP19) ends in Warsaw Poland this Friday evening after eleven days during which negotiators made some progress on at least two issues dear to Africa - adaptation and Loss and Damage.
A decision was taken on the next phase of the Nairobi Work Programme and negotiations have evolved significantly on the issue of the development of National Adaptation Plans processes through technical and financial assistance, according to some negotiators, who point to the fact that some commitments to provide the Adaptation Fund with more resources had also been taken in Warsaw, after all.
On the issue of loss and damage, negotiators worked hard on achieving an international mechanism, although the text establishing the mechanism was still expected to be validated in the early hours of Saturday.
Nevertheless, there was confidence among African negotiators that the international mechanism would be established in Warsaw, even if its procedural texts might not come before 2014 and implementation not before 2015.
As far as financial issues are concerned, COP19 was not a meeting of big decisions, contends Mr. Antoine Faye, a negotiator from Senegal, who explained that this was, in any case, predictable.
All eyes are now turned on Lima, Peru 2014; and especially on Paris 2015, which according to Faye, will mark a decisive point in the negotiation on a post-2020 international agreement.
This would also be an opportunity to adopt the broad outlines agreed upon in Durban, which aim to bring all countries under a universally binding climate agreement.
Experts believe that this agreement will also mark the beginning of a paradigm shift in climate negotiations - one which considers climate change talks, not necessarily as a "burden-sharing" process, but as an opportunity for job creation and wealth; and one for the invention of new modes of production and consumption.
The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) supports African countries in research, negotiation, communications and policy formulation on climate change through its African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), which is part of a joint programme by ECA, the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank - the ClimDev-Africa Programme.
