The Climate Vulnerable Forum Calls on Major Polluting Nations to “Course-Correct”
High-Level Meeting of the Climate Vulnerable Forum in New York City delivers Communiqué outlining unified priorities and expectations for the global COP 28 climate talks
NEW YORK CITY, 24 July 2023: The 58 countries that make up the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) issued an urgent demand today for major polluting nations to “course-correct” in order to safeguard the 1.5°C “survival limit”. Countries must use the outputs of the Global Stocktake to strengthen the implementation and scale up the ambition of their climate commitments and take immediate action, in accordance with their historical responsibility and capability.
In a Communiqué agreed by the membership in New York City, ahead of the upcoming 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 28) in Dubai, the CVF called on major emitters to enhance their ambition in 2023 and make their utmost fair-share effort to reduce emissions during this critical decade by reviewing and strengthening their targets for 2030 under their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in order to safeguard the 1.5°C limit.
Upon the adoption of the Communiqué, the CVF Ghana Presidency, represented by H.E. Mr. Harold Adlai Agyeman, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ghana to the United Nations in New York City, said: “Earlier this month, we witnessed the highest temperature ever recorded worldwide. Last week, Asia saw record monsoon rainfall. These records will be broken again and again. What does this mean for the 1.5 billion people worldwide from 58 nations across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Pacific? As the climate crisis worsens, it is clear that climate disasters will become more frequent and severe, and those of us without the means will continue to pay the price”.
“Given the high level of vulnerability that we can see, our countries are calling for urgent and ambitious action in line with mitigation, adaptation, implementation measures, science, and loss and damage, to ensure the long-term implementation of the Paris Agreement and to limit the rise of temperature to 1.5°C. We appeal for ambition as we look to COP 28” stated H.E. Ms. Leonor Zalabata Torres, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Colombia to the United Nations in New York City.
At last year’s climate talks in Sharm El-Sheikh, the international community took a critical step forward by agreeing to establish funding arrangements for loss and damage, including a dedicated fund. The CVF stressed the need to ensure that there is no “empty bank account” in the new UNFCCC Fund, which must be responsive, adequate, and at scale.
During the meeting of the Ambassadors to the United Nations in New York City, the CVF also asked for a credible plan for realising the doubling pledge on adaptation finance by 2025 by developed countries, and urged for the full operationalisation of the Global Goal on Adaptation ongoing Framework.
“We need to massively scale up finance for adaptation and resilience-building. The reality is that adaptation remains the neglected half of the global climate equation. We know that only 20-25% of climate finance flows to adaptation and resilience-building activities. In Glasgow, developed countries committed to double adaptation finance to about USD 40 billion a year by 2025. We have been calling for them to present a credible roadmap to show how they will move from USD 20 to 40 billion a year over the course of the next few years and I am happy that this is reflected in your communiqué” said the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Climate Action and Just Transition, Mr. Selwin Charles Hart.
The CVF went on to press for a strengthening of the COP 27 call for international financial institutions and multilateral development banks to prioritise climate action in financing. It also urged that access to climate finance be streamlined and facilitated, particularly for vulnerable developing countries.
The CVF members speaking at the High-Level Meeting in New York City, moreover, highlighted a range of different measures to strengthen the implementation of the Paris Agreement. One proposal was a call on COP 28 to adopt a global renewable energy target for 2030, together with financial and technology support for developing countries to achieve this target.
In its Communiqué, the CVF recalled the recent findings of its “Traffic Light Assessment” (TLA) report, which indicates that the targets set out in most nations’ NDCs, particularly major emitting countries, are not sufficient to safeguard the 1.5°C goal, when taking into account fairness considerations, including equity. As a result, the TLA report shows that not only is the atmospheric space being monopolised by the richer countries, but the Forum members are also not receiving sufficient funding, at a time when they are suffering from accelerated climate impacts from those who have long since exceeded their fair-share of the global carbon budget.
ENDS
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Download PDF: Press Release – CVF High-Level Meeting (24 July 2023)