Seychelles addresses high-level forum on climate change |27 December 2014
As part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference convened from December 1-14, 2014 in Lima, Peru, Wills Agricole, the principal secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Energy, was invited by the Chinese government as a leading speaker on a Ministerial Dialogue and high-level panel discussions at the South-South Cooperation on Climate Change Forum, which took place on December 8, 2014 in Lima.
The forum brought together more than 200 delegates including ministers from China, Egypt, Gabon, Mongolia, Nepal, and principals of UN and other international organisations (UNEP, UNDP, UNFCCC, IPCC, UNCCD, GEF, SDC), and South Centre, senior governmental representatives, business leaders, scientists and university graduates, civil society representatives and media.
Together, they discussed the importance of south-south cooperation as a key element of the global response to climate change, identified its enablers and constraints, and outlined options and mechanisms for its promotion.
The forum contributed to integrating south-south cooperation into considerations of a post-2015 climate change agreement.
The forum began with opening remarks by representatives from China. Minister Xie of China National Development and Reform Commission highlighted the need to strengthen south-south cooperation on climate change and promote a green low carbon development. To this end, China is willing to work with other developing countries in the framework of south-south cooperation to enhance their resilience to climate change.
Minister Xie recalled China’s climate change agreement with the U.S. to peak the greenhouse gas emissions around 2030. This has not only paved the way to a post 2015 global climate deal in Paris next year, but also charted a new green path toward sustainable development goals.
China also announced the establishment of a south-south cooperation fund. In conclusion, he envisaged that the forum would build an interactive platform for south-south cooperation in addressing climate change, promote mutual benefit and common development for the benefit of future generations.
Mr Agricole welcomed the initiatives made by the government of China as they clearly honour the expertise that has already been accrued over time in leading countries of the global South in dealing with climate change, and they are a reminder of the fact that we can only solve climate change by cooperating with each other.
He stressed on the need to bring developing countries together to exchange expertise, knowledge and technology as emphasised by China.
He noted that the south was actually taking the lead in defining and implementing low-carbon, climate resilient development pathways. In addition, he underscored that south-south cooperation was not a substitute for north-south cooperation, and enforced the need to raise the level of ambition with regards to the provision of technology and finance from the north.
He further emphasised the need to scale-up existing mechanisms as well as establish new ones for south-south cooperation. These mechanisms could address, inter alia, aspects such as joint research, capacity-building and training, the documentation and sharing of experiences and lessons and the creation of communities of practice.
Finally, Mr Agricole commended China for its bold announcement made during the UN Climate Summit in September 2014 -- the establishment of south-south cooperation fund on climate change and the agreement between China and the U.S on greenhouse gas emission.
It was announced during that forum that the Republic of China would double the amount of funds provided to the UNFCCC Financial Mechanism under south-south cooperation climate change programme.
Following the example of China, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of UNFCCC announced the creation of UNFCCC’s dedicated window for south-south cooperation under the UNFCCC Trust Fund that focuses on adaptation knowledge sharing and technology needs assessment.
The Seychelles delegation in Lima, Peru was led by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Jean-Paul Adam.
