Australia's Ambassador for Climate Change, Louise Hand, has made a formal statement in the plenary session negotiating long-term action on climate change under the UNFCCC. The statement takes a stocktake of progress during the first week and calls for Ministerial-level attention to issues where it is proving more difficult to reach agreement, including mitigation, legal architecture and financing.
COP Plenary: Stocktake
12 December 2009
Australia
Madam President
In considering the Chair’s text and progress this week, we are encouraged by areas of convergence:
There has been promising movement on REDD.
There has been coalescing of views around how we can better adapt to the impacts of climate change – in particular the development of an Adaptation Framework. We support G77 views that adaptation should be more prominent in the Chair’s text.
We are starting to see the shape of a technology package. We have no chance of meeting the climate challenge without a dramatic step change in technology.
- We are pleased to see movement on finance including working through institutional ideas and seeing traction for an injection of early finance for a fast start. But there are still some bridges to build
- Each of these issues is responding to consideration in working groups and we encourage continuation into next week.
Madam President
- Australia is seriously concerned by existing gulfs on those issues essential for a deal. We are currently not on a path to deliver the environmental outcome we need.
- Mitigation is the stand out. We need to see credible efforts from all countries. These efforts – all efforts - need to be quantified, clear and solidified in binding treaty.
Issues of legal architecture remain vexed. These are the very foundation of our efforts. Australia is committed to translating our agreement in Copenhagen into a legally binding outcome in a fixed and short timeframe.
We have barely scraped the surface on establishing a transparency system that can keep track of progress by individual countries and collectively.
Of course, the issue of longer term finance will be crucial to a deal and need further development.
Madam President
This first set of issues is working well in current working groups. The second set of issues need a different sort of consideration. They would benefit from a combination of plenary discussions – such as the one we are having now – and detailed Ministerial attention, beginning this weekend.
Madam President
We look forward to working with both you and the Chair of the AWG LCA to take these issues forward.
Intervention by Louise Hand, Australian Ambassador for Climate Change.
