The negotiations in the UNFCCC are organized such that the Conference of the Parties (CoP) is the highest decision making body of the Convention. There are two important Subsidiary Bodies of the Convention in which the negotiations take place. These are the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI). There are also Ad-hoc Working Groups (AWGs) which also facilitate the negotiations.
The Convention has so far adopted one Protocol, namely the Kyoto Protocol whose objective is to strengthen the commitments of the Convention and its implementation. The Kyoto Protocol defined "flexible mechanisms" such as Emission Trading (ET) the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) to allow annex I economies to meet their GHG emission limitations by purchasing GHG emission reductions credits from elsewhere, through financial exchanges, projects that reduce emissions in non-annex I economies, from other annex I countries, or from annex I countries with excess allowances. Under article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is a mechanism for assisting developed countries meet their emission reduction obligations by implementing projects in developing countries which in turn help the latter in achieving sustainable development. African continent has not benefited much compared to Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Africa has the least number of CDM projects. Of 1,796 CDM projects across the world in August 2009, Africa has only about 33 projects which is about 2% share of all CDM projects. Of these, more than 16 projects are in South Africa.
The “Nairobi Framework” was launched in November 2006. The “Nairobi Framework”, was a plan by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Bank Group, African Development Bank, and the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the specific target of helping developing countries, especially those in sub-Sahara Africa, to improve their level of participation in the CDM so that Africa get a bigger slice of investment in clean energy technologies like wind and hydro power was unveiled.
In the on-going negotiations leading to Copenhagen, Africa shares the demands of other developing countries. These demands are based on the principles of the Conventions, especially the:
• Common but differentiated responsibilities
• Specific needs and special circumstances of developing countries
• Right to development
The developing countries demand from developed nations, support to developing countries in the form of financial, technological and capacity building for the latter to be able to take mitigation actions as well as adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change.
African countries’ position about the existing financial mechanism is that the existing financial mechanisms are inadequate, complex and fragmented and have constrained African countries from gaining access to these resources and they demand from the Annex 1 countries a climate change adaptation fund worth $67 billion per year by 2020. They also demand that developed countries should commit to a target of 0.5% of GDP for climate action in developing countries and commit to new and innovative sources of public and private sector finance, with the major source of funding coming from the public sector. The flows of the funds are supposed to be additional to the ODA, predictable and sustainable.
In the negotiation process in Bali, Africa identified itself with the demands of other developing countries which wanted developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 80% to 95% below 1990 levels by 2050.
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