Closing Plenary of the Nineteenth Session of the Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 19)

Statement by Nepal on behalf of the Least Developed Countries Group

Warsaw, Poland

Mr. President,

Nepal has the honour to speak on behalf of the Least Developed Countries, a group of 49 states that are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

We associate ourselves with the statements made by Fiji on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, by Nauru on behalf of the Alliance of Small Islands States, and the statement to be made by Swaziland on behalf of the African Group.

Mr. President, once again, let me thank you for your leadership and congratulate you on a job well done. We also thank the UNFCCC Secretariat and all the facilitators for their hard work. We also thank you for maintaining transparency as we requested at the beginning of this COP. We thank all the Parties who worked hard in the spirit of compromise and flexibility during the past two weeks.

Mr. President, at the opening of this COP, the LDC Group stated that we saw COP 19 as a stepping-stone to urgently needed mitigation action, for finance, for loss and damage as well as paving the way to Paris where the world expects to agree on a new agreement.

With regard to finance, we thank the recent pledges to the LDCF by the UK and all the other countries who have contributed to the fund earlier this year. We urge for further funds to the LDCF to expedite our NAPA implementation and formulation of our NAPs. We also thank those who enabled the Adaptation Fund to reach its target of 100 million USD. We further urge developed country Parties to take all necessary steps for initial capitalization of the Green Climate Fund as soon as possible.

However, Mr. President, we are disappointed with the outcomes related to long-term finance. Also, without a mid-term target and a clear pathway, we are unable to understand how we are going to reach the target of 100 billion USD annually by 2020.

On ADP, we found ourselves again in a situation where we were forced to accept decisions that are not in favour of our countries. However, we accepted the decisions in the spirit of compromise. The Group believes that it is now urgent to accelerate the process of negotiations for the new agreement, starting from March 2014. The urgency of the issue and inadequacy of the current regime to address the climate change problem must guide all negotiations and we need to ensure that we build on the progress achieved so far.

Mr. President, the year 2014 will be crucial for ADP negotiations. We were disappointed and frustrated about the lack of convergence on important Lima deliverables at this session. In the context of adopted decisions this afternoon, in 2014 we need to see progress on the process regarding how to agree on commitments for the new Agreement. We urge Parties to put forward their commitments well before the 20th session of the COP: not only those Parties who are ready to do so, but those Parties who are in a position to do so.

Mr. President, establishing an international mechanism on Loss and Damage was crucial for the LDCs and we have got that. We would like to show deep appreciation to all Parties for their hard work and flexibility. We hope that this international mechanism will have adequate support and will soon be able to start working to address loss and damage associated with the impacts of climate change in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
Mr. President,

We appreciate the efforts made so far to make the Technology Mechanism operational. We, however, wish to express our disappointment and dissatisfaction at the way the issues linked with WIPO and WTO that affect access to appropriate and environmentally sound technology.

On behalf of my Group, I wish everybody Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance!

Thank you Mr. President.