Opening of the ninth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 9)

Statement by Nepal on behalf of the Least Developed Countries Group

Warsaw, Poland

Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the LDC Group.

I would like to align this statement with the statement made by Fiji on behalf of the G77 and China, by Nauru on behalf of AOSIS, and the statement to be made by Swaziland on behalf of the Africa Group.

Mr. President, climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time and represents an urgent and unalterable threat to human societies and the planet. The IPCC confirmed in the recent report of Working Group 1 the general scientific consensus that the atmosphere and ocean have warmed and sea level has risen.

Mr. President, we note with great concern that inadequate mitigation pledges, notably by Annex I Parties under the Cancun Decisions, risk an increase in global average temperature. This increase far exceeds 2 degrees Celsius, and may be as much as 4.8 degrees Celsius, with catastrophic impacts worldwide. As LDCs, with high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and low adaptive capacity, we cannot even imagine the devastating scenario.

Mr. President, a year ago the CMP adopted the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol. The LDCs would now like to urge Parties to undertake three actions:

First, the LDCs call on all countries that are party to the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol to speed up their ratification processes in order for the Doha Amendment to enter into force;

Second, we call on all developed country Parties to the Kyoto Protocol to fulfill their promises made in Doha to review their quantified emission limitation reduction objectives by April 2014;

Third, the LDCs call on all Annex I Parties not participating in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to raise their level of mitigation ambition through comparable pledges. As the mitigation pledges for 2020 by Annex I Parties amount to less than the voluntary mitigation pledges by non-Annex I Parties, we urge Annex I Parties to demonstrate leadership and raise their level of ambition to the scale required by science and equity.

Mr. President, the LDCs are seriously concerned by the significant decrease in the price of carbon. So, we emphasize the necessity of exploring options to strengthen the price of carbon through the establishment of carbon price floors and other initiatives. Strengthening the carbon price will not only work to increase interest for companies and governments to invest in low-carbon projects, but will also provide further resources to the Adaptation Fund.

Thank you Mr. President.