Opening Session of the 43rd Session of Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 43)

Statement by Angola on behalf of the Least Developed Countries Group

1 December 2015, Paris, France

Madame Chair, Distinguished Delegates, Angola has the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of Least Developed Countries. We associate ourselves with the statement made by South Africa in on behalf of the G77 and China and with Sudan on behalf of the African Group and Maldives on behalf AOSIS. Let me join other Parties in congratulating and thanking you, Madame Chair, on your efforts so far and leadership of this important body.

We are deeply concerned by the lack of progress of our discussions under many agenda items for consideration, in particular for those agenda items related to the implementation of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Because we will have limited time for negotiations at this session, we should avoid spending a lot of time and effort on issues we believe cannot reach conclusion here in Paris. We support your proposal to focus only on those items that can be concluded at this session.

Madame Chair, one of the issues that is of paramount importance for the LDC Group relates to the 2013-2015 Review. The report of the Structured Expert Dialogue that was presented last June recognizes that under the current global temperature increase of 0.85 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels is already causing widespread impact on the 850 million people from the LDCs. Risks are just too high for LDCs for a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius. A 2 degrees Celsius temperature increase runs counter to the ultimate objective of the Convention, as it is clear that climate change has already reached dangerous levels. Dangerous climate change must be put to a halt as soon as possible. We therefore continue to urge for the Long Term Global Goal be set at below 1.5 degrees Celsius. The LDCs remain committed in seeing below 1.5 degree Celsius anchored in the new Climate Agreement, as is called for by more than 100 Parties to the Convention.

Madame Chair, we welcome the Report of the Executive Committee on the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage. The work of the Executive Committee is critical for LDCs, and we look forward to ensure that the Committee is provided with the means to implement their work.
On agriculture, we welcome the report of the two workshops which took place this year. We look forward to the establishment of a contact group at the next SBSTA to have in-depth discussions on agriculture based on this report.

Madame Chair, we call for the comprehensive programme to enable all developing countries undertake or review their TNAs as appropriate to serve as a basis for identifying and prioritising climate technology needs for implementation.

We would like to see enhanced collaborative efforts between CTCN and the TEC in the implementation of the outcome of the TNAs. We would like to further see deliberate provision of financial support under the GCF through mitigation and adaptation windows to support climate technology needs of developing countries in the medium and long term. This calls for establishing a stronger link between the Technology Mechanism and the Green Climate Fund, as the financial mechanism.

We welcome the support provided by the CTCN to build the capacity of developing countries to coordinate and manage their climate technology needs. We request that the mandate of the CTCN be extended to cover provision of hardware climate technologies for mitigation and adaptation.

We appreciate the support provided to developing country parties through the regional technology centres. We request that the support be upgraded to cover the technology needs of more countries within the respective region.

Madame Chair, on the market and non-market work programmes, we support postponing the discussion to the SBSTA-44, in line with the conclusion of discussions on market issues under the ADP.

However, all methodological issues under the KP must be resolved at this session to allow for the entry into force of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol as soon as possible.

Thank you.