Statement by the Gambia on behalf of the Least Developed Countries Group

Opening plenary of the fifteenth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action

Doha, Qatar 

Mr. Chair, the Gambia has the honour to speak on behalf of the Least Developed Countries Group. We associate ourselves with statements made by Algeria on behalf of the Group of 77 & China, Swaziland on behalf of the African Group, and Nauru on behalf of Alliance of Small Islands Developing States (AOSIS).

Mr. Chair, our mandate under AWG-LCA is to conclude and terminate its work by reaching an agreed outcome pursuant to decision 1/CP13 in Doha. We are concerned about the lack of progress achieved in AWG-LCA negotiations during the last sessions leaving us with many unresolved issues for Doha.

• Under shared vision, a decision on the near and long-term global goals and the peaking year needs to be taken. There is a significant gap between the goal of keeping the global average temperature below the 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels target linked to the scientific review and the aggregate effect of Parties’ mitigation pledges. Immediate actions are required from all Parties to ensure that technological and economically optimal opportunities are not missed. The science is unequivocal in telling us that delayed actions will cost much more and close the door for choices.

• On the review, Doha needs to decide on the scope and appropriate body to conduct the Review. We support the proposal on the establishment of a separate Expert Review body. We would not support the proposals on moving the Review to the SBs where it would lose momentum and independence. In early 2015, the results of the review need to feed into the ADP negotiations setting the level of overall aggregate ambition for 2020 and beyond.

• On mitigation commitments under 1bi, decisions on comparability of effort, common accounting rules and QELROs need to be adopted.

• Under 1bii, decisions related to pledges from all developing countries, support for low-carbon development strategies and NAMAs and MRV of support need to be adopted.

• It is important that Doha establishes a platform for developing Common Accounting Rules. ICA and IAR processes should feed into compilation reports to allow for overview of efforts and progress towards reaching global emission and temperature goals. In particular new LULUCF accounting rules need to be negotiated and be part of the set of agreed Common Accounting Rules for the future regime.

• On finance, we need to draw lessons learned from fast start finance. The poor track record of Developed Countries in meeting their fast start finance pledges has raised serious concerns about commitments on finance for developing countries. Of the fast start finance promised less than 20% has gone towards adaptation, less than 50% was grants and only 5% of the full amount has gone through the UNFCCC funds.

• Doha must make a decision to ensure continuity of provision of climate finance to avoid a post-2012 gap, and on next steps in the work on sources of long-term finance. A clear signal should be sent out of Doha that after 2012, provision of climate finance will be sustained and scaled-up without reduction to reach USD100bn per year by 2020 at the latest. In order to provide predictability, developed country Parties should commit to an intermediate target of mobilizing jointly new and additional resources.

• Also, we must finalise issues in relation to REDD+ finance.

• Under the Cancun Adaptation Framework, finance, technology, and capacity are critical for the implementation of enhanced adaptation action. We need to make clear linkages between adaptation and these means of implementation. In addition, we need to find ways to place a strong means on strengthening regional centres and networks, including national institutional arrangements. The issues of loss and damage also need to be addressed.

• On technology, constitution of the advisory board to the CTCN,  reporting lines of the bodies of the technology mechanism, and capitalization of the Technology Executive Mechanism still remain to be resolved.

• Enhanced action on Capacity Building must be activated with a specific work stream to further elaborate the modalities for institutional arrangements in the light of the wide range of capacity needs for developing countries identified during the course of the BAP negotiations.

Mr. Chair, we urge Parties to comprehend the importance and urgency of successfully and effectively completing our task under AWG-LCA. Completing the Bali Road Map with a strong agreed outcome under LCA will lay a robust and sustaining foundation for the work under ADP.

I thank you Mr. Chair.