[South Asia] – June 04, 2014 – Round two of international climate change negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) starts today, Wednesday June 04, 2014 in Bonn Germany and is scheduled to go on till June 14, 2014. The sessions have three primary objectives to cover within the span of three days: the second session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) and the fortieth sessions of the subsidiary bodies SBI (Subsidiary Board of Implementation) and SBSTA(Subsidiary Board of Scientific and Technological Advice). The intersessions starting today will also include ministers to discuss key political issues, which can be resolved ahead of a successful, new and universal climate agreement in Paris next year.

Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) welcomes UNFCCC’s initiative to include ministers in the June intersession as the Network is determined that closed allies with Government negotiators will contribute positively towards the continuation of their dual task to design the 2015 agreement and to find ways to raise the current level of global ambition to address climate change before 2020, when the new agreement is to enter into force.

“The UNFCCC Bonn session is after GCF (Green Climate Fund) agreed Operationalisation of Climate fund and thus Parties should be able to pledge promised contributions to scale up ambition on Low Carbon Growth and Adaptation action in developing countries. Developed countries also need to increase its pre2020 commitments, so that the bar of contributions for post2020 climate regime is set high conforming to Science,” said CANSA Director Sanjay Vashist.

This move by the UNFCCC becomes important especially in the context of the upcoming Climate Summit organised by the UN in September this year. UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon has invited all Heads of State for the Summit including those from the South Asian region. The Intersessions will go on till June 15, 2014.

The Least Developed Country (LDC) Group has arrived in Bonn, Germany to continue discussions at the UN on reaching a universal, legally-binding agreement on climate change. They are calling for urgent action to ensure that we reach a new legal Agreement in Paris, December 2015. LDC Chair Prakash Mathema said, “It is still technically and economically feasible to limit temperature increases to below 1.5°C, but only if we all work together to resolve the climate change problem. If some countries advance their own interests and ignore the need for international cooperation, then we are doomed.”

CANSA has already begun engaging with policymakers, negotiators and parliamentarians by organising a regional workshop in Pakistan in December 2013 that included members of parliament from Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan and recently also held a training for climate change negotiators in Sri Lanka in May 2014.

CANSA is a coalition of 116 civil society organisations from seven countries of South Asia, demanding that all countries ratify the second commitment period of Kyoto protocol by 2015. CANSA is on a vision to strive actively towards the protection of the global climate in a manner that promotes equity and social justice between peoples, sustainable development of all communities, and protection of the global environment.

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For further information contact Vositha Wijenayake on vositha@cansouthasia.net