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A key negotiating item that delayed the adoption of the agenda on day one of the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change continues to draw divergent views from countries.
The divergence in views is largely about the mandate of the United Arab Emirates dialogue on implementing the global stocktake (GST) outcomes.
At COP28 in Dubai, countries agreed to establish the United Arab Emirates dialogue on implementing the GST. The GST included follow-up mechanisms, events and recommendations to countries and stakeholders in advancing climate action.
“The UAE dialogue came about because of the decision in the GST decision to start this dialogue. The wording of the paragraph was broad and general,” Natalie Jones, a policy advisor to the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Energy Program, told Down To Earth (DTE).
While developed countries are keen on the mandate to include all outcomes under the GST, some developing ones want the focus to be on providing finance for implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), which are national action plans under the Paris Agreement. At the opening ceremony, some countries protested the UAE dialogue being placed under matters relating to finance.
At the heart of the debate was the placement of the paragraph on the “decision to establish the UAE dialogue on implementing the GST outcomes” under finance, which, in turn, was under means of implementation. “So, some countries argued that the scope of the dialogue should only focus on the means of implementation, specifically on finance,” Jones explained.
A draft text released on November 19 mentioned four options on what the mandate of the UAE dialogue should be. Option one included focus on developed countries providing finance to developing nations to implement their NDC and tracking financial flows under the new climate finance goal, New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG).
Option two calls for a focus on all outcomes, particularly on outcomes not covered by existing mandates or activities of constituted bodies and work programmes under the Convention and the Paris Agreement. “A prime example of outcomes not under existing mandates is energy transition,” Jones explained. The option calls for a space for considering energy transition in developing countries, including action and support for their transition away from fossil fuels.
Option three calls for the UAE dialogue to be focused on collective progress on outcome, with an emphasis on providing finance, as well as capacity-building and technology transfer. It also adds that the dialogue should consider gaps, challenges and barriers relating to the provision of finance and other means of implementation, particularly for the small island developing States (SIDS) and the least developed countries (LDC), two negotiating blocs.
Per option four, the dialogue should focus on financing implementation of NDCs, national adaptation plans of developing country Parties and agreed climate goals, and allowing discussion on the scale, predictability, accessibility, and equitable distribution of finance.
The European Union wants the focus to be on option 2 while other negotiating blocs like the Like-Minded Developing States (LMDC) and the Arab group want the focus to be on finance, DTE has learned.
At the press conference on November 20, Wopke Hoekstra of the European Commission told DTE: “The last COP was very specific about transitioning away from fossil fuels and implementation.”
DTE spoke with Ziaul Haque Mukta, a negotiator from Bangladesh, who also stressed on the importance of finance. “On behalf of Least Developing Countries, Bangladesh wants the dialogue to focus all GST outcomes, particularly the means of implementation (involves technology transfer and capacity building) and finance, without which we cannot implement the GST outcome. We should not ignore the holistic picture of the GST outcome,” Mukta said.
Diego Pacheco, Bolivian negotiator, expects that nations would reach a compromise in the next few hours.