Pan African Climate Justice Alliance

We, the representatives of African Civil Society Organizations and Networks under the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), met at Maasai Ostrich Resort and Farm, Kaijado County, Kenya at the Post-COP18 (Doha) African Civil Society Review Meeting from February 11- 13, 2013 to review and analyze the outcomes of COP18/CMP8 and their implications for Africa.

Acknowledging the effort by Africa to speak with one voice during the COP 18 in Doha, Qatar and desirous that this one voice should be that of and be informed by realities of the local communities; and the fact that non-state actors contribution to the UNFCCC process and its outcome is essential for informed policy formulation and monitoring of its implementation at all levels;

Affirming the authority of the Civil Society and communities as the expression of the sovereign will of the people;

Concerned that the last two decades have been characterised by unfulfilled promises and commitments by developed countries to Africa in particular hence breeding an atmosphere of ever-diminishing trust and confidence in international negotiations processes; that Africa’s right to development and development efforts have been compromised by the negative impacts of climate change, a situation to which she least contributed;

Taking into account the need for adaptation by the African countries and their peculiar vulnerability to climate change, and above all, indigenous communities, bio-diversity, the poor and marginalized communities;

Appreciating, as a positive step, the COP18 outcome on decision made on promoting gender balance and improving the participation of women in UNFCCC negotiations and in the representation of Parties in bodies or the Second Commitment Period of Kyoto Protocol;

Reaffirming the various declarations, demands and positions of PACJA in Limbe, Arusha and Addis Ababa respectively and analyzing the Doha (COP18) outcomes;

We declare that: 1. There is an urgent need for emission cuts by having specific target for all Annex I parties to reduce emissions by at least 40% below 1990 level by 2015 and 100% by 2050 below 1990 level; as IPCC Report – AR4 recommends in order to keep temperature increase well below 1.5°C. Any agreement by African government to accept keeping the temperature above 1.5°C amount to disastrous consequences for Africa thereby condemning Africa to incineration and conflicts.

We condemn the withdrawal of Canada, New Zealand, Russia and Japan from the KP2 and the continued refusal of United States to ratify the protocol. We call on these countries to accept their historical responsibilities, reconsider their position and recommit without further delay and conditions.

2. We disagree with locking in low ambition in the KP2 implementation period for eight years covering less than 15% of the global emission. We call on all Parties to use the 2014 Review as an opportunity to scale up targets for the remainder of this period.  Further, we call upon Parties to respect the timeline for the adoption of the global climate change deal in 2015 and come up with an ambitious, fair, equitable, and legally binding agreement.

3. Developed countries should honour and deliver on their pledge of providing US$100 billion every year until 2020. Further, they must scale up their pledges to fulfill their obligation to provide adequate, new and additional funds as this amount is far from all estimates of climate finance needed by developing countries. We ask the COP to establish a clear and transparent mechanism for monitoring, verification, and evaluation of delivery of climate funds.  We also ask for enhancing participation of CSOs in climate finance boards.

We call for immediate establishment of an independent process to conduct transparent and consultative verification on developed countries’ claim that they have successfully delivered all FSF of over USD 30 billion to developing countries during 2010-2012 in accordance with controversial Copenhagen Accord, which metamorphosed into Cancun Agreement.

4. Developed countries must compensate Africa for the full costs of avoiding harms, actual harms and damage, and lost opportunities for our development resulting from climate change. We oppose any effort to establish adaptation as an obligation not a right, or to use adaptation as a means to divide or differentiate between developing countries. Therefore, we demand for the establishment of an international mechanism for compensation on the loss and damage caused by extreme weather events related to climate change.

5. Developed countries must remove intellectual property rights, pay full incremental costs of technology transfer to protect developing countries and contribute for peaking and declining of global emissions. We oppose efforts to sell rather than transfer appropriate technologies, or to strengthen rather than relax intellectual property rights.

Developed and developing countries should support the adoption and development of indigenous and locally innovated technology as well as ensuring efficiency in technology transfer and deployment.

6. Agriculture is one of the crucial sectors affected by climate change and which supports food and livelihoods security of millions around the world especially in developing countries, therefore, member states and SBSTA need to conclude the agriculture negotiations under UNFCCC with focus on adaptation and expand the remit to cover sustainable livestock production systems as part of solution to climate change as recommended in pares 111 and 112 of Rio+20 final outcome document.

7. There is an urgent need for gender equity and enhanced participation of women, youth, indigenous people and marginalized groups in UNFCCC negotiations and representation of Parties in bodies should be balanced between North and South, taken into account the respective differences.

Done in Kaijado County, Kenya on February 13 2013