Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma submitted this Commonwealth Statement to the High Level Segment of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.
The Commonwealth Statement on Climate Action was presented by Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma at the High Level Segment of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris today.
President of COP21, Hon Laurent Fabius; Excellencies; Delegates:
Climate change is having a catastrophic impact on the most vulnerable segment of the Commonwealth countries, especially small states. Apart from the development gains regularly and massively lost, there is a clear ethical and moral imperative to help building their resilience as the contribution of these states to the global carbon footprint is minimal, while they are visited by the worst consequences of global warming.
It is against this background that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta ten days ago held a Special Session on Climate Change, and our Leaders representing extraordinary global diversity underscored the collective responsibility of the Commonwealth through a Commonwealth Leaders’ Statement on Climate Action which emphasised the goals of an international climate agreement that is robust, ambitious, balanced and implementable by all. The Prime Minister of Malta and Commonwealth Chair-in-Office, Hon Joseph Muscat, spoke to this statement last week at the COP21 Leaders’ Event. A copy of the Leaders’ Statement released on 28 November 2015 in Malta is attached.
In this Statement, Commonwealth Leaders encouraged, inter-alia, innovative sources of finance to fund national and international actions that address climate change through adaptation and mitigation. I would like to elaborate on one such initiative.
The Multilateral Debt Swap for Climate Action proposal to assist with resource mobilisation for climate action is an initiative that has been put forward by the Commonwealth. Many of our member states face a dual challenge. Climate finance is not flowing to those who need it most on account of capacity constraints, and many of these states also face crippling debt burdens, which adversely affects their ability to invest in adaptation and mitigation. The Commonwealth proposes a mechanism aimed at effectively addressing these two fundamental problems.
Our proposal is endorsed by the United Nations Secretary-General, who attended the Commonwealth Special Session on Climate Change, and the UN system has supported it as an innovative idea that offers significant benefits to the smaller and more vulnerable countries whose economies struggle both with climate adaptation and mitigation, and with debt burdens. The proposal was conveyed by me as Secretary- General of the Commonwealth at a press conference in Malta on 27 November 2015, in the presence of Commonwealth Chair-in-Office Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, President François Hollande of France and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
In exchange for investments in climate adaption and mitigation projects, the more vulnerable would have the prospect of multilateral debt written off using existing sources of climate finance. This would incentivise development and enhancement of national climate change plans and actions, building institutional capacity and aiding sustainability. The Commonwealth will assist in this through the Commonwealth Finance Access Hub which was also launched in Malta.
The proposal would also accelerate and increase disbursement of climate finance, allowing for adaptability according to circumstance and scale. This is a variant of a well-established mechanism - the debt-for- nature swap - with a climate change adaptation and mitigation focus on the most vulnerable.
The broad outline of the proposal can be seen on the website of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Our Commonwealth position is clear: now is the time to take decisions to create new facts where they are needed in climate change. I assure you of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s commitment to work with Governments and all partners towards this goal.
Thank you.
