Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

Capacity building session:

‘The State of Climate Change Negotiations from CSO point of view (based on UCSD Experiences being
part of the PIPA Project)’
By Kimbowa Richard, Programme Manager
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development (UCSD)
P.O. Box 27551 Kampala | Tel: +256 414 269461 | Email: ugandacoalition@infocom.co.ug
Website: www.ugandacoalition.or.ug | Twitter: @ugandacoalition
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

Outline
 Overview of the UNFCCC
 Overview of Climate negotiation process – Conference of Parties (COP) & UNFCCC
Intersessionals
 Key issues negotiated at the UNFCCC
 From where to where now?
 The Paris Agreement: Key highlights, challenges & sticking points
 COP23 (the Pacific COP)
 The May 2018 Intersessionals in Bonn
 Opportunities for UCSD CSOs involvement to implement the PA in Uganda
(national, Regional and Global levels)
 Conclusion
 References & Resources for further reference
 Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

Overview of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

• The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty that was opened fro signature at the Earth Summit
held in Rio de Janeiro in 1994

• Ultimate Objective: ‘Stabilise Green House Gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will
prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system’

• Encourages the process to happen at a pace that considers adaptation time, food security, and to enable
economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner, while respecting the principle of Common
But Differentiated Responsibilities.

• 197 Parties (196 States and 1 regional economic integration organization) have signed the UNFCCC –
near universal agreement

• Uganda signed up the UNFCCC on June 13, 1992 and ratified it on September 8, 1993

• Treaty does not set mandatory limits on GHG emissions for individual countries and does not contain any
enforcement mechanisms

• UNFCCC established 2 permanent subsidiary bodies – SBSTA and SBI (to give advice to COP based on
specific mandates)
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

UNFCCC Negotiation process

• Parties to UNFCCC meet every year at the Conference of Parties (open also to observers like
CSOs), with latest (COP24) held in Bonn and hosted by Fiji, next one in Poland (December 3 – 14,
2018)

• COP is the highest decision making authority at the UNFCCC

• COP reviews implementation of the Convention and examines the commitments of Parties in
relation to the Convention objectives, new scientific findings, experience gained in implementing
climate change policies.

• UNFCCC has intersessional meetings that take place in Bonn prior to the COP of that year, that
lay guidance for the COPs, with Parties negotiating complex details and usually build a draft text
for the actual COP
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

Key issues negotiated at the UNFCCC

• Mitigation: Human intervention to reduce sources or enhance sinks of GHGs

• Adaptation: Adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli
or other effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities
• Loss and Damage: At COP16 in 2010 (part of the Cancun Adaptation Framework), Governments
established a work programme in order to consider approaches to address loss and damage
associated with climate change impacts in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the
adverse effects of climate change
• Climate finance: refers to local, national, or transnational financing, which may be drawn from public,
private and alternative sources of financing. Critical to address climate change because large-scale
investments are required to significantly reduce emissions, notably in sectors that emit large quantities
of GHGs. Climate finance is equally important for adaptation, for which significant financial resources
will be similarly required to allow countries to adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of
climate change. The industrialised world has promised to mobilise $100 billion a year by 2020.
• Technology: Promoting the effective development and transfer of environmentally sound tech. in
critical in enabling developing countries to pursue their objectives for sustainable development in a
climate-friendly manner. The UNFCCC urges developed countries and Annex II Countries to promote,
facilitate and finance as appropriate, the transfer of, access to environmentally sound technologies and
know-how to other Parties, particularly to developing countries, to enable them to implement the
provisions of the Convention.
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

• Transparency: process of submitting accurate, consistent & internationally comparable

data as basis for understanding and gauging implementation. Parties must communicate
information in 2 main elements (Details of their activities to implement the Convention &
National inventories of GHGs)
o Under the Kyoto Protocol, Annex 1 Parties are required to include supplementary
information on their implementation of the Protocol.
o Under the Paris Agreement, Parties will report under the Enhanced Transparency
Framework for action and support.

• Raising ambition - Global stocktake – Paris Agreement mandates a global stocktake

(how?) to take place every 5 years starting 2023 that will aim to assess progress and
scale up ambition
o The stocktake will consider mitigation, adaptation, and Means of Implementation and support in
light of equity and best available science – to inform Parties in updating & enhancing their
actions and support.
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

From Where to Where now?

• Kyoto Protocol (1997) started on a bad note – quantified target for Annex 1 countries, US
failed to ratify it (inaction crept in right from here)
• 2009 Copenhagen Accord was fraught with difficulties in finding consensus (vision of
producing a commitment involving all countries at the expiry of the Kyoto protocol in
2012)
o Sticking points: Equity, CBDR
o Accord was simply a political agreement (COP ‘took note’ of it) but not endorsed by the Assembly
of negotiators
o Nevertheless, Accord produced a landmark commitment – limit a rise of temperature of 2degC
above pre-industrial levels

• 2010 – Cancun: achieved a detailed set of legal decisions, solidifying the 2degC
temperature commitment, providing financial support to countries coping with the
impacts and transitioning to the Low Carbon Economy; decisions on adaptation,
transparent ad accountable reporting of emissions reduction
o Debate over temperature commitment continued – below 1.5degC temperature increase as a
better target.

• 2011 – The Durban Alliance: Recognition for a fresh, universal, legal agreement to deal
with climate change beyond 2020, to be adopted by 2015
o Set up the work stream to look at Pre-2020 action
 Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

2015 - The Paris Agreement: Key highlights, challenges & sticking points
• Aims to strengthen global response to the climate change threat by keeping a global temperature rise this century
to well below 2degC above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further
to 1.5degC.
• Provides for appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building
framework to support climate action
• Also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework
• Requires Parties to submit a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) every 5 years starting 2020 which should
include a report of their emissions and their implementation efforts.
• Parties will also take stock of the collective efforts in relation to progress towards the Long-term goals of the
Agreement every 5 years, starting from 2023.
• Provides for a work programme in preparation for the implementation of the Agreement
• 2016 – 2018: Parties are negotiating (slow pace, 2018 has an extra session in Bangkok, 4th to 9th September.) the
Paris Rulebook or set of decisions that will establish the rules and processes needed to provide operational
guidance for fulfilling the goals of the Agreement
• 2018: Launch of the Talanoa (Facilitative) Dialogue following the COP24 decision. Talanoa Dialogue on May 6,
2018, provided the first opportunity for both Party & Non-Party Stakeholders to interact; to continue through 2018
& at COP24
• 2018: IPCC coming out with a Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5degC above pre-industrial
levels and related global GHG emission pathways in 2018
Paris Agreement Architecture / UNFCCC Kyoto
REDD /land Protocol
use (ends 2020)

Paris Agreement Compliance

Committee
Cooperation, Agriculture UNFCCC
NDC Guidelines market/credi
Reportin
ts, non- Global
market g etc.
Adap- Transparen Stocktake
tation
goal
NDCs cy
(raise ambition)
Loss and
Damage
Framework
Aviation
Means of International Climate (credits from
Implementation Finance 100 bill. $/year Capacit 2021)
from 2020 Adap- y
Technology
Framework
GEF GCF tation
Fund Building

Shipping
 Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

2017 - Bonn (‘The Pacific COP’)

• The UNFCCC COP23 was held November 6 – 17 in Bonn, Germany under the Fiji Presidency
• COP23 included the fourth part of the first session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA
1-4) and the second part of the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the
Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1-2).
• The APA was expected to address: mitigation under NDCs, adaptation communications, the transparency
framework under the Paris Agreement and matters relating to the Global stocktake. The CMA was expected to
consider organizational matters and matters relating to the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and will
include a high-level segment.
• SBI was expected to discuss: common timeframes for NDCs; development of modalities and procedures for the
operation and use of a public registry; the annual technical progress report of the Paris Committee on Capacity-
building (PCCB); and ways of enhancing the implementation of training, public awareness, public participation
and public access to information so as to enhance actions under the Paris Agreement.
• Resurgence of the pre-2020 climate action - with developing countries showing concern that developed
countries had not done enough to meet their commitments made for the period up to 2020 that are separate to
the Paris Agreement, which applies only post-2020.
• On the APA agenda items 3-6, negotiations progressed with development of informal notes that were a basis for
the May 2018 intersessionals, while it was decided to have extra negotiation session(s) in September 2018 in
Bangkok in order to meet the 2018 deadline for agreements on these items.
• The Loss and Damage Discussions pushed by Tuvalu among others that was referred to an expert group
meeting ahead of COP24
• Talanoa Dialogue - decision to include inputs from non-party stakeholders as well as parties, a decision to set
up an online platform to receive inputs
• Adopted: the Gender Action Plan, Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform
 Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

May 2018 Intersessionals in Bonn

 The Paris “rulebook” was the most substantive issue for the talks. This practical and technical operating manual is
needed to implement the Paris Agreement and will guide questions such as what climate pledges should look like
and how financial support should be tracked.
 SBI and SBSTA, are also responsible for parts of the Paris rulebook, in particular, accounting for climate finance .
 Each part of the rulebook made progress at Bonn. However, hopes of leaving with a single negotiating text fell flat,
forcing parties to agree an extra week of talks in Bangkok, to take place the week of 3-7 September.
 Climate pledge guidance is one of the trickiest items, with a post-COP23 summary of positions running to 180
pages. A 34-page “navigation tool” agreed at Bonn to focus debate has no formal status and contains a “wide range
of strongly-held views”.
 One contention: whether there should be two sets of guidance for developed and developing nations, or universal
rules with allowances for differentiation.
 inputs to the Global stocktake depend on other parts of the rulebook – Roundtable discussions before Bangkok will
discuss how to manage the complex interlinkages involved.
 Talanoa Dialogue - first session of the Talanoa Dialogue, to ratchet up still-inadequate ambition. The year-long
“storytelling” process has three questions: where are we?; where do we want to go?; and how do we get there? ---
more than 300 participants in six parallel discussions shared around 700 stories including UCSD and PIPA Partners.
 Loss and damage - a perennial issue at negotiations, mentioned in the Paris Agreement, but is not formally part of
talks on the Paris rulebook
 Pre-2020 action - richer countries to ramp up action before the Paris Agreement enters into force in 2020 (including
USD 100 bn per year pledge, the Doha Amendment that has not been formally triggered - only 109 short of the
needed 144 countries have ratified the amendment
 Climate finance – there are several ongoing strands of discussion, all of which made limited progress at Bonn
(remains a thorny issue)
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

Opportunities for UCSD / CSO involvement to implement the Paris Agreement

commitments in Uganda
UCSD and Partners: SusWatch Kenya, TaTEDO, INFORSE and SustainableEnergy
with support from CISU Denmark (Jan 2017 – June 2018) implemented the Project:
Promoting the Implementation of the Paris Agreement in East Africa- with a pro-
poor focus that has improved CSO knowledge on NDCs, LEDs, and the Paris
Agreement as well as contributing to sector specific climate actions in Uganda.
Key outcomes
National
 strong cooperation among Ugandan civil society (The Uganda PIPA Campaign
Group) - Change in relationship among civil society organizations. Promoting a
a culture of sharing and cooperation among 18 Ugandan CSOs sharing
information and developing joint policy briefs on implementation of Uganda’s
NDC; Climate finance; and Wetlands and climate change

 Cooperation on climate financing in Uganda - Knowledge on climate finance

was low in the Ugandan civil society. And those actors who has knowledge on
climate finance did not interact with those who did not have any knowledge on
the topic. Now, bridging the knowledge gap and developed a joint position
paper which addresses the national level of policy implementation planning
and the international negotiations.
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

Regional level

 The 3 organizations complement each other (they have different

strengths) in developing advocacy strategy, conducting activities, and
developing policy brief and participating in conferences - they now have
a stronger voice with potential of influencing the EAC Climate Change
framework under review as well as the forthcoming regional Climate law

 Continuity: The PIPA project has created awareness on INFORSE network

with different visibility activities including focus on benefits of becoming
a member. This provided a basis for INFORSE-EA to work as a recognized
network on promoting Low Carbon Economy (Sustainable energy
solutions) among other climate actions needed in the region
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

Global level

 Close cooperation among INFORSE partners from different regions of the world
on jointly to influence the NDCs at the UNFCCC negotiations (2 particular side
events)

 Change in activities – UCSD has developed 3 inputs to the Talanoa Dialogue and
presented in Bonn May 2018 and afterwards ahead of COP24 in Poland.
Moreover, UCSD has facilitated 2 trainings sessions in Uganda and Tanzania to
raise awareness on the Talanoa Dialogue and generate input from East African
CSOs.
 Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

UCSD / CSO Opportunities

National level
1. Implementing local level actions in support of community resilience and
adaptation
2. Implementation of relevant activities in Uganda’s NDC Partnership Plan
(identifies 49 activities for the next 3 years and 5 priorities incl.
strengthened capacity of government officials, civil society, the private
sector and academia to effectively integrate NDC and Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) commitments with a gender lens into existing
and future programs)
3. Tracking climate finances provided by the GCF, GEF, bilateral sources,
private sector, etc.
4. Further capacity building / training of actors on climate change issues and
options (CSOs, CBOs, LC leaders etc.) - for a critical mass to advocate for
inclusion of more climate actions in national, district and lower level plans;
full implementation of Uganda’s National Climate Change Policy & the
forthcoming Climate Change Law.
5. Contribute to Uganda’s reporting once the Paris Rulebook is completed
(input to NDC review in 2020, Global Stocktake in 2023 etc.)
6. Contribute to the national prep. Work for the UNFCCC COPs (through
CSOs, National processes, etc) to influence national positions on sticky
issues
 Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

UCSD / CSO Opportunities

Regional level

1. Participate actively in EAC processes to review the Climate Change

Framework (EAC Climate Change Policy, Master Plan and Strategy)
as well as the proposed Climate law

2. Share information (experiences, best practices etc.) for awareness

raising and advocacy work, and / or be part of networks that work on
climate action in the region (INFORSE East Africa, PACJA, CAN
Uganda etc.)
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

Global level
1. Contribute to discussions to finalise the NDC guidelines (climate
action plans) – part of the Paris Rulebook / rulebook, expected to be
completed at COP24 in Poland
2. Contribute to discussions to develop the Transparency Framework
for climate action and support, and the global stocktake taking into
account:
o poverty reduction and sustainable low-emission development
o Local Solutions that combine climate action with poverty
reduction
o People-centered Climate Action for NDCs
3. Contribute to making the Talanoa Dialogue a vehicle to raise climate
ambitions to limit man-made climate change to well below 2’C, ideally
below though building momentum and awareness at national and
regional Talanoa dialogues – keep generating stories ahead of
October 2018 deadline.
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

Conclusion

1) 2018 is crucial for the UNFCCC negotiations - defining the implementation guidelines of
the Paris Agreement that will shape international climate policies for decades to come.
Therefore, conclusion of the Paris Agreement Rulebook / Work programme at COP24 in
Poland is key to full implementation of the Paris Agreement in Uganda / East Africa

2) Inclusion of poverty reduction, local solutions as part of the integrated in Paris Agreement
Rulebook / Work programme (in NDC guidelines etc.) is important for Uganda / East Africa

3) Urgent: Provision of financial support for climate action to enable people and communities
who are living in vulnerable conditions to transition to clean and reliable energy, while also
adapting to the effects of climate change
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development

References and resources for further reading

a) INFORSE (PIPA project): www.inforse.org/africa/East_Africa_PIPA.htm

b) Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development: www.ugandacoalition.or.ug

c) CAN International - Guide to the Paris Agreement:

https://issuu.com/caninternational/docs/2._cop21_in_context_

d) CAN International – Introduction to the UNFCCC:

https://issuu.com/caninternational/docs/1._introduction_to_the_unfccc

e) UCSD Climate Change online petition to PM, Minister of Water and Env,. Speaker
of Parliament: https://www.change.org/p/minister-of-water-and-environment-
enact-a-fair-and-equitable-climate-law-in-uganda

f) The UNFCCC Handbook:

https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/publications/handbook.pdf