Warsaw Partnership on Effective Climate Finance

I am interested in the Aotearoa NZ negotiators plan for the climate finance. Today they had a slide in their presentation at the stakeholders meeting that showed what they were going to put forward in Warsaw as a plan for better climate finance regulations. What's the catch I hear you say? Don't be so pessimistic! If they really do put this forward, and it is in the same (yet more detailed) format as they have proposed originally, then it could actually quite exciting!

Slide:

Warsaw Partnership on Effective Climate Finance:

-Encourage and support countries to set their own strategies

-Aligned behind these priorities

-Delivered in coordinated ways

-Outcomes are able to be measured, reported and verified

-Does not displace private-sector investment

So basically, developing countries to set their own priorities using simplified procedures, whilst making sure the money is well tracked and the outcomes are reported, and making sure the money is doing what it was intended for.

This outline seems great but very vague and a bit aspirational. I am not sure how it would be put into practice, as there was no talk of a plan of action. It is fine to say that they do not want public sector investment displaced, but what are they going to do to encourage that private sector investment in the first place? 

One of the other worries I have with it is that is may take a long time to set up. This could mean even more time that countries are not investing their pledged money into climate finance. The Green Climate Fund was started in 2009. According to Roger (negotiator at the Auckland stakeholder meeting) the fund is not going to be ready to receive money until around the end of 2014. This is due to the extensive amount of time that a international body requires to set up.

If the Green Climate Fund was stalled further due to the creation of new guidelines brought in by this Aotearoa NZ proposal then it would be a step backwards. However, if it did not affect the Green Climate Fund, then this new initiative could provide some much needed stakeholder representation at a grassroots level and provide locally led solutions to local climate change issues. A.k.a go Aotearoa New Zealand!

I am really interested to watch how this proposal plays out during COP19 and how it may be adopted and transformed during this process.

All posts by Institute delegates reflect their own thoughts, opinions and experiences, and do not reflect those of the Institute.

For official Institute updates, take a look here.

An unexpected journey....

Wow! What a crazy three weeks it has been. My name is Lisa McLaren and I am an Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute youth delegate. The rest of our delegation and I found out that we were chosen to go to the COP 19 climate change conference in Warsaw less than three weeks ago and now I am sitting on a plane bound for Hong Kong, the half way stop on our journey to Poland!

It has been an intense three weeks of fundraising, learning, packing and finishing off my other jobs and Masters thesis. We attended a training weekend last weekend up in Auckland, where we meet Rachel who will lead our delegation and show us the ropes. We also met her partner, David, who is traveling to COP with the Adopt a Negotiator team. Their knowledge of previous COPs they have attended will be invaluable!

Earlier today, before we departed for Hong Kong, we attended the Auckland stakeholders meeting for those interested in meeting the NZ government negotiators and hearing their plans for the conference. It was really great to get an understanding of how the NZ negotiators were approaching COP 19, not that they gave too much away! It was great to meet them and I look forward to learning from them throughout the conference during the daily NZ stakeholder meetings.

I am extremely excited to get to Poland as I have never been to Eastern Europe, and it is somewhere that I do not know too much about. I am excited to meet both youth delegates and government negotiators from around the world. I am really interested in the venue for the conference (a stadium), which apparently needs its roof opened if it starts snowing! As we are heading to Poland in their winter we might just see this in action! I have lots of NZ Marino packed so hopefully that will keep the cold temperatures at bay.

We are lucky enough to be staying at an apartment close to the stadium which will be handy as we are expecting to be having many early mornings and late nights at the conference- networking, joining in on meetings, tweeting and blogging updates!

I am in no doubt that the conference will be frustrating, exciting, infuriating, soul destroying, inspiring, intense, and life changing all at once. And I am so ready for it!! Bring on COP 19!!!!!! 

All posts by Institute delegates reflect their own thoughts, opinions and experiences, and do not reflect those of the Institute.

For official Institute updates, take a look here.

UN Climate Change Conference Training Weekend

This weekend we had a great time meeting our COP 19 delegates Natalie, Saskia, Lisa and Jerome for their Training Weekend at AUT Business School in Auckland.  

The delegates were fortunate enough to hear from experts Jim Salinger, an Auckland-based climate scientist and author of the new book Living in a Warmer World, Barry Coates, Executive Director of Oxfam New Zealand, and Geoff Keey, Global Campaign Coordinator for Climate Action Network International, about the policy outcomes they should expect from the Conference.

Delegates also learned more about the logistics of the Conference, which will host 9,000 people in Warsaw over the course of two weeks, and about what to expect from the annual Conference of Youth which will take place in the final days before the negotiations commence.

Another highlight was Skyping fellow Kiwi youth from the New Zealand Youth Delegation (NZYD) at their training session in Wellington.  NZYD sends a delegation of young New Zealanders to COP each year. 

Our delegates will leave in exactly one week, after a morning briefing with the Government’s climate change negotiators on Monday.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Sarah Trotman and AUT Business School for allowing us to use the beautiful Sir Paul Reeves building for our training.

Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute holds official launch

Last night, the Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute held its official launch event in Auckland.  The audience, hosted by AUT Business School, heard from members of each of this year’s delegations.  

Korey Te Hira shared his experience of attending the World Trade Organisation Public Forum in Geneva in October, and Charlie Lin spoke about meeting his fellow delegates to the upcoming Pacific Youth and Sports Conference in Noumea at their training weekend last month.  While he couldn’t come to Auckland for the event, Jerome Cameron, from our UN Climate Change Conference delegation, also shared his reaction to being chosen this week to join the Institute in Warsaw this December:

 The Institute extends its thanks to the AUT Business School and Dr Geoff Perry for their support in hosting this event, and to Sarah Trotman for her key role in making it possible.

Take a look here for more photos from the night.