EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 15/1

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Building a Global Climate Change Alliance

P6_TA(2008)0491

European Parliament resolution of 21 October 2008 on building a Global Climate Change Alliance between the European Union and poor developing countries most vulnerable to climate change (2008/2131(INI))

2010/C 15 E/01

The European Parliament,

having regard to the Commission Communication of 18 September 2007 entitled ‘Building a Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) between the European Union and poor developing countries most vulnerable to climate change’ (COM(2007)0540),

having regard to the Council conclusions of 20 November 2007 on Global Climate Change Alliance between the European Union and poor developing countries most vulnerable to climate change,

having regard to the Commission Communication of 11 March 2003 entitled ‘Climate Change in the Context of Development Cooperation’ (COM(2003)0085),

having regard to the Commission's 2007 Progress Report (2004-2006) on the EU Action Plan on Climate Change and Development,

having regard to the Paper of 14 March 2008 from the High Representative and the European Commission to the European Council entitled ‘Climate Change and International Security’,

having regard to the Commission Green Paper of 29 June 2007 entitled ‘Adapting to climate change in Europe — options for EU action’ (COM(2007)0354),

having regard to the joint statement by the Council and the representatives of the governments of the Member States meeting within the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission on European Union Development Policy: ‘The European Consensus’ (1),

having regard to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness adopted on 2 March 2005 following the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (‘the Paris Declaration’),

having regard to the Joint Statement by the Council and the representatives of the governments of the Member States meeting within the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission: ‘The European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid’ (2),

having regard to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),

having regard to the Human Development Report 2007/2008 entitled ‘Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world’ launched by the United Nations Development Program,

having regard to the Male' Declaration on the Human Dimension of Global Climate Change adopted in Male' (Republic of Maldives) on 14 November 2007,

having regard to the Bali Roadmap adopted at the United Nations Climate Change Conference on the island of Bali (Indonesia) in December 2007,

having regard to the Fourth Assessment Report entitled ‘Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’ prepared by the Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),

having regard to the report of 2006 by Nicholas Stern entitled ‘The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review’,

having regard to the Declaration on Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Cooperation, adopted by Development and Environment Ministers of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Member Countries on 4 April 2006,

having regard to the OECD Report of 2007 entitled ‘Stocktaking of Progress on Integrating Adaptation to Climate Change into Development Cooperation Activities’,

having regard to the ‘Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters’ adopted by the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in January 2005 in Hyogo (Japan),

having regard to the biennial report of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) entitled ‘State of the World's Forests 2007’,

having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (A6-0366/2008),

A. whereas climate change poses a serious threat to poverty reduction, human rights, peace and security, water and food availability, and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in many developing countries,

B. whereas in some developing countries forests are being cleared for biofuel crops,

C. whereas industrialised countries have a historical responsibility for climate change and are morally obliged to assist developing countries in their efforts to adapt to its consequences,

D. whereas developing countries have contributed least to climate change but will suffer most severely from its consequences, including water and food insecurity owing to drought and desertification, rising sea levels, new challenges for agriculture, new risks to health, extreme meteorological events and migratory pressures; whereas developing countries will also have the least capacity to deal with these consequences,

E. whereas, in many industrialised countries, measures for climate change adaptation and risk reduction have received considerable attention recently, and whereas the same urgent needs have been largely neglected in the context of low-income countries,

F. whereas illegal and unsustainable logging imports into the EU are a significant driver of deforestation and are estimated to cost impoverished countries billions of euros annually,

G. whereas deforestation contributes to an estimated 20 % of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, leading to an estimated loss of 13 million hectares of tropical forests annually; and whereas deforestation in the tropics is a serious threat to biodiversity and the livelihoods of the more than one billion poor people living in and from such forests,

H. whereas the concrete consequences of climate change often have to be dealt with at local level by local authorities; whereas the proper linking of international, national and local levels of policy-making is therefore a key challenge in designing effective climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies; and whereas large-scale structural changes must be achieved, without sacrificing a community-based pro-poor approach,

I. whereas there is an increased recognition of the security threats posed by climate change, including conflicts over scarce natural resources, climate-induced natural disasters and large-scale migration flows; and whereas developing strategies to face joint climate/security challenges will be vital to ensuring an effective adaptive response in developing countries,

J. whereas international efforts in the field of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction (DRR) have so far been limited, fragmented, ill-coordinated and in many cases difficult to access for developing countries, which is in direct contrast to the objectives outlined in the European Consensus and the Paris Declaration,

K. whereas climate change adaptation measures, DRR and capacity building for development ought to be highly interlinked, but so far they have been poorly integrated into the activities of development cooperation agencies and international institutions; and whereas a joint and coherent approach would be crucial for successful implementation of the GCCA,

L. whereas it is necessary to establish multi-disciplinary teams of disaster managers, development specialists, planners and adaptation/climate science experts, which should adopt best practices for regional development,

M. whereas early action on climate change adaptation and DRR represents a clearly cost-effective solution; whereas estimates predict that one dollar spent on DRR has the potential to save up to seven dollars in disaster response, thereby also providing a strong argument for frontloading aid spending,

N. whereas, consequently, any attempt at double counting of EU funding for the attainment of MDG targets and promises made in the framework of the UNFCCC should be rejected,

O. whereas any delay in taking firm decisions on the measures necessary to reduce the causes and effects of climate change will result in much higher costs,

P. whereas most environmental problems, including those arising from climate change, tend to be aggravated by population growth and greater population size, whilst population dynamics, in terms of growth, distribution and composition are an integral part of the development process as they both affect and are affected by environmental change; and whereas the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo clearly highlighted the multiple benefits that arise from dedicated, locally oriented, non-coercive population policies, yet population issues nevertheless have thus far remained largely unincorporated into planning for either development or adaptation,

Q. whereas agriculture, water, management of forest resources, health, infrastructure, education as well as population policies must all be addressed in order to achieve effective mainstreaming of climate change adaptation and mitigation into development,

R. whereas reduction of corruption would increase the effectiveness of climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts,

S. whereas the abovementioned 2007 Progress Report on the EU Action Plan on Climate Change and Development shows that progress in mainstreaming climate change into EU development policies, specifically in Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and Regional Strategy Papers (RSPs), has been insufficient and much too slow,

T. whereas there is currently a huge gap as regards the financing of adaptation in developing countries; whereas while estimated annual adaptation costs range from USD 50 to 80 billion per annum, the total amount of funds committed through multilateral funding mechanisms in mid-2007 amounted to less than 0,5 % of these figures,

U. whereas, even though the EU has set itself the target of becoming a leader in the fight against climate change, the EU budget does not reflect the priority given to the policies and measures adopted by the EU for the fight against climate change,

V. whereas part of the GCCA funding will come from European Development Fund (EDF) and the Environment and Natural Resources Thematic Programme (ENRTP) (in line with Article 13 of the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI) (3)),

W. whereas the EDF has mainly been used to finance new initiatives; whereas the Commission should respect its commitment to find new financing sources in order to preserve the EDF; whereas the Committee on Development has concluded on numerous occasions that the EDF should be integrated into the EU budget in order to ensure democratic control over the way it is used,

X. whereas in accordance with Article 21 on the adoption of strategy papers and multiannual indicative programs and Article 35(2) of the DCI, Parliament has a right of scrutiny over Commission actions as laid down in Articles 5 and 8 of Decision 1999/468/EC,

Y. whereas the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has so far been poorly suited to meeting the needs of the poorest countries for investments in clean technology, with Africa hosting less than 3 % of all CDM projects, and nearly 90 % of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) being granted for projects carried out in China, India, Korea and Brazil,

1. Welcomes the Commission's initiative to launch a GCCA, which represents an important recognition of the effects of climate change on development; however, calls on the Commission to clarify further the distinct added value of the GCCA; in this context stresses that coordination and cooperation with other main actors must be an integral part of the GCCA's agenda, so as to ensure optimal complementarity among initiatives;

2. Considers the GCCA to be an important pillar of the EU's external action on climate change and to constitute a complementary and supportive platform for the ongoing process in the context of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, serving to advance their implementation and that of agreements related thereto;

3. Reiterates the alarming conclusions of the abovementioned Paper entitled ‘Climate Change and International Security’, which warned that climate change is intensifying security risks for the EU, threatening to overburden states and regions of the world which are already fragile and prone to conflict, and undermining efforts to attain the MDGs;

4. Notes that efforts to combat climate change need to be based not only on political impetus but also on civil society, in both developed and developing countries; considers that public information campaigns should be launched and education programmes in schools and universities adopted both to provide citizens with analyses and evaluations of the state of climate change and to propose appropriate responses, especially in terms of changing lifestyles in order to reduce emissions;

5. Emphasises that enhanced coordination and collaboration between the Commission and Member States is crucial in the area of EU policy on climate change and development; the GCCA representing a unique opportunity to live up to the principles underpinning the European Consensus and the Paris Declaration, as well as the Programme of Action of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD); furthermore is convinced that one of the key roles of the GCCA should be to provide a ‘clearing house’ for Member State initiatives;

6. Calls on the EU to place climate change at the core of its development cooperation policy; believes furthermore that the fight against climate change must address structural causes and calls for a systematic climate change risk assessment covering all aspects of policy planning and decision-making, both in the EU and in developing countries, including in relation to trade, agriculture and food security;

7. Stresses that the GCCA should take concrete measures to address coherence between, on one hand, the impact of climate change on development, including EU agriculture, trade and fisheries policies and, on the other hand, problems relating to export subsidies, such as tied aid, debt burden, export credits and commercial use of food aid, forced privatisation and liberalisation of vital economic sectors;

8. Points out that since the GCCA, with EUR 60 million in funding for the period 2008-2010, is to be complementary to the ongoing process in the UNFCCC, overlapping of actions should be avoided and the funds concentrated on actions that provide the highest added value; believes that once a post-2012 climate change agreement has been reached, GCCA objectives and funding need to be reviewed in the light of the outcome;

9. Is of the opinion that funds outside the UNFCCC cannot be counted as part of developed countries' implementation of their commitments under that Convention;

10. Considers the EUR 60 million committed to the GCCA so far to be woefully inadequate; calls on the Commission to establish a long-term financing goal for the GCCA of at least EUR 2 billion annually by 2010 and EUR 5-10 billion annually by 2020;

11. Calls on the Commission to provide detailed information on existing financial mechanisms for climate change and development at national and international levels; calls on the Commission, based on this information, to urgently propose what measures to use to scale up EU financial support for climate change and development, ensuring the best possible coordination and complementarity with existing initiatives;

12. Stresses that, if climate change is to be taken seriously, new funding must be made available through different budget lines and new financing sources, such as humanitarian funds in response to climate-related catastrophes, Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) funds and the Instrument for Stability in the context of preventive security policy or in response to climate-related security threats or conflicts, other external action funds whenever appropriated, as well as green taxes, public-private partnerships (PPP) and other innovative financing mechanisms intended for this purpose;

13. Notes with interest the Presidency Conclusions of the European Council of 19 and 20 June 2008 and their budgetary implications; considers that these budgetary requirements can only be addressed by having recourse to the means provided for by the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 on budgetary discipline and sound financial management (4); underlines once again that new appropriations should be provided for new tasks;

14. Notes in this context that EU Official Development Assistance (ODA) still falls short of the target of 0,56 % of EU Gross National Income (GNI) by 2010 and that it is hard to see how the EU will be able to fulfil all its commitments without recourse to new innovative resources;

15. Calls on the Commission to increase immediate funding for the GCCA, which might initially be achieved, as a matter of urgency, through the ENRTP as well as the 10th EDF; stresses at the same time the urgent need for additional, non-ODA funds for adaptation and developing innovative finance mechanisms for this purpose;

16. Reminds the Commission that if funds are drawn from the ENRTP or the EDF to finance the GCCA they should, as development funds, only be used for actions compatible with development assistance as defined by the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC); insists that this should be a one-off source of funding, and that further replenishment must be found from alternative sources;

17. Calls on the Commission to ensure that funding of the GCCA through ENRTP and the EDF will not be at the expense of other important development cooperation goals, such as those relating to education, health, gender equality or access to water;

18. Stresses that Member States must take a much greater responsibility for the funding of and alignment of their development activities with the GCCA;

19. Calls on the Commission and Member States to agree to earmark at least 25 % of expected revenues from auctioning within the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in the next trading period to funding of the GCCA and other climate change measures in developing countries, including efforts to protect forests and reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation;

20. Calls on the Commission to use the upcoming review of the EU budget as an opportunity to re-evaluate the EU's overall spending priorities and channel additional funds to climate change and development in general and the GCCA in particular; including by reallocating Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds;

21. Calls on the Commission and Member States to implement urgently the idea of a global climate change financing mechanism, building upon the model of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) and the concept of front-loading aid, in order to secure significant amounts of funding for the GCCA within a relatively short period of time;

22. Calls on the Commission to invite the private sector to become a close partner to the GCCA, recognising that public money could play a catalysing role by incentivising investments and delivering access to markets and technology; specifically encourages the Commission to invest in developing PPP models in key areas such as providing water security and infrastructure in vulnerable areas, where financing gaps currently are substantial, given that climate change affects many policy areas (such as access to water, public health, energy supply) involving intervention from the State and local authorities; recalls that the priority of the EU should be to reinforce capacity for public action in these areas;

23. Calls on the Commission to engage in partnerships with the private insurance industry and explore methods of scaling up pilot insurance schemes to finance adaptation/DRR, addressing both national and regional and individual levels of insurance;

24. Regrets that the overall involvement of developing country governments, civil society and local authorities has been inadequate throughout the programming process of the GCCA; calls on the Commission to ensure that decision-making throughout the elaboration, implementation, fund distribution and assessment processes takes place in partnership with interested parties;

25. Calls on the Commission to use the GCCA to support and strengthen partner countries' capacities to identify, manage and mitigate security threats posed by climate change and encourages the Commission to devote additional funds to this purpose; further calls on the Commission to ensure that its Directorate-General for External Relations is fully involved throughout the process of programming and implementing the GCCA, to ensure optimal coherence between development cooperation, climate change and foreign and security policies;

26. Calls on the Commission to use the GCCA to initiate discussions both with the donor community and with partner countries on increasing preparedness and contingency planning for large-scale migration in the event that certain regions become uninhabitable due to climate change;

27. Insists that effective reporting mechanisms, including detailed indicators of progress and follow-up schemes, must adhere to the GCCA;

28. Believes that a specific added value and competence of the GCCA could be forging a link between local adaptation action and the global climate and development policy frameworks; welcomes in this context the ‘political dialogue’ strand of the GCCA as an important step in connecting the poverty reduction agenda and the MDGs with the climate change agenda; stresses however that the GCCA will only be successful if it is part of an overall EU strategy for the post-2012 negotiations, where strong support for mitigation as well as adaptation activities in developing countries is a top priority;

29. Encourages the Commission to use the policy dialogue and its envisaged EU/Least Developed Countries (LDCs)/Small Island Development States (SIDS) Joint Declaration as a forum for advancing the idea of a ‘Global Contract’, where development cooperation and climate change-related activities are closely integrated with attention to population concerns incorporated as an explicit element, as envisioned in the Global Marshall Plan initiative;

30. Stresses the need to accelerate efforts to mainstream climate change adaptation, DRR and action on population and reproductive health into both Commission and Member State development aid, particularly in the implementation stage, since from a systemic perspective these areas are absolutely fundamental; calls on the Commission to take advantage of the upcoming mid-term review of CSPs to make progress in this field;

31. Insists that the Commission, alongside the GCCA, must continue developing its response to the 2007 Progress Report on the EU Action Plan on Climate Change and Development, containing many important elements which must not be lost, including the creation of on-the-field ‘clearing houses’ to improve coordination and access to information;

32. Underlines that the development and implementation of National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs) through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) funds has experienced several shortcomings, due to inadequate funding, underestimation of adaptation costs, weak links to human development, overly bureaucratic channels of access and a project-based bias; calls on the Commission to address fully these shortcomings when providing further support to NAPA implementation in LDCs and SIDS through the GCCA; in this context welcomes the Commission's intention to explore programme-based capacity building of governance institutions using budget support;

33. Stresses that successful use of budget support for development-oriented climate change adaptation depends on extensive use of all means available within budget support arrangements, including discussion of policy priorities, long-term monitoring, and technical assistance for budget formulation and execution; further stresses the need for active involvement of civil society and local communities; also urges the Commission to be prepared to make use of complementary measures where budget support is not appropriate or where it fails to benefit the poor and most vulnerable;

34. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the GCCA's planned research on adaptation in developing countries has a clear ‘bottom-up’ perspective, is directed towards the poor and most vulnerable, guided by the needs of local communities and carried out in cooperation with the people concerned; emphasises the importance of results from adaptation research being communicated to its target groups through accessible media channels;

35. Calls on the Commission to devote significant resources to research on the economics of adaptation in developing countries, including improving understanding of the future costs of the necessary restructuring of trade, agriculture and security policies and institutions; recognises that knowledge gaps in this field constitute a barrier to effective adaptation action and spending from both public and private actors;

36. Emphasises the importance of transferring knowledge and technology — including disaster risk reduction technology — to GCCA partner countries; to this end, calls on the Commission to promote a web-based ‘library’ of relevant climate adaptation data and to facilitate an exchange programme for climate adaptation experts between those countries;

37. Reiterates the importance of policy coherence and requests the Commission to address the issue of integrating climate change into poverty reduction efforts at the time of the EU budget review as well as the mid-term review of the different development instruments;

38. Calls on the Commission to devote more attention to the impact of climate change on agriculture and forestry and to the adjustment of agriculture and forestry to climate change; calls on the Commission to use the GCCA to support the development of environmentally sound agricultural policies, with priority given to guaranteeing people's food security; further calls on the Commission to help create an appropriate institutional and financial framework for the rural poor depending on agriculture for their livelihoods;

39. Stresses that agriculture in poor developing countries is directly and strongly affected by climate change, which can have dramatic consequences on food security; therefore calls on the Commission to use the GCCA to develop agricultural policies and production methods which better meet the needs of local population and constitute a long-term solution to the soaring food prices; encourages in particular the Commission to support innovative solutions such as creating ‘green belts’ around cities to respond to the basic food needs of urban populations in developing countries;

40. Welcomes the Commission's intention to propose an EU Strategy for DRR, signifying an important step in bridging the gap between DRR, development and adaptation efforts; in this context calls on the Commission to clarify how the GCCA can facilitate this integration on a practical level;

41. Stresses that a DRR strategy will not produce significant results without a concrete action plan and a major redirection of budget allocations to secure long-term funding for DRR and adaptation as a part of regular development aid, rather than, as is the case today, a short-term and poorly prioritised humanitarian concern;

42. Stresses that there is a great need for additional human resources within EuropeAid and EU delegations in order to ensure a successful implementation of the GCCA; calls on the Commission to devote substantial resources to this area in the 2009 EU budget; more widely, also calls on the Commission to devote significantly more resources to staff training on climate change adaptation and DRR in relevant Commission Directorates-General and delegations, particularly focusing on enhancing practical know-how;

43. To the extent that the GCCA entails action on mitigation, stresses that LDCs and SIDS need capacity-building and technical support in order to be able to enhance their participation in the CDM; also calls on the Commission to actively engage in international climate change negotiations with the goal of strengthening the CDM, to ensure additionality and coherence with development and climate goals; further calls on the Commission not to focus exclusively on CDM as the ultimate policy tool, but also provide alternative support for mitigation action more suitable for the poorest countries, with priority given both to land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities and low-carbon technologies;

44. Calls on the Commission to urgently develop ambitious complementary policy initiatives, particularly in the fields of forest and marine protection, sustainable use of natural resources and mitigation technology cooperation, where financial needs widely exceed what is provided for within the GCCA at present; specifically calls on strong EU action in the form of financial support, technical assistance and technology transfer and cooperation to developing countries to facilitate the use, at the earliest stage possible, of technologies which emit little GHG and of environmentally friendly production methods;

45. Calls on the Commission to revise its proposal for sustainability criteria for biofuels, establishing stricter requirements for climate and ecosystems benefits, also taking into account the effects of indirect land use change and development consequences for local communities; emphasises that sustainability criteria must not become new protectionist measures but should be designed in dialogue with developing countries;

46. Believes that the proposed Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund is a remarkable instrument in this framework and that it could play an important role in energy-efficiency projects and in promoting renewable energy in developing countries;

47. Calls on the Commission to urgently develop a comprehensive agenda to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, including promotion of Voluntary Partnership Agreements under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) programmes, and concrete proposals on funding mechanisms to present at the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 14) in Poznan in December 2008; reiterates the importance of such mechanisms providing compensation not only for avoided GHG emissions, but also for biodiversity and development benefits of forests;

48. Regrets that the Commission is yet to come forward with clear, rigorous proposals to ban the import of illegally logged timber and timber products into the EU market; calls on the Commission to present such proposals without further delay;

49. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

(1) OJ C 46, 24.2.2006, p. 1.

(2) OJ C 25, 30.1.2008, p. 1.

(3) Regulation (EC) No 1905/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation (OJ L 378, 27.12.2006, p. 41).

(4) OJ C 139, 14.6.2006, p. 1.