Parliamentarians from across the world, meeting at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium, have adopted a Declaration on Climate Change, which will be conveyed to the COP17 this week.
Addressing the meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), organised jointly by the South African Parliament and the IPU, Speaker of South Africa’s National Assembly, Mr Max Sisulu said Members Parliaments had to influence climate change outcomes to ensure these were in the interests of the people they served.
“The voices of Parliamentarians as the representatives of the people we serve are the strongest voices of persuasion at local, national, regional and international level. We must use this leverage to bring about positive action and positive change. As Parliamentarians we must ensure that we are the centre of the dialogue on climate change at all times. Let us also send a clear message from the global parliamentary community to COP17, through the declaration on climate change, and let us use this Declaration as a platform for future work on climate change,” Mr Sisulu said.
Among other things, the declaration:
- Reiterates that a transparent and open multilateral process under the UNFCCC is the only forum for negotiations on climate change and that it is necessary to ensure that the interests of the developing countries, in particular the most vulnerable, are protected.Reaffirms the urgent need to support developing countries in their adaptation efforts, particularly the most vulnerable of the small island developing States (SIDS), the least developed countries (LDCs) and countries in Africa.
- Calls on the Parties to prioritise disaster risk reduction and capacity-building as cross-cutting issues and to give the matter their utmost attention.
- Urges mobilisation of financial resources and transfer of technology by developed country Parties as per their commitment under the UNFCCC to deal with climate change and that governance issues and institutional arrangements be dealt with transparently and efficiently, ensuring accessibility and an equal footing for developed and developing countries in the governance and administration of climate funds and technology flows.
- Calls for operationalisation of all the institutions established under the Cancún Agreements, including the Adaptation Committee, the Technology Executive Committee, Centre and Network, the Registry, the Work Programme and Forum on the Response Measures, and the Green Climate Fund.
- Reaffirms the strong belief that parliaments should be granted an appropriate status at the UNFCCC negotiations process and undertaking to campaign for the attainment of this objective.
- Resolves to enhance parliaments’ oversight of government action and commitments relating to climate change negotiations and to advance peer support to those parliaments that are less able to fulfill their oversight functions.
The full declaration is available at: www.ipu.org.
