PEACE-MAKER

On Dec. 8, 2021, we in the 350-member International Conference of Political Parties (ICAPP) conducted a special conference on climate change, as our modest collective contribution in the battle against climate change. 

Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations, provided his invaluable insights and expertise during the conference.
Indeed, the battle against climate change requires international cooperation and collaborative effort. 

In view of the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP28, in Dubai, we wish to share part of our statement:

“We shared the view that we are on the verge of a climate crisis and the entire ecosystem is already facing serious adverse impacts of rising temperatures, as provided by the indisputable scientific evidence of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Report on 9 August 2021. Climate change is an urgent and critical global threat that reaches beyond the environmental agenda, posing economic, social, technological, and even human rights related challenges as well. Bolder and specific commitment and rapid, coherent and collective actions are necessary to protect, conserve and restore nature and ecosystems to achieve the Paris Agreement temperature goal in this critical decade. In this regard, we recognized our common but differentiated responsibilities with respective capabilities in the light of different national circumstances and in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty. In particular, we take into account the needs of developing countries that are vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and the devastating impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We underlined the importance of moving swiftly for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement to secure global net zero around mid-century and to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. We would increase our efforts to adopt national policies to transition towards low-emission energy systems through clean power generation and energy efficiency measures including the phase-down of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. In this regard, we reaffirm our collective commitment that all Asian countries should communicate new or updated nationally determined contributions with the strengthened 2030 targets as soon as possible in advance of the fourth Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement in 2022. We also put great importance on the long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies and other actions that demonstrate progress towards the achievement of the Paris Agreement temperature goal.

“We called upon political parties, governments, and private sectors to work together for bolder actions within a clearer and more ambitious policy framework in the race to net-zero, for the benefit of people today and the generations to come. In this regard, we urged our governments to create policies that incentivize investment in clean energy sectors and to promote funding or research and development to reinforce the productivity of clean energy transition. We recognized the importance of the private sector to enhance finance mobilization in order to deliver the scale of resources needed to achieve climate plans.  We would work together with governments to explore innovative approaches and instruments for mobilizing finance from private sources. We also urged investors and other financial firms to make sure they support the transition to net zero by taking climate change into account in making financial decisions and investments.

“We, as political parties representing voice of the people, recognized that a rapid transition to net zero cannot be achieved without sustained support or participation of citizens. In this regard, we reaffirmed that consumer choices such as retrofitting a house with energy-efficient technologies and green urban design to reduce the dwellers’ carbon footprints such as by promoting digitalization in service demand are important for emission reductions. We also need to ensure that clean energy transitions are people-centered and inclusive which by use using policy tools in support of the poorest including tax credits, loans, and targeted subsidies. This also requires careful policy attention to minimize hardships associated with the employment losses as fossil fuels declines. 

“We are of the view that strengthened multilateral and regional cooperation, proactive domestic regulatory reform, as well as effective private sector engagement will be essential to ensuring that the economic transformation needed to mitigate the climate crisis takes place. In particular, global and regional collaboration is pivotal to achieving net zero, to develop green and low-carbon post-Covid-19 recovery strategies and policies, and to enhance adaptive capacity, with a particular focus on supporting the least developed, landlocked developing, and small island developing countries.”