According to sources present at the Marrakech conference, the first week has seen differences emerge over funding for adaptation and the mood is gloomy after Donald Trump's election
After a week of negotiations, some of them heated, on laying down rules to implement the Paris Climate agreement, the business end of the Marrakech International Climate conference is going to begin November 15, as heads of states and environment ministers will join the conference.
Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Anil Dave, is slated to speak at the conference on Wednesday. The high-level segment will proceed under a cloud of uncertainty regarding the Paris deal's future as Donald Trump, who has publicly called for pulling out of the deal, was elected the next President of the United States of America.
In the first week of the conference, which began on November 7, sessions were held to discuss issues such as climate finance, reporting of climate action and accounting of climate finance. The conference will conclude on November 18.
According to sources present at the Marrakech conference, the first week has seen differences emerge over funding for adaptation and the mood is gloomy after Donald Trump's election. Climate adaptation is about taking measures to reduce the adverse impact of climate change, especially in Island countries and coastal towns, which are some of the worst affected due to climate change induced natural calamities and freak weather events.
In meetings on adaptation funds, developed countries have hinted that they do not want to continue with this fund, even as it was clearly mentioned in Paris treaty that this fund will continue.
"This fund is functioning very well. NABARD is a member and is able to receive money from it. Smaller projects are being funded. But developed countries don't seem keen on extending that. There were also discussions on loss and damaged mechanism and they did not go in the right direction," said Harjeet Singh, Global Lead on Climate Change, Action Aid.
Sanjay Vashist, Director, Climate Action Network, South Asia said, "Developed countries want to only take care of mitigation and not adaptation. They do not want to know challenges involved in adaptation. Since the term compensation was dropped from the Paris treaty for loss and damage due to climate change, developed countries do not want to discuss finance issues. But developing countries are fighting hard to keep it on board."
Though no country has put out any official word on scepticism regarding Paris treaty's future, there is palpable concern that even if Trump does not cancel the Paris agreement, he may push non-implementation. "Theoretically, there is a lock-in period of four years before US is able to pull out of the treaty. Despite the anxiety, countries are not letting it affect the agenda at hand," added Singh.
"The US has committed $3 billion for the Green Climate Fund over the next three years and if Trump decides to not finance it, who will fill the void?, added Vashist.
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