At the pre-22d Conference of Parties (COP22) sub-regional meeting which took place last week at the League of Arab States (LAS), representatives of 14 Arab countries and officials from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) discussed a number of issues related to the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) and climate finance.
Country representatives and their FAO counterparts discussed areas of collaboration between FAO and the LAS member countries on agriculture and climate change in the context of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda as well as thematic priorities for climate finance and support through the GCF, GEF (with a new GEF cycle, GEF 7, starting in 2018) and the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN).
The meeting kicked off Monday 3 October and concluded Wednesday 5 October. Four working sessions focused on the Paris Agreement and Agriculture and sought to achieve better understanding of the key elements of the Paris Agreement and challenges for its implementation. It also sought better understanding of the elements related to agriculture, water, fisheries and forests in the Paris Agreement and their relevance in the implementation of INDCs and other policies, especially those related to food security. It also included a presentation by FAO and UNFCC.
The sessions were held under themes of the role of forests, water, fishery and agriculture in INDCs, the implementation of the agricultural components of INDCs in in the context of the 2030 Development Agenda, and priority areas for joint action and identified priority topics and capacity gaps for collaboration at sub-regional level and with FAO.
Participants discussed domestic and international finance for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the agricultural components of NDCs. This included experience-sharing, identification of financing gaps, and enhancing South-South cooperation for knowledge transfer and capacity building on the design of institutional arrangements and mechanisms for funding climate action in the agriculture, water, fishery and forestry sectors.
Watani International
9 October 2016