Forum on south-south cooperation for climate resilience held in Marrakech
A high level forum on the initiatives and challenges facing Southern countries in their efforts towards South-South cooperation to foster climate resilience was held on Monday at China Pavilion of the Co22 in Marrakech.
It was convened and attended by Morocco, China and the UN on the theme; “COP22, an opportunity to create partnership models to promote south-south cooperation on climate change.”
The Forum brought together Ministers from several developing countries as well as senior UN officials.
Themes related to south-south cooperation and climate change including capacity building, finance, technology and multi-stakeholder partnerships was discussed.
Salaheddine Mezouar, COP22 President, congratulated China for adding impetus to south-south cooperation saying that COP22 the conference afforded the Southern countries an important avenue to forge south-south partnership models on sustainable development and climate resilience.
Mr Xie Zhenhua, Chinese Special Representative on Climate Change Affairs, brought to light the initiatives led by China to help developing countries strengthen capacity on their low carbon adaptation and mitigation plans.
He said China has signed 27 Memorandums of Understanding with developing countries including material donations to counter climate change, adding that his country has been offering training in the field of fighting climate change in terms of sharing technology on solar energy and using satellites to set up early warning systems to help developing countries fight climate change.
Zhenhua stressed China’s willingness to strengthen cooperation with UN agencies to facilitate a global climate governance, while stressing his country’s resolve to forge ahead with the implementation of NDCs.
Mr David Nabarro, Special Advisor of the UN Secretary-General on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change said promoting south-south cooperation is part of the collective responsibility to unlock the full potential of the Paris Agreement.
Nabarro, who was representing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, saluted developing countries for their sustained voice in favour of climate justice and commended China for its flagship programme:
The South-South Cooperation Fund for Climate Change, which aims at helping developing countries tackle climate change effects.
He said UN agencies are adding to the momentum of south-south cooperation on climate change, citing in particular the launch by the UN Secretary General of the Southern Climate Partnership Incubator (SCPI), an initiative that aims at fostering partnerships among the Global South in the areas of renewable energy, climate resilience, smart cities and big data application.
“SCPI is leveraging the UN system to match the needs of developing countries with their counterparts willing and able to meeting them, “He said, stressing the close link between sustainable development and climate resilience.
“All development has to be low carbon,” Nabarro affirmed.
Madame Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UNFCC, indicated that south-south cooperation is complementary to north-south cooperation in the field of fighting climate change.
She shed light on several examples of successful south-south climate cooperation, saying that Morocco’s sustainable development cooperation with African countries particularly in the field of renewable energies stands as a model to follow by other southern countries.
Source: GNA