The Environment Ministers of Central America and the Dominican Republic set common positions for COP 17 on topics including the loss and damage mechanism, setting financial contributions for Annex I Parties, the Green Climate Fund, technology transfer and intellectual property related to climate change.
November 2011: The Environment Ministers of the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic adopted a set of common positions regarding the climate change negotiations to be held in Durban, South Africa, stressing issues related to adaptation, financial assistance and technology transfer.
At their meeting from 22-23 November 2011, Ministers in the the Council of Ministers of the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD) reiterated their support for the Bali Road Map and for a second period of emission commitments, and repeated their calls for developed countries and large emitters to realize significant greenhouse gas emission reductions. They also signaled their readiness to continue with voluntary mitigation efforts as long as developed countries meet their promises and commitments to offer necessary, sufficient, predictable support for such measures that is additional to ordinary aid flows.
The Ministers underscored that adaptation is their top priority, and called for COP 17 to decide on the functional structure needed for the Adaptation Committee, and for enough progress to be made on the loss and damage mechanism so that COP 18 would be able to launch the mechanism.
On financing, the Ministers called for: fixing contribution levels for Annex I Parties as a percentage of gross domestic product; establishing a roadmap for long-term financing (2012-2020) that guarantees avoiding a gap in fund mobilization; COP 17 to decide on the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund, including defining the sources of Fund financing, and stressed that the Fund’s financing window for adaptation to be equal or greater than the window for mitigation.
The Central American Minister requested support for a regional center located in Central America for the generation and transference of technology related to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. They also asked that intellectual property rights be included in the climate negotiating agenda so as to guarantee access to technology on favorable terms. [document: Puntos de Posicionamiento de los Paises SICA Hacia Durban (in Spanish)]