Leaders of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) call for unity, political leadership and commitment to raise ambition and climate action at COP26

In the margins of the Twenty-Sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) released an OACPS Leaders’ Statement on Climate Action for COP26, in Glasgow. OACPS Leaders reiterated that while climate change is an ever-increasing direct threat that spares no country, it is impacting most severely those that are more vulnerable and have less capacities to adapt such as Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Land-locked Developing Countries (LLDCs).

It is to be noted that most of the 79 Member States of the OACPS, are SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs. Following the meeting, the “OACPS Leaders Statement for COP26” was released, wherein OACPS Leaders inter alia call for COP26 to send a strong political signal and commitment to deliver the following key priorities:

• Increasing ambition on climate action, adopting a decision on NDC implementation timeframe, and, for developed countries, to maximise their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in pursuit of the objectives of the Paris Agreement, while affording flexibility to developing countries in the submission of NDCs based on varying national circumstances;
• Specifying and operationalising the Global Goal on Adaptation and increasing capacity building, technology transfer and, accessible, secure, predictable and additional finance for adaptation plans, programmes and actions especially in LDCs, SIDS and LLDCs;
• Reviewing the honouring of the USD 100 bn per year climate finance commitment, clarifying responsibilities for contributions to its achievement and agreeing on a substantial increase in coming years, ensuring more focus on adaptation needs and in particular on such needs of LDCs, SIDS and LLDCs; • Making the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage fully operational and backing up the pursuit of its objectives through the provision of financial contributions to relevant actions in developing countries; and,
• Addressing Intellectual property rights (IPRs) issues to ensure developing countries have access to patented technologies to facilitate their transition to low carbon economies, as well as further discussing and encouraging international cooperation to share technology that is in the public domain.

We invite you to read the full “OACPS Leaders Statement for Climate Action for COP26” here: