LDCs Urged to Move from Commitment to Urgent Action in Realizing Paris Pact

Addis Ababa October 15/2018 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) group urged members today to move from commitment to urgent action in implementing the Paris Agreement. Opening LDCs Group High Level Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change today, Outgoing Chair of LDCs Group Gemedo Dalle said “as least developed countries we have strong commitment from our side. Now we must move from commitment to action in terms of implementing the Paris agreement.” He noted the group had successfully negotiated the 1.5 degree Celsius goal crucial for protecting communities and ecosystems. Since the 1.5 degree Celsius goal is necessary and achievable it should be implemented urgently with reliable and natural climate solutions, Gemedo added. The Paris rule book or implementation guideline must also be finalized soon, if the preparations for long-term gas emission development strategies by 2020 are to be realized, he stressed. The chairperson pointed out that the next event (COP24) will be important to ensure a robust outcome on scaling up action and supporting to achieve the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature goal. “I am very pleased that most LDCs have submitted that very ambitious nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement for successful implementation of those targets and we need support to implement them”. He assured the participants that the least developed countries group will stand with one strong voice at COP24 which will be held in Talanoa Dialogue in December 2018. The incoming chair of LDCs Group, Sonam P.Wangdi from Bhutan said “we are very honored to this chairmanship for the trust to lead this LDC group and we will continue to provide our leadership.” LDCs are not the cause of environmental degradation but they are impacted the most and spending quite a lot of their development budget which the developed countries should be doing, he pointed out. Wangdi said if support is not forthcoming, the whole Paris agreement and trying to keep to 1.5 degree Celsius limit will be a huge challenge. The support is critical for implementing the climate action.