Oceans to feature in UN climate talks, Indonesia announces

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 16 Jun 09;

The Indonesian government said Monday that international delegates attending recent climate talks in Bonn have agreed to place ocean issues on the official agenda for the upcoming UN climate conferences in Copenhagen.

A member of the Indonesian delegation that attended the Bonn discussions, Indroyono Soesilo, said now the link between ocean environments and climate change, as outlined in the Indonesian-sponsored Manado Ocean Declaration (MOD), had become part of the global agenda.

“The role of oceans in relation to climate change has been included in an official UN document. For Indonesia, which initiated the World Ocean Conference (WOC), it is a big achievement toward tackling climate issues,” Indroyono, an expert with the office of the Coordinating Minister of the People’s Welfare, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He said the five points of the MOD were listed in a document authored by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Actions (AWG-LCA), a body under the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The document will be addressed at the Copenhagen meeting in December.

The five issues include the need for adaptation funds, technology, scientific monitoring on the climate effects on oceans and the development of an integrated ocean observation system.

He said the Small Island Development States (SIDS), ASEAN countries, the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), the United States and Australia pushed for the inclusion of the MOD terms at the upcoming meeting.

“We need to promote it [oceans] until the Copenhagen meeting. We will lobby African nations and European countries to submit their papers on oceans,” he said.

There will be another three meetings of the AWG-LCA before the Copenhagen meet in December.

The Bonn climate meeting was held between June 1 and June 12 to discuss a new regime of emission reduction schemes to substitute the Kyoto Protocol, which will end in 2012.

The MOD, which was the official outcome of the WOC in Manado in May, requires countries to promote sustainable ocean management and ocean conservation.

The 74 countries that attended the WOC requested that the National Climate Change Council (DNPI) incorporate oceans into climate change talks at the UNFCCC.

Rachmat Witoelar, executive chairman of the DNPI and State Minister for the Environment, has said that once ocean issues are adopted as part of the UNFCCC agenda, the opportunity for nations with large ocean territories to profit from adaptation programs and technology will be significantly increased.

Indonesia has about 5.8 million square kilometers of marine territory.