Strengthen negotiation capacity to win climate talks battle

Speakers at a workshop in the city yesterday stressed building up the negotiation capacity of the developing countries in global climate talks to win the ongoing battle of climate change talks.
Delegates of developing countries need to better understand the legal aspects of climate politics and strengthen country's position at global level to enhance their legal and political capacity, they said.
Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and Oxfam-Bangladesh arranged the two-day workshop on “Legal briefing on UNFCCC negotiation” for Bangladesh team taking part in the climate talks.
About 25 participants including government officials, NGO members and media people are taking part in the workshop aimed at strengthening capacity to be aware of international laws with regards to global talks on climate change.
While inaugurating the workshop, Environment and Forest Secretary Dr Mihir Kanti Majumder said negotiations under the UNFCC and the Kyoto Protocol have become ever more complex, both the issues under discussion and the process of addressing them.
So, he said, the delegates need to augment resources as well as skills and knowledge to negotiate with larger delegations.
Coauthor of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) Prof Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said climate change is not now a geo- political issue. It is now related to social and cultural aspects as it posed threat to existence of mankind.
He said developing countries like Bangladesh have to strengthen their negotiation capacity as signing of a fair, ambitious and legally binding (FAB) climate agreement is not possible without their active participation.
Country Director of Oxfam-Bangladesh Gareth Price Jones said in the negotiation process the developed countries always intend to dominate the developing states especially the least developing countries (LDCs).
“But we have to keep our efforts up till a FAB climate deal is achieved,” he said.
Two lawyers from Oxfam's Legal Response Initiative (LRI) Raj Bavishi and Ilona Millar introduced the international climate laws, compliance mechanism of the laws as well as legal basis of the Copenhagen Accord.
Director General of DoE Monwar Hossain and Oxfam Policy and Advocacy Manager Ziaul Haque Mukta (policy and advocacy) also spoke on the occasion.
Organisers said the workshop would help build the skills and capacity of the Bangladesh delegation to negotiate more effectively in future meetings. Over the time the negotiators will build up expertise in different issues being negotiated, they hoped.