We, the Council of Ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group), meeting in Brussels Belgium on 24th and 25th November 2015;
1. Reaffirm that the adverse impacts of climate change poses immediate and long-term significant risks to sustainable development efforts and threatens the very survival of the 79 developing countries, including 48 from Africa, 16 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacific, that make up the ACP Group.
2. Recognize that adapting to climate variability and climate change is of critical importance to enable ACP countries to contribute to poverty eradication and achieve sustainable economic development in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.
We therefore:
3. Strongly believe that the new agreement to be adopted in Paris should be a legally binding agreement under the Convention and in accordance with its principles, including the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and the principle of equity.
4. Stress that enhancing mitigation ambition in order to close the mitigation gap by 2020 is critical towards contributing to reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to a level that “prevents dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.
5. Call for additional support from the international community for the implementation of adaptation actions in all ACP countries, especially the Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries and African countries which are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, as well as slow onset impacts, many of which will have permanent and irreversible damage.
6. Acknowledge that the scientific evidence shows that drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are needed if the global goal to limit warming to well below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels is to be achieved. Consequently, the ACP Group urges developed countries to take the lead in further reducing their emissions such that the world can be on a pathway consistent with a temperature increase that is well below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, by the end of the century.
7. Emphasize that the 2015 Paris Agreement must ensure that climate finance is scaled up, adequate, new and additional, predictable, equitable, sustainable, to support, inter alia, adaptation, loss and damage and mitigation, technology development and transfer and capacity building to ACP countries.
8. Believe that REDD-plus can play an integral part of the 2015 Paris Agreement in order to contribute to the drastic reductions needed to limit global warming to well below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, as well as to support Sustainable Development.
9. Pledge our full support towards ensuring a 2015 Paris Agreement that will contribute, in a concrete manner, to the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, reduce the adverse impacts of climate change on all vulnerable communities in ACP Countries and protect planet earth for the present and future generations.
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