Commonwealth agrees on legally-binding pledge to counter climate change

Ahead of a UN summit in Paris, Commonwealth issue joint statement backing a legally-binding global agreement to tackle climate change

Ahead of next week's crucial UN climate change summit, Commonwealth nations have backed a legally-binding global climate deal that reflects different countries' unique national circumstances. In a joint statement released during the CHOGM summit, the 53 nations have also suggested that they might be willing to support an ambitious attempt to hold the increase in global average temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Commonwealth nations agreed to support vulnerable states and communities in building their capacity for resilience and adaptation to climate change - particularly rising sea levels, desertification and extreme weather. Developed Commonwealth nations have reaffirmed their pledge to mobilise $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries adapt and mitigate to climate change effects.

“This is a satisfactory and very timely statement, ahead of the Paris summit,” Mauritius Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth told a press conference. “It’s proof that the Commonwealth is once again leading the way through concrete action to counter climate change. The results of the summit must be bold and ambitious, and countries’ access to finance and technology to help counter climate change must be at the heart of discussions.”

However, a footnote at the end of the statement notes that one Commonwealth country had “expressed reservations about parts of the statement”. When asked, outgoing Commonwealth secretary-general Kamalesh Sharma refused to divulge that information “so as to emphasize the unity and solidarity expressed in this statement”.

The statement will be read out at the France UN summit next week by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, as the Commonwealth’s chair-in-office.

“We are deeply concerned about the threat posed by climate change, which continues to grow and to put at risk the economic, social, environmental, and cultural well-being of our member states and citizens,” the statement reads. “Many of our most vulnerable states and communities are already facing the adverse impacts of climate change, which can roll back decades of development gains; for some it represents an existential threat.

“Some are already suffering significant loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change. The consequences of climate change can be a national catastrophe, requiring urgent response and adequate support”.

It specifically recalls Malta’s initiative in 1988 that resulted in the United Nations General Assembly recognizing that “climate change is a common concern of mankind, since climate is an essential condition which sustains life on earth”.