JAMAICA is buoyed by the climate negotiations held in Cancún, Mexico recently, although they did not yield all the hoped-for outcomes.

“The outcomes are possibly not what we were hoping for. However, we have some outcomes that should really pave the way for future decisions under the Convention (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change),” said Jeffrey Spooner, a meteorologist and one of Jamaica’s senior climate negotiators.

“We had some movement with the low-hanging fruits — adaptation, technology development and transfer, and under finance as well,” he added.

The decisions, which have been dubbed the Cancún Agreements, include:

* a new Cancún Adaptation Framework to allow better planning and implementation of adaptation projects in the developing world through increased financial and technical support;

* a technology mechanism with a Technology Executive Committee and Climate Technology Centre and Network to increase technology co-operation to support adaptation and mitigation actions; and

* the establishment of a process to design a Green Climate Fund under the Conference of the Parties, with a board with equal representation from developed and developing countries.

Importantly, Spooner said that Cancún had also seen a renewal of faith in the United Nations process, following last year’s proceedings in Copenhagen which have been described as a failure by many.

“The whole transparency of the UN process has been re-established, has been reaffirmed. It is felt that it is more party-driven, that it is more inclusive,” he said. to meet with people who support the no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (rise in global temperature), the 350 ppm (parts per million rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere) and the peaking time of 2015 (for greenhouse gases) and so on,” noted Spooner, who also represents the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean on the Adaptation Fund Board. “So we continue to meet with people who have been supporting financing for adaptation and so… with our like-minded negotiating blocs and try to negotiate with our other partners.”

At the same time, he said there is a role for civil society to play if the interest of small island developing states is to be served in the process of the international negotiations.

“We need lobby, not only nationally but also internationally. So we need the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to really press for these outcomes,” he said. “The negotiators alone cannot do it. We need the NGO community to also come on board and to actually highlight those who are obstructing progress.”

The developing world, and especially small island states, has long called for immediate action on climate change to which they are among the world’s most vulnerable. The changing climate — fuelled by the increasing emission of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — holds a host of threats. Those threats include:

* rising sea levels to which island nations are most susceptible, and the associated loss of coastal livelihoods;

* warmer global temperatures and the associated increase in diseases such as dengue; and

* more extreme weather events, notably droughts and hurricanes, which in turn threaten the agriculture sector on which many Jamaicans are reliant.

There are also larger implications for development since susceptibility to extreme weather events could potentially impede a country’s ability to attract insurance, for example, for various industries.