Dr.DEBESH BHOWMIK

Dr.DEBESH BHOWMIK

Saturday 15 November 2014

25TH ASEAN SUMMIT AND CLIMATE CHANGE





ASEAN JOINT STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE 2014

WE
, the Heads of State/Government of Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the
Republic of Indonesia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Republic of the
Union of Myanmar, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom
of Thailand and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Member States of ASEAN, on the
occasion of the 25th ASEAN Summit;
REMEMBERING
our commitments made in the Nay Pyi Taw Declaration on Realisation of
the ASEAN Community by 2015 (2014);
ASEAN Action Plan on Joint Response to ClimateChange (2012);
the ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on Climate Change to the 17th
Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7thSession of the COP serving as the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (2011); the ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on Joint Response to Climate Change (2010); the ASEAN Joint Statement on Climate Change to the 15th Session of the COP to the UNFCCC and the 5th Session of the COP serving as the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (2009); the ASEAN Declaration on the 13th
session of COP to the UNFCCC and the 3rd session of the CMP to the Kyoto Protocol (2007); and the ASEAN Declaration on Environmental Sustainability (2007);
NOTING the wide ranging and collaborative research and policy development work in recent
years by ASEAN Member States on sustainable development, land use and landscapes,
and on forest conservation and governance, as recognised, for example, at the Forests Asia
Summit 2014;
REITERATING
our commitment to the UNFCCC, and its principles and provisions, as a framework for international collaboration on climate change mitigation and adaptation;
REAFFIRMING
the UNFCCC’s core principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and
that developed country Parties should take the lead in combating climate change and
the adverse effects thereof in accordance with this principle, while agreeing that renewed
efforts by all Parties to the UNFCCC are required to ensure mitigation goals are met;
WELCOMING
the Warsaw Framework for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation
(REDD+), and the financial support provided by the United States,Norway and t
he United Kingdom, as an important outcome of COP19 and a critical step in
better valuing and protecting global forest carbon stocks;
PRAISING
strengthened efforts to mobilize the long term financing commitments from
developed countries to support developing countries and least developed countries in
pursuing ambitious mitigation and adaptation efforts;
RECOGNIZING
the United Nations Climate Summit held in New York on 23 September 2014;
HIGHLIGHTING
the urgency with which renewed mitigation efforts are required given the
latest reports prepared for the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Fifth
Assessment Report (AR5) predict that, without additional mitigation, global mean surface
FINAL

temperatures will increase in 2100 from 3.7°C to 4.8°C compared to pre industrial levels,
and that substantial reductions beyond 2020 will be required to limit temperature change to
2°C relative to pre industrial levels;
POINTING
to the clear evidence of climate change in our region over the past four decades,
which has major consequences for agriculture, energy supply and livelihoods;
REEMPHASISING
that climate change is already having significant impacts causing major
loss and damage throughout the ASEAN region, and disproportionately affecting developing
countries, with the experiences with Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and Typhoon Haiyan in the
Philippines providing stark evidence of the destructive impacts and disaster prone nature of
the region that cannot be ignored;
RECOGNISING
the important role that forest conserva tion and sustainable management of
forests throughout ASEAN will play in helping to mitigate global climate change, reduce the
risks of extreme weather events and other climatedriven disasters, and provide sustainable
economic livelihood opportunities for local communities;
WELCOMING
decision 1/CP.17 of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in which
Parties decided to launch a process to develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an
agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties by 2015 to be implemented from 2020; and recognising that the 2015 global agreement must be balanced and comprehensive, including key areas of the Durban mandate such as mitigation,adaptation and means of implementation;
ACKNOWLEDGING
that universal participation is an essential ingredient for greater ambition in the 2015 agreement and in that regard, all Parties have a common obligation to
submit an intended nationally determined contribution as part of the 2015 global agreement,
while rec allingthe principle of common but differentiated responsibilities;
EXPRESSING
the view that technology transfer, capacity building and financial assistance
from developed countries to developing countries are vital to supporting
Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and other activities on climate change effectively and efficiently in the long run;
VALUING
the importance of pursuing climate change mitigation and adaptation actions that
are consistent with broader sustainable development goals to the achievement of food
security and poverty alleviation throughout the ASEAN region;
RECOGNIZING
the progress made in the implementation of the ASEAN Multi Sectoral
Framework on Climate Change: Agricultur e and Forestry towards Food Security (AFCC), the ASEANGerman Program on Climate Change: Agriculture, Forestry and related sectors
(GAP CC) through newly proposed ‘Forestry and Climate Change (FORCC)’, and the
ASEAN Swiss Partnership Programme on Social Forestry and Climate Change (ASFCC)
endorsed by the 36th Meeting of ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (36th AMAF);
ACKNOWLEDGING
the role of regional forums, including ASEAN, in supporting countries tocollaborate on the local, regional and global challenges of climate change;
DO HEREBY DECLARE TO:
1.
CALL
upon all Parties to the UNFCCC, including ASEAN Member States, to
take note of the findings in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report;
2.
URGE
Parties to take immediate action on ratifying the Doha Amendments to the
second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol;

3.
AFFIRM
that increasing pre-2020 ambition must be primarily achieved through the
implementation of the 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and the outcomes
of the Bali Action Plan in accord ance with principles and provisions of the Convention, with
developed country Parties taking the lead;
4.
CONTINUE
to investigate increased renewable energy and energy efficiency potential
throughout the ASEAN region in recognition that such efforts can be the fastest and
most efficient way of closing the “ambition gap”;
5.
CALL
upon all Parties to the UNFCCC, including ASEAN Member States, to work
effectively and in good faith to adopt a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed
outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all by the end of 2015, and to
table their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions well in advance of COP-21 in Paris
in December 2015 or by first quarter 2015 by those Parties ready to do so;
6.
URGE
developed countries to continue to show leadership, recognising historical
responsibilities, including by coming forward early with ambitious Intended Nationally
Determined Contributions by March 2015;
7.
AFFIRM
that we will put forward our Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
well in advance of COP-21 in Paris, or by first quarter 2015 for those Parties ready to do so,
as mandated by the decisions reached at COP-19 in Warsaw. These Intended Nationally
Determined Contributions will reflect our diverse national circumstances and be made in
accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and contribute to
a 2015 agreement that is under the Convention and applicable to all Parties;
8.
REQUEST
support for developing countries and least developed countries in the
context of paragraph 2(d) of decision 1/C.19 in the preparation of Intended Nationally
Determined Contributions, and to pursue low carbon development opportunities that can
enable new mitigation efforts, especially focusing on renewable energy development, energy efficiency,and clean fossil energy technologies and forestry, to be included in their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions;
9.
URGE
developed countries to provide assistance to ASEAN Member States to enhance protection of the remaining forests,biodiversity and ecosystem services that can contribute to ambitious forest conservation and sustainable forest management goals in ASEAN Member States’ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions;
10.
URGE
all Parties to the UNFCCC to recognise the extreme vulnerability of ASEAN
Member States to climate change, and therefore the importance of adaptation activities and
enhancing capacity in the 2015 agreement;
11.
SUPPORT
the notion that apart from mitigation, contributions could also include
adapt ation, in the context that all Parties would submit intended contributions which are
nationally determined;
12.
ENCOURAGE
Parties to the UNFCCC to develop adaptation strategies that are consistent with, and address the threats identified in, the IPCC AR5 Working Group II report
on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation;
13.
UNDERTAKE
concerted efforts to systematically rehabilitate our region’s mangrove
forests, in recognition of their critically important roles in mitigation and adaptation,
particularly their provision of disaster risk reduction services by minimizing the impacts of
coastal storms and flooding;
14.
ENCOURAGE
developed countries to recognise the potential to support the ASEAN
region to continue transition to renewable energy sources and increasing energy efficiency, as part of efforts to embrace low carbon futures;
15.
ENCOURAGE
developed countries to increase commitments, in terms of capacity building, technical assistance, technological transfer and financing, for developing countries
and least developed countries to pursue ambitious mitigation and adaptation objectives in
Intended Nationally Determined Contributions;
16.
ENCOURAGE
developed countries to accelerate their contributions to theGreen Climate Fund, to mobilise it as a matter of priority, noting that the distribution process should be effective, predictable and easy to access;
17.
AFFIRM
that finalisation and operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Mechanism is of urgent priority, and welcome the application of insurance oriented financial mechanisms,
such as crop insurance, throughout the ASEAN region with the support of
developed countries;
18.
AGREE
that enhanced financing from developed countries is critical for least developed countries and developing countries to pursue green economy pathways that can
preserve forest carbon sinks and to adapt to the emerging risks of climate change;
19.
ENCOURAGE
developed countries to prioritise financial and technological support for developing countries and least developed countries to rapidly pursue decentralized renew
able energy supply options, which is critical to allow poor communities currently
lacking electricity to pursue a clean energy future;
20.
ENHANCE
the potential of REDD+ to contribute to green development by protecting the remaining global forest carbon stock s and biodiversity resources, enhancing forest
carbon stocks and thereby increasing carbon removal reversing land degradation,
providing green products by sustaining management of forests improving the livelihoods of the rural poor, and aiding adaptation and mitigation efforts;
21.
ENCOURAGE
ASEAN Member States to strengthen existing regional collaborations,including in REDD+ readiness activities in order to capitalise opportunities under REDD+
framework and future climate regime, recognizing differences innational circumstances and
arrangement of REDD+ and/or forest related programmes in individual ASEAN Member
States.
22.
ENCOURAGE
all Parties to the UNFCCC to ensure that sustainable REDD+financing mechanisms are developed and implemented in order to enhance the potential forREDD+ to contribute significantly to global mitigation objectives;
23.
URGE
all Parties to progress in results-based REDD+ financing, taking intoconsideration conditions relating to forest protection and the rights of indigenous peoples
and local communities, and the principle that local communities and governments should be
supported in promoting genuine efforts to halt deforestation;
24.
REITERATE

countries with REDD+ implementation, including the incorporation of non-carbon benefits
into systems and activities, taking into account different phases of REDD+ implementation in developing countries;
25.
ENCOURAGE
developed countries to fully implement obligations regarding land use,land use change and forestry, noting that all future actions or negotiations concerning land use land use, change and forestry should take into account the full range of ecosystem services provided by forests and wetlands;
26.
ENCOURAGE
the establishment of a network of research centres in ASEAN Member States to share knowledge and lessons learnt on climate adaptable agriculturalproducts, which will enable us to combat the impacts of climate change on agricultural production patterns and promote regional food security;
27.
INCREASE
our cooperation to improve our collective capacity to deal with climate and weather management, including undertaking collaborative research to better under stand
how climate change will influence the weather systems of the ASEAN region and
technology development on climate outlooks and forecasting to better manage risks, building the capacity of decision makers from different sectors and different geographic
scales to link climate knowledge with humanitarian and development action, and developing regional-scale, high resolution climate models for the ASEAN region;
28.
STRENGTHEN
ASEAN rapid response capacity to be more efficient and effective in the event of natu
ral disasters through existing mechanisms under the ASEAN Agreement on
Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER);
29.
STRESS
the importance of fast capitalization of the Adaptation Fund to continue funding priority projects since countries are alrea dy affected by climate change;
30.
SEEK
assistance in the form of technology transfer, for both the public and private sectors to support strengthened mitigation and adaptation efforts, which should be easily
transferrable, subject to low costs and exempt fro munreasonable patent fees;
31.
REQUEST
ongoing support from developed countries to ASEAN Member States to better understand, develop and implement Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) process;
32.
CONTINUE
to promote ASEAN’s experiences in other regional forums to progress collaborative efforts on climate change;
33.
COMMIT
ourselves to pursuing a successful COP20 as a crucial step towards elaborating a 2015 agreement at COP21 for the post-2020 period.Adopted in Nay Pyi Taw, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, this Twelfth Day of November
in the Year Two Thousand and Fourteen.



Tuesday 11 November 2014

GLOBAL HUNGER


Global monitoring of FAO hunger target

In 1996 the World Food Summit (WFS) set the target of ''eradicating hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015". In 2000, the Millennium Declaration (MD) promoted the target to ''halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger''.
FAO received the mandate of monitoring progress towards the objectives set by the WFS and the MDGs. For this reason, the FAO statistics division rigorously and continuously works on the methodology and the parameters needed for estimating the prevalence of undernourishment.

Methodological framework

In 2011-12 the FAO methodology for estimating the prevalence of undernourishment went through a deep review, to identify the most appropriate model to describe the habitual dietary energy consumption in the population and improve the estimation of its parameters. In particular, it was introduced the skew-normal distribution.
Further refinements of the methodology were introduced in the SOFI 2014 edition. Available micro-data from surveys are now used to identify the most appropriate functional form for the habitual energy consumption. A new outlier detection method was introduced for micro-data, based on a "leave-out one cross-validation" approach. And a new estimation method was introduced to estimate variability in habitual energy consumption for countries where no survey data are available, based on the observed relation between the Coefficient of Variation, GDP per capita, the income Gini coefficient and food prices. Changes are described in detail here

Food Balance Sheets

Food Balance Sheets (FBS) provide essential information on the food system of a country. They look at: 
i) the domestic supply of food commodities
ii) the domestic food utilization
iii) the food supply available for human consumption.
The Dietary Energy Supply (DES) derived from the Food Balance Sheets is also used for estimating the prevalence of undernourishment at national, regional and global levels.  
Food Balance Sheets are prepared by FAO using official statistics provided by the countries. They are updated annually and are available for nearly all countries.

Processing food data from household surveys

Food consumption data from National Household Surveys are analyzed to compute a set of food security statistics at national and sub-national levels (including gender disaggregated data) and to derive coefficients on the distribution of food consumption within the population (coefficients of variation and skewness). The latter are then used to estimate the prevalence of undernourishment.

Capacity development  

Capacity development is provided on the analysis of food consumption data. The main objective is to strengthen the national capacity to produce and use food security statistics derived from National Household Surveys. Technical support is also offered for the design of proper food consumption and food security modules to be included in household surveys.

Automatized processing of food data: ADePT-FSM software

In collaboration with the World Bank, FAO has developed software – the ADePT FSM – that aims at improving the consistency and availability of food security statistics extracted from National Household Surveys (Household Budget Surveys, etc.) containing food consumption data. The derived food security statistics are crucial to assess and monitor food security at national and sub-national levels and inform food security programmes.

Food Security indicators

In line with the recommendations made at the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Round Table on hunger measurement (September 2011), the FAO Statistics Division has compiled food security indicators aimed at capturing various aspects of food insecurity. The suite of indicators was first launched in the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012, and it was analysed and further developed and analysed in the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013 and the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014 reports.