Day two of our Bonn trip commenced with us taking the wrong tram and needing to go around looking for directions (again). Instead of heading to COY, Lhavanya and I went for the G77 and China Pre-COP Coordination Meetings. This is my first experience in a negotiation bloc’s formal meeting and I was super excited about it. We were able to sit close to our national negotiators during the sessions and was fortunate to receive some guidance from them during the sessions.
G77 and China
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| Members of the G77 and China |
Established on 15 June 1964, the Group of Seventy-seven (G77) was established by seventy-seven developing countries during the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The group eventually grows into a prominent negotiation bloc and developed different chapters of the group. As of now, G77 membership stands at 134 countries but the name is still kept on the basis of historical significance. As most of the countries in G77 are from the Global South, G77 combines every member and pushes forward their collective interest and agenda in negotiations within the United Nations system. Regarding the participation of China, although it participates in G77 but is not considered as a member, the bloc is usually named as “G77 and China”.
Why Collective Negotiation?
The global south has been at a disadvantage in the negotiation halls due to the lack of representation. One way to combat this is to bring everyone’s concern together and present it as a collective message. So the G77 meetings allow countries’ negotiator to voice out their concerns and opinions, in a way make the negotiation more inclusive.
Negotiating in a bloc also allows the message to go through with more strength. Considering that most members in the G77 have similar objectives, it is more powerful to make demands in negotiations as a bloc rather than breaking outs into groups. Besides the G77 that mainly represents the Global South, the Global North also has its negotiation blocs for United Nations sessions.
Blocs within Bloc
Within G77 itself there also lies smaller blocs that have separate specific interests in the negotiation. These blocs will usually have their own agreement before bringing it to the G77 meetings that are used as a platform to gather the concerns from different blocs and iron out the disagreements before presenting a common message.
These groups include the: The Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean States (AILAC), Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Central Asia, Caucasus, Albania and Moldova (CACAM), Environmental Integrity Group (EIG), Least Developed States (LDC), Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDG), Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC).
General Stances of the G77 in the UNFCCC Negotiation
Seeing that most of the countries in the G77 and China are developing countries, their common stance in the negotiation is to uphold the Common but Differentiated Responsibility and Respective Capabilities (CBDRC). They assert that poverty eradication and economic development must be considered during negotiations, and demand for a just international system to support genuine global partnerships in solving environmental issues. On the basis of climate justice, the group demanded financial and technological support from developed countries. They also asserted the need for an equal emphasis on all issues including, inter alia, adaptation, mitigation, financial resources, technology transfer, and capacity building.
G77 and China will be focusing on continuing their technical work in COP23 in light of completing the work programme of the Paris Agreement (PA). They reiterated their stance on keeping negotiations open and transparent but not allowing any reinterpretation of the PA or the UNFCCC. With only one day left to COP, we are ready to see G77-China’s outlining of the concrete actions for the PA work programme.
Reference:
http://www.g77.org/doc/
https://www.globalpolicywatch.org/blog/2015/02/26/first-un-post-2015-development-agenda-session-southern-perspectives-on-broad-contours-principles-and-imperatives/