XOLISA NGWADLA
Africa Group Coordinator in the UNFCCC 2015 negotiations; Centre for Social and Industrial Research, South Africa; and Visiting Fellow, Climate Initiative, Centre for Policy Research
DISCUSSION THEME
The Africa Group, coordinated by South African UNFCCC negotiator, Xolisa Ngwadla, has been championing the adoption of a principle-based reference framework or an Equity Reference Framework (ERF) in the ongoing UNFCCC negotiations for a 2015 climate agreement. There is an emerging understanding that if the 2015 climate agreement is to be one that is stable, durable, effective in achieving the mitigation and adaptation objectives of the FCCC, and capable of attracting broad participation by all Parties in accordance with their differentiated treaty obligations, it must be one that is equitable. The proposals in the ongoing negotiations on equity however veer between those that favour the FCCC Annex-based method of differentiation to those that consider self-differentiation as satisfying all equity concerns. The ERF that occupies the middle ground between these two ends of the spectrum, and the intersection between the prescriptive and the facilitative (the ‘top-down’ and the ‘bottom-up) approaches, offers a credible and increasingly salient option for addressing the imperatives of equity in the 2015 agreement. In this seminar, Xolisa Ngwadla, will introduce the Equity Reference Framework, dispel myths surrounding its conceptualization, use and operation, and identify legal, architectural and technical options for the operationalization of the ERF in climate change regime. This seminar builds on the following paper: Ngwadla, X., and Rajamani, L., 2014. Operationalising an Equity Reference Framework (ERF) in the Climate Change Regime: Legal and technical perspectives. Cape Town: MAPS (Paper attached)
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Xolisa Ngwadla is on the South African delegation to the UNFCCC negotiations, and is Lead coordinator and negotiator for the Africa Group in the UNFCCC negotiations for a 2015 Agreement. He is also research leader of the global change competency area at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Natural Resources and the Environment, South Africa. His area of interest is national and international climate change policy discourse, with a particular interest on the economic and developmental impact. He has experience in agricultural research, environmental consulting, corporate business development, and multilateral climate change negotiations. Xolisa is an agricultural scientist in the fields of economics and plant breeding, with an MBA with environmental electives.
