In Bonn, the world tries to make the Paris Agreement operational
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
Ahead of Cop 23, to be held in November, 196 countries have gathered in Bonn to try to implement the Paris Agreement. No easy task.
In Bonn, the world tries to make the Paris Agreement operational
Ahead of Cop 23, to be held in November, 196 countries have gathered in Bonn to try to implement the Paris Agreement. No easy task.
Since Monday 8 May (and until the 18th), members of the delegations sent by 196 nations from around the world have gathered in Bonn, Germany. That is, in the city that will host, this coming November, the Cop 23 negotiations, from which concrete progress is expected in the process of actually implementing the Paris Agreement, signed at the close of Cop 21 in 2015.
200 major investors to governments: "Act on climate"
Six months on from the shock caused by the election of climate sceptic Donald Trump to lead the United States, the participants in the meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Unfccc) appear determined to demonstrate that the process launched in the French capital is unstoppable. Supported in this by the approximately 200 major investors (representing something in the order of fifteen trillion dollars in assets) who, ahead of the G7 to be held at the end of May, have called on governments to act to avert climate catastrophe.
Over 200 investors with USD 15 trillion in assets urge rapid #ParisAgreement implementation bit.ly/2qGTxQ9 Letter to #G7 and #G20
The meeting under way in Bonn is "packed with technical and practical dossiers", explained Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the Unfccc, to the French daily Le Monde. In particular, the aim is to make headway on the so-called "rulebook" — the manual that will constitute the implementation framework for the Paris Agreement, which at Cop 22 in Marrakech it was decided to finalise by December 2018.
In Bonn, the "rulebook" and financing are on the table
In other words, the words contained in the Agreement need to be translated into concrete action. Even though the latter has so far been ratified by 144 of the 196 nations taking part in the negotiations: it will be necessary to establish the position of the roughly fifty governments that have so far maintained a lukewarm stance, bearing in mind that UN negotiations are customarily conducted "by consensus" (that is, by seeking unanimous agreement). On the other hand, however, non-governmental organisations continue to stress that the planet is already almost out of time and that swift action is therefore needed if the goal of limiting the rise in average global temperature — as agreed in Paris — to "a maximum of 2 degrees centigrade" is to be met, while trying to "remain as close as possible to 1.5 degrees".
Looking forward to May @UNFCCC meeting as opportunity to clearly advance implementation of #ParisAgreement bit.ly/2qHsOzO #SB46
The other dossier closely tied to the "rulebook" that will need to be addressed at the German session, and then at Cop 23, is the thorny issue of the funding that must be allocated for, on the one hand, ecological transition policies, and on the other, adaptation to climate change, above all in the areas that will be hardest hit. "The financial question is the glue that keeps all the participants at the table," commented Brandon Wu of the American NGO Christian Aid, with a touch of irony.
Will the United States keep its promises?
Well known is the promise made in 2009 in Copenhagen to allocate no less than 100 billion a year up to 2020 to help the most vulnerable countries in particular. But no agreement on this point has yet been reached. And some are already beginning to wonder whether the contribution of Donald Trump's United States will have to be called into question.