Paris rulebook: extra meeting to be held in Bangkok as deadline of COP24 looms

May session of UN climate negotiations closed in Bonn with slow progress on the operational guidelines of the Paris Agreement, due to be finalized and adopted at COP24 in Katowice this December.

The implementation guidelines, also known as the “Paris rulebook”, are the essential step to put the 2015 global climate deal into practice. “The package being negotiated is highly technical and complex. We need to put it in place so that the world can monitor progress on climate action,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC.

During the two weeks of discussions in Bonn several contentious points emerged. The key sticking points reported by media and delegates are the long standing divide between developing and developed countries and the lack of progress on climate finance, with poorer countries asking their wealthier counterparts to provide more guarantee they will honour the promise of at least USD 100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020.

An extra session of preparatory talks on the Paris rulebook has been scheduled in September in Bangkok. The meeting will forward texts and draft decisions for adoption to the annual session of COP24.

In parallel to the formal negotiations, the Bonn meeting hosted the first session of the Talanoa Dialogue led by Fiji. “The Talanoa Dialogue has provided a broad and real picture of where we are and has set a new standard of conversation,” said the President-designate of COP24, Michał Kurtyka of Poland. “Now it is time to move from this preparatory phase of the dialogue to prepare for its political phase, which will take place at COP24,” he added.
All input received by 29 October 2018 will be included in the Talanoa Dialogue’s second, more political phase at COP24.

Among results achieved at the Bonn talks, there was the adoption of a roadmap for the next two and a half years on the “Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture”, a landmark initiative of COP23 for the agriculture negotiations under the climate convention which emphasizes the key role of agriculture and food security in the international climate change agenda.

Read more:

UNFCCC press release on the Bonn talks closing.

BBC article, UN climate stalemate sees extra week of talks added.

Share

who will survive
Article

Who Will Survive? A Journey to Climate-Proof Populations

Climate change is exacerbating problems such as habitat loss and extreme temperature fluctuations. With one in four species currently under threat of extinction, understanding which ones are better equipped to adapt, and hence survive, can provide valuable information for conservation efforts and policy choices.

Article

Nuclear Power Feeling the Heat

For the second time in less than one month Europe has been hit by an extreme heatwave. This time high temperatures have caused French nuclear power stations to decrease energy outputs due to unsafe levels of heat.

Tetsu Kubota
Interview

More comfort, less carbon: Climate resilient housing in the Global South

The Global South is both home to over 75% of the world’s urban population and at the same time urbanizing faster than anywhere else in the world. “Building low carbon, climate resilient and affordable housing is therefore a priority if we are to meet climate goals in these areas,” says Building Science expert and Professor at Hiroshima University, Tetsu Kubota.