COP24 climate negotiations commence at Katowice, Poland
The twenty-fourth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (COP 24) commenced in Poland this weekend and it will be a busy two weeks ahead for negotiators. COP24 opened on Sunday 2 December 2018, earlier than usual, to maximise time for negotiations. While many remain optimistic about what can be achieved, a changing geopolitical landscape and the sheer volume of work to be done at COP24 may create limitations at a time when enhanced action and timeliness is required.
In France, protestors have taken aim at President Macron’s diesel taxes and recent elections in Brazil have seen the elevation of a Foreign Minister who reportedly sees the move to limit global warming as a Marxist plot. In turning back the clock, many will recall that Brazil hosted the 1992 Earth Summit at which the UNFCCC text opened for signature. On the plus side, the US and China seem to have signalled space for trade negotiation, pausing their mutual introduction of new tariffs. Add to this the UK Parliament's vote on Brexit, which is also due to take place over the coming fortnight.
In many ways the architecture of the Paris Agreement enables it to withstand the ebbs and flows of global politics, given the central nature of nationally determined contributions (targets). However these issues could present material challenges to achieving full implementation of the Paris Agreement and the broad scale and robust action called for in the recent IPCC special report.
There are big items on the agenda at Katowice, including climate finance and how economies and industries will be supported to transition to a low carbon world (just transition issues). In addition, there are technically difficult and somewhat politicised elements to be agreed, such as operation of the transparency framework; NDC accounting and integrity matters; and Article 6 mechanisms. The private sector and other stakeholders will be watching for signals on the future of Kyoto Protocol flexibility mechanisms and related governance arrangements - including how these might interact (or not) with Article 6 and emerging sector schemes like the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
The COP24 Presidency is taking a multilayered approach to the first week of negotiations, which sees technical discussions take place with concurrent elevation of sticking points to heads of delegation, to facilitate efficient progress. A mid-point plenary will take stock of progress next weekend, before higher level involvement in the second week of negotiations. COP24 will have been a success if parties can achieve robust decision text on key elements of the Paris Agreement and a clear, coherent and time-bound work program for remaining technical matters for 2019.
I will be in Poland for the negotiations and look forward to providing updates.
~ Emily