COP23 Perspectives

Posted by: Anna McGinn The Fijian presidency gaveled COP23 to a close just before 7am on Saturday, November 18 after a full night and early morning of negotiations. You can see the details of what happened over the course of the evening here . The overall document coming out of COP23 is the Fiji Momentum for Implementation . Some of the major points of interest include: A focus on preparing for COP24 which will take place next year at this time in Poland. It is clear that parties are working towards larger decisions that ought to happen at that time. They are even calling for an additional negotiating session between the usual May session and COP24 in order to be adequately prepared for COP24. The document launches the Talanoa Dialogue  which will begin in 2018. It includes an informal note from the COP22 and COP23 presidency laying out the design of the dialogue.  There is an emphasis, at least in terms of space dedicated in the document, on p re-2020 ambition . T...

Cindy Isenhour On Wednesday Anna and I decided to pop into a press conference. The occasion was the release of the 2017 Climate Change Performance Index, a yearly ranking of national mitigation efforts. Research in multiple disciplines suggests that rankings and referential data like this can serve as an important source of motivation for decision makers, particularly when they are outperformed by their benchmark or aspirational reference groups.  It's important work and German Watch, the Climate Action Network and the New Climate Institute should be lauded. In this year's report, there were no countries taking first, second or third place.  This clever device was meant to draw attention to the fact that no country is currently on a Paris-compatible path.  In fourth place was Sweden, a country that has long been celebrated as an international leader in climate mitigation (having reduced the carbon intensity of their economy by 72% since 1990).  But, having cond...

Posted by: Anna McGinn To get in the right mindset for this post, I refer you to a song that has been stuck in my head for the past two weeks-- Hamilton's  The Room Where it Happens . Now that you have listened to that, imagine me waiting outside a negotiating room to see if they will let me, an observer, into the room.  Lin-Manuel Miranda's  line runs through my head, "I…. wanna be in the room where it happens, the room where it happens." During the second week at COP, the urgency to bring agenda items to some form of conclusion is heightened, and as a result more and more meetings are closed to observers (people who are not part of country delegations).  As Will described in his post,  What stocktake are we talking about? , the countries decide that instead of the standard "informal consultations" on a subject matter, they will have informal informal consultations which means that they will meet with the facilitators in a session where the...

By: Will Kochtitzky Last week, I wrote a blog post about how we are increasingly monitoring greenhouse gases (GHG) from space. These efforts have been led by the European Union, US, and Japan Space Agencies with the launching of several satellites that are now measuring carbon dioxide and methane concentrations around the world every day from space. CO2 concentrations as measured from NASA's OCO-2 satellite (2014-2016) While the science of how we measure GHGs from space is fairly well established, the politics of it are just beginning. Because these satellites have not been in space for long, the political norms are just now being developed, especially with the global stocktake . As parties make pledges to the Paris Agreement, there is increasing pressure to accurately measure national emissions. How we measure emissions is something that has long been disputed. Measuring emissions is not so easy because uncertainties abound in how much carbon is actually emitted an...

By: Will Kochtitzky and Anna McGinn As you may have already heard on social media, the Trump administration tried to bring coal into the climate change conversation here at COP23 this past Monday. The event, "United States of America, MRI/NREL: The Role of Cleaner and More Efficient Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power in Climate Mitigation," was the only event hosted by the US federal government during the entire two week period (compared to over 100 events in past years). To most attendees at the COP, discussing coal as a climate solution is like bringing tobacco to a cancer conference, as the Guardian reported . Fortunately, the Trump administration was met with strong resistance.  A large contingent of delegates here at the COP planned a peaceful statement of resistance ahead of the event which was approved by the United Nations. A group lined up by the room hours before the start of the event to ensure that they would have seats in the room. Another large group gathered o...

By Aaron Strong Ministers from Chile and Honduras shake hands after Honduras joins the #BecauseTheOcean declaration at COP 23.  “A healthy climate requires a healthy ocean, and a healthy ocean requires a healthy climate.” This simply stated recognition of the fundamental role of the biological carbon pump and ocean heat sink in controlling global climate and the profound disruption of marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of people that rely on them caused by anthropogenic climate change and ocean acidification has underpinned the work of a dedicated group of countries, NGOs, and scientists who have been working since the meeting in Paris two years ago.             These groups have been working to “bring the ocean into the UNFCCC process.” In Paris, the #BecauseTheOcean declaration, led by Monaco and Chile, with support from Tara Ocean Expeditions and the Ocean and Climate Platform, (1) called for the wo...

Cindy Isenhour As a first-timer to the COP, it is certainly easy to see how the process can be tiring - and particularly for representatives from nations with small delegations that simply can't be everywhere at once.  There are often multiple negotiations happening in parallel, not to mention the other side events, pavilion events, demonstrations and the basic necessities (like eating - I've seen many delegates rushing through the halls from session to session with a croissant in hand).  Today, in the spirit of solidarity and, generally, exhaustion - I offer a photo blog of my day.  I'll  get back to substance tomorrow! 9:00 Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organization (RINGO) daily meeting.  UMaine representatives Aaron Strong and Anna McGinn listen intently for opportunities to represent the group at closed negotiation sessions.   10.00 - 12.00 After nearly an hour of deadlock on the informal note presented by the facilitators, th...

Posted by: Anna McGinn In September 2015, the UN established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a follow on to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The idea behind setting these goals is to suggest ways in which countries and people can work to improve the human condition. Countries have agreed that these new SDGs should be achieved by 2030. Only two months later, countries gathered in Paris and successfully negotiated the Paris Agreement which is now the anchor for all conversations taking place here at COP23 and under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change more generally.  While the Paris Agreement does not specifically call out the SDGs, it references the need to work "in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty" throughout the text. As climate action is one of the 17 SDGs-- it is SDG 13-- there is a direct tie between these two UN efforts.  In the age of the MDGs, they were not at the forefront ...

Posted by: Anna McGinn Check out what we have been up to over the past week and a half through some photos. Many of the photos connect back to other blog post, so be sure to read on! COP23 Reception for all country and non-country delegates. Marine life at COP23 Celebrating climate action in downtown Bonn. Entrance to the COP- Welcome, Bula, Willkommen! Greenpeace boat on the Rhine River which runs through Bonn. Preparation for the opening ceremony of the COP. See post about opening ceremony here . Opening ceremony of the COP features ocean theme. See post about opening ceremony here. Side events are one of the main streams of activities at the COP. Their main objective is knowledge sharing. High level panel featuring the President of COP23 (the Prime Minister of Fiji), the Minister of Environment from Germany, and the Secretariat of the UNFCCC. More on this in an earlier blog post. Event to recap a day of negotiations. US ne...