This year’s
United Nations climate conference, COP23, concluded on November 17 in Bonn,
under the presidency of Fiji, with nearly 200 countries taking steps forward to
ensure global climate action through implementation of the Paris Agreement, the
European Commission said.
“The spirit of Paris is very much alive. We
achieved progress in Bonn on the issues that were important to the EU, such as
the Paris Work Program,” Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias
Cañete said. “But we must continue to build on this momentum in the coming
months, because there is still a lot of work ahead of us before we meet in
Katowice next year. The main objective must be to keep the world firmly on the
path towards what was agreed two years ago in Paris,” he added.
The parties
made concrete progress on turning the historic 2015 agreement into action on
the ground across the world, ahead of next year’s UN climate conference in
Katowice, Poland.
The Paris
Agreement sets out a global framework for climate action and the necessary
transition to a low-carbon future in order to limit global warming to well
below 2°C. Under the Paris Agreement the EU has committed to reduce its
greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% till 2030 (1990 level).
The
European Union again had a central role in brokering agreements during the
two-week climate negotiations, the Commission said, noting that a sign of
climate leadership the EU announced on November 16 that it intends to deposit
the ratification instruments of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol by the
end of this year. The Doha Amendment concerns the second period of the Kyoto
Protocol, which requires parties to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by
the year 2020. The EU has already exceeded its 2020 targets in 2016 by having
decreased emissions by 23%. The decision to swiftly ratify the Doha Amendment
demonstrates our commitment to the international climate action and shows that
the EU makes good on its promises.
Concrete
steps forward were also taken on the work program for implementing the Paris
Agreement. Clarity on the design of the so-called “Talanoa Dialogue”
(Facilitative Dialogue) has been achieved looking at how global climate action
can be accelerated in the years to come. The Facilitative Dialogue next year
will be the opportunity for political stocktaking for the parties on progress
made on the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the Commission said.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/cop23-climate-talks-accelerate-paris-agreement-implementation/