Countries Inch Forward On Paris Agreement Implementation As Bangkok Climate Talks Close

9 September 2018

UN Climate Press Release

SBSTA 48-2 plenary a the Bangkok Climate Change Conference, September 2018

Credit: UN Climate Chanage

SBSTA 48-2 plenary at the Bangkok Climate Change Conference

Bangkok, 9 September 2018 - Amid growing calls for urgent and strong climate change action, the supplementary Bangkok Climate Change Talks closed today with uneven progress on the guidelines that will tell the world how to implement the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The implementation guidelines are needed to unlock transparent and practical climate action across the globe.

The implementation guidelines have been under negotiation since 2016 and are set to be adopted at the annual climate change conference, COP24, to be held in Katowice, Poland in December.

“In Bangkok, there has been uneven progress on the elements of the climate change regime that countries are working towards,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change.

“This underlines the urgent need for continuing work in the coming weeks,” she added.

The Paris Agreement’s provisions that countries are working towards operationalizing include increased action to deal with the impacts of climate change and increased and transparent support for developing country action in the form of finance, technology cooperation and capacity-building.

Crucially, the provisions to be operationalized also include the goal of limiting global temperature increase this century to well below 2C, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5C through transparent and ambitious emission reductions.

“In preparation for COP24, it will be critical to achieve balance across all issues. This is important because all parts of the regime need to function together in an inter-connected manner,” Ms. Espinosa underlined.

Countries have been grappling with how to reflect the contributions and responsibilities of developed and developing countries given their different national circumstances.

Of key concern are items that relate to transparently and regularly communicating actions, as well as how to achieve full clarity on climate finance now and in the long-term.

“The Paris Agreement strikes a delicate balance to bring all countries together. We must recognize that countries have different realities at home. They have different levels of economic and social development that lead to different national situations,” said Ms. Espinosa.

“This needs to be reflected in the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement. This calls for a political solution, but time is running short. Leaders need to engage and help solve these issues well in advance of COP24,” she urged.

This year, the world has witnessed flood-related deaths, livelihoods wiped out by droughts and expensive infrastructure lost across large stretches of the developed and the developing world.

“Clearly, we need to increase climate action significantly. Clearly, fully implementing the Paris Agreement is the way to do this in a balanced, coordinated manner that leaves nobody behind. The secretariat stands ready to fully support countries towards this important outcome,” she added.

The officers that are presiding over the negotiations, as well as the current COP presidency held by Fiji and the in-coming Polish COP presidency have been working hard towards COP24.

“I want to express my sincere appreciation to the Presiding Officers, COP President Bainimarama and in-coming COP President Kurtyka for their strong commitment and hard work towards success at COP24,” Ms. Espinosa stated.

Watch the press conference Ms. Espinosa gave on Sunday 9 September here.

Contact for the media

Mr. Alexander Saier, Chief, Public Information and Media Services, UNFCCC, M: (66) 80 774 0607 / (49) 172 179 8835 / E: asaier@unfccc.int

About the UNFCCC

With 197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.