Climate Diplomacy and COP23: Editorial
Dear Reader,
This year’s UN Climate Change conference is about to kick off in Bonn, Germany. In its wake, natural and political hurricanes have shaken the planet and will affect the climate at COP23. There promises to be a packed agenda with negotiations ongoing on the implementation of the Paris Agreement’s objectives.
COP23 will be crucial to pave the way for the facilitative dialogue due in 2018 to ensure that a further improvement of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) will be improved and overall ambition increased. In addition, further steps needs to be taken towards the socalled "Paris Rule Book" to give more flesh to the bones of the Paris Agreement and guide the parties towards implementation. But, of course, with Fiji’s COP23 presidency, this conference is more. Adaptation and disaster management will be the forefront of the discussion – and the international climate community must send clear signals of solidarity and commitment to those states most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
With this special newsletter on COP23, we aim to shed light on some key developments and issues to be aware of because they are not necessarily at the top of the agenda of negotiators at the moment but ask for prolonged leadership of climate diplomats.
Migration has been a primary political concern in many regions. Anja Mihr from the Center on Governance through Human Rights looks at climate migration through the human rights lens. Next, we zero in on how important climate-related migration is for small island states, which must not be left behind. Fiji’s COP23 presidency offers an opportunity to put this matter high on the agenda.
International climate policy is shaken by a ‘leadership vacuum', not least because Donald Trump announced his intention that the United States will pull out of the Paris Agreement. This raises the likelihood that COP23 will be a political COP just as much as it will be a technical COP. Paul Joffe, former Senior Foreign Policy Counsel at the World Resources Institute, argues that climate change needs to be part of a broad, integrated agenda because of its vast implications for economic and social development. Ultimately, it is a powerful argument for increased foreign policy involvement.
Last but not least, as the debate on the links between climate and conflict continues, Adrien Detges from adelphi responds to research that disputes the contribution of climate change to the Syrian uprising. Alexander Carius, Managing Director at adelphi, then illustrates how climate change exacerbates the deadly cocktail of catastrophes in the Lake Chad Basin – and why it is paramount that the international community responds.
So stay tuned to all that is happening at COP23! We suggest 12 top Twitter accounts you can follow to do so.
Greetings from Berlin
Stephan Wolters, Senior Project Manager at adelphi
French environment minister Nicolas Hulot has resigned live on national radio in a surprise move that will come as a blow to president Emmanuel Macron’s green credentials. Nicolas Hulot had not made the French president aware of his decision to quit, he told radio presenters, adding his time in office had been an ‘accumulation of disappointments’.
Liberia’s largest palm oil producer, Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) pulls out of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) – how can rural communities cope with the impacts? The forests near GVL’s Liberian plantations are not only sacred sites of the region's people but also heavily populated with chimpanzees, leopards, pygmy hippopotamus and forest elephants which are significant not only to the local ecosystem but globally.
Finding ways to keep communities alive after mine closures
Mine closures have caused social and political turmoil in many regions, for example in South Africa. But there are ways of planning and managing the phase-out so that when the inevitable happens, people are better prepared. A new study looks at opportunities beyond mining and finds that infrastructure that supports mining can also be put to new use.
Moving Towards a Global Framework for Safe Climate Migration
Population pressure, a lack of economic opportunities, environmental degradation, and new forms of travel are contributing to human displacement and unsafe migration on an unprecedented scale. And as millions more people see climate change erode their livelihoods, the problem will get worse in the absence of visionary global leadership.