On 14-15 July 2014, about 35 Ministers and their representatives, the Co-Chairs of the ADP, as well as the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, met in Berlin at the invitation of the governments of Peru and Germany. In an informal setting Ministers discussed how to accelerate progress in the UN climate negotiations and how to enhance climate action in their respective countries. Chancellor Merkel called on Ministers to take immediate and bold action and stressed that all countries need to act. President Humala underlined in his speech Peru’s commitment to national climate action and to securing a successful outcome to COP20 in Lima. The main messages from the ministerial discussions are summarized below in a non-exhaustive manner.
Broadening the consensus on the 2015 climate agreement
Ministers acknowledged the need to accelerate work in 2014 on developing clear and concise elements of a draft negotiating text. The useful work so far had led to an increasing consensus that a number of elements needed to be balanced out in the final outcome, specifically: a clear signal that states intend to keep temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius or even 1.5 degrees Celsius by taking ambitious, equitable mitigation action and, as some suggested, by setting goals to decarbonize their economies in the long-term; improvement of resilience through national and collective actions on adaptation and loss and damage that strengthen existing institutional arrangements; reinforcement of the means of implementation (specifically finance, technology and capacity building) for promoting low-carbon and climate resilient development; and the provision of sufficient transparency to ensure both collective and individual ambition is sufficient, fair and appropriate. There was a broad understanding that the issues that would especially require political attention would most likely include the legal form of the agreement, differentiation, means of implementation and ambition.
For the complete conclusion, please see Petersberg Climate Dialogue V.
To fight illegal coca plantations and conflict actors’ income sources, Colombia’s president wants to loosen the ban on aerial glyphosate spraying. However, considering the dynamics of organised crime, the use of toxic herbicides will not only fail to achieve its aim, it will have many adverse effects for the environment and human health, fundamentally undermining ways to reach peace in the country. International cooperation and national policy-makers need to account for this peace spoiler.
As India grapples with the worsening impacts of climate change, the need to strengthen its adaptation efforts has become more significant than ever. Climate diplomacy and mainstreaming climate adaptation into the most vulnerable sectors could provide some solutions to overcoming barriers, such as the lack of sustainable funding.
“Climate Security risks will materialise in very different ways and forms, whether we talk about Lake Chad or about the Arctic, Bangladesh and the Small Island Developing States,” said the EU’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Joao Vale de Almeida, in his opening remarks. “But for the EU, there is no doubt, as underlined in 2016 in our Global Strategy, and reaffirmed by the 28 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, that climate change is a major threat to the security of the EU and to global peace and security more generally,” he said.
The challenges facing the international community are growing while the willingness to cooperate seems to be waning. Foreign policy must help bridge this gap. One way to accomplish this is by pushing forward a major achievement of multilateralism: the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. At a side event during the 2019 High-Level Political Forum, diplomats and policy experts discussed the role of foreign policy in the global sustainability architecture.