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.
We are entering the last days of the BCSC 2020, with insightful discussions on a number of climate security challenges still to come, as well as the launch of our “21st Century Diplomacy: Foreign Policy Is Climate Policy” essay series. Building on the high-level political Part I of BCSC 2020 back in July, this second part aims to bring together the field’s various actors in the realm of climate, development and security policy in one digital space to meet the strategic goals of sharing good practice on what works on the ground and help inform policy processes.
The novel corona virus has had the world in its grip for months. Most countries’ immediate response was to focus on internal issues: they resorted to nationalistic approaches, closing borders and even competing for equipment, even though a multilateral approach was necessary. In the longer term, will this crisis strengthen the ties between nations? Or exacerbate the flaws of today’s multilateralism?
The pandemic and racial justice protests call for justice and crisis preparedness – an opportunity also to act on climate change. Successfully taking advantage of this momentum, however, requires a climate strategy that ensures everyone has a voice and a stake. Here, Paul Joffe builds on a previous correspondence about how to begin that effort in this time of crisis.
Now in its second decade, the ambitious African Union–led restoration initiative known as the Great Green Wall has brought close to 18 million hectares of land under restoration since 2007, according to a status report unveiled by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at a virtual meeting on Monday, 7 September.