UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn (COP 23), November 2017

The UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany concluded on 18 November 2017. The conference, which convened under the Presidency of Fiji, included the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) to the UNFCCC, the 13th session of the COP serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 13), and the second part of the first session of the serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1-2).

The conference brought together over 16,000 participants and adopted 31 decisions that:

·      provide guidance on the completion of the Paris Agreement work programme;

·      launch the Talanoa Dialogue (the Fijian name for the 2018 facilitative dialogue);

·      give prominence to pre-2020 implementation and ambition, under the ‘Fiji Momentum for Implementation;’

·      operationalize the local communities and indigenous people’s platform;

·      establish a gender action plan;

·      decide that the Adaptation Fund shall serve the Paris Agreement;

·      take work forward on long-term finance; and

·      give guidance to the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts (WIM).

The two goals set for the COP by the Fijian Presidency were met:

·      Advancing work on the Paris Agreement implementation guidelines, and

·      Agreeing on the design of the Talanoa Dialogue, named after a Pacific storytelling tradition that fosters empathy and trust.

Some of the more significant outcomes and decisions of COP 23:

The COP adopted a decision on the ‘Fiji Momentum for Implementation’ that:

·      sets the stage for negotiations in 2018 in a transparent, inclusive and cost-effective manner;

·      contains the design of the 2018 facilitative dialogue; and

·      outlines the importance of pre-2020 implementation and action.

The COP also adopted a decision on long-term finance, which:

·      requests developed countries to prepare their next round of updated biennial submissions on strategies and approaches for scaling up climate finance for 2018-2020;

·      requests the Secretariat to explore ways and means to assist developing countries in assessing their needs and priorities;

·      requests the Secretariat to organize a 2018 in-session workshop and prepare a summary report for consideration by COP 24; and

·      invites the COP Presidency, in organizing the 2018 high-level ministerial dialogue, to consider focusing on the topic of access to climate finance.

On gender, the COP agreed to, inter alia:

·      adopt a gender action plan;

·      request the Secretariat to prepare for November 2019, a synthesis report on implementation of the gender action plan; and

·      review implementation of the action plan at COP 25.

The local communities and indigenous people’s platform was operationalized.