Author:  Valéry Laramée de Tannenberg

Posted on: EURACTIV.com | May 2nd, 2018

The Bonn Climate Change Conference is meeting from 30 April to 10 May in preparation for COP24 in Katowice (Poland). During the Bonn Conference, the two key subjects will be: increasing countries’ climate ambitions and actions and drafting the operating manual for the Paris Agreement. EURACTIV’s partner le Journal de l’Environnement reports.

Six months after the COP23, Bonn once again hosts climate officials for an intermediate negotiation session in between two summits.

Delegates will have to prepare the COP24 taking place in December, along with the 2020 COP during which the UN will present an overall assessment of the implementation of national climate policies also known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

Transparency of information provided

However, to deliver this assessment, experts must first agree on a number of topics: the quality of the information provided in the reports (comparability of data, transparency), calculating emissions, the results of the NDCs achieved and the agenda for their implementation, the share of aid allocated to less developed countries affected by climate change (the famous $100 billion per year pledged in 2009)

Strengthening commitments

Negotiators will have to agree on a range of technical and political topics in the coming months so that the 196 signatory states of the Paris Agreement strengthen their climate commitments, first in 2020, and then every five years.

This is crucial as the current implementation of the NDCs are not enough to keep global warming below 2°C according to estimates from UN Environment, this could breach the 1.5°C threshold set by the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement

The implementation of the Paris Agreement will also be discussed at length, the drafting of its implementation guidelines are far from being achieved. For now, the document is only a compilation of the different positions of the different groups of States. We are far from a rough draft that serves as a basis for the final debate, which should take place in Katowice in December.

Rulebook

Following this conference, a draft rulebook of the Paris Agreement should be put forward This is an important document for states as well as for companies, it took four years to draw up the guidelines for the Kyoto Protocol, which was infinitely less ambitious than the agreement reached at the end of COP21.

The famous Talanoa Dialogue will also be officially launched in Bonn. The Talanoa Dialogue will be a consultative dialogue on the assessment of the NDCs and the means given to states to strengthen their climate policies before 2020.

Climate Action

The European Council had asked the Commission in March to change its 2050 climate strategy in the coming months.

Last week, six member states (including France) and the European executive called for stronger climate action from the EU26 for 2030. Heads of state of the British Commonwealth had confirmed their commitments to achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement, on 20 April.

Britain has already started the revision of its NDCs and the updated version will take into account the conclusions of the next special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which will be published in early October.

Talanoa Dialogue

The Talanoa Dialogue, chaired by the Fijian government, will also take place during the Petersberg Climate Dialogue (in Hesse, Germany) in June, and possibly at the Global Action Summit in San Francisco in September. The Talanoa Dialogue should end in Katowice with the publication of a report on the additional efforts which will be accomplished by signatory states.

Read at: https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/news/new-round-of-climate-negotiations-in-bonn/