How can I disagree with my longstanding French negotiator friend Paul Watkinson when he says, "Katowice … marks the moment where the Paris Agreement came of age: from now it runs its own affairs directly."
True, the government delegates from 200 countries at 24th session of Conference of Parties (COP24) to the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC) at the Polish city of Katowice last week thrashed out the Rule Book to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement to address climate change.
Paris Agreement set in place long-term goals and the mechanisms to achieve those leaving important details to be decided on how mechanisms should function in practice. Delegates in Katowice bridged some contentious divides in this regard.
Parties agreed a set of new international rules and guidance including common guidelines for countries to report on their climate action in a more robust manner, starting from 2024. Developing countries do have some flexibility in their reporting and the review of those reports, and discretion is granted to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). A common reporting and review framework might help improve transparency.
Delegates agreed at Katowice to kick off a process in 2020 to set a new finance goal that goes beyond US$ 100 billion a year after 2025. Beginning from 2020, developed countries are also required to biennially report information on projected future finance "as available."
Finance and support were key goals for developing countries like Bangladesh, and the Katowice package addresses these needs to some extent. As well as the ex-post and ex-ante reporting on finance, there are provisions to support adaptation (including the future arrangements for the adaptation fund) and for analysis of the needs of developing countries to implement the Convention and the Paris Agreement (a long-standing request of LDCs, SIDS and other developing countries).
However, the guidance agreed in Katowice on how to account for funding to support climate action in developing countries is weak. What is more problematic is that commercial loans now can be counted as climate finance. For most vulnerable countries like Bangladesh what is important is that Katowice COP 24 agreed to take into account as appropriate efforts to address loss and damage as part of the five-yearly Global Stocktake of progress.
There is also room for countries to reflect on this issue in their adaptation communication and transparency reporting. This is important for the most vulnerable countries like Bangladesh who are already experiencing climate impacts that are impossible to adapt to.
Negotiators also agreed that investigative work of the Committee to promote compliance with the Paris Agreement can be triggered by the Committee itself, for instance when countries fail to communicate a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), or to submit mandatory reports on their climate action and support.
Well, all elements of the Paris Rule Book couldn't be secured at Katowice. More substantive decision to ensure the environmental integrity of international carbon markets that held up the climate talks until the end was eventually punted to COP25 in Chile next year.
There remains one major gap in the rules agreed in Katowice -- there is nothing yet in article 6 of the Paris Agreement that covers market and non-market approaches.
We have to keep in mind that the Paris Rule Book is just a prerequisite for achieving the Paris Agreement's longer-term goals. As the recent Special IPCC Report on 1.50C temperature rise underscored, this will ultimately require many countries to substantially ramp up their climate ambitions. But COP 24 couldn't provide unequivocal assurances that major emitters are ready to take their responsibility in raising their ambitions.
What was disturbing, in the almost two weeks of negotiations, four fossil fuel-producing nations refused to "welcome" the IPCC's very crucial report that rang the global alarm bell from hundreds of scientists; preferring instead to only "note" it.
As a longtime climate negotiator I know that Paris Agreement has not been a strong one with full legal force but what we call in economics the second best. Saying that to truly keep even this weak Paris Agreement alive, countries will now need to submit strengthened NDCs and long-term climate strategies and to provide significantly enhanced support before the deadline of 2020.
A special climate summit has also been called by UN secretary general in September 2019 where head of the states and governments could seize the opportunity to take a leap forward on stronger climate actions by pushing for a raised ambitions in terms of mitigation, adaptation and finance.
Without urgent action to cut emissions, more than 1.6 billion in almost 1000 cities will face extreme heat. The One Planet Summit of French President Macron will also have a role to play, including by strengthening the participation of non-state actors and integrating the social dimension into our work. In October 2019, mayors and city leaders will gather in Copenhagen for the C40 Mayors' Summit to discuss the path toward a healthier, more sustainable future. There will be more such global events to call for taking urgent actions across the world.
It's my earnest hope that Bangladesh and other LDCs led by new LDC Chair Nepal would prepare this 48-nation group for next two years with adequate homework.
Bangladesh as a ground zero country in terms of adverse climate change without any fault of its own, should also require to change its narratives as a victim nation. It is the first country to prepare Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan in 2008 that was revised in 2009. Now it should be updated in a participatory manner so that it could be implemented without any delay.
The formulation of National Adaptation Plan (NAP) should start immediately following the NAP Roadmap prepared by the group of experts including this scribe. Here also people's participation should be stressed. On behalf of LDCs, I have pushed for NAPs for LDCs at Copenhagen COP in 2009, then successfully included it at Cancun COP in 2010 as part of Cancun Adaptation Framework, and continued it in Durban in 2011, Doha in 2012 and Warsaw in 2013.
Bangladesh also created Climate Trust Fund from own budgetary resources and Climate Resilient Fund with development partners support mainly from UK and few others. The need now is to raise the budgetary allocation.
Side by side, it is urgently required to build the skills and capacity to prepare some adaptation and mitigation programmes to access Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund, LDC Fund and other global kitties.
Quamrul Islam Chowdhury is climate, environment & sustainable development specialist, former Chair of UN Kyoto Protocol Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee & former member of UN Adaptation Committee.
