Parallel to informal consultations of the meetings and protocol bodies of the convention where we had limited access, the workshop for the facilitative sharing of views (FSV) under the international consultation and analysis (ICA) process for developing country Parties was organized under the Subsidiary Body of Implementation (SBI) at this 47th session in room Genf of the Bula zone.

The objective of this FSV was to invite non-Annex I Parties that have submitted their Biennial Update Report (BUR) and have a final summary report by 8 September 2017 to share their experiences, lessons learned, success and challenges during the preparation and the submission of their BURs in order to strengthen the process and encourage more and more non-annex I parties to improve and submit their report. Till that date, five countries namely Armenia, Ecuador, Georgia, Jamaica and Serbia had already submitted their BURs. These 5 non-annex I parties had already finalized the first step of the ICA process, the technical analysis of their first biennial update report (BUR) conducted by a team of technical experts.

After a short clip showing the benefits of participating in the ICA process by developing countries, each representative of those 5 countries were invited to present their national circumstances, the GHG inventories and mitigation actions developed, the projections of scenarios to assess the forecasted impacts of mitigation actions till 2030, to exchange in a very positive manner their experiences in the implementation of the Measuring Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework, to showcase their efforts done at the national level to put such framework in place, and to present the challenges, their needs on how to improve domestic MRV, opportunities and support received for mitigation of climate change.

Amongst the obstacles presented by those countries, the lack of detailed information, the lack of capacities, financial resources and technologies were the main factors encountered during the preparation of their BURs. They expressed their needs in term of capacity building in order to strengthen the BUR preparation and mitigation actions and to increase the accuracy and quality of their domestic MRV framework.

At the end, several questions were posed by other parties in order to improve the preparation of their own BUR. Those questions are summarized below.

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“Negotiations are important, but action is more important” – Salaheddine Mezouar, COP22 President

The first week of the conference was marked by the presence of several African countries which share together the urgent need of implementing the Paris Agreement. Besides participating individually to main plenary meetings and informal consultations during meetings of the convention and protocol bodies on specific agenda item of the Paris agreement, the African Group organized several closed meetings at least twice a day in order to discuss, prepare and clarify the position, visions and expectations of African countries during COP 23. Unfortunately, we didn’t have access to those closed meetings. As a result, the point of view expressed here is based on what we have heard and seen during plenaries as well as informal discussion with countries’ representatives.

Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change
I think we heard this sentence or something similar at every single speech of African negotiators during plenary meetings, and it’s not false. From coastal locations in the West, tropical ecosystems in the center, small islands in the Indian Ocean to arid and semi-arid regions in the North and South, every single country feels the adverse effects of climate change. Agriculture is the main sector impacted by climate change, due to the high reliance on precipitation for rain-fed agriculture which accounts for nearly 95% of farmed land in Africa. This high vulnerability is also linked to poverty which induces low adaptive capacities and mitigation actions across the continent.

A lot of progress is made at the national level
In response of the adverse effects of climate change, a lot of efforts is put in place across the continent to cope with climate change both at the national and international level. During plenaries and side-events, several African countries shared their efforts made. Amongst the 169 Parties who already ratified the Paris Agreement, 52 are from Africa. This denotes their commitment and their need to implement the Paris Agreement which entered into force in November 2016. In addition to that, of the 8000 climate and sustainable development projects registered under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), more than 45% are from African countries said Frank Volke, Chair of the CDM executive board during the 2nd meeting of the ad hoc group responsible for the implementation of the Paris agreement (APA) when presenting the annual report of their activities on Tuesday 7 November.

More than 45% of the 8000 climate and sustainable development profects are from African countries.

However, out the 52 Africans countries who ratified the Paris Agreement, only 5 already submitted their first Biennial Update Report (BUR), 2 countries submitted the second one and the rest are actively working on their own. This shows the difficulties and the challenges for African countries even if they share the same enthusiasm in the fight against climate change. At the national level, efforts are being made to improve GHG inventories and to bring together several actors, like the Climate Change Forum presented by the representative of Uganda during the first Presidency’s Open Dialogue on Wednesday, and which brings together government,  NGOs, members of the civil society, youths, local communities to discuss and find common solutions. In addition to that, several countries have already identified keys sectors focusing on adaptation and mitigation actions.

Need for collective efforts – a strong signal sent by the German Government

“Limiting greenhouse gas emissions is a central challenge for the future. Adaptation measures will be required in many countries…adaptation to climate change is an equally important second pillar of the Paris Agreement. Germany has been very committed in this area in the past and will remain so in future… we will once again support the Adaptation Fund this year with an additional 50 million euros” – Dr. Barbara Hendricks, German Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety

This was perceived as a strong and powerful signal sent by the German government to other developed countries to come together and assist developing countries in the fight against climate change. Across the continent, challenges are diverse and during plenaries, African representatives have expressed their difficulties and needs in term of capacity building, technology transfer, the adaptation fund, additional funds for losses and damages as well as funds for medication. This contribution from Germany will help to move forward and reach the annual amount of $100 billion promised for 2020 by developed countries towards developing ones. Since we are all in the same canoe, several collective efforts need to be implemented to meet this goal before 2020.This means:

 “We must act in solidarity because the story will not hold back who was stronger or weaker. Negotiations are important, but action is more important” – Salaheddine Mezouar, COP22 President

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The meeting of the convention and protocol bodies , namely the Conference of the Parties (COP), Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP); Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA); Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI); Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA); Subsidiary Bodies (SB) and the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA) created to prepare the entry into force of the Paris agreement is still going. Unfortunately, GCE observers were not allowed to attend those meeting today.

However, the Bula zone was specially characterized today by the presence of several activists protesting against coal mines and asking for climate justice. We could hear slogans such as:

Leave the coal in the hole!
Leave the coal in the hole!
Leave the oil in the soil!
Leave the oil in the soil!
Clean money for the south!
Kept dirty money out!

Just for a short recap, coal is one of the biggest contributor of greenhouse gases emissions and in some countries of the world, the main primary energy source. In the US approximately 67 percent of the electricity comes from burning fossil fuels, mostly coal and natural gas. Of course, holding temperature increase to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels as adopted in the Paris agreement requires a rapid decarbonisation of the global power sector.

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“It’s the first Presidency Open Dialogue at the COP. It’s not a side event…today, we will not negotiate, we will talk to each other and we will listen to each other…. there would be good experiences to share. It’s about contributing to solutions.”
– COP 23 President Frank Bainimarama

Today, COP23 President Frank Bainimarama encouraged an open and honest dialogue during the opening of the first-ever Presidency’s Open Dialog at the COP.  Following his welcoming remarks, the secretary of the UNFCCC, Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, highlighted and expressed appreciation of this first dialogue, because we “all share the same emergency of  implementing the Paris agreement” and, consequently, such dialogue “is crucial to advancing the discussion….it requires the participation of everyone.” She reaffirmed the determination of the UNFCCC secretariat to support such dialogue in the hope that all parties will propose solutions that can feed our common agenda.

“We all share the same emergency of  implementing the Paris agreement.” – UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa

The Presidency’s Open Dialogue, which offers a unique opportunity for parties and NGO constituencies to directly interact with each other on concrete issues of the negotiation process, was extensively discussed in May 2017 at the forty-sixth session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), where it was in FCCC/SBI/2017/7  §119 that “(…) any outcomes of such a dialogue should have persuasive value only, respecting the Party-driven nature of the UNFCCC process; (…).”

This first Presidency’s Open Dialog was held under the Chatham House Rule, meaning that participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed. The first part of the dialogue focusing on NDC (nationally-determined contributions) enhancement and implementation, was guided by three main questions:

1) How can Parties and non-Party stakeholders (NPS) collaborate with each other on enhancing and implementing NDCs?
2) How can NDCs be improved?
3) How can NPS best actively contribute and feed into the Talanoa dialogue in 2018 both directly and indirectly?

For around one hour, the floor was given to Parties and non-Party stakeholders to tell their national stories and give their point of view concerning the aforementioned questions.

Following this roundtable discussion (and in the spirit of the Chatham House Rule) the recommendations of the Parties and NPS were given. Listed below are a few critical points:

1) Human rights and Gender as a key priority in the NDCs
2) Better development of the financial aspects of the NDCs
3) Revised mitigation targets as a result of the Talanoa Dialogue in 2018
4) More collaboration among Parties, technology transfer, education, and capacity building
5) Inclusion of the traditional and local knowledge in the dialogue

Lastly, Parties and NPS expressed their desire to have such open, fair,  equitable, creative, and constructive dialogue on a regular basis every year, delivering the outcome in the form of a press release or communication.

In the second part of this Dialogue, the focus was on enhancing admitted observer access to and participation in formal meetings. During roundtable discussion, Parties and NPS proposed possible solutions to further increase opportunities for admitted observer organizations to make interventions in plenaries.

Three key attributes: Attendance, discussion, and next year’s dialog.

At the end of the day, three keys attributes were proposed by the Chair of the SBI for a successful dialogue: attendance, discussion and the question of if the future presidency of the COP will hold the dialog next year.

The first Presidency’s Open Dialog ended with a Fijian ceremony during which Kava, a traditional drink, was offered to all participants by the Fijian delegation.

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