Brussels, 01/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The EU's expectations of the climate negotiations which have resumed in Bonn (31 August to 4 September) include decisive progress to make use of the political impetus for the conclusion, in December, of a global, legally binding, fair and ambitious agreement applicable to all and compatible with the aim of keeping the average increase in temperatures below 2°C.
This is the penultimate expert-level negotiation session to prepare for the climate conference of Paris (COP 21, 30 November to 11 December), and the draft agreement on the table is now 88 pages long. “The time for making compromises and building bridges is now. It will also be essential to identify clear options for ministerial guidance in relation to issues where agreement cannot be reached at negotiator level. We must make progress in the coming days on substance”, the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU stresses in a statement published on 31 August.
By progress on substance, the EU means stepping up the level of ambition of the objectives and financing up to 2020 and moving forward on the following points: - how the Paris agreement will lead to transparency and accountability of the parties regarding their mitigation commitments, in other words how to ensure a progress which is regularly revisited to allow the level of ambition to be stepped up if necessary over time, so that all parties collectively reach the long-term objective they all agreed to; - how to ensure dynamism in the agreement across all of its elements; - how to ensure that the Paris agreement will help to achieve climate resilient sustainable development; - how the post-2020 regime will provide support to the countries which need it.
The financing of 100 billion dollars a year from 2020 in favour of the developing countries is critical for the success of the Paris conference. At the moment, Japan ($7.266 billion) and Germany ($3.991 billion) are the largest providers of aid after the World Bank ($4.974 million) to support the adaptation and mitigation efforts of these countries. However, three months ahead of the deadline, the financing of COP 21 itself is struggling. “I regret to inform you that we currently have a deficit of 1.2 million euros just to cover the sessions on the agenda”, warned Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations framework agreement on climate change, at the start of the session.
The final pre-COP 21 negotiating session at expert level will be held in Bonn from 19 to 23 October, following the summit of the heads of state and government convened in New York for 27 September by Ban Ki-Moon, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
A summit of heads of state and government will kick off COP 21. “We will receive all the heads of state and government wishing to attend at the very start of the conference, on 30 November, to provide political impetus”, the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, said on 30 August in an interview with EUROPE 1, thereby confirming the announcement made by the French President, François Hollande (see EUROPE 11375). (Aminata Niang)