Following on from the technical negotiations in Bonn, the two-day Petersberg informal ministerial climate dialogue opened in Berlin on Monday 22 May, under the chairmanship of Germany, as the host country, and Fiji, which will hold the Presidency of COP 23, against a backdrop of continuing uncertainty as to the position of the United States towards the Paris Agreement. This question mark will not, however, prevent all the others from pushing on – led by the EU and China – towards implementing the universal climate agreement.
Beijing and Berlin hand in hand. Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, who met China’s Special Representative for Climate Change Xie Zhenua, said on Monday how encouraging it was to see support and huge commitment to implementing the Paris Agreement.
He hailed the unity shown between Berlin and Beijing at the opening of the meeting, when German Environment Minister Barbara Endricks and Xie Zhenhua together urged the United States to stay in the Paris Agreement.
He also tweeted that the international institutional investors, which on 8 May launched an urgent appeal to the G7 and the G20 to stand by their commitments on climate, without forgetting financing and adaptation, now number more than 280 (see EUROPE 11783).
Following the Bonn meeting, the European Union, like the United Nations and the other participants, hailed the progress made on tightening some of the rules for implementing the Paris climate agreement, while at the same time keeping their eyes fixed on the next stage: the G7 in Taormina (26-27 May), after which the US position should be known, the G20 (in July) and COP 23 in Bonn (6-17 November), for which much remains to be done (see EUROPE 11782).
“We came here to Bonn to advance our work on the rules and instruments to implement the Paris Agreement. We leave Bonn with steadfast progress in many areas. And while much work still lies ahead of us, the cooperative talks and the tangible results show once again the unwavering determination of all of us to turn our commitments into real action”, said Commissioner Cañete, quoted in a press release on the evening of 18 May.
“In Bonn, negotiators worked constructively to successfully hammer out an outline for the operating manual (Ed: to be finalised in 2018) that will help turn the Paris Agreement into action on the ground. The uncertainty surrounding the United States did not slow progress”, said Rhys Gerholdt of the World Resource Institute (WRI).
France and Commission accused of interference in African Renewable Energy Initiative. More than a hundred civil society NGOs from across the globe have, however, issued a statement expressing their support for the African countries that are concerned that France and the European Commission might undermine the African Renewable Energy Initiative after they “abused their position as donors” to “rush through the endorsement of 19 projects” which do not meet the initiative’s own evaluation criteria, even though neither is a formal member of the African Renewable Energy Board.
In a statement addressed to the Petersberg Dialogue, the G7 and the G20, the 48 countries most vulnerable to climate change informed all parties of their fate. The Paris Agreement, they say, is their only lifeline. In Bonn, significant progress was made on the work programme that will keep the Paris Agreement on track, they continue, warning that 2018 must be the year of greater ambition, otherwise the Paris Agreement targets will not be reached.
Funding is nub of the matter for least developed countries. Gebru Jember, President of the Group of the Least Developed Countries, highlighted the need to “limit the average temperature rise on the surface of the globe to 1.5 degree Celsius to protect lives and means of subsistence”, requiring that global emissions will have to peak in 2020. “The Least Developed Countries are concerned because we are still far from really responding to the funding needs of developing countries whose national contributions to the Paris Agreement make clear that trillions still have to be found”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)