Bonn Climate Summit

The UN Climate Change Conference - November 2017 will take place 6-17 November in Bonn, Germany and will be presided over by the Government of Fiji. Parties to the historic Paris Accord on climate change signed in 2015 meet in Bonn next week, and their discussions will inevitably veer toward the Donald Trump-led US administration’s decision to exit the Accord.

As the chart below shows, the US is the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, in per capita terms as well as in absolute volumes. The upcoming summit takes place amid growing concerns that the US move may encourage other countries to abdicate their responsibility to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, writes LiveMint. On 5 October 2016, the threshold for entry into force of the Paris Agreement was achieved.

The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016. The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention and – for the first time – brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort.

The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.

To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives. The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework.

In 2018, Parties will take stock of the collective efforts in relation to progress towards the goal set in the Paris Agreement and to inform the preparation of NDCs. There will also be a global stocktake every 5 years to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Agreement and to inform further individual actions by Parties.