Climate change talks on track: wealthy states feel the heat

Heads of state and government representatives at the UN climate change talks have agreed measures designed exert pressure on wealthy countries to step up ambitions in reducing CO2 emissions.

This will involve greater focus on trying to keep global temperatures to 1.5 degrees; a key element of the 2015 Paris agreement. Developing countries, including small island states, insisted was critical to them in staving off the worst effects of climate change.

However, campaigners voiced disappointment on progress on funding for poorer nations to deal with the fallout from climate change.

Delegates said the meeting in Bonn had made progress on several important technical issues left unresolved in the Paris deal, such as how to measure and compare the individual contributions made by states around the world to limit carbon dioxide emissions.

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Participants and observers also hailed advances in the talks on how to increase existing emission-reduction commitments from national governments.

There was relief that the effort to combat global warming remains broadly on track despite the US administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

Fiji, which hosted this COP23 conference, is to convene a year-long process with Poland, the hosts of COP24 in 2018, designed to maintain momentum up to 2020.

The process will be informed by a UN report on world efforts to contain global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees this century as referred to in the Paris accord. The approach is “anchoring that, and not 2 degrees as the target”, according a source close to the EU negotiating team.

Progress under COP23 had been helped by the US being "the dog that didn't bark", one negotiator told The Irish Times. Its presence "was not destructive in the real sense" despite President Donald Trump's announcement in June that the US intends to withdrawing from the Paris accord.

State Department acting undersecretary Judith G Garner, told leaders meeting in plenary session the US would remain engaged in global climate change negotiations though it planned to exit the Paris agreement “at the earliest opportunity”.

It was a more conciliatory message than a presentation earlier in the week by White House officials promoting fossil fuels.

Ms Garner said the US was reducing emissions and pursuing clean energy solutions through innovation. She also acknowledged the contribution being made by US states, cities and businesses, which had a major presence in Bonn.

“President Trump has made clear the US position with respect to the Paris agreement,” Ms Garber said. “Although he has indicated that the US intends to withdraw at the earliest opportunity, we remain open to the possibility of rejoining at a later date under terms more favourable to the American people.”

Former State Department climate envoy under president Barack Obama Todd D Stern, who helped design the Paris agreement, also speaking in Bonn, said he believed America’s absence from the global accord would be short-lived.

– Additional reporting: The Financial Times Limited 2017