Climate Action 2017-2018

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria
were just the latest stark warning
that the world must cut out the
greenhouse gas emissions that increase
extreme weather, and build societies that
can resist or recover quickly from the
climate change that is already upon us.
These three hurricanes in the Caribbean–
US region have caused misery and hit
the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands,
while causing losses estimated upwards of
US$350 billion – equal to the annual gross
domestic product of a country like Egypt,
Norway or Thailand.
In South Asia alone, flooding this year
has so far killed over 1,200 people, and
triggered economic losses to countries
and communities. That is why COP23
will take the next essential steps to
ensure that the Paris Climate Change
Agreement meets its central goal: to
prevent global temperatures rising beyond
the point where human civilisation will
be unable to cope with the impacts. The
Agreement seeks to keep the average
global temperature rise since the late 19th
century well below 2˚C and as close to
1.5˚C as possible. We have seen around
one degree Celsius of this rise already,
underlining the imperative to deliver
results right now.
Emissions need to peak fast and be
dramatically cut thereafter until, as soon
after 2050 as possible, they are so low
they can be safely absorbed by natural
systems like forests and soils or removed
by available technology.
The Agreement, coupled with the global
Sustainable Development Goals under the
UN, is a new, optimistic vision of the future
where stable, secure livelihoods remain
possible. The Paris vision demands that
we rethink together the way we produce,
use and consume energy, how we
manufacture and build, how we manage
our land and ecosystems.
COP23, in Bonn, Germany, therefore
has three main objectives. It will show
how rising numbers of governments,
cities, states, businesses, civil society
and multilateral organisations are taking
ambitious climate action and how new
actors are continually coming on board.
It must move further and faster now
on how all these actors cooperate and
coordinate together to make a much
bigger united impact; especially in
financing action. COP23 must make
progress so that in 2018 governments
complete the full set of operational ways
and means under the Paris Agreement to
help government and non-government
actors alike meet the agreed goals to the
best of their ability.
Great advances continue to be made,
showing the Paris Agreement is not a
chain, broken by any weak political or
economic link, but an ever deepening and
widening web of influence and agreement.
These are only a few of many, many
examples:
• China announces five pilot zones
for ‘green finance’, where financial
institutions will provide incentives to
fast track green industries and new
financing methods.
• Several countries, including France
and the U.K., announce dates when
fossil fuel cars will be gone, replaced by
electric vehicles.
• Over 100 multinational companies
pledge to source 100 per cent
renewable energy for their operations
under an initiative called RE100 by The
Climate Group.
• Over 250 US mayors commit to procure
100 per cent renewable energy for their
cities by 2035.
• Moody’s reports green bond issuance
worldwide could cross US$200 billion in
2017, doubling the 2016 record.
Sectors previously seen as latecomers
to climate action are also moving. For
example:
• In cement (around 5-6 per cent of
global emissions), HeidelbergCement in
Germany and India’s Dalmia Cement are
committed to reducing their greenhouse
gas emissions.
• In iron and steel (around 4 per cent),
Sweden’s Vattenfall aims to use
hydrogen instead of coal to become the
first manufacturer of steel with almost
no carbon dioxide.
Meanwhile, much better coordination
of climate action is now required among
governments, cities, states, business
and multilateral development banks and
institutions. A country, company or citizen
needs the most relevant, simple and timely
channels to seize the major opportunities
available in cutting emissions and
protecting themselves against climate
impacts and to access easily the
technology and finance to do it.
Insurance off ers a good example where
uncoordinated action will never work
because total risk must be dispersed
among all. The poorest with no insurance
suff er the worst. At COP23, we look
forward to seeing how even greater
coordination between governments and
the insurance industry can increase the
impact of the G7 InsuResilience plan to
extend insurance to an additional 400
million poor people worldwide.
The third COP23 key objective is for
governments to advance work on the full
operating system of the Paris Agreement so
that it is completed at COP24, in 2018. The
need for such a system reflects the uniquely
practical nature of the Paris Agreement –
the only multilateral agreement backed with
a set of concrete national plans to reduce
emissions and build properly sustainable
societies and economies.
If that is all there was – a set of diverse
promises to act on climate change – it
would be impossible to assess whether
the world was on track to meet the
Agreement’s goals. The objective,
therefore, is to deliver a comprehensive
operating system to encourage, guide
and report national and international
climate action – to act further, faster,
together – and to make a regular reality
check in the coming decades on whether
we are on track.
This year’s COP23 is itself a welcome
mirror of cooperation and coordination.
The conference is organised by Bonnbased
UN Climate Change, is presided
over by the small, developing Pacific
island state of Fiji as President, and is
organisationally and logistically supported
by G7 member Germany, with further
support from the German state of North-
Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Bonn.
A central goal for the Fijian Presidency
of COP23 is to forge this essential ‘Grand
Coalition’ to accelerate climate action
before 2020 and beyond.
Further, faster, together in Bonn.
COP23 & BEYOND
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