Editors Note: This is a running series documenting four UNC student's experience at the COP 23 in Bonn, Germany. See the first entry here.
By Mark Ortiz
Today marked the beginning of the 23rd United Nations Conference of Parties (COP 23) — the annual climate negotiations — in Bonn, Germany. At COP 23, world leaders are expected to build on the groundwork and principles established in the 2015 Paris Agreement and develop roadmaps to reach its goals.
Though the negotiations are taking place in Bonn, the island nation of Fiji is presiding, giving the conference a Pacific focus. Fiji is using this platform to highlight the climate change threats faced by small island states, such as sea level rise, climate change-related displacement, and increased incidence of extreme storm events.
“All over the world vast numbers of people are suffering, bewildered by the forces ranged against them” said Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama at the conference’s opening session, alluding to a recent string of hurricanes, droughts, fires and other destructive weather events supercharged by climate change. Bainimarama’s opening statement underscored the fact that many nations are already facing the disruptive impacts of climate change and being forced to adapt. Those countries facing the most dramatic effects often have inadequate financial resources to cope.
In addition to emphasizing the vulnerability of island and coastal nations, the Fijian Prime Minister accented the urgency of climate change and called on all nations to accelerate their efforts.
“This is our moment of truth when all of us in this room will be tested,” he implored. Patricia Espinosa, Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (the body that administers the Paris Agreement), echoed this point, adding “we no longer have the luxury of time, we must act now.”
These calls for swifter climate action come after the recent release of the United Nations Environment Program’s Emissions Gap Report. This report indicates that country climate pledges under the Paris Agreement remain insufficient to achieve the pact’s objectives. The report concludes that if countries do not take more ambitious action before 2030, the likelihood of limiting global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius” — as agreed to in Paris — is extremely low. Current climate pledges place the world on course for warming of over 3 degrees Celsius, levels which could irreversibly damage sensitive ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef.
To supplement its broad calls for more ambitious action in the conference opening, the Fijian Presidency put forward strategies for maximizing trust and cooperation among parties in the Paris Agreement. Key to these strategies is the notion of Talanoa, a word commonly used in Fiji and throughout the Pacific to refer to an inclusive and participatory form of dialogue. The Fijian Presidency has called for COP 23 and subsequent climate meetings to be structured as Talanoa dialogues to create a collaborative environment among nations striving to implement the Paris Agreement. Other priorities of the Fijian Presidency include promoting access to adaptation finance for vulnerable countries facing the impacts of climate change, and implementing programs to improve the health of the world’s oceans.
