Photo Liam Gumley, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
(BRUSSELS) – The Paris Agreement on climate change entered legally into force Friday following the EU’s ratification, just days before the start of the UN climate conference in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The historic event comes less than a year after the landmark agreement was adopted.
The annual United Nations climate change conference takes place from 7 to 18 November in Bab Ighli, Marrakesh. Following the rapid entry into force of the global climate deal, the first meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 1) will also open during the conference.
Marrakesh will be about action and implementation. says the EU’s Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said it was important to “maintain this extraordinary momentum by encouraging countries to continue ratifying the deal, and by moving full steam ahead with our preparations to put it into action across the world.”
The conference aims to demonstrate that the shift to a global low-carbon economy is underway, and act as a catalyst for further action. As the global climate agreement has entered into force much earlier than expected, the EU says it is keen to move rapidly on the international framework to help countries put in place the policies and measures to deliver on their Paris pledges.
This means that the work programme established in Paris, and started in Bonn earlier this year, needs to advance as swiftly as possible, while keeping participation open to all countries regardless of whether they are still ratifying the Agreement.
The EU expects to see tangible progress on key elements of the Paris package, including on access to finance for developing countries and on developing and strengthening the skills and processes needed in developing countries to implement their domestic climate plans. The EU and its Member States are the biggest contributors of public climate finance to developing countries. Together they provide around a third of public funding available for action to tackle climate change and account for almost half of the pledges in the Green Climate Fund.
COP 22 will have a strong focus on strengthening climate action before 2020, when most of the national climate action plans put forward by countries in the run up to Paris start. The high-level event on global climate action on 17 November and the thematic action days being held throughout the conference offer an opportunity to reflect on progress made on existing initiatives as well as for announcements of new initiatives.
Commission DG Climate Action Marrakesh conference page
Questions and Answers on the UN climate change conference in Marrakesh
