Photo Liam Gumley, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
(BONN) – The EU and 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific developing countries reaffirmed their commitment to full implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, urging all partners to do the same.
The call was made at a UN climate change conference in Bonn, ahead of the upcoming G7 and G20 leaders’ summits and the next annual UN climate negotiations (COP23) in November, which will gather world governments to turn the global climate commitments into action.
“Today more than ever, Europe stands by its long-term partners most vulnerable to climate change,” said the EU’s Commissioner for Climate Action Miguel Arias Canete: “We, developed and developing countries together, will defend the Paris Agreement. We are all in, and our joint commitment to this Agreement today is as in Paris: irreversible and non-negotiable.”
The ACP Group and EU agreed common positions on the next steps to implement the Paris Agreement and strengthened cooperation to promote low-emission, climate-resilient development. As an example of this increased cooperation, the EU has announced support of EUR 800 million for the Pacific region up to 2020, with around half earmarked for climate action. The EU will also provide EUR 3 million to support Fiji’s COP23 Presidency.
The ACP Group and EU stressed the need to finalise the Paris Agreement work programme by 2018. This will be vital to ensure all countries can swiftly put their national climate plans into action, in order to contribute to the global goals. They also underlined the importance of making detailed preparations for the Facilitative Dialogue to be held next year. This dialogue will be a key moment to establish a shared understanding of the impact of all parties’ contributions and the collective progress being made as well as to look into solutions that can allow us to achieve our collective goal.
Both sides welcomed Fiji’s political leadership as COP23 president, being a longstanding member of the ACP Group and the first Small Island Developing State in the role, to accelerate work on adaptation, agriculture and access to finance particularly for vulnerable developing countries with special circumstances, needs and low capacities.
The aim of the UN climate conference in Bonn has been to prepare the ground for the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23), to be held in Bonn on 6-17 November 2017.
