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Outcomes from Poland and UN climate Conference COP24: more action needed

December 18, 2018 at 10:49 am John Englart Leave a comment

Australian Environment Minister walks off the stage after delivering Australia’s ambition poor statement.

It has been a hectic two weeks for negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change conference, meeting in the heart of Poland’s coal province of Silesia. The conference was due to close on Friday 14 December, but intense negotiations continued overnight and were only finalised on Saturday evening.

The Paris rulebook was (mostly) landed to continue the momentum from Paris in 2015, and this was a vital measurement of the conference success, but some elements were just too contentious to achieve consensus and have been pushed forward to COP25 meeting in Santiago, Chile in 2019.

Climate Action Moreland Convenor John Englart has been following the negotiations, discussions, and protests online and posting blog articles over the last two weeks. He also tracked Australia’s Environment Minister Melissa Price and her public presence on social media and deciphered her High level speech for Australia.

Australia won one Fossil of the Day award for refusing to rule out using Kyoto credits to meet Paris targets, and shared in another award from the conference. While Climate policies are on the rise globally, global ambition level by many countries is still lacking, with Australia rated highly insufficient and delaying global progress.

Progress is always slow at UN conferences and time is not on our side. The Prime Minister of Fiji and President of COP23 summed up the next steps needed following COP24:

“The next steps are clear. In 2019, dialogue must give way to action. The Talanoa Dialogue must give way to the Talanoa Call for Action, which acknowledges the importance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees, of halving global emissions by 2030 and of achieving net-zero-emission, climate-resilient economies.

All governments must now return home and launch or ramp up domestic review processes to prepare new or enhanced NDCs, and develop long-term emissions strategies. To achieve this, they must work closely with all members of the Grand Coalition, including sub-national governments, the private sector and civil society. We expect all countries to come to the UN Secretary-General’s summit in September 2019 prepared to show concrete progress and stronger NDCs. As a global community, we cannot accept anything less.”

Read John’s blog posts from the last fortnight. Awesome work:

• Paris Agreement Rulebook (mostly) delivered at COP24 but ambition still lacking
• Sydney and Melbourne join Powering Past Coal Alliance at COP24
• Stop Adani raised at COP24 in youth climate action side event
• Climate emergency: “We cannot solve the crisis without treating it as a crisis” Greta Thunberg warns COP24 Plenary
• Pacific and Climate Vulnerable Concerns over lack of ambition at COP24 given the climate emergency
• Poland wins Colossal Fossil award of #COP24, while Pacific nations provide a Ray of Light
• Deciphering Australia’s High Level statement to COP24 by Melissa Price
• Fossil Award to Australia for not ruling out Kyoto carbon credits for Paris target use
• Climate policies on the rise globally, but ambition level still lacking
• Egypt wins Fossil Award for being dead set on no-ambition strategy in Talanoa
• Tracking Australia’s Environment Minister Melissa Price at COP24
• Two Fossils Awards: Developed Countries for lack of Loss and Damage climate finance, and Austria for facilitating coal subsidies
• US clean coal side-event with Australian ambassador disrupted at COP24
• London Assembly passes climate emergency motion
• What is in a word? Lots when it comes to welcoming the IPCC special report on 1.5C to #COP24
• USA gets the Fossil Award for arguing against inclusion of mention of human rights
• Fossil Awards: to Germany over progress on emission targets, and Switzerland over climate finance
• Are human rights being included in Paris Agreement rulebook at COP24?
• Arab group wins (again) #FossiloftheDay at COP24 for being not okay with IPCC 1.5C report
• Guest Post: Carbon emissions will reach 37 billion tonnes in 2018, a record high
• Saudia Arabia and the Arab Group, and Brazil win Fossil Awards at COP24
• Gender equality and Australia’s official delegation to COP24
• School kids occupy Australian parliament foyer demanding 100% renewables, #stopAdani
• Host country Poland wins first #FossiloftheDay at UN climate change conference COP24
• Greta Thunberg addresses UN secretary general António Guterres at COP24 on climate change
• David Attenborough – World facing existential risk with climate change

Entry filed under: news, Policy, UNFCCC. Tags: COP24.